During the epoch of imperialism and proletarian revolutions, Lenin creatively developed the teachings of the greatest thinkers and revolutionaries, Karl Marx and Franz Liszt. Engels. He had a deep knowledge of the history of the German people and of the German workers ' movement, the most important in Western Europe. Lenin's analysis of the problems of history in the main questions develops and deepens the propositions formulated by Karl Marx and Fr. V. I. Lenin studied the history of the class struggle in Germany, the Prussian path of development of capitalism in agriculture, which led to the symbiosis of capitalism and junkerism. He gave a deep assessment of the reactionary Prussianism, the bourgeois-democratic revolution of 1848, the unification of Germany under the leadership of Prussia, accomplished by Bismarck, and analyzed the peculiarities of German imperialism. All this belongs to the enduring values of Marxist historiography. In his special studies on the history of Germany in the 19th and 20th centuries, V. I. Lenin revealed the main problem of German history, which is still relevant today, when on German soil there are two states with different socio - economic systems-the socialist German Democratic Republic and the monopolistic, capitalist Federal Republic of Germany. In studying the history of Germany, as well as the history of other European countries, Lenin always clearly showed two opposing class lines: the reactionary line of the exploiting class, which is interested in preserving its power and privileges, and the revolutionary line of the masses of the people, who are fighting for their liberation from slavery and exploitation.

For Lenin, historical analysis was the most important tool for the scientific investigation of social phenomena. "In order to win," he said at the Ninth Congress of the RCP (b), "one must understand the whole profound history of the old bourgeois world..." 1. Scientific analysis of the past, he noted, allows one to understand the laws of historical development, correctly navigate the rapid change of modern events and see trends that are important for the future. 2 Lenin demanded a critical study of all aspects of complex historical processes, a study free from all voluntarism and subjectivism. Only such analysis, he believed, serves as the basis for revolutionary strategy and tactics and helps to verify their correctness .3 We will not touch upon all the variety and richness of Lenin's views on the historical process, but will focus only on the doctrine of socio-economic formations, which was constantly in the center of his attention. This is a teaching,

1 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 40, p. 253.

2 See V. I. Leni, PSS. vol. 41, p. 81.

3 See E. N. Gorodetsky. Questions of the methodology of historical research in the post-October works of V. I. Lenin. Voprosy Istorii, 1963, No. 6, p. 21.

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first formulated by Karl Marx, it considers the successive formations of class society - the slave - owning system, feudalism, and capitalism-as a natural process of development from the lowest to the highest. Based on this teaching, Lenin revealed in the history of each country the class struggle in all its historical concreteness, dynamics and dialectic, especially in the era of the revolutionary transition from the historically last exploitative formation - capitalism - to socialism.

Studying the development of capitalism at the turn of the XIX and XX centuries, V. I. Lenin showed the laws of the highest and last stage of capitalism - the era of imperialism. At the same time, he waged a sharp struggle against opportunism and revealed its close connection with imperialism .4 Insight into the essence of imperialism allowed Lenin to justify strategy and tactics not only for the revolutionary Russian proletariat, but also for the international proletariat in the era of a brewing revolutionary crisis. 5 The characterization of imperialism as monopolistic or State-monopolistic capitalism has become the theoretical basis of the struggle for the working class of all countries. It is quite true even now, in the context of the scientific and technological revolution. The" theories " of bourgeois ideologues about capitalist society losing its class character, about "industrial society" and about the" convergence " of the capitalist and socialist systems are nothing more than an attempt to distract the working people from the struggle against the capitalist system. 6
Many bourgeois and revisionist historians, philosophers, and publicists argue that Leninism is a specifically Russian phenomenon that is not applicable to the conditions of Western Europe. This is absurd simply because in the history of mankind there is no theory, worldview, or system of ideas that can even remotely compare with Marxism-Leninism in its political and ideological influence on entire peoples and continents. V. I. Lenin's creative application and further development of the theory of K. Marx and F. In accordance with the new conditions that emerged at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Engels and the experience of the international revolutionary struggle undoubtedly belong to the greatest scientific achievements in the history of the liberation struggle of both the Russian and international working class. Lenin always proceeded from the interests of the liberation struggle of the world proletariat and kept the entire world capitalist system in view, along with the class relations in a given country. "From the point of view of Marxism," he wrote, "it is absurd to dwell on the situation of only one country when speaking of imperialism, when the capitalist countries are so closely connected with each other." 7
With the help of the doctrine of socio-economic formations and the development of-

4 See A. V. Borodaevsky. Lenin's Doctrine of imperialism. Problemy mira i sotsializma [Problems of Peace and Socialism], 1967, No. 5.

5 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 27, pp. 423-424; "On the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin". "Address of the International Conference of Communist and Workers 'Parties". "International Conference of Communist and Workers' Parties. Documents and materials. Moscow, June 5-17, 1969". Moscow, 1969, pp. 331-333; L. Maier. Lenins Imperialismustheorie und der gegenwartige staatsmonopolistische Kapitalismus. "Einheit", 1969, N 9/10, S. 1247; B. A. Aizin. W. I. Lenins Kampf gegen Opportunismus und Revisionismus in der deutschen Arbeiterbewegung (1898 - 1914). "Zeitschrift fur Geschichtswissenschafb, I960, N 3.

6 See, " To the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Theses of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union", Moscow, 1969; K. N. ger. Die Aufgaben der Gesellschaftswissenschaften in unserer Zeit. Referat auf der 9. Tagung des ZK der SED von 22. bis 25. Oktober 1968. B. 1968, S. 14 ff.; E. Bregel. Die beiden sozialokonomisehen Systeme und die burgerliche Konvergenztheorie. "Einheit", 1968, N 4/5, 7; H. Mei.finer. Konvergenztheorie und Realitat. B. 1969, S. 138.

7 V. I. Levin. PSS. vol. 31, p. 353; see also "Politische Okonomie des Sozialismus und ihre Anwendung in der DDR". B. 1969, S, 138.

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On the subject of their development, and especially on the laws of transition periods, Lenin revealed the peculiarities of the transition of Germany from feudalism to capitalism in comparison with England and France. It is no accident, therefore, that the study of socio-economic formations has become an important area of ideological struggle against bourgeois historiography.

Lenin's assessment of the Prussian path of development of capitalism in agriculture is of great and fundamental importance. While the English and French bourgeoisie, still in the transition from feudalism to capitalism in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, became the leading force of the nation, the German bourgeoisie, during the revolution of 1848, ceded the leading role to the reactionary Junker class, which exercised its hegemony practically until 1945, whether in the form of a Junker-bourgeois or a bourgeois-Junker class. class domination in Germany. "In Prussia, and in Germany in general," Lenin noted, "the landowner did not let go of his hegemony during all the bourgeois revolutions, and he "educated" the bourgeoisie in his own image and likeness."8 Out of fear of the awakened German industrial proletariat, the bourgeoisie in 1848 betrayed, in Lenin's words, "its most natural allies" - the peasants-in order to defect to the camp of feudal reaction. "The unfinished German Revolution," Lenin wrote, "differs from the completed French Revolution in that the bourgeoisie betrayed not only democracy in general, but also the peasantry in particular." 9 In the bourgeois - democratic revolution of 1848, when the proletariat as a class first took part in the class struggle in France, Germany, and Austria, the antagonism between the two class lines became particularly pronounced in the history of these countries.

In Germany, feudal reaction, supported by the bourgeoisie and its "political-bourgeois historiography," succeeded in erasing the memory of 1848 from the popular consciousness and slanderously portraying it as a "mad year." 10 At the same time, the ruling classes in Germany resolutely set out for the unification of Germany under the leadership of Prussia, which was accomplished "with iron and blood" under the leadership of Bismarck as a result of the so-called "three happy wars" of 1864, 1866 and 1870-1871. Instead of the revolutionary unification from below, which Marx and Engels demanded in 1848, there was a reactionary unification "from above." "Bismarck," Lenin wrote, " was the representative of the counter - revolutionary landlords of Germany. He realized that they could only be saved (for several decades) by a strong alliance with the counter-revolutionary liberal bourgeoisie. He succeeded in this alliance, because the resistance of the proletariat was weak, and the happy wars helped to solve the next problem: the national unification of Germany. " 11 The reactionary alliance between the big bourgeoisie and the Junkers imposed its reactionary, militaristic brand on the forms of "military despotism"in pre-monopoly and imperialist Germany. This alliance later created a favorable political and ideological environment for the development of the insane aspirations of German imperialism and militarism for conquest. This ultimately led to the outbreak of two world Wars and the national catastrophes of 1918 and 1945 for Germany .13
8 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 21, p. 84.

9 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 11, p. 126.

10 See V. I. Lenin PSS. Vol. 16, pp. 24-25.

11 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 23, pp. 249-250.

12 K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch. Vol. 19, p. 28.

13 See I. S. Galkin. Some problems of modern history in the works of V. I. Lenin. "New and recent History", 1961, N 4, pp. 113-114; A. Laschitza, H. Schumacher. Thesen fiber die Herausbildung und Entwicklung der deutschen Linken von der Jahrhundertwende bis zur Grundung der KPD (Spartakusbund). "Beitrage zur Geschi.chte der Arbeiterbewegung", 1965, N 1, S. 26.

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The second class line in the history of the German people, whose origins lie in the distant past, is represented by the 120-year history of the German labor movement. The manifesto adopted at the Seventh Congress of the SED in 1967 states:: "The roots of our movement are found in the struggle of the medieval urban poor, in the great revolutions at the beginning of modern times in Europe, in the Great Peasant War in Germany. We are the descendants and heirs of the German proletarians who waged a heroic struggle for the emancipation of the working class against the enemies of the people for more than a century. We are the heirs of all the humanistic traditions of the German people, classical literature and art, philosophy and science. We are living in an era of great global change that began fifty years ago with the victory of the Great October Revolution. " 14
Under the leadership of Marx and Engels, Bebel and Liebknecht, the German working class freed itself from the influence of the treacherous liberal bourgeoisie and took the decision of its fate into its own hands. From the founding of the German General Workers ' Union in 1863 to the Eisenach Congress in 1869, which was already held under the influence of A. Bebel and W. Liebknecht and under the decisive influence of the First International, the process of clarifying the class consciousness of the workers proceeded, which was then significantly accelerated by the Bismarck dynastic wars, the unification "from above" and the cruel law against socialists of 1878 - 1890 15 . The lessons of the Paris Commune had a great influence on the development of the German labor movement.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Germany entered - later than other countries-the stage of imperialism and far outstripped the classic capitalist countries of England and France in economic terms, making threatening claims to the redivision of the world. The class struggle in the country has become very acute. But the right-wing leaders of German social-democracy, owing to their theoretical blindness, did not change their strategy and tactics in the new conditions of the imperialist era. Germany became the birthplace of revisionism 16 . As a result, the SPD leadership of that time, voting for war credits in 1914 and approving the policy of "defending the fatherland", actually sided with German imperialism.

V. I. Lenin not only gave an accurate analysis of the main content and character of the epoch of imperialism, but also created a new theory and tactics of the revolutionary class struggle in new historical conditions. He put forward the most important thesis that under imperialism, as the highest and last stage of capitalism, as a result of the development of its internal contradictions, an objective possibility arises of the victory of the socialist revolution initially in several countries or in one single country .17 Lenin proved that in the late XIX - beginning of XX century the center of the revolutionary struggle shifted from Germany to Russia and that tsarist Russia as the key point of all imperialist contradictions is on the verge of proletarian revolution. Leading the Bolshevik party, which became the model of a militant revolutionary party, without which the working class cannot win in any country, Lenin creatively developed Marxism, applying it to the conditions of the new era. The opportunists and revisionists in the parties of the Second International spread illusory ideas about peaceful development towards socialism

14 "Protokoll der Verhandlungen des VII. Parteitages der Sozialistischen Einheitspartei Deutschlands". Bd. IV. B. 1967, S. 292.

15 See V. I. Lenin's PSS. Vol. 17, p. 7; vol. 23, p. 364-366; vol. 26, p. 80-81; see also H. Bartel Die Reichseinigung 1871 in Deutschland-ihre Geschichte und Foigen. "Zeitschrift fur Geschichtswissenschaft", 1968, N 9, S. 1158 ff.

16 Cm. A. Laschitza, H. Schumacher. Op. cit., S. 27.

17 V. I. Lenin PSS. Vol. 26, p. 354; vol. 30, p. 133.

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and in all matters we have actually joined the line of the ruling classes. Lenin tirelessly strove to unite all the left forces of the international working-class movement. He fought against all forms of revisionism in the fields of political economy, philosophy, and politics. The betrayal of the opportunists in August 1914 was by no means a surprise to him .18
Even the best representatives of revolutionary Marxism in German social democracy-Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht, Franz Mehring, and Klara Zetkin - did not fully understand the close connection between opportunism and revisionism and imperialism. They therefore underestimated the danger of revisionism for the proletarian parties. Not seeing the obvious political and ideological bankruptcy of the parties of the Second International, the German left too late began to create a militant proletarian organization, the Spartacus League. As Lenin wrote, the tragedy of the German working class consists in the fact that on the eve of the November Revolution of 1918 it did not have a truly revolutionary party "because of the delay in the split, because of the oppression of the accursed tradition of "unity" with the corrupt (Scheidemanns, Legins, Davids, etc.) and the spineless (Kautskys, Hilferdings, etc.) a gang of lackeys of capital " 19 . During the Weimar Republic, the Social Democratic Party continued its fateful policy of class reconciliation, initiated during the First World War. She was in favor of maintaining the prevailing system. Its representatives, such as Ebert, Scheidemann, Noske, Muller, Brown, Seevering, and others, became government officials. All this led to the de facto capitulation of German social democracy to fascism in 1933.

The Communist Party of Germany, which emerged at the end of 1918, was the greatest achievement of the German working class in the battles of the November Revolution. In the class struggles of the following years, under the tremendous ideological influence of Lenin and the Third International, it developed into a new type of party that was able to apply Lenin's theory of revolution to the conditions of Germany. During the years of the Weimar Republic and the rule of fascism, the KKE consistently waged a revolutionary struggle against militarism, war, and the entire system that prevailed in Germany. Prominent party figures such as Ernst Thalmann, Wilhelm Pick, Wilhelm Florin and Walter Ulbricht, as well as thousands of other revolutionaries, participated in this struggle. At the Seventh Congress of the Comintern (July-August 1935) and at the Brussels Conference of the KKE (October 1935), it was stressed that the first prerequisite for the overthrow of fascism is the unity of the German working class .20 Hitler's aggression in Austria and Czechoslovakia and Hitler's encouragement of further conquests by the Western imperialist Powers prompted the Communist Party to develop a new strategy and tactics in the struggle against fascism in accordance with the changed conditions. This was done at the Berne Conference in February 1939. Despite the most difficult conditions, the KKE waged a heroic struggle against Hitlerism in the darkest days of the Nazi terror and World War II. By the time German fascism was defeated, it already had a clear and precise concept for building a new German republic. This is an outstanding historical achievement of the German Communists.

18 See B. A. Aizin. Op. cit., S. 720f; A. Laschitza, H. Schumacher. Op. cit., S. 727.

19 V. I. Lenin PSS. Vol. 44, p. 89; см. также W. Ulbricht Der Leninismus und der Aufbau des Sozialismus in der DDR. "Horizont", 1969, N 20, S. 4.

20 See W. Pieck. Reden und Aufsatze. Bd. I. B. 1950, S. 196 - 197 f; W. Ulbricht Zur Geschichte der deutschen Arbeiterbewegung. Bd. I. (1933 - 1946). B. 1955, S. 62 If.

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As a result of the unconditional surrender of Hitler's Germany on May 8, 1945, the domination of German monopoly capital, landlords and militarists was undermined. For the first time, the working masses had a real opportunity to free themselves forever from their reactionary rulers, who plunged them into the miseries of two world wars and led the country to two national catastrophes. The victory of the Soviet Armed Forces and the anti-Hitler coalition over Hitlerism created historical prerequisites for the democratic transformation of the economic, social and political life of Germany. This is what the best representatives of the revolutionary class line in German history have fought for .21 This historical possibility, however, was only realized in East Germany, on the territory of the later German Democratic Republic. In an extremely difficult situation at that time, when cities and industrial centers lay in ruins, the KKE, in its program of action of June 11, 1945, based on Lenin's theory of revolution, pointed out to the German people the right way to overcome "the main contradiction in Germany, the contradiction between the aggressive forces of finance capital and large-scale land ownership, on the one hand, and the peace-loving forces of the people, headed by the working class, are on the other side. " 22 In April 1946, the KKE merged with the Social Democratic Party and the Socialist United Party of Germany was formed. This put an end to the long-lasting split in the German labor movement, which had such fatal consequences. The united fighting Marxist-Leninist Party of the German Proletariat was able to take advantage of the opportunities that arose for the German people as a result of the victory of the Soviet Army over Hitlerism. With the help of the revolutionary implementation of land reform, the expropriation of monopolists and war criminals, the roots of German imperialism were uprooted and the path to the socialist revolution indicated by the Great October Socialist Revolution led by V. I. Lenin was opened.

Today, the GDR, the first workers 'and peasants' state in German history, thanks to the purposeful Marxist-Leninist policy of the Socialist United Party of Germany, has become a solid bastion of socialism, a bulwark of peace, democracy and friendship of peoples in Europe. "Its glorious path is the contribution of the working-class movement of our country to proving the universality of the fundamental laws of socialist construction elaborated by V. I. Lenin." 23 In the German Democratic Republic, the working class has successfully fulfilled its historic mission of destroying capitalism and establishing socialism. For the first time in German history, the revolutionary class line triumphed over the reactionary one.

Events in West Germany have developed quite differently, where the struggle between two class lines continues. 24 The defeated German imperialists and militarists, with the help of the Western Powers, have not only maintained but also strengthened their positions there. They are once again asserting their aspirations for economic, political, and military hegemony among their NATO allies and aggressively pushing for revanchist demands on the GDR, USSR, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. The population of West Germany, having experienced all the horrors of Hitler's war, as well as the Eastern one, sought to uproot the German Empire.-

21 in. Ulbricht. Leninism and the policy of the Socialist United Party of Germany. "Questions of the History of the CPSU", 1969, N 10, p. 7; L. I. Brezhnev. Lenin's course. Speeches and Articles, vol. 2, Moscow, 1970, pp. 462-463.

22 "Politische Okonomie des Sozialismus und ihre Anwendung in der DDR", S. 60.

23 W. Lamberz. Die leninschen Prinzipien der wissenschaftlichen Leitung des sozialistischen Aufbaus und ihre Anwendung in der DDR. "Einheit", '969, N 12, S. 1398:

24 См. W. Ulbricht Grundlegende Aufgaben im Jahre 1970. "12. Tagung des ZK der SED, 12/13.XII.1969". B. 1969, S. 85.

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socialism and militarism, and by peaceful labor to win a worthy place among peace-loving peoples. This is exactly what the victorious Powers agreed on at the initiative of the Soviet Union in Potsdam. "In the Potsdam Agreement, the main powers of the anti - Hitler coalition formulated principles that were supposed to guarantee the democratic development of Germany, a guarantee that Germany would never become a source of new war," Ulbricht notes. - Demilitarization, denazification and limiting the power of monopolies-these are the most important principles of Potsdam. In the GDR, they have been implemented for a quarter of a century. But they are still not being implemented in the Federal Republic of Germany. " 25
The cold War launched by Churchill and Truman against the Soviet Union and other socialist countries, and the cooperation of Western monopolies with the owners of the Pferdmenges, Abs, Flick, Rechling, Penzgen and other concerns that compromised themselves during the two World Wars, were a manifestation of the reactionary foreign policy of international imperialism. The rehabilitation of SS officers, war criminals and Gestapo agents and their infiltration of important state posts, the care of Hitler's generals who can be used for the future armament of West Germany, the creation of a separate Bonn state, the inclusion of West Germany in the aggressive NATO alliance and the acceleration of its atomic armament - all these are links in one chain - the process of restoring the reactionary, anti-people and the anti-national class line of right-wing extremists, capitalists who produce weapons, big financiers and farmers who retain great influence in Germany. From the demand for a" place in the sun " that Kaiser's Germany declared in 1900, a direct road leads to the demand of West German monopoly capital to increase its influence in the world. "For him (German imperialism. - L. Sh. strengthening its economic position has always been an important means and necessary stage in expanding its political expansion and in the struggle to achieve its far-reaching goals. " 26 The reactionary political course of the German monopoly circles, represented primarily by the CDU and CSU, is opposed by workers and employees, peasants, intellectuals, artisans and small entrepreneurs, who are called upon to become a decisive force in the development of Germany along the path of peace and progress.

This struggle between two class lines in West Germany, which calls for the unification of all anti-imperialist forces, is unfolding in the conditions of the domination of state-monopoly capitalism and the scientific and technological revolution. The capitalist system in West Germany, as in all other imperialist States, is unable to resolve its internal contradictions by means of a State-monopoly system. These contradictions arose as a consequence of the antithesis between labor and capital, which became unusually acute in the course of the scientific and technological revolution and the associated rapid growth of the productive forces. The development of West Germany confirms Lenin's conclusion that "state-monopoly capitalism is the most complete material preparation of socialism." 27
For a long time, the right-wing leadership of the Social Democratic Party has objectively and subjectively promoted its short-sighted, unprincipled policy, which is based on anti-communism and an-

25 Rede W. Ulbrichts auf der Internationalen Pressekonferenz am 19.I.1970 in Berlin. "Neues Deutschland", 20.I.1970, S. 3.

26 L. Maier. Op. cit., S. 1251.

27 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 34, p. 193.

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tis Sovietism, the dangerous course of West Germany, the course of Adenauer, Strauss, Kiesinger. The opportunist theories of "social partnership", "social symmetry", "free socialism", "pure democracy", "third way" and others have become the political and ideological credo of the Social Democratic Party. These theories not only did not change anything in the imperialist nature of the West German state, but, on the contrary, preserved and strengthened it.

In recent years, the working class, the intelligentsia, and young students have been increasingly protesting against the existing order in Germany. This protest did not remain without its influence on the SPD, whose policies began to show realistic tendencies, which were expressed, in particular, in the recently concluded treaty with the Soviet Union. The future will show whether these trends can prevail over the SPD slogan of "continuity and change", which emphasized the continuation of the NATO policy pursued by Adenauer, Erhard and Kiesinger. Changes were understood to mean the "erosion of the Eastern bloc", a change in the status quo in Europe, in other words, a continuation of the reactionary line of German history.

Europe has been at peace for a quarter of a century. This became possible only because, thanks to the power of the socialist camp led by the USSR, thanks to the existence of the GDR, the balance of forces between reaction and progress, between war and peace, changed in favor of the forces of progress, socialism and peace. When comparing the economics, politics, and ideology of both German states, the fundamental contradictions of the modern era are reflected in a mirror: the watershed between the two German states runs in the same place as the watershed between the two socio - economic systems. The GDR is a reliable outpost of socialism in close proximity to the world imperialist system. "The path of the GDR," Ulbricht emphasizes, " is the only possible path to a peaceful, democratic and socialist future for our people. We are actually carrying out the historical conclusion that the German people can achieve respect and friendship of other peoples, peace and security only by participating in peaceful creative work. " 28
28 "Internationale Beratung der kommunistischen und Arbeiterparteien". B. 1969, S. 28L.

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