Lenin’s Conception of Cultural Anti-Poverty in a Socialist State and Its Implications

“In a country where illiteracy prevails, it is impossible to build a communist society.” To consolidate the nascent proletarian state, Lenin proposed raising the cultural level and political consciousness of the worker and peasant masses, leading the public out of cultural poverty and providing an endogenous impetus from the people for socialist development. During the period of the New Economic Policy, Soviet Russia had to utilize the progressive factors of capitalism to develop socialism while gradually guiding the modern transformation of social concepts. Guiding the masses to rationally understand the complexity of revolutionary development and to foster a fighting enthusiasm that supports policy calls was the key difficulty for Lenin in leading the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) to carry out cultural anti-poverty. Existing academic achievements mostly focus on the basic principles Lenin proposed for cultural anti-poverty, or on the historical evolutionary logic of its Sinicization. It is worth noting that in the construction of Soviet state power, Lenin’s conception of cultural anti-poverty embodied the unity of the leadership of the Marxist party and the principal position of the people; there remains space for research on the relevant theory and practice. Summarizing the methodological insights it contains can help to formulate action strategies for socialist states to liberate the masses’ thinking and bring into play the principal role of the people, and can provide some reference for perfecting the anti-poverty discourse system with Chinese characteristics.

“在一个文盲的国家里是不能建成共产主义社会的。”为巩固新生的无产阶级政权，列宁提出要提高工农群众的文化水平与政治觉悟，领导公众走出文化层面的贫困，为社会主义发展提供来自人民的内生动力。新经济政策时期，苏俄要运用资本主义的进步因素来发展社会主义，还要逐步引导社会观念的现代化转型。引导群众理性认识革命发展的复杂性，并形成拥护政策号召的斗争热情，是列宁领导俄共（布）开展文化反贫困的重点难点。现有学术成果多关注列宁对文化反贫困所提出的基本原则，或是其中国化的历史演进逻辑。值得注意的是，在苏俄政权建设中，列宁关于文化反贫困的构想体现了马克思主义政党的领导与人民主体地位相统一，相关理论与实践尚有研究的空间。归纳其蕴含的方法论认识，能够总结社会主义国家解放群众思想、发挥人民主体作用的行动方略，并为完善中国特色的反贫困话语体系提供一定借鉴。

I. The Socialist System Is the Fundamental Guarantee for Eliminating Cultural Poverty

一、社会主义制度是消除文化贫困的根本保障

Under the capitalist system of exploitation, “the wage slaves are crushed by poverty to such an extent that they ‘have no time for democracy,’ ‘no time for politics,’” and the majority of the population is excluded from social and political life, let alone acquiring the cultural knowledge necessary to escape poverty. To liberate the thinking of the masses, the Marxist party must first start with the construction of state power, using the socialist system to provide a fundamental guarantee for cultural anti-poverty.

在资本主义剥削制度下，“雇佣奴隶被贫困压得喘不过气，结果都‘无暇过问民主’，‘无暇过问政治’”，大多数居民被排斥在社会政治生活之外，遑论获得摆脱贫困所必备的文化知识。解放群众思想，马克思主义政党首先要从政权建设入手，以社会主义制度为文化反贫困提供根本保障。

After the victory of the October Revolution, Lenin led the Bolshevik Party in constructing the first socialist state and advocated mobilizing the creativity of the masses in the construction of state power. He emphasized that the proletarian state power must “combine the initiative, independence, bold action, magnificent daring, and voluntary, formula-defying centralism that come from below.” Although Soviet Russia’s own economic and cultural conditions were relatively backward, it could, through revolution, “catch up with other peoples on the basis of the worker-peasant state power and the Soviet system.” During the period of the New Economic Policy, Lenin proposed constructing a systematic social education project, cultivating the ability and competence of the proletariat to participate in public affairs from two levels—cultural level and political consciousness—thereby stimulating the masses’ enthusiasm for building socialism.

十月革命胜利后，列宁领导布尔什维克党构建了第一个社会主义国家，并主张要调动群众在政权建设中的创造力。他强调，无产阶级政权就是要“把来自下面的首创精神、独立性、放手的行动、雄伟的魄力和自愿实行的、与死套公式不相容的集中制互相结合起来”。尽管苏俄自身经济、文化条件相对落后，但能通过革命，“在工农政权和苏维埃制度的基础上赶上别国人民”。新经济政策时期，列宁提出构建系统化的社会教育工程，从文化水平、政治觉悟两个层面培养无产阶级参与公共事务的能力素养，激发群众建设社会主义的积极性。

Guaranteeing the working people’s right to education is a prerequisite for mobilizing the masses to participate in consolidating state power. Lenin believed that “as long as there is illiteracy, it is impossible to realize electrification,” that the newborn Soviet state “lacks mainly culture, the ability to manage,” and that “the New Economic Policy fully guarantees us, economically and politically, the possibility of building the foundations of socialist economy. The question ‘only’ lies in the cultural strength of the proletariat and its vanguard.” The cause of the generally low cultural level of the Russian proletariat lay in the monopoly of educational resources formed by the capitalist system. As Engels said, “Since the bourgeoisie is satisfied with meeting only the barest necessities of the workers in life, we should not be surprised that it allows the workers only that modicum of education which is in the bourgeoisie’s own interest.” In 1897, fewer than one-quarter of every 1,000 people in Russia were literate. As late as 1917, the average literacy rate in Russia’s rural population was only 38%. To break the monopoly of knowledge under capitalist society, it was necessary to start by establishing a socialist education system.

保障劳动者的受教育权利，是动员群众参与稳固政权的前置性条件。列宁认为，“当我们有文盲的时候是不可能实现电气化的”，新生的苏维埃国家“所缺少的主要的东西是文化，是管理的本领”，“新经济政策在经济上和政治上都充分保证我们有可能建立社会主义经济的基础。问题‘只’在于无产阶级及其先锋队的文化力量”。俄国无产阶级文化水平普遍较低的成因，在于资本主义制度形成了教育资源的垄断。如恩格斯所言，“既然资产阶级在生活上只满足工人起码的需要，那我们也就不必因为它只允许工人接受符合资产阶级本身利益的那一点点教育而感到奇怪了”。1897年，俄国每1000人中识字者不到四分之一。直到1917年，俄国农村人口的平均识字率也仅为38%。想要打破资本主义社会的知识垄断格局，必然要从建立社会主义的教育制度入手。

The Russian Bolshevik Party strove to construct a systematic social education project, providing the worker and peasant masses with the cultural knowledge necessary to escape their survival predicament. In the Draft Regulations of the People’s Commissariat for Education, Lenin demanded that the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) perfect the socialist education system, with the People’s Commissariat for Education as the core, establishing various competent departments such as the Department of Social Education and the Department of Higher Education (Vocational Education Administration). He also advocated that the Soviet People’s Commissariat for Education provide free newspapers, periodicals, and books to libraries and reading rooms across the country, establishing a systematic network of cultural institutions for the broad worker and peasant masses. In July 1920, the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for the Elimination of Illiteracy was established under the People’s Commissariat for Education, responsible for tasks such as establishing literacy schools, training teachers, and publishing textbooks and teaching plans. At the same time, the Soviet state power attached importance to cultivating a contingent of intellectuals serving the masses, advocating “raising the status of teachers to the proper height” and formulating the state’s economic budget plan according to the needs of educational work. Integrating cultural education into the overall planning of national economic development helped achieve comprehensive coverage of educational resources and ensured that the masses could acquire the cultural knowledge needed to improve production efficiency and escape their survival predicament.

俄国布尔什维克党力求建构系统性的社会教育工程，向工农群众提供摆脱生存困境所必需的文化知识。在《教育人民委员部条例草案》中，列宁要求俄共（布）完善社会主义教育制度，以教育人民委员部为核心，设立社会教育司、高等学校司（职业教育总局）等多种主管部门。他还主张，苏俄的人民教育委员部为各地图书馆、阅览室提供免费的报刊书籍，为广大工农群众建立体系化的文化机构网络。1920年7月，教育人民委员部下设全俄扫除文盲特设委员会，负责开展筹建扫盲学校、培训师资、出版识字课本和教学计划等工作。同时，苏维埃政权重视培养服务群众的知识分子队伍，主张将“教师的地位提到应有的高度”，并根据教育工作需要来制定国家的经济预算计划。将文化教育融入国民经济发展的统筹安排，有助于实现教育资源的全面覆盖，保障群众能够获得提高生产效率、摆脱生存困境的文化知识。

In the historical context of the New Economic Policy period, Lenin’s conception of cultural anti-poverty included two objectives: knowledge popularization and political education. “Whether socialism can be realized depends on how well we combine Soviet state power and Soviet administrative organization with the latest progressive achievements of capitalism.” In the summer of 1921, in his report outline on the tactics of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), Lenin advocated that to realize socialism in a backward small-peasant country, it was necessary to develop “capitalism that is supervised and regulated by the proletarian state.” In October of the same year, at the Second All-Russian Congress of Political Education Committees, Lenin emphasized that the political education committees should help implement the New Economic Policy, “establishing a kind of capitalism that is led by the state and serves the state.” To make good use of the positive factors of capitalism to develop socialism, the state’s propaganda departments not only had to popularize cultural knowledge to promote the development of productive forces, but also had to raise the masses’ political consciousness and guide society to struggle against non-proletarian ideologies. The capitalist mode of production would influence social concepts, and it was necessary to “attach importance to the ideological struggle against petty-bourgeois influences, trends, and tendencies within the trade unions, especially when the New Economic Policy cannot but strengthen capitalism to some extent.” “There has never been a Great Wall between the workers and the old society. The workers likewise retain many of the traditional psychological traits of capitalist society… We are building on the soil of capitalist society, building in the midst of a struggle against all the weaknesses and shortcomings that also exist in the working people themselves and that constantly drag the proletariat backward.” To this end, political education committees were established within the national education departments of Soviet state power at all levels, and, according to Lenin’s conception, were responsible for “teaching the cultural competence to fight against red tape and corruption.” For the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) to build socialism comprehensively, it had to help the worker and peasant masses shake off the shackles of conservative and backward consciousness, thereby leading the masses out of the state of poverty in terms of ideological and cultural concepts.

结合新经济政策时期的历史背景，列宁的文化反贫困构想包含知识普及、政治教育两个目标。“社会主义能否实现，就取决于我们把苏维埃政权和苏维埃管理组织同资本主义最新的进步的东西结合得好坏。”1921年夏，列宁在关于俄共（布）策略的报告提纲中主张，在落后的小农国家实现社会主义，有必要发展“受无产阶级国家监督和调节的资本主义”。同年10月，列宁在全俄政治教育委员会第二次代表大会上强调，政治教育委员会要帮助实施新经济政策，“建立起一种受国家领导并为国家服务的资本主义”。要运用好资本主义的积极因素来发展社会主义，国家的宣传部门不仅要普及文化知识来推动生产力发展，更要提高群众的政治觉悟，引导社会与非无产阶级思想作斗争。资本主义的生产模式会影响社会观念，要“重视同工会中的小资产阶级的影响、思潮和倾向进行思想斗争，尤其是在新经济政策不能不在某种程度上加强资本主义的时候”。“工人和旧社会之间从来没有一道万里长城。工人同样保留着许多资本主义社会的传统心理……我们是站在资本主义社会的土壤上进行建设的，是在同劳动者身上同样存在的、经常拖无产阶级后腿的一切弱点和缺点作斗争中进行建设的。”为此，各级苏维埃政权国民教育部门成立政治教育委员会，并按列宁的构想，负责“教人们同拖拉作风和贪污受贿行为作斗争的文化素养”。俄共（布）想要全面建设社会主义，需帮助工农群众摆脱保守、落后意识的束缚，从而领导群众走出思想文化观念层面的贫困状态。

“Only by relying on the comradely discipline of the working people, their maximum initiative, sense of responsibility, and mutual strict supervision over labor productivity” could the country’s productive forces be restored and developed. Taking this as a logical starting point, Lenin conceived the cultural anti-poverty strategy of the Russian Bolsheviks, forming a systematic social education project through educational departments at all levels. In this way, the broad masses could gradually raise their cultural level and political consciousness, and begin to acquire the ability, competence, and fighting enthusiasm necessary to devote themselves to the construction of a socialist state.

“只有依靠劳动者的同志纪律、他们最高限度的主动性、责任心和对劳动生产率的互相严格监督”，才能恢复和发展国家的生产力。以此为逻辑起点，列宁构想了俄国布尔什维克的文化反贫困方略，通过各级教育部门来形成系统化的社会教育工程。由此，广大群众得以逐步提高文化水平与政治觉悟，开始具备投身社会主义国家建设的能力素养与战斗热情。

II. Exerting the Leading Role of the Vanguard Party in the Transformation of Social Concepts

二、发挥先锋队政党在社会观念转型中的引领作用

Cultural anti-poverty is a complex systemic project whose practical logic is far from what a simple linear narrative can present. In capitalist society, workers are mostly placed on the margins of the political participation system, making it difficult for them to form a comprehensive and accurate understanding of complex revolution. Lenin discovered that when the masses face poverty and exploitation, even without full exposure to and mastery of advanced theory, they will, out of a simple sense of fairness and justice, launch resistance against the old system on the basis of intuitive perceptual knowledge. However, “mere feeling of indignation against exploitation on the part of the masses will never, by itself, lead them onto the correct path toward socialism.” [8]8 V. I. Lenin, “The Tasks of the Youth Leagues,” *Collected Works*, vol. 31, p. 283. [Return] During the period of the New Economic Policy, Soviet Russia still needed to utilize the progressive factors of capitalism to develop socialism, which fully demonstrated the complexity of revolutionary struggle. To help the masses dialectically view the various elements in state-building, Lenin advocated guiding the masses to gradually elevate their perceptual knowledge of complex real-world problems to rational knowledge, using the advanced nature of the proletarian vanguard to lead the modern transformation of social concepts. At the same time, Lenin proposed that it was permissible to develop a capitalist economy under state regulation to serve socialism, that is, “to retreat, so that we can better prepare for a renewed offensive against capitalism.” [9]9 V. I. Lenin, “The New Economic Policy and the Tasks of the Political Education Departments,” *Collected Works*, vol. 33, p. 60. [Return] The report to the Eleventh Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) pointed out that “on the basis of the development of capitalist relations, the influence of the bourgeoisie not only over the petty-bourgeois strata of the population, but even over the most backward sections of the proletariat, is inevitably strengthened.” [10]10 “Report of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) to the Eleventh Congress,” *Collected Works of the CPSU*, vol. 5, p. 123. [Return] The particularity of Soviet Russia’s social development determined that the Bolshevik Party had to guide the masses to distinguish between the progressive factors of capitalism and its backward, conservative ideas. The vanguard of the proletariat had to guide the masses to understand policy programs rationally and dialectically, enabling them to grasp the general laws of revolutionary development, elevate their perceptual knowledge of complex problems to rational knowledge, and thereby truly liberate individual thought and achieve cultural poverty alleviation.

文化反贫困是一项复杂的系统性工程，其实践逻辑远非简单的线性叙事所能呈现。在资本主义社会，劳动者多是被置于政治参与体系的边缘，对复杂革命难以形成全面、准确的认识。列宁发现，人民群众面对贫困与剥削时，即便没有充分接触与掌握先进理论，也会出于朴素的公平、正义观念，在直观的感性认识中发起对旧制度的反抗。只是，“单是群众对剥削愤恨的感情，永远也不会把他们引上通往社会主义的正确道路”。新经济政策时期，苏俄还需要运用资本主义的进步因素发展社会主义，这充分体现了革命斗争的复杂性。为帮助群众辩证看待政权建设中的各类要素，列宁主张要引导群众将对复杂现实问题的感性认识逐步提升至理性认识，以无产阶级先锋队的先进性引领社会观念的现代转型。同时，列宁提出可以允许在国家调控下发展资本主义经济来服务社会主义，即“实行退却，以便更有准备地再转入对资本主义的进攻”。俄共（布）第十一次代表大会的报告中指出，“在资本主义关系有了发展的基础上，资产阶级不仅对小资产阶级居民阶层的影响，甚至对最落后的一部分无产阶级的影响都不可避免地加强起来”。苏俄社会发展的特殊性，决定了布尔什维克党要引导群众区分资本主义中的进步因素和落后、保守思想。无产阶级的先锋队要引导群众理性、辩证地了解政策纲领，使群众掌握革命发展的一般规律，将对复杂问题的感性认识提升至理性认识，从而在真正意义上解放个体思想，实现文化层面的脱贫。

How can a vanguard party help the masses fully understand complex policy programs and lead the modernization of social concepts? First, as the leader of state-building, a Marxist party must inevitably provide guidance for social development through its advanced nature. In November 1920, at the All-Russia Conference of Political Education Committees of Gubernia and Uyezd Education Departments, Lenin pointed out that it was necessary to “help train and educate the working masses, to overcome the old habits and customs inherited from the old system, the habits and customs of private property that are deeply rooted in the masses.” [11]11 V. I. Lenin, “The Tasks of the Political Education Departments,” *Collected Works*, vol. 31, p. 340. [Return] As the most advanced part of the proletariat, the Marxist party should “set an example of ideological, steadfast, and bold criticism for the entire mass of the proletariat.” [12]12 V. I. Lenin, “What Is to Be Done?” *Collected Works*, vol. 5, p. 384. [Return] Communists play a vanguard and exemplary role among the masses, using the revolutionary theory they themselves have mastered to guide the proletariat’s practical struggle, elevating individuals’ intuitive perceptual knowledge to rational knowledge that conforms to the laws of development of things, and helping the masses gradually emerge from cultural poverty.

先锋队政党如何帮助群众充分理解复杂的政策纲领，引领社会观念的现代化？第一，马克思主义政党作为政权建设的领导者，必然要以其先进性为社会发展提供指引。1920年11月，列宁在全俄省、县国民教育局政治教育委员会工作会议上指出，要“帮助培养和教育劳动群众，使他们克服旧制度遗留下来的旧习惯、旧风气，那些在群众中根深蒂固的私有者的习惯和风气”。马克思主义政党作为无产阶级中最先进的一部分，应“给全体无产阶级群众树立起富有思想性的、坚毅的、大胆的批判的范例”。共产党人在群众中发挥先锋模范作用，以自身掌握的革命理论来指导无产阶级的斗争实践，将个体直观的感性认识提升至符合事物发展规律的理性认识，帮助群众逐步走出文化的贫困。

Second, the vanguard of the proletariat must not only demonstrate a level of consciousness and competence higher than that of the ordinary masses, but also integrate into the masses, incorporating the will of the masses into all activities of socialist construction. Lenin emphasized that “without a party that is skilled at gauging the mood of the masses and influencing their mood, it is impossible to conduct this struggle successfully.” [13]13 V. I. Lenin, “The Role and Functions of the Trade Unions under the New Economic Policy,” *Collected Works*, vol. 33, p. 192. [Return] Therefore, the Bolshevik Party should incorporate the opinions of the masses to improve the level of state governance, thereby consolidating its strong leadership in state-building. In September 1921, Lenin pointed out that attention should be paid to absorbing the opinions of non-Party working people, which would help the Bolshevik Party improve its organizational purity and “become a class vanguard far stronger than before, a vanguard more closely linked with its class, and more capable of leading the class to victory amidst numerous difficulties and dangers.” [14]14 V. I. Lenin, “The Immediate Tasks of the Soviet Government,” *Collected Works*, vol. 27, p. 248. [Return] Only in this way can the Marxist party “concentrate fully conscious and loyal communists, tempered and educated through stubborn revolutionary struggle,” [15]15 V. I. Lenin, “The State and Revolution,” *Collected Works*, vol. 25, p. 404. [Return] maintain close ties with the masses, and mobilize the proletariat to unleash “the full force of revolutionary assault.” [16]16 V. I. Lenin, “The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky,” *Collected Works*, vol. 28, p. 227. [Return]

第二，无产阶级的先锋队不仅要体现出高于一般群众的觉悟与素养，更要融入群众，将群众意志融入社会主义建设的各项活动。列宁强调，“没有善于考察群众情绪和影响群众情绪的党，要顺利地进行这种斗争是不可能的”。因此，布尔什维克党应当结合群众意见来提升国家治理水平，从而巩固在政权建设中的坚强领导。1921年9月，列宁指出，要注意吸收非党员的劳动者意见，将帮助布尔什维克党提高组织纯洁性，“成为比以前坚强得多的阶级先锋队，成为同本阶级有更紧密的联系、更能在重重困难和危险中引导本阶级走向胜利的先锋队”。如此，马克思主义政党才能“集中了经过顽强的革命斗争的教育和锻炼的、完全觉悟的和忠诚的共产主义者”，与人民群众紧密联系，调动无产阶级激发出“进行革命冲击的全部威力”。

Third, the Marxist party should, in accordance with changes in the revolutionary situation, guide the masses to accurately understand complex policy programs. During the period of the New Economic Policy, the propaganda departments of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) encouraged the masses to submit articles to the propaganda departments, strengthening communication between the Soviet regime and grassroots workers. Workers and peasants from various localities actively submitted articles to newspapers, providing feedback on the implementation of policy programs at the grassroots level, and participating as much as possible in the construction of the Soviet state through these submissions. Of course, the views expressed by the masses in their articles did not always fully grasp the essential spirit of the policies. Yet even if the masses did not fully understand the original goals of the programs, the vanguard party, through the interactive communication between newspapers and readers, could still use its own knowledge and ideological consciousness to guide the ordinary masses.

第三，马克思主义政党应根据革命形势的变化，引导群众准确理解复杂的政策纲领。新经济政策时期，俄共（布）宣传部门鼓励群众向宣传部门写稿，加强苏维埃政权与基层劳动者的沟通。各地的工农群众主动向报纸投稿，反馈政策纲领在基层的执行状况，通过投稿尽可能参加苏维埃国家的建设。当然，群众在稿件中表达的观点并非总是完全领会政策的主旨精神。可即便群众没能完全理解纲领的原初目标，先锋队政党通过报刊与读者的互动沟通，也能以其具备的知识与思想觉悟来指导一般群众。

In the realms of material life and ideological culture, the process of individuals escaping poverty is not smooth sailing. After the October Revolution, because “the old petty-bourgeois ailments of weakness, disunity, individualism, and the swing from enthusiasm to despondency recurred within the proletariat,” [17]17 V. I. Lenin, “Left-Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder,” *Collected Works*, vol. 31, p. 27. [Return] this had a negative impact on the concepts of the masses. The vanguard of the proletariat should help the masses understand and grasp the complex and changing real situation, both stimulating the masses’ fighting enthusiasm and guiding them to view the tortuous process of social development rationally and calmly, thereby promoting state-building in a planned and strategic manner. Lenin’s propositions enabled the vanguard of the proletariat to integrate the will of the masses into the practical field of socialist construction, using flexible methods of struggle to accomplish the revolutionary tasks of each period, thereby using practical results to guide the masses’ accurate understanding of the complexity of revolution. This helps the Marxist party better play its leading role in the transformation of social concepts.

在物质生活和思想文化领域，个体摆脱贫困的过程不是一帆风顺的。十月革命后，由于“小资产阶级的懦弱性、涣散性、个人主义以及由狂热转为灰心等旧病在无产阶级内部复发起来”，对群众观念产生了消极影响。而无产阶级先锋队应帮助群众认识与把握复杂、多变的现实形势，既要激发群众的斗争热情，也要引导群众理性、冷静看待曲折的社会发展过程，从而推动政权建设有计划性、有策略性地展开。列宁的主张能够使无产阶级的先锋队将群众意志融入社会主义建设的实践场域，以灵活的斗争方式来完成各个时期的革命任务，从而以实际成效引导群众对革命复杂性的准确认识。这有助于马克思主义政党在社会观念转型中更好地发挥领导作用。

III. Integrating Propaganda and Educational Work into the Daily Life of the Masses

三、将宣传教育工作融入群众的日常生活

Based on the laws of development of human society, the process of modernizing social concepts is gradual. Lenin believed that military tasks could be achieved in a short period, but in the cultural sphere, “a longer period is required, and we should adapt ourselves to this longer period, planning our work accordingly, and displaying perseverance, tenacity, and consistency.” [18]18 V. I. Lenin, “On Cooperation,” *Collected Works*, vol. 33, p. 474. [Return] If the vanguard of the proletariat wants to help the masses escape cultural poverty, it must inevitably combine the advanced concepts of its policy programs with the daily life of the masses, using continuous propaganda and educational work to gradually promote the modernization of social concepts.

基于人类社会发展的规律，社会观念的现代化过程是循序渐进的。列宁认为，军事任务可以在短期内便取得胜利，但是文化方面，“需要一个较长的时期，我们应该使自己适应这个较长的时期，据此规划我们的工作，发扬坚韧不拔、不屈不挠、始终如一的精神”。无产阶级的先锋队想要帮助群众走出文化的贫困，必然要将政策主张的先进理念与群众日常生活相结合，以持续不断的宣传教育工作来逐步推动社会观念的现代化。

How should propaganda and education be carried out? One of the most effective media at the time was the newspaper. Marxism holds that the newspaper “can daily intervene in the movement, can become its mouthpiece, can reflect the rich variety of daily events, and can create a constant and lively connection between the people and their daily journal.” [19]19 Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, *Collected Works*, Vol. 7 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1959), p. 3. As a mass medium with a relatively fixed publication cycle, the newspaper could provide readers with a sustained perspective on the dynamics of regime-building and also served as a bridge for communication and interaction between the Party and society. The newspapers founded by Lenin leading the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) presented grand and abstract revolutionary theory to the masses in the form of concrete examples, guiding the proletariat to gradually escape from ideological and cultural poverty. Social being determines social consciousness. For propaganda departments to help the masses raise their cultural level and political consciousness, they must both fully explain policy and pay attention to how to advance the construction of people’s livelihoods. Unlike the media of capitalist societies, the proletarian press cannot be “an instrument for enriching the rich, for providing news and entertainment to the rich,” but rather “an instrument for enlightening the masses, for teaching them how to live and how to build their own economy after they have driven out the landlords and capitalists.” [20]20 V. I. Lenin, *Collected Works*, Vol. 35 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1985), p. 91. Lenin believed that the publications of propaganda departments should adhere to the working principle of serving the proletariat, “attracting wave after wave of new forces into the ranks of writers not by private profit or greed, nor by fame or position,” but by serving “the millions upon millions of working people, the cream of the country, its strength, its future.” [21]21 V. I. Lenin, *Collected Works*, Vol. 12 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1987), p. 97. The Bolshevik Party used newspapers to publish the relevant work experience of Party organizations at all levels and government functional departments, and, using this as a fulcrum, educated the masses on how to improve their quality of life through building socialism. “The latest achievements of human revolutionary thought must be enriched with the experience and vital work of the socialist proletariat,” [22]22 V. I. Lenin, *Collected Works*, Vol. 36 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1985), p. 87. combining the historical experience of scientific socialism with the proletarian class struggle. In 1919, in the “Draft Program of the RCP(B),” Lenin proposed that the Soviet regime should implement compulsory education and polytechnical education, combining education with social productive labor, helping workers and peasants raise their cultural level in all aspects, and attracting working people to actively participate in educational work. Lenin believed that propaganda work should focus on content related to economic production, “especially making more practical, expert, and mass-level considerations of actual experience,” rather than “empty talk and abstract slogans.” [23]23 V. I. Lenin, *Collected Works*, Vol. 40 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1986), p. 17. Propaganda departments need to use cases from real life to educate the masses, forming a writing style that serves the proletariat, paying attention to “collecting, carefully examining, and studying various facts in the actual construction of the new life,” and “paying more attention to how the worker and peasant masses are actually creating new things in their daily work. Check more to see how much communist content there is in these new things.” [24]24 V. I. Lenin, *Collected Works*, Vol. 35 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1985), p. 93.

如何开展宣传教育？当时最有效的传播媒介之一便是报纸。马克思主义认为，报纸“每日都能干预运动，能够成为运动的喉舌，能够反映丰富多彩的每日事件，能够使人民和人民的日刊发生不断的、生动活泼的联系”。报纸作为一种大众媒体，出版周期相对固定，能为读者提供持续了解政权建设的动态视角，也是政党与社会沟通互动的桥梁纽带。列宁领导俄共（布）创办的报纸，将宏大抽象的革命理论，以具体实例的形式呈现给群众，引导无产阶级逐步摆脱思想文化的贫困。社会存在决定社会意识，宣传部门帮助群众提高文化水平与政治觉悟，既要充分解释政策，也要重视如何推进民生建设。区别于资本主义社会的媒体，无产阶级报刊不能是“富人发财、向富人提供消息和消遣的工具”，而是“启发群众、教导他们在赶跑了地主和资本家之后怎样生活，怎样建设自己经济的工具”。列宁认为，宣传部门的出版物应当坚持服务无产阶级的工作原则，“把一批又一批新生力量吸引到写作队伍中来的，不是私利贪欲，也不是名誉地位”，而是为“千千万万劳动人民，为这些国家的精华、国家的力量、国家的未来服务”。布尔什维克党通过报纸刊登各级党组织、政府职能部门相关工作经验，并以此为支点，教育群众如何以建设社会主义来提高生活质量。“要用社会主义无产阶级的经验和生气勃勃的工作去丰富人类革命思想的最新成就”，将科学社会主义的历史经验和无产阶级斗争相互结合。1919年，列宁在《俄共纲领草案初稿》中提出，苏维埃政权要实行义务教育和综合技术教育，将教育与社会生产劳动相结合，从各方面帮助工人、农民提高文化水平，吸引劳动人民积极参加教育事业。列宁认为，宣传工作应侧重关于经济生产的内容，“尤其是对实际经验多作一些切实的、在行的、适合群众水平的考虑”，而不是“空泛议论和抽象口号”。宣传部门需要用生活中的案例来教育群众，形成服务无产阶级的写作文风，注意“搜集、周密地审核和研究新生活的实际建设中的各种事实”，“多注意工农群众怎样在日常工作中实际地创造新事物。多检查检查，看这些新事物中有多少共产主义成分”。

The Eleventh Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) demanded that the Party’s propaganda departments establish various local newspapers in cities and villages, with content primarily serving the actual needs of workers and peasants, for example, “issues concerning local construction, issues concerning the life, work, and struggle of the working people, and at the same time, these issues should be analyzed in the newspapers in a lively way that directly responds to the needs and demands of the readers.” [25]25 *Resolutions of the Congresses and Conferences of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union*, Vol. 2 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1964), p. 186. As socialist construction unfolded comprehensively in Soviet Russia, the propaganda departments of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) built a systematic network of newspapers and periodicals, publishing both abstract theory and concrete grassroots work experience, transforming them into the effectiveness of meeting the living needs of the people.

俄共（布）第十一次代表大会要求，俄共（布）宣传部门应在城市、乡村创办多种地方报刊，内容主要是服务工人、农民的实际需要，例如“有关地方建设的问题，有关劳动人民的生活、工作和斗争的问题，同时应当以直接回答读者需要和要求的生动的方式在报纸上分析这些问题”。随着社会主义建设在苏俄的全面展开，俄共（布）宣传部门构建了系统化的报刊媒体网络，刊登抽象的理论与具体的基层工作经验，并将其转化成满足人民群众生活需要的效能。

“The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.” [26]26 Karl Marx, “Theses on Feuerbach,” in Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, *Collected Works*, Vol. 3 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1960), p. 6. A Marxist political party must not only disseminate the texts of revolutionary theory but also apply them to guide the revolutionary practice of social modernization. Lenin pointed out that it was necessary to guide the peasant masses to recognize that “there is a connection between the hardships of life and the work people do for the lofty socialist ideal. It must be made so that every ordinary working person understands that his situation has been improved to some extent.” [27]27 V. I. Lenin, *Collected Works*, Vol. 43 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1987), p. 59. Following Lenin’s conception, the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) formed a propaganda work mechanism capable of promoting the process of social modernization. Using the newspaper as a fulcrum, the Bolshevik Party’s propaganda departments integrated policy propositions into the process of raising the people’s living standards. In this sense, grand, systematic, and profound revolutionary theory was concretized into specific examples from the masses’ daily lives. When individuals felt in reality the actual efficacy of Marxist theory in helping them escape poverty, they could gradually form an identification with the revolutionary regime.

“哲学家们只是用不同的方式解释世界，而问题在于改变世界。”马克思主义政党不仅要传播革命理论的文本，更要将其运用于指导社会现代化建设的革命实践。列宁指出，要引导农民群众认识到，“艰难困苦的生活同人们为了远大的社会主义理想而进行的工作之间是有联系的。要做到让每一个普通劳动者都了解，他的境况得到了某种改善”。俄共（布）按列宁的设想，形成能够推动社会现代化进程的宣传工作机制。以报刊为支点，布尔什维克党的宣传部门将政策主张融入群众生活水平的提升过程。在此意义上，宏大、系统且深奥的革命理论被具象化为群众日常生活中的具体事例。当个体在现实中感受到马克思主义理论帮助个体摆脱贫困的实际效能后，也就能够逐步形成对革命政权的认同。

IV. Simultaneously Carrying Out Ideological Enlightenment and Political Mobilization

四、同步开展思想启蒙和政治动员

As Marx said, “The weapon of criticism cannot, of course, replace criticism of the weapon, material force must be overthrown by material force; but theory also becomes a material force once it has gripped the masses.” [28]28 Karl Marx, “Introduction to a Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right,” in Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, *Collected Works*, Vol. 1 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1956), p. 460. The Marxist political party disseminates advanced revolutionary theory to the proletariat in order to arm the minds of the masses, thereby transforming revolutionary propositions into the conscious action of the masses participating in consolidating state power. Therefore, cultural anti-poverty in a socialist state, on the one hand, helps the masses master theoretical knowledge that can raise their living standards, and on the other hand, transforms the individual’s will to escape survival difficulties into concrete action to participate in consolidating state power. Carrying out ideological enlightenment and political mobilization simultaneously helps realize the masses’ subject position in regime-building and provides endogenous impetus for the development of the socialist state.

如马克思所言，“批判的武器当然不能代替武器的批判，物质力量只能用物质力量来摧毁；但是理论一经掌握群众，也会变成物质力量”。马克思主义政党向无产阶级传播先进革命理论，是为了武装群众的头脑，从而将革命主张转化为群众参与巩固政权的自觉行动。因此，社会主义国家的文化反贫困一方面帮助群众掌握能够提升生活水平的理论知识，另一方面也要将个体走出生存困境的意愿转化为参与巩固政权的实际行动。思想启蒙和政治动员同步开展，有助于实现群众在政权建设中的主体地位，为社会主义国家的发展提供内生动力。

Letting the masses learn Marxist theory in the midst of struggle is the most effective way to enlighten the proletariat ideologically. According to Lenin’s conception, the proletarian political party “needs to explain in practice how to build socialism. The entire propaganda work should be based on the political experience of economic construction,” [29]29 V. I. Lenin, *Collected Works*, Vol. 40 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1986), p. 140. landing on the various practices guiding national construction, and “making the workers understand communism as their own cause.” [30]30 V. I. Lenin, *Collected Works*, Vol. 39 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1986), p. 100. Lenin believed that “it is extremely incorrect to understand the exposition of communism solely from books,” [31]31 V. I. Lenin, *Collected Works*, Vol. 39 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1986), p. 294. and that “our speeches and articles are all linked with the daily work in all fields. Away from work, away from struggle, the book knowledge of communism derived from communist pamphlets and works can be said to be worthless.” [32]32 V. I. Lenin, *Collected Works*, Vol. 39 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1986), p. 100. The Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) carried out socialist cultural construction not only by introducing the theoretical texts of revolution but also by paying more attention to enabling the masses to master the ability to build a new society through practical activities.

让群众在斗争中学习马克思主义理论，是启蒙无产阶级思想的最有效方式。按列宁的构想，无产阶级政党“需要在实践中说明应该如何建设社会主义。整个宣传工作应该建立在经济建设的政治经验之上”，落脚到指导国家建设的各项实践，并“使工人群众把共产主义理解为自己的事业”。列宁认为，“单从书本上来领会关于共产主义的论述，是极不正确的”，“我们的讲话和文章都是同日常各方面的工作联系着的。离开工作，离开斗争，那么从共产主义小册子和著作中得来的关于共产主义的书本知识，可以说是一文不值”。俄共（布）开展社会主义文化建设，不仅是介绍革命的理论文本，更注重让群众通过实践活动来掌握建立新社会的能力。

The cultural anti-poverty work of a Marxist political party is, in the final analysis, to enable the masses to exert their own creativity in regime-building. Lenin emphasized that “it is necessary to make the working masses independently undertake the work of managing and building the socialist state.” [33]33 V. I. Lenin, *Collected Works*, Vol. 34 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1985), p. 49. Taking this as a logical starting point, the Bolshevik Party enabled the masses to participate in the dissemination of revolutionary consciousness, stimulating the initiative of the proletariat in actual struggle. As early as before the October Revolution, Lenin founded the Bolshevik Party’s popular organ newspaper, *Rabochaya Gazeta* (The Workers’ Gazette). In the publication announcement, Lenin encouraged workers to actively participate in running the newspaper, becoming its correspondents, “writing comments, writing articles, providing materials, reflecting situations, and expressing opinions.” [34]34 V. I. Lenin, *Collected Works*, Vol. 11 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1987), p. 324. At the same time, the newspaper opened columns such as “Party Life” and “Letters from Various Places,” publishing letters and communications from workers and local Party organizations. After the establishment of Soviet Russia, the propaganda and education departments of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) continued to implement Lenin’s propositions, mobilizing the masses to join newspaper work, constructing another channel for political participation for the proletariat, and inviting working people into the practical field of social transformation. After the establishment of the Soviet regime, Lenin further demanded that propaganda departments “should enable the peasants to use their literacy skills to improve their own management and the condition of their country.” [35]35 V. I. Lenin, *Collected Works*, Vol. 38 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1986), p. 176. The propaganda and education departments of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) actively mobilized the masses to participate in writing and submitting articles, becoming worker and peasant correspondents. This process guided the masses from being propaganda audiences who read newspapers and received information to gradually becoming subjects who disseminated revolutionary consciousness and threw themselves into various activities of Soviet regime-building.

马克思主义政党的文化反贫困工作，归根结底是让人民群众在政权建设中发挥自身的创造力。列宁强调，“必须使劳动群众独立担负起社会主义国家的管理和建设工作”。以此为逻辑起点，布尔什维克党让群众参与革命意识的传播，激发无产阶级在实际斗争中的积极性。早在十月革命前，列宁便创办布尔什维克党的通俗机关报《工人报》。出版通告中，列宁鼓励工人积极参与办报，成为报纸的通讯员，“写评论，写文章，提供材料，反映情况和发表意见”。同时，报纸开设“党的生活”与“各地来信”等栏目，刊登工人和地方党组织的来信和通讯。苏维埃俄国成立后，俄共（布）宣传教育部门继续贯彻列宁的主张，动员群众加入报刊工作，为无产阶级构建另一种政治参与渠道，邀请劳动人民进入社会改造的实践场域。苏维埃政权建立后，列宁进一步要求宣传部门“应当使农民有可能用读写本领来改进自己的经营和改善自己国家的状况”。俄共（布）宣传教育部门积极动员群众参与写稿投稿，成为工农通讯员。这一过程引导群众从阅读报刊、接受信息的宣传受众，逐渐成为传播革命意识的主体，并投身于苏维埃政权建设的各项活动。

As socialist construction unfolded vigorously in Russia, the worker and peasant masses, under the leadership of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), participated in the supervision of political power through news writing. In the article “Can the Bolsheviks Retain State Power?” Lenin proposed relying on the masses to consolidate revolutionary power, the most important aspect of which was “the most precise and conscientious accounting and supervision on a nationwide scale, that is, workers’ supervision over the production and distribution of products.” He suggested that the Soviet regime bring workers and peasants into the work of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspectorate. The Bolshevik Party turned Lenin’s proposition into reality, mobilizing the masses to write correspondence for the propaganda departments and the Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspectorate, reflecting various deviations that emerged in policy implementation. The Central Control Commission of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) stipulated that Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspectorates at all levels should designate personnel responsible for worker-peasant correspondence work, maintaining contact through the Party newspaper with the masses who actively wrote contributions, ensuring that “the specific shortcomings of government organs exposed by worker correspondents in the workers’ newspaper, all phenomena of bureaucracy, arrogance, negligence, embezzlement, etc., are responded to, so that the Control Commission and the Workers’ and Peasants’ Supervision Bureau take corresponding measures.”

随着社会主义建设在俄国轰轰烈烈地开展，工农群众在俄共（布）的领导下通过新闻写作来参与政权监督工作。在《布尔什维克能保持国家政权吗？》一文中，列宁提出要依靠群众来稳固革命政权，其中最主要的就是“全民范围内实行最精确的、最认真的计算和监督，即对产品的生产和分配实行工人监督”。他建议苏维埃政权吸收工人、农民加入工农检查院的工作。布尔什维克党将列宁的主张转变为现实，动员群众为宣传部门与工农检查院撰写通讯稿件，反映政策执行中出现的各类偏向。俄共（布）中央监察委员会规定，各级工农检查院应选定专人负责工农通讯工作，通过党报与积极写稿的群众保持联系，确保“工人通讯员在工人报纸上揭发的政府机关的具体缺点，一切官僚主义、傲慢、怠忽、贪污等现象，都得到反应，使监察委员会和工农监督局采取相应的措施”。

For a Marxist political party to educate the masses means to equip the proletariat with the ability to transform the old system and to participate directly or indirectly in the practical activities of political power construction. During the New Economic Policy period, to achieve the regulation and management of private commerce and private capitalism, the “level of maturity and cultural level” of the working people was key. Attention had to be paid to guiding the masses to learn how to struggle against capitalism and safeguard the class interests of the proletariat, “to train workers and all working people on the spot in managing the national economy of the entire country,” and “to enable every working person to contribute their strength to consolidating the worker-peasant state.” Worker-peasant correspondents, by writing contributions, revealed deficiencies in political power construction and struggled against backward ideas in their own way. Their work scope transcended the general meaning of news writing, and the masses, through their participation in writing, grew from responders to revolutionary calls into builders of the new society.

马克思主义政党教育群众，就是要使得无产阶级具备改造旧制度的能力，直接或间接地参与政权建设的实践活动。新经济政策时期，为实现对私营商业、私人资本主义的调控管理，劳动人民的“成熟程度以及文化水平”是关键，要注意引导群众学会如何与资本主义斗争，维护无产阶级的阶级利益，“实地训练工人和全体劳动者管理全国的国民经济”，“能使每一个劳动者都拿出自己的力量来巩固工农国家”。工农通讯员通过撰写稿件的方式，揭示政权建设中的不足，以自己的方式与落后思想作斗争，其工作范围超越一般意义上的新闻写作范畴，群众也在参与写作中从革命号召的响应者成长为新社会的建设者。

Lenin pointed out that, on the one hand, it was necessary to “have a correct assessment of the political situation and need correct strategic slogans”; on the other hand, it was also necessary for “the masses to support these slogans with actual combat strength.” According to Lenin’s conception, the propaganda departments mobilized the masses to participate in running newspapers, transforming them from the audience of newspaper propaganda into active subjects disseminating revolutionary consciousness, contributing the wisdom and experience of the grassroots working people to socialist construction. The Organizational Bureau of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) advocated for allowing the masses to join the ranks of worker-peasant correspondents, gradually growing into “executors of the proletarian communist influence over the broad working masses,” striving to cultivate the worker and peasant masses into “powerful assistants in improving the Soviet apparatus, eliminating existing shortcomings, bureaucratic distortions of the Party’s line, etc.” The Soviet educational and propaganda system, represented by the worker-peasant correspondent system, exhibited characteristics of ideological enlightenment and political mobilization. The propaganda departments mobilized the masses to deepen their understanding of policies through learning news writing and other means, which was also another form of political participation, transforming individual political consciousness into conscious action to promote socialist development.

列宁指出，一方面要“对政治局面有正确的估计，需要我们有正确的策略口号”；另一方面也需“群众用实际的战斗力量来支持这些口号”。按照列宁的构想，宣传部门动员群众参与办报，使其从报刊宣传的受众变为传播革命意识的行动主体，为社会主义建设贡献了来自基层劳动人民的智慧经验。俄共（布）中央组织部主张让群众加入工农通讯员队伍，逐步成长为“对广大劳动群众实行无产阶级共产主义影响的执行者”，力求将工农群众培养成为“改善苏维埃机构、消除现有的缺点、官僚主义歪曲党的路线的行为等等工作中的有力助手”。以工农通讯员制度为代表的苏俄宣传教育体系，呈现出思想启蒙与政治动员的特点。宣传部门动员群众以学习新闻写稿等方式加深对政策的认识理解，也是通过另一种政治参与，将个体政治觉悟转化为推动社会主义发展的自觉行动。

V. The Practical Implications of Lenin’s Conception of Cultural Anti-Poverty

五、列宁文化反贫困构想的现实启示

In Lenin’s conception, a Marxist political party, relying on the socialist system, uses a systematic educational project to cultivate the ability and literacy of the masses to participate in public affairs. Among this, the vanguard of the proletariat leads society in forming a rational understanding of revolutionary reality, gradually transforming the masses’ concepts into conscious action to consolidate political power construction. Lenin’s series of propositions on cultural anti-poverty in a socialist state can provide wisdom and experience from the masses for consolidating the people’s political power. The methodological insights contained therein have reference significance for the cultural anti-poverty work of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

在列宁的构想中，马克思主义政党依托社会主义制度，以系统性的教育工程来培养人民群众参与公共事务的能力素养。其中，无产阶级的先锋队引领社会形成对革命现实的理性认识，逐步将群众观念转为巩固政权建设的自觉行动。列宁关于社会主义国家文化反贫困的一系列主张，能够为巩固人民政权提供来自群众的智慧经验，其蕴含的方法论认识对中国特色社会主义的文化反贫困工作具有借鉴意义。

First, use the advanced nature of the Marxist political party to lead the modern transformation of social concepts. As members of the vanguard of the proletariat, Communists should rely on their political consciousness and theoretical literacy, which are higher than those of the ordinary masses, to play an exemplary and leading role, “guiding the entire people towards socialism, directing and organizing the new system, becoming the teachers, leaders, and chiefs of all exploited working people in the cause of building their own social life without the bourgeoisie and against the bourgeoisie.” At the Eighth Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), Lenin summarized the Party program report, emphasizing that “the program should explain to the masses how the communist revolution occurred, why it is inevitable, where its significance, essence, and strength lie, and what problems it should solve.” A Marxist political party masters advanced theories that reveal the laws of human social development, scientifically formulates and implements policy lines, and helps the masses emancipate their thinking while gradually escaping material poverty. For the Communist Party of China, advancing Chinese-path modernization requires “continuously consolidating the material conditions for the people’s happy life, while vigorously developing advanced socialist culture,” promoting the comprehensive development of individuals. The cultural anti-poverty work led by the vanguard of the proletariat concretizes profound, abstract, and systematized revolutionary theories through the actual effectiveness of policy programs, explaining the scientificity and rationality of policy propositions to the masses, and helping the public form rational understandings of practical issues such as poverty. This is conducive to cultivating among social members a fighting consciousness to rewrite their own destinies and create a better life through self-effort, and to stimulating the creativity of the masses in building socialism.

第一，以马克思主义政党的先进性引领社会观念的现代转型。作为无产阶级先锋队的成员，共产党人应凭借高于一般群众的政治觉悟、理论素养来发挥模范带头作用，“引导全体人民走向社会主义，指导并组织新制度，成为所有被剥削劳动者在不要资产阶级并反对资产阶级而建设自己社会生活的事业中的导师、领导者和领袖”。在俄共（布）第八次代表大会上，列宁总结党纲报告，强调“纲领应该向群众说明，共产主义革命是怎样发生的，为什么它是不可避免的，它的意义、实质和力量在哪里，它应当解决什么问题”。马克思主义政党掌握揭示人类社会发展规律的先进理论，科学制定与执行政策路线，帮助群众在逐步摆脱物质的贫困中解放思想。对于中国共产党而言，推进中国式现代化，应“不断夯实人民幸福生活的物质条件，同时大力发展社会主义先进文化”，促进人的全面发展。无产阶级先锋队领导的文化反贫困工作，将深奥、抽象、系统化的革命理论通过政策纲领的实际成效具象化，为群众解释政策主张的科学性与合理性，帮助公众形成关于贫困等现实问题的理性认识。这有利于培养社会成员以自我努力来改写命运、创造美好生活的奋斗意识，激发群众在建设社会主义中的创造力。

Second, use multiple forms of political participation to transform the masses’ concepts into conscious action in anti-poverty. Lenin instructed Soviet regimes at all levels to educate and mobilize the worker and peasant masses to participate in public affairs, and “to carry out political education among them based on their own experience, thereby for the first time enabling the entire people to learn management and begin to manage.” In addition to organizing regime elections and mass organizations, the propaganda departments of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) implemented Lenin’s propositions, encouraging working people to learn news writing, assisting the Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspectorate in the capacity of worker-peasant correspondents, reflecting deficiencies in political power construction and summarizing experiences. It can be said that the worker-peasant correspondent system designed by Lenin could form a flexible channel for political participation, cultivating the ability and literacy of the masses to participate directly or indirectly in various public affairs. Similarly, General Secretary Xi Jinping has also emphasized the need to “focus on transforming the people’s aspiration for a better life into a powerful driving force for poverty alleviation,” and to “respect the principal position and pioneering spirit of the people, fully stimulating the wisdom and strength contained within the masses.” The 20th National Congress of the CPC proposed “broadening channels for orderly participation of various grassroots groups in grassroots governance, ensuring the people’s management of grassroots public affairs and public welfare undertakings according to law.” Based on the established requirements of Chinese-path modernization, Chinese Communists should, through developing whole-process people’s democracy, provide institutional support for the masses to exert their initiative in political power construction. Drawing on Lenin’s theoretical propositions on the worker-peasant correspondent system is conducive to integrating the people’s will into all activities of the Communist Party of China in governing the country, improving whole-process people’s democracy, and embodying the unity of the Party’s leadership and the people’s principal position.

第二，以多种政治参与方式将群众观念转化为反贫困中的自觉行动。列宁指示各级苏维埃政权，要教育动员工农群众参与公共事务，并“根据他们亲身的体验对他们进行政治教育，从而第一次着手使真正全体人民都学习管理，并且开始管理”。除组织政权选举、群众团体等方式外，俄共（布）宣传部门贯彻列宁的主张，鼓励劳动者学习新闻写稿，以工农通讯员身份协助工农检查院工作，反映政权建设的不足并总结经验。可以说，列宁设计的工农通讯员制度，能够形成一种灵活的政治参与渠道，培养群众直接或间接参与各项公共事务的能力和素养。同样，习近平总书记也强调，要“注重把人民群众对美好生活的向往转化成脱贫攻坚的强大动能”，“尊重人民群众主体地位和首创精神，把人民群众中蕴藏着的智慧和力量充分激发出来”。党的二十大提出，要“拓宽基层各类群体有序参与基层治理渠道，保障人民依法管理基层公共事务和公益事业”。基于中国式现代化建设的既定要求，中国共产党人应通过发展全过程人民民主，为群众在政权建设中发挥能动性提供制度支撑。借鉴列宁关于工农通讯员制度的理论主张，有利于将人民意愿融入中国共产党治国理政的各项活动，完善全过程人民民主，体现党的领导与人民主体地位相统一。

Third, implement the general principle of pursuing progress while ensuring stability through cultural anti-poverty, and seize the initiative in modernization. “On cultural questions, rashness and haste are most harmful.” [37]37 V. I. Lenin, “On Cooperation,” *Collected Works*, vol. 33, p. 476 (Chinese edition). The exact phrasing in Lenin’s original is “On cultural questions, haste and sweeping measures are most harmful.” In carrying out cultural anti-poverty, a Marxist political party must, by adhering to the ideological line of seeking truth from facts, make judgments that conform to the laws of revolution, thereby seizing the initiative in the construction of socialist modernization. In Lenin’s relevant conception of cultural anti-poverty, propaganda departments should guide the masses to form a rational understanding of the complex and tortuous revolutionary struggle, thereby shaping a social opinion environment conducive to the steady advancement of political power construction. Similarly, the arduousness and complexity of Chinese-path modernization are unprecedented; Chinese Communists should “neither reach for what is beyond their grasp nor act conservatively, but maintain historical patience, adhere to the principle of pursuing progress while ensuring stability, advancing step by step and continuously.” [38]38 Xi Jinping, “Speech at the Central Conference on Economic Work,” December 15, 2021, *Qiushi*, 2022, no. 2. In carrying out anti-poverty work, Chinese Communists must, on the one hand, cultivate among the masses the ideological awareness of becoming prosperous through hard work and pursuing a better life; on the other hand, they must foster a social atmosphere of seeking truth from facts and pursuing progress while ensuring stability, guiding the masses to recognize how to scientifically mobilize all positive factors conducive to socialist construction, and explore an anti-poverty institutional system with Chinese characteristics. As Mao Zedong said, “Truth is not accomplished at one stroke, but is accomplished step by step.” [39]39 Mao Zedong, “Speech at the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the CPC,” March 5, 1949, *Selected Works of Mao Zedong*, vol. 4. It is necessary to grasp the laws of revolutionary development through investigation and research, and seize the initiative in building socialism while adhering to seeking truth from facts. In carrying out cultural anti-poverty, a socialist state should implement the general principle of pursuing progress while ensuring stability, and promote the formation of a social consciousness of adhering to seeking truth from facts among the public. This will help seize the initiative in overcoming various risks and challenges on the path of Chinese-path modernization.

第三，以文化反贫困贯彻稳中求进工作总基调，把握现代化建设的主动权。“在文化问题上，急躁冒进是最有害的。”马克思主义政党开展文化反贫困，需在坚持实事求是的思想路线中，作出符合革命规律的研判，从而把握社会现代化建设中的主动权。在列宁关于文化反贫困的相关构想中，宣传部门应引导群众对复杂、曲折的革命斗争形成理性认识，从而塑造有利于稳步推进政权建设的社会舆论格局。同样，中国式现代化建设的艰巨性和复杂性前所未有，中国共产党人应当“既不好高骛远，也不因循守旧，保持历史耐心，坚持稳中求进、循序渐进、持续推进”。在反贫困的开展工作中，中国共产党人一方面要培养群众勤劳致富、追求美好生活的思想意识；另一方面，也要营造实事求是、稳中求进的社会风气，引导群众认识到如何科学调动一切有利于社会主义建设的积极因素，探索具有中国特色的反贫困制度体系。如毛泽东所言，“真理不是一次完成的，而是逐步完成的”，要通过调查研究的方式掌握革命发展的规律，在坚持实事求是中把握建设社会主义的主动权。社会主义国家开展文化反贫困，应贯彻稳中求进工作总基调，在公众中推动形成坚持实事求是的社会意识，有助于在中国式现代化道路中把握战胜各类风险挑战的主动权。

(Author’s bio: Lin Ke, Doctor of Law, Assistant Researcher at the School of Marxism, Nanjing University)

（作者简介：林棵，法学博士，南京大学马克思主义学院助理研究员）

Online editor: Tongxin

网络编辑：同心