LENIN ON ORGANIZATION
If during the years 1917 to 1920 Bolshevism was
able under unprecedently difficult conditions to
create and successfully maintain strict centralization
 and iron discipline, the reasons are to be sought
in a number of historical factors peculiar to Russia.
Bolshevism sprang up in 1903 on the firm rock
of Marxian theory. The justness of that theory—
and of that theory alone—was demonstrated by the
world’s experience during the nineteenth century,
and in particular by the aberrations and vacillations,
the errors and disillusions of revolutionary thought
in Russia. During a period of nearly half a century,
roughly from the ’forties to the ‘nineties—advanced
thought in Russia, suffering under the unprecedented
 savage and reactionary yoke of Czarism,
eagerly sought for a correct revolutionary theory,
and with amazing concentration and zeal followed
every “last word” that was uttered on this subject
in Burope and America. Russia gained the knowledge
 that Marxism was the only true revolutionary
theory by the suffering of half a century of intolerable
 torment and sacrifice, by unexampled revolutionary
 heroism, by unbelievable energy and constant
 search, by education, practical experience,
disillusionment, experiment, and by studying the
experience of Europe. Thanks to the emigration
which Czarism made necessary, revolutionary Russia
 in the second half of the nineteenth century
acquired a wealth of international connections and
an acquaintance with the forms and theories of the

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