"Revolutiondres Parteiprogramtn -Revolutionare Arbeitereinheit. Studien zum Kampf um die Vereinigung des Marxismus mit der At-better-bewegung". Dietz Verlag. Berlin. 1975. 622 S.

The Institutes of Marxism - Leninism under the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Central Committee of the SED published in Berlin in German a collection of articles prepared by a collective of historians of the USSR and the GDR 1 and dedicated to the 100th anniversary of two major and interrelated historical events: the unification of the Social Democratic Workers 'Party (SDRP) with the General German Workers' Union in Gotha in May 1875 and works of Karl Marx "Critique of the Gotha Program".

The 100th anniversary of this most important work of the founder of scientific communism was widely celebrated by the Communist parties, and it caused responses in the press and in scientific literature. However, the reviewed collection is original in its design and content. The choice of the problems of the struggle for the scientific and revolutionary character of the Proletarian party program and, at the same time, the struggle for the political unity of the working class as the object of research makes it possible to analyze and present a number of aspects of the complex process of combining Marxism with the working-class movement with extreme historical concreteness, without modernization or simplification. This makes the Critique of the Gotha Program itself appear to the reader not only as an extremely valuable theoretical work, but also as a document of the political struggle that had a significant impact on the formation and development of workers ' parties. But the compilers and authors of the collection went even further: They view both Marx's work and the Gotha Association from a historical perspective, tracing the development of the idea of workers ' unity and the struggle of Marxists for the scientific basis of this unity over the course of half a century - from the Communist Manifesto to the program of the RSDLP developed by V. I. Lenin.

The book's approach to the events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of which is an integral part of the historical process that covers not only Germany, but also the international labor movement as a whole, is a great advantage and gives it a integrity that is usually achieved only in monographic studies. The authors of most articles, where necessary, go beyond the period under study, indicate the significance of the acquired experience for subsequent generations of working class fighters, and the development of certain theoretical propositions and conclusions in the future. They do not confine themselves to presenting the Marxist - Leninist point of view on the events analyzed, but also argue with the views of bourgeois and social-reformist historians. All this makes the book extremely relevant.

The articles included in the collection are arranged chronologically. But according to their content, they can be divided, albeit conditionally, into two groups. One of them analyzes the development of the views of the classics of Marxism-Leninism on a number of major problems in the theory and practice of the working-class movement, in particular the problems of working-class unity, and also examines the contribution of Marx, Engels and Lenin to the development of program documents of the proletarian parties. The other group consists of articles that directly examine certain milestones in the German and international labor movement and the participation of Marx's and Engels ' associates in the propaganda of Marxism. Taken together, the collection's articles convincingly demonstrate the indissoluble connection between theoretical and practical-

1 Compilers and editors of the collection: E. N. Barvenko, U. Germain, R. Dlubek, E. Kumdel (head of the editorial team), B. G. Tartakovsky. Authors: G. A. Bataturia, M. Bayer, E. N. Barvenko, U. Hermann, L. I. Golman, R. Dlubek, Y. Seidel, E. Kundel, V. A. Morozova, V. Opitz, B. Rick, G. Scambrax, B. G. Tartakovsky, O. Hiankel.

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The most important scientific works of the founders of scientific communism deal with the burning problems of the class struggle and with a lively revolutionary practice.

L. I. Golman's opening article convincingly shows that already in the Manifesto of the Communist Party Marx and Engels expressed the idea of the necessity of political unity of the working class for its victory over the bourgeoisie and the seizure of political power. The path to such unity lies through the creation of an independent political workers ' party. The entire content of the Manifesto taught that the ideological platform of unity can only be a revolutionary theory that scientifically expresses the interests of the working class. In the specific conditions of the eve of the revolution of 1848-1849 (and then in the changed situation of the post-revolutionary period) Marx and Engels presented the problem of the struggle for workers ' unity as an ideological, political and organizational, strategic and tactical, national and international problem - a problem that requires understanding and taking into account both the main principles of the class struggle and the specifics of their application in different countries.

The creation of the SDLP in Germany in 1869, the first independent proletarian party in history operating within a single country, cannot be separated from the activities of the First International and Marx as corresponding Secretary of the General Council - this is the leading idea of the article by V. A. Morozova. The formation of this party was a step towards ensuring the unity of the working-class movement on the basis of a revolutionary program. The author examines the activities of sections and individual members of the International that contributed to solving these historical problems. One of the most important factors that contributed to the ideological maturation of the German working class and the unification of the two trends was "Capital". G. Scambrax, who devoted his article to this issue, notes that Marx's work decisively contributed to the disintegration of Lassallianism and the ideological and political growth of not only Eisenachians, but also Lassallians. aspirations for unity among German workers in the years preceding unification (1871-1874). It emphasizes the significance of the Paris Commune as a turning point in this process and shows that proletarian unity was created as a result of the interaction of spontaneous actions of workers, the trade union movement and the activities of the revolutionary Eisenach Party, whose prestige and influence grew during its political and economic actions (sometimes jointly with the Lassallians).

By the autumn of 1874, the necessary prerequisites for organizing an association of workers ' parties had been formed. E. Kundel's article is devoted directly to the history of unification, which gives a fairly complete summary of the main facts that characterize the complex and contradictory process of the formation of the united party - the Socialist Workers ' Party of Germany (SRPG). The author points out that the creation of the SDLP was already a victory in the struggle for the future workers ' unity, and the main stages of the party's history were stages of this struggle. The Gotha program of the SRPG was the fruit of a contradictory development, which at the final stage of the unification process left only a choice between unification on the basis of a compromise program or the collapse of unifying aspirations. The author writes not only about the sectarian and opportunist mistakes of the Gotha program, but also about its positive aspects: putting forward a number of important and correct social and political demands, proclaiming the idea of proletarian internationalism, focusing on the struggle for a socialist social system, and declaring that the emancipation of the working class should be the work of the workers themselves. The Gotha program was the first social-democratic program in Germany to formulate the task of socializing the means of production.

R. Dlubek and E. Kundel thoroughly analyze the theoretical content of the "Critique of the Gotha Program", emphasizing Marx's statement of such problems as the historical role of the revolutionary workers 'party guided by a scientific program, the necessity of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the strategy and tactics of the workers' party in the struggle for power, the essence of proletarian internationalism, and the laws of communist transformation of society. The authors try to examine the evolution of these problems, revealing what new things the "Critique of the Gotha Program" brought to the theory and practice of the labor movement, and how its ideas were developed in the New School of Economics.-

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under these conditions, Lenin and the Communist Parties. The emergence and development of the Marxist doctrine on the main stages of the communist transformation of society are studied by G. A. Bagaturia. He identifies and characterizes three main periods in the process of forming the Marxist concept of the future of society (1842 - 1848, 1848 - 1871, 1871 - 1895 years), which, in turn, fall into several stages. The doctrine of the two phases of communism, formulated by Marx and Engels and further developed by Lenin and his followers, had a long prehistory before it developed into a complete and definite system. It was the result of extremely intense, more than 30 years of theoretical work, mastering and generalizing the experience of socio-economic development and class struggle.

Two articles reveal the contribution of Marx and Engels ' associates to the spread of Marxism in the German labor movement. U. Germani examines the views of A. Bebel on the party based on the material of the period of the exclusive law against socialists. It shows that Bebel's activity was determined by a correct understanding of the historical role of the working class and its party. By applying Marxist principles to the problems of building a mass proletarian party, Bebel decisively contributed to the formation of a party in Germany that generally corresponded to the ideas of Marx and Engels and thus proved capable of surviving the exclusive law against socialists. The role of the Neue Zeit magazine in the development of the revolutionary party program in 1886-1891 is discussed in the article by B. Rick.

The history of the development of the outstanding program document of the German Social democracy - the Erfurt program of the SPD - is described in the article by M. Bayer. The author describes the discussion of the program question at the congress in Halle in 1890, examines the draft program prepared by the party board, Engels ' comments on this draft, the draft of the editorial board of Neue Zeit, and the discussion in the party before and after the Erfurt Congress. Bayer informs us that in drafting the editorial board of Neue Zeit, Kautsky was able to take into account the latter's opinion on the draft of the management board sent to him at Engels ' request. This once again confirms the important contribution that Engels made to the preparation of the final draft of the program. Analyzing the formulation of the problem of the state and political power in the Erfurt program, the author rightly notes that the revolutionary leaders of German social democracy, although they could not include in the program the demand for the dictatorship of the proletariat, but defended this idea. However, they understood it somewhat one-sidedly and not in full depth, seeing in the dictatorship of the proletariat only a means for suppressing the resistance of the bourgeoisie. The adoption of the Erfurt Program meant the victory of the Marxist worldview in the German labor movement. In the era of pre-monopoly capitalism, it was the most scientifically mature of all the programs of the Marxist workers ' parties.

Yu. Seidel devoted her article to the collaboration of the German and French workers ' parties in preparing for the founding of the Second International. The convening of the Paris Workers ' Congress of 1889 was made possible by the fact that German and French Marxists, with the invaluable help of Engels, overcame numerous difficulties, obstacles and disagreements in the spirit of proletarian solidarity. The subject of B. G. Tartakovsky's article is the still insufficiently studied problem of the reflection of Marxist ideas in the programs of socialist parties in the last quarter of the XIX century. For all their fundamental demands on the scientific level of party programs, Marx and Engels took into account in each individual case the level of ideological maturity, the degree of organization, and the historical experience of the working-class movement in a given country. Their particular insistence on German social democracy was explained, in particular, by the leading role that the German labor movement was beginning to play in the mid-70s of the last century. The author shows that in the 70s-80s of the XIX century. The program documents of the socialist parties and organizations of Austria, Belgium, Great Britain, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Russia, Switzerland, Sweden and other countries were created under the influence of the Gotha program of the SRPG or the program of the French Workers ' Party. Even at this time, the basic ideas of scientific communism had become more or less the common property of class-conscious workers, even though the political parties-

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These programs still bore the stamp of petty-bourgeois utopian influences. The emergence of the Second International in 1889 and the adoption of the SPD's Erfurt Program in 1891 opened a new stage in the ideological development of the parties and helped to consolidate Marxist principles in their program documents. But even then the party programs, which generally corresponded to the ideas of scientific communism, raised abstractly or even avoided the question of ways and means of gaining political power by the proletariat, and there was no description of the state in transition. The task of further refining and improving the program documents of the socialist parties in the era of imperialism was solved by the revolutionary Russian social-democracy under Lenin's leadership.

Engels 'assistance to the German workers' movement in 1890-1895 in spreading Marxism and in the struggle against opportunism is discussed in the article. Opitz. In Engels ' writings, in his remarks and advice addressed to the leaders of German social-democracy, the elucidation of theoretical problems was most closely linked to efforts to ensure consistency in party ideology and politics. Engels sought to understand that opportunism was class-hostile to the working-class movement; among the bearers of opportunist ideas, he included not only the petty-bourgeois elements infiltrating the party, but also the "aristocracy in the working-class movement", as well as the degenerate party officials and writers. Even then, Engels spoke of the necessity of breaking with the opportunists if they showed an inability to renounce their alien and harmful views.

The collection concludes with an article by O. Hinkel on Lenin's development of the RSDLP program. The author notes a close relationship between Lenin's approach to the formulation of the party program and the program documents of Marx and Engels, with their critical comments on the drafts of the Gotha and Erfurt programs. The program adopted by the Second Congress of the R. S. D. L. P., for the first time in the history of the international labor movement, set forth the task of establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat, which had previously been set only in the works of the founders of Marxism.

Of course, the collection does not exhaust the problem posed. While it explores in broad terms the process of maturing in the German labor movement the prerequisites for creating a truly scientific, Marxist program, it clearly lacks work on the background, content, and role of the Eisenach program of the SDLP. The period from the Gotha Unification to the Erfurt Congress, which is extremely important for the ideological growth of German social - democracy, the consolidation of its unity and the establishment of Marxism in it, is only fragmentary. Because of this, the role of a number of important works of Marx and Engels, as well as works of figures of the German labor movement with programmatic significance, remains insufficiently revealed.

V. A. Morozova, having briefly described the history of the convocation of the Eisenach Congress, unfortunately only mentioned in a low voice that as early as April 1869, A. Bebel and V. Liebknecht began preparations for the convocation of the congress of the Union of German Workers ' Societies with the aim of transforming it into a "democratic - socialist party". However, this is an extremely important fact, which shows (contrary to what bourgeois historians still write) that the initiative to create a social-democratic party did not come from former Lassallians who broke with I. B. Schweitzer, but from Marxists. E. N. Barvenko and E. Kundel, when analyzing the objective and Subjective prerequisites for overcoming the split in the labor Movement, did not pay due attention to a well-known and very significant circumstance: the passing of tactical differences between the parties in connection with the completion of German unification.

The collection is distinguished by its high scientific level, rich content and depth of analysis, and richness of factual material. Even when it comes to issues that have been studied, the authors do not repeat what has already been written before, but offer new conclusions, introduce new ones, or systematize already known facts from the point of view of the collection's problems.

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