Lenin's Early Party's Propaganda Work Research

The thoughts of propaganda from classical writers make up an integral part of Marxist Theory. Marx and Engels combined propaganda with the struggles in the revolution, further established the basic propaganda principles of the proletarian Party, and started a new era of Communist propaganda. As the inheritor and disseminator of the Marx and Engels thoughts,Lenin led the Russian bourgeois revolution and took on the propaganda work during the period of socialist revolution and construction, raised and solved the problems unlikely to have existed in the time when Marx and Engels lived. Lenin developed the thoughts of Marx and Engels and laid a foundation for the propaganda work of proletariat in socialist society.Propaganda ran throughout the revolution practice of Lenin. Lenin's early propaganda thoughts were of great significance both for his own sake and for the Russian proletarian Party.The significance of studying Lenin's early thinking about Party propaganda is that by summarizing his main thoughts, revealing the process of how he formed them, and presenting the core principles and methods, we can shed new light on the propaganda work of proletarian Party in current situation. This paper makes a systemic examination on Lenin's early propaganda thoughts, and proposes that Lenin's thoughts underwent three breakthroughs: first, from the propaganda within Marxist group to the mass political agitation; second, from parochial local propaganda to planned Party propaganda; third, from public daily propaganda to "taking advantage of the great revolution". This paper focus on the content of Lenin's thoughts during the Iskra period, as well as before and after the 1905 revolution. During the Iskra period, the key of the Party's propaganda work was evidenced in three aspects: first, waging a resolute struggle against the "economic school" so as to lay an ideological basis for the Party; second, injecting the socialist ideology and political consciousness into the mass proletariat; third,establishing a network of local agents to involve more propagandists. During the time before and after 1905 revolution, Lenin mainly elaborated that the Party's propaganda must adhere to the principles of free discussion and concerted action. Lenin also demonstrated the significance of uniting peasants and revolutionary democrats. In addition,he argued that the propaganda should keep on track with the developments of revolution and should centered on armed uprising. This paper extracts the main principles of Lenin's early thoughts such as Party spirit, mass based and well targeted,making use of diversified propaganda means like election campaign and Duma pulpit as well as the materials from daily life.In current China, the Party's propagandists are facing the major issue of how to disseminate the achievements of socialist construction and the Party's task under new circumstances. As a proletarian Party that represents the interest of the people, the propaganda should always be conducted under the guidance of the Party, following principles of Marxism, serving the people and also the Party. History has told us to use correct propaganda theory as the guideline. The early ideology and practice of Lenin can shed new light in the new era, serving to enhance the theoretical base of Party propaganda and facilitate the modernization of proletarian propaganda during the epoch of public opinion.