liquidationism

In Leninist theory, liquidationism ({{langx|ru|Ликвидаторство}}) is the ideological abandonment (liquidation) of the vanguard party's program, either in whole or in part, by party members.

Concept

According to the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin, writing in 1909, liquidationism "consists ideologically in negation of the revolutionary class struggle of the socialist proletariat in general, and denial of the hegemony of the proletariat".{{cite web |url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1909/jul/11.htm |title=The Liquidation of Liquidationism|last=Lenin |first=Vladimir |author-link=Lenin |publisher= |date= 11 July 1909|website=Marxist Internet Archive|access-date=3 November 2018}}

Nikolai Aleksandrovich Rozhkov was identified by Lenin as a liquidationist.{{cite web |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1911/lilapman/i.htm#v17pp74-313 |title=A Liberal Labour Party Manifesto|last=Lenin |first=Vladimir |author-link=Lenin |publisher= |date= 3 December 1911|website=Marxist Internet Archive|access-date=3 November 2018}}

In his concluding remarks to the 1914 Marxism and Liquidationism symposium, Lenin made the distinction between "Left liquidationism," which is "leaning towards anarchism, and "Right liquidationism," which is "liquidationism proper" and "leans towards liberalism."{{cite web |url=http://www.marx2mao.com/Lenin/CRML14.html#fnp266 |title=Concluding remarks to the symposium Marxism and Liquidationism|last=Lenin |first=Vladimir |author-link=Lenin |publisher= |date= April 1914|website=From Marx to Mao|access-date=3 November 2018}}

Current use

The term is still used in modern, ideological discussions of the communist left.{{cite web |url=http://www.bolshevik.org/statements/ibt_20170610_liquidationism.html |title=Liquidationism Yesterday and Today|last= Lichtenberg |first=Christoph |author-link= |publisher= |date=2 June 2017 |website=International Bolshevik Tendency|access-date=3 November 2018}}