Henryk Grossman 1932
Written:
1932;
First Published: 1932;
Source: Grossmann, Henryk,
1932. ‘Die Fortentwicklung des Marxismus bis zur
Gegenwart’, in Henryk Grossmann and Carl Grünberg, Anarchismus,
Bolschewismus, Sozialismus. Europäische Verlaganstalt,
Frankfurt am Main, 1971, pp335-336;
Translated: Rick Kuhn;
Transcription/Markup:
Steve Palmer;
Proofread: Steve Palmer;
Copyleft:
InternetArchive(marxists.org) 2005. Permission is
granted to copy and/or distribute this document under the terms of
the Creative
Commons License. Reproduced here with the permission of the translator, Rich Kuhn.
for the proletariat, it can never be a matter of a fatalistic policy of waiting, that is, without actively intervening, for the ‘automatic’ collapse. Old regimes never ‘fall’ by themselves, even during periods of crisis, if they are not, precisely, ‘overturned’ (Lenin). The point of a Marxist theory of breakdown, according to Grossmann, consists only in the need to reject voluntarism and putschism, which regard revolution as possible at any time, dependent only on the subjective desire of revolutionaries, without considering whether the situation is objectively revolutionary. The meaning of a Marxist theory of breakdown is that the revolutionary action of the proletariat receives its strongest impulse only when the existing system is objectively shaken. This, at the same time, creates the conditions for successfully overcoming the resistance of the ruling classes.