The Study Of The Lenin’s Thought On Cultural Leadership

For proletarian parties,gaining overall leadership is essentially a process of mobilizing the masses with advanced culture and shaping a powerful material force.Since the Communist Party came into power,cultural leadership has become an increasingly fundamental and strategic issue,especially for goal of rejuvenating the Chinese nation.In the context of an unprecedented shift within a century,contemporary Marxism is still faced with such an important challenge as how to establish a holistic leadership over culture.Socialism with Chinese characteristics has stepped into a new era,and Chinese society has embarked on a new journey of building a powerful modernized socialist country in an all-round way and achieving the goal of the second century.Priorities are changing: from basic development to advanced development,from economy to politics and then to cultural development.Culture holds a strategic position and should be centered on in the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,the combination of which forms an ideal path leading China to intensive development in the future.How will CPC,the leading force of building a powerful socialist country,keep hold of the leadership over the socialist culture in face of the frequently changing international and domestic situations? How will it enhance its leadership over socialist culture through cultural development? Cultural leadership is more challenging than that of the economics or politics.Lenin establishes the basic categories,paradigms and theories for proletarian cultural leadership,providing valuable theoretical resources for the CPC to learn from in the new era.It should be restudied and reused,on condition that it’s adapted to the new situations,new problems and new challenges in the new era.As the social thoughts are emerging domestically and internationally and interwoven with each other,the academics are faced with such question,so important as not to be avoided: what is the significance,theoretically and practically,of studying Lenin’s thought on cultural leadership in today’s context? What is its core? Is it still effective? How does it integrate its power in interpreting and transforming the reality?How can we fully explore its modernity? How can we utilize it to fully exert its influence and guide CPC in gaining cultural leadership in the new era? Its theories and principles should be restudied and re-explored.The primary task of this research is to interpret,holistically and logically,Lenin’s thought on cultural leadership,aiming to form an integrated perspective from three dimensions of epistemology,axiology and methodology.The research will be conducted in depth,seeking to explore its modernity and applicability,identify its historical position in the development of Marxism,and discover its contemporary value in building a culturally power country with Chinese characteristics.The article consists of five chapters or four parts,dealing with four major issues.The main purpose of Part I(introduction and Chapter I)is to find out what problems can be solved by studying Lenin’s thought on cultural leadership.It was explored by analyzing the historical conditions where Lenin’s thought on cultural leadership emerged.This part proves that his thought is historically inevitable,by using a new logical framework consisting of cultural consciousness,cultural introspection and cultural self-improvement.Lenin’s though on cultural leadership came into being when Lenin responded critically to the four ideological challenges to the Soviet government,such as cultural nihilism and challenges from Proletkult.Proletkult sought to break away from the party and achieve cultural autonomy,claiming the Soviet government was a political alliance,who lacked the ability to lead and build the culture.Lenin achieved cultural consciousness that the cultural leadership must be assumed by the party,and proposed that the ruling party must strengthen itself,as the Soviet government was troubled with “ability panic” and“short boards”.Lenin also explained how to enhance administrative capacity by means of cultural leadership based on cultural introspection and self-improvement.Part II(Chapter 2 and 3)establishes the theoretical presupposition for Lenin’s cultural leadership thought.It seeks to answer two questions: what it contains and how it came into being.Specifically,it analyses Lenin’s guiding ideology,basic principles,leadership and supporting forces,and basic connotations.This part reviews Lenin’s thought and basic strategies on cultural leadership,and expounds Lenin’s Thought on improving the party’s cultural leadership,raising its efficiency,developing an advanced socialist culture that embodies the nature of the proletariat and aims at serving the people,and enforcing strong laws and mechanisms to ensure that cultural leadership is always in the hands of the Bolshevik party.The highlight of Part II is the in-depth exploration of Lenin’s thought on upholding cultural leadership,such as enhancing the ruling party’s admininstrative capability to overcome “ability panic”,conducting cultural introspection and self-improvement,strengthening the Bolshevik party’s ability to lead cultural undertakings,while constantly improving the political consciousness,and scientific and cultural quality of the Russian proletariat,and constantly improving the moral level and cultural quality of the people,so as to adhere to and exercise its cultural leadership.Part III(Chapter 4)shifts focus from theory to practice,dealing with "what to do" to realize the cultural leadership.Firstly,it explains Lenin’s practice path for cultural leadership.Lenin’s experience in leading the proletarian cultural struggle and cultural construction in Soviet Russia made it distinctively practical,its innovative methods forming an integral part of and enriching Marxist cultural leadership.Secondly,the core proposition of Lenin’s thought on cultural leadership is integration of the political and cultural dimension of proletarian party leadership with the political logic of cultural leadership.Lenin’s methodological innovation is fully reflected in his practice: he stressed that the proletariat should be guided from cultural spontaneity to cultural consciousness by means of "indoctrination";capitalist and traditional culture should be treated with the attitude of "Sublating";cultural movements should be implemented to enhance and secure cultural leadership;and beachheads should be created to expand the living space of socialist culture.Part IV(Chapter 5)explores the value of Lenin’s cultural leadership from the perspective of axiology,including its historical value and contemporary value.It is especially meaningful in the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics,to tap on the value of the CPC’s cultural leadership to its overall leadership and to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.We can extract from Lenin’s theory its general and normative value that transcends history.This part then analyzes the sinicization and modernization of Lenin’s thought on cultural leadership.The former involves how to adapt it to the situation in contemporary China and give play to its theoretical guidance,in order to establish a theoretical system for a culturally powerful nation in the new era;the latter involves the modernization of the subject,doctrines,themes and propositions contained in Lenin’s thought on cultural leadership.Currently,it is crucial to raise the consciousness that CPC must assume its cultural leadership.We must abandon value neutrality and cultural nihilism,and strive to build a culturally power nation through cultural self-improvement.