“Indeed, the shortest summary of Lenin’s programme for the Russian Social Democrats is: look at the Germans, then go thou and do likewise – with appropriate changes for local conditions. Thus the Russians should take their watchword from Wilhelm Liebknecht, one of the founders of German Social Democracy: ‘Studieren, Propagandieren, Organisieren’. In other words, bring insight and organisation to the worker class. «The political activity of the Social Democrats consists of the following: assist in the development and organisation of the worker movement in Russia; assist in the transformation from its present condition of scattered attempts at protest, riots and strikes that lack any unifying and guiding idea into an organised struggle of the ‘entire’ Russian working ‘class’ – a struggle that is directed against the bourgeois regime (as such), one that aspires to the expropriation of the expropriators and to the utter destruction of the social order that is based on the oppression of the labourers. The basis of this activity is the general conviction of Marxists that the Russian worker is the natural and sole representative of the entire labouring and exploited population of Russia» (9). One central reason the factory worker is the natural leader of the whole people is that capitalism has shook him up and started him thinking – and once the worker starts thinking, the Social Democrats are assured of victory. All that is needed for the worker to actualise his leadership potential is ‘a simple explanation to him ‘of his own position” (Lenin’s emphasis) (10). Once the Russia Marxists have worked out a solid theory of class antagonisms in Russia, then «any awakening of the protesting thought of the proletariat will inevitably lead this thought into the channel of Social-Democratism. The more we move forward out this theory, the faster will be the growth of Social-Democratism, since even the cleverest preservers of the present order lack the power to interfere with the awakening of the thought of the proletariat» (11)” [Lars T. Lih, ‘Lenin Rediscovered: ‘What Is to Be Done?’ in Context’, New Delhi, 2013] [(9) Lenin 1958-65, 1, pp. 309-10; (10) Lenin 1958-65, I, p. 311] [Lenin-Bibliographical-Materials] [LBM*]