GenZedong

Always fun to read these bits and remember all over again Lenin's absolute disdain for Trotsky even before 1917.

This is what I took from this text:

If you're in a capitalist country and your country is at war, you can't claim to have revolutionary ideals while also advocating against your country's defeat/for its victory.

Also, wow, this part has aged incredibly well: ("Discerning reader": note that this does not mean "blowing up bridges", organising unsuccessful strikes in the war industries, and in general helping the government defeat the revolutionaries.)

During a reactionary war a revolutionary class cannot but desire the defeat of its government.

Starts off with a banger. And then goes into the merciless shredding of anyone with incorrect views. Lays out his reasoning logically step by step. interspersed with sick burns like "This is a fact to which it is foolish to close one’s eyes." which could have just as easily said, "If you cant see this you are fucking stupid."

I think Lenin kept Trotsky around as a training dummy. Or like a pitching machine that threw nice slow ones right over the plate so he could practice his home runs. Or a spring board that he could jump on to get mad air and preform amazing dunks.

To help people that are unable to think for themselves, the Berne resolution (Sotsial-Demokrat No. 40) made it clear, that in all imperialist countries the proletariat must now desire the defeat of its own government.

Gotta love Lenin, he never forgets to restate his points in clear and simple terms, and he's always snarky too

While the notion is simple, i find this text very hard to digest. The world was very different when Lenin wrote this, it was a very multipolar world in that time, albeit these polars were imperialists competing for the distribution of the world while multipolarity now is about the right of self-determination.

The case of Russia is very interesting, a capitalist country that is ideologically reactionary but one way or another is found itself fighting for a globally progressive cause, the weakening of US hegemony throught the disarment of Ukraine, an US satellite state. Would this be the moment for the working class of Russia to organize to topple their oligarchy? Maybe it would be the prime time to do it even if it could potentially lead to an US invasion?

Pog.

The phrase-bandying Trotsky has completely lost his bearings on a simple issue. It seems to him that to desire Russia’s defeat means desiring the victory of Germany.

This makes me think of Russia-Ukraine right now, or even "Israel"-Palestine. Maybe it's just the general way that war is framed in the US. It has been used to an even greater degree in Palestine imo, where they've bent the word Hamas to mean "anything vaguely against the genocide". Even if the working class doesn't actually carry out treasonous acts, they'll end up being criminalized anyways.

On closer examination, this slogan will be found to mean a "class truce", the renunciation of the class struggle by the oppressed classes in all belligerent countries, since the class struggle is impossible without dealing blows at one’s "own" bourgeoisie, one’s "own" government, whereas dealing a blow at one’s own government in wartime is (for Bukvoyed’s information) high treason, means contributing to the defeat of one’s own country.

I like this, as it expands on the previous quote. I see this logic a lot when it comes to criticizing the gov or demanding anything at all from them, like our class is supposed to deprive ourselves in support of some war instead of seeing it as a time where our gov's grasp on authority is weaker & more vulnerable.

Wartime revolutionary action against one’s own government indubitably means, not only desiring its defeat, but really facilitating such a defeat.

banger quote. So he's calling out the people who say they are against the war, but take no action that would impede the government from waging the war.

The war cannot but evoke among the masses the most turbulent sentiments, which upset the usual sluggish state of mass mentality. Revolutionary tactics are impossible if they are not adjusted to these new turbulent sentiments.

I think this is important when analyzing our own modern day situations, and not just taking what Lenin lists out here and applying it willy-nilly. It is my belief that we do not need to gain the support of the masses before performing an action because if we can understand the "turbulent sentiments" correctly, then we can come to a conclusion of what the correct action is. By performing the correct action we gain support of the masses. I think of it kinda like the whole UnitedHealthcare CEO situation, but the killer was not organized and only arrived at a correct action by chance.

Those who stand for the "neither-victory-nor-defeat" slogan are in fact on the side of the bourgeoisie and the opportunists, for they do not believe in the possibility of inter national revolutionary action by the working class against their own governments,

This is a nice way of framing it. In the end our goal is the revolution and everything we do is to achieve that end.

edit: I dunno how you are going about selecting texts, but could I submit a vote for Theses on the National and Colonial Questions

It was definitely an interesting read and I didn't actually know about this one. I thought I had all of Lenin's works but somehow this one slipped unnoticed.

I'm looking forward to this reading group going forward especially since I can find books I may not have read yet or heard of. I don't have too much to say about it that hasn't already been said but I'm certainly looking forward to the group and reading more in the future. :)