A Study On The Theory Of Lenin 's Ruling Party Construction

After the victory of the October Revolution, Lenin made great efforts to lead the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) to build Soviet Russian socialism and at the same time he put great emphasis on the ruling party construction and proposed a relatively complete theory of ruling party construction. Lenin’s theory of ruling party construction included ideological construction, organizational construction, working style construction, anti-corruption construction, and system construction. This study systematically and scientifically summarizes Lenin’s theory of ruling party construction and discusses the theoretical and practical significance of this theory for the construction of Chinese Communist Party.Lenin emphasized ideological construction of the ruling party and insisted on the developing Marxism to guide the Soviet Russian socialist development and consistently strengthened socialist construction in politics, economy, and culture. In addition to the active indoctrinization of Marxism, he resolved to fight against various wrong thoughts. He firmly believed that the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) as the ruling party should grasp the soul of Marxism, act as the ideological leader, and develop Marxism through practical probing. Under the guidance and with the inspiration of Lenin’s thoughts, the Chinese Communist Party requests all the Party members and cadres to learn Marxism, pay more attention to the pertinence of ideological publicization, firmly defend the guiding roles of Marxism in ideological domains, and unify the thoughts of the people with the theory of building socialism with Chinese characteristics.Lenin emphasized organizational construction of the ruling party. He insisted that the ruling party should examine the candidates carefully, and set requirements for the recommenders on how to help those applicants to improve ideologically and politically. A probationary period must be provisioned so as to better examine the personal traits of probationary members. The ruling party should regularly clean and purify itself. Lenin believed that the Party as an organized vanguard should be unified organizationally, constitute its Party Platform and Party Constitution, regulate the Party’s construction and activities, and oppose factional activities. Lenin believed that the ruling party should insist on democratic centralism—reespecting the predominant role of the communist party members, the subordination of the minority to the majority, protecting the rights of the minority, and maintaining the unification of the Party. Democratic centralism is not only a scientific and feasible organizational principle but also an organizational system integrating both democracy and centralism. He put forward a series of important viewpoints on how to build the qualities of the carders of the ruling party and how to select, assess and develop the carders and held that the Party carders should have socialist beliefs, be educated and trained, be responsible and independent, and be able to take new challenges and fulfill new tasks. The ruling party should keep close relationship with the grass roots and boldly take in fresh blood. It is necessary to promote non-party capable persons and give them opportunities to take government positions, and to train and promote carders of minority nationalities so that they can play active roles in their local areas. It is also necessary to fully know all the activities and personal characteristics of the carders and stick to rigid promotion criteria in promoting carders in key positions. Lenin believed that the assessment of carders should be handled with caution and sense of propriety by combining work inspection with active learning, work inspection and carder assessment should be conducted in practice, and the executive departments should take initiatives to investigate, supervise, and even punish. He also believed that the ruling party should train and temper carders by various means of allocating work correctly, taking various positions and working in various areas, promoting from the bottom, and appointing from the top. The number of Chinese communist members should be controlled; their quality should be improved; the grass-roots organizations should be further built so as to consolidate the ruling foundation; the heads of Party organizations at each level should take the lead to enforce democratic centralism.Lenin emphasized work style construction of the ruling party. He believed that the ruling party should oppose "revolutionary empty talk" and keep its feet on the ground to work. He specifically advocated "revolutionary empty talk" in discussing the questions whether to sign the Brest Treaty with Germany and whether to implement state capitalism or not. The ruling party should keep a living connection with the people in such ways as defending the interests of the people and overcoming bureaucracy. Criticizing should be prudent and it should not be conducted simply for the sake of criticizing. Learning atmosphere should be further improved, continuous learning should be emphasized, and learning should cover managing the government and developing production and acquiring abilities to manage economy by learning from and launching competition with the entrepreneurs as well as organ administration and organization reform. The Chinese Communist Party members should keep close contact with the people and consolidate its ruling position in the new historical situation. It should face "Four Tests" boldly and overcome "Four Dangers"Lenin emphasized anti-corruption construction of the ruling party. He requested that the ruling party should oppose bureaucratism He believed that the strong Party organization relied on strict disciplines. He requested that the Party members, especially carders, should strictly adhere to the Party’s political and organizational rules, truthfully report financial expenditure, make full use of every kop, and take the initiative in receiving inspection and supervision. Laws should be enacted to fight corruption. The corruptive cases of the party members should be handled with extraordinary rigidity and no one can be exception. Any Party members and carders would be expelled from the Party if they attempted to exert influence on the court. In the new era when the overall reforms are being promoted, the Chinese Communist Party members should learn and abide by the Party Constitution, safeguard the authority of the central leading body of the Party, and fight corruption severely so as to set solid ruling foundation.Lenin emphasized system construction of the ruling party. He took initiative to establish and improve the Party’s system of democratic centralism, stuck to the Party’s election system, and made the appointment system the necessary complementary means in appointing cadres. He insisted on collective leadership so as to prevent personal arbitrary action, divide clearly individual responsibility, and guarantee that decisions would be implemented effectively. The supervision system of the Party was improved and Lenin led the Party organization to realize the organizational and the legal supervision as well as supervision of the people and public opinion. He requested to implement the system of annual congress meeting. The Chinese Communist Party members should not only learn and inherit Lenin’s thoughts but also progress with the time, improve the Party systems, and strive to improve the Party’s systems and enhance its governing capabilities.Lenin’s theory of the ruling party construction, which is theoretically based on the thoughts of Marxist ruling party construction and continuously enriched and improved in the practice of Soviet Russian socialist construction, is the new stage of the Marxist party construction thoughts and also the ideological guideline for ruling party construction in every socialist country. It acts as both reference and inspiration to the construction and development the Chinese Communist Party in the new era. It has been enriched and developed by the Chinese Communists in the process of Reform and Opening-up and construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics.