The Communist Catechism
"One cannot fully understand communism without understanding thoroughly the towering importance of this 'Catechism.' Here is the real secret that makes communism work so effectively in fomenting revolution in every land. One will never truly comprehend the psychology of the communist as a person, nor the amazing success communism as a movement has achieved without first weighing Nechayev's contribution to Marxism-Leninism through his advocacy of self-destruction as a fundamental principle of revolution!
Nechayev's name is, today, almost unknown. Yet it should be added Marx's and Lenin's as those of the major geniuses of evil whose impact upon history has forever changed the world. Marxism would be only another sterile economic theory without Lenin's practicality. Lenin would himself have been only an ineffective socialist revolutionary without Marx and Nechayev. In a word, it is socialism plum 'Nechayevism' which equals communism! There is no single document in the possession of the serious student of communism that approaches Nechayev's 'Catechism' in importance for deep insight into the actual nature of communism. It surpasses in significance even the writings of Marx himself.
The Revolutionary Catechism transformed Lenin into a worthless, murderous monster. It gave him the dreadful instrument that has made communism the most important and sinister movement of the 20th Century. it is the guide to power, the means of the transformation of ordinary men into the 'New Communist Men,' and much more.
When you read the 'Catechism' you will hear (horribly perverted) echoes of the blazing missionary zeal and self denial of early Christianity. More than any other document, the 'Catechism' is the illustration of the fact that 'communism is the perversion of Christianity.' Any person who reads and understands the importance of the 'Catechism' will never again refer to communism as merely another political movement. It is vastly more than politics.
Nothing could possibly be more useful than that everyone who seeks to combat communism become fully acquainted with the Revolutionary Catechism. It is still today the dreadful secret behind communism. It is the reason that there can be no compromise with the communists, no negotiations, no appeasement. Read it for yourself and fear! This is the true measure of your enemy! People who have wondered as to the source of the astounding power of communism need do so no longer. The secret is out! It begins by the transformation of the spiritually destitute individual into a destructive revolutionist, using a strange process called dehumanization. In 1873, Sergey Nechayev, an obscure Russian Jewish revolutionary, aged 24, stood trial before a court in Moscow, charged with murder. His real crime was even greater. 'He discovered the key to the box containing the forces of dissolution which destroy the state. He knew this and the court was perfectly aware that he knew it. Every day the minutes of the trial were laid before a Czar . . .' (The Life and Death of Lenin, Robert Payne, p. 20)
Nechayev, though very young, was already an important leader of the vast conspiratorial revolutionary movement that was secretly spinning its spiker's web across the whole of Russia. Abut 1873, he wrote a document which Lenin was to read and follow to the letter all the days of his life. It was this document called, 'The Revolutionary Catechism,' which provided Lenin with the formula with which he made Marxism into what communists call, 'Marxist-Leninism.'
Nechavyev died in prison in 1882 but his associates had brought the Revolutionary Catechism to the personal attention of Lenin. Lenin later spoke of Nechayev as, 'this titanic revolutionary who gave his ever such startling formulation that they were forever printed on the memory.' Lenin himself added, 'All of Nechayev should be published. It is necessary to learn and seek out everything he wrote.'
Lenin used the principles of this brutal Revolutionary Catechism to come to power. More importantly, he used them to insure that communism would stay in power (a historically unique secret which no other tyranny has known), and to spread the communist revolution throughout the earth. All communists, whether they know it or not, are still following Nechayev's soul-shattering covenant with death and destruction." (M.S. McBirnie, Community Churches of America, P.O. Box 90, Glendale, CA 91309)
The Revolutionary Catechism
by Sergey Nechayev (1847-1882)
The Duties of the Revolutionary Toward Himself
1). The revolutionary is a doomed man. He has no personal interests, no business affairs, no emotions, no business affairs, no emotions, no attachments, no property and no name. Everything in him is wholly absorbed in the single thought and the single passion for revolution.
2). The revolutionary knows that in the very depths of his being, not only in words but also in deeds, he has broken all the bonds which tie him to the social order and the civilized world with all its laws, moralities and customs and with all its generally accepted conventions. He is their implacable enemy and if he continues to live with them, it is only in order to destroy them more speedily.
3). The revolutionary despises all doctrines and refuses to accept the mundane sciences, leaving them for future generations. He knows only one science: the science of destruction. For this reason, but only for this reason, he will study mechanics, physics, chemistry and perhaps medicine. But all day and all night he studies the vital science of human beings, their characteristics and circumstances, and all the phenomena of the present social order. The object is perpetually the same; the surest and quickest way of destroying the whole filthy order.
4). The revolutionary despises public opinion. He despises and hates the existing social morality in all its manifestations. For him, morality is everything which contributes to the triumph of the revolution. Immoral and criminal is everything that stands in its way.
5). The revolutionary is a dedicated man, merciless toward the State and toward the educated classes; and he can expect no mercy from them. Between him and them there exists, declared or concealed, a relentless and irreconcilable war to the death. He must accustom himself to torture.
6). Tyrannical toward himself, he must be tyrannical toward others. All the gentle and enervating sentiments of kinship, love, friendship, gratitude and even honor must be suppressed in him and give place to the cold and single-minded passion for revolution. For him there exists only one pleasure, one consolation, one reward, one satisfaction, the success of the revolution. Night and day he must have but one thought, one aim, merciless destruction. Striving cold-bloodedly and indefatigably toward this end, he must be prepared to destroy himself and to destroy with his own hands everything that stands in the path of the revolution.
7). The nature of the true revolutionary excludes all sentimentally, romanticism, infatuation and exaltation. All private hatred and revenge must also be excluded. Revolutionary passion, practices at every moment of the day until it becomes a habit. It is to be employed with cold calculation. At all times and in all places the revolutionary must obey, not his personal impulses, but only those which serve the cause of the revolution.
The Relations of the Revolutionary Toward his Comrades
8). The revolutionary can have no friendship or attachment except for those who have proved by their actions that they, like him, are dedicated to revolution. The degree of friendship, devotion and obligation toward such a comrade is determined solely by the degree of his usefulness to the cause of total revolutionary destruction.
9). It is superfluous to speak of solidarity among revolutionaries. The whole strength of revolutionary work lies in this. Comrades who possess the same revolutionary passion and understanding should, as much as possible, deliberate all important matters together and come to unanimous conclusions. When the plan is finally decided upon, then the revolutionary must rely solely on himself. In carrying out acts of destruction each one should act alone, never running to another for advice and assistance except when these are necessary for the furtherance of the plan.
10). All revolutionaries should have under them second -- or third-degree revolutionaries, i.e., comrades who are not completely initiated. These should be regarded as part of the common revolutionary capital placed at his disposal. This capital should, of course, be spent as economically as possible in order to derive from it the greatest possible profit. The real revolutionary should regard himself as capital consecrated to the triumph of the revolution; he may not personally and alone dispose of capital without the unanimous consent of the fully initiated comrades.
11). When a comrade is in danger and the question arises whether he should be saved or not saved, the decision must not be arrived at on the basis of sentiment, but solely in the interests of the revolutionary cause. Therefore, it is necessary to weigh carefully the usefulness of the comrade against the expenditure of the revolutionary forces necessary to save him, and the decision must be made accordingly.
12). The new member, having given proof of his loyalty not by words but by deeds can be received into the society only by the unanimous agreement of all the members.
13). The revolutionary enters the world of the state, of the privileged classes, of the so-called civilization, and he lives in this world only for the purpose of bringing about its speedy and total destruction. He is not a revolutionary if he has any sympathy for this world. He should not hesitate to destroy any position, any place, or any man in this world. He must hate everyone and everything in it with an equal hatred. All the worse for him if he has any relations with parents, friends or lovers, he is no longer a revolutionary if he is swayed by these relationships.
14). Aiming at implacable revolution, the revolutionary may and frequently must live within society while pretending to be completely different from what he really is, for he must penetrate everywhere, into all the higher and middle classes, into the houses of commerce, the churches and the palaces of the aristocracy, and into the worlds of the bureaucracy and literature and the military, and also into the Third Division and the winter Palace of the Tsar.
15). This filthy social order can be split up into several categories. The first category comprises those who must be condemned to death without delay. Comrades should compile a list of those to be condemned according to the relative gravity of their crimes; and the executions should be carried out according to the prepared order.
16). When a list of those who are condemned is made and the order of execution is prepared, no private sense of outrage should be considered, nor is it necessary to pay attention to the hatred provoked by these people among the comrades or the people. Hatred and the sense of outrage may even be useful in so far as they incite the masses to revolt. It is necessary to be guided by the relative usefulness of these executions for the sake of the revolution. Above all, those who are especially inimical to the revolutionary organization must be destroyed, their violent and sudden deaths will produce panic in the government, depriving it of its will to action by removing the cleverest and most energetic supporters.
17). The second group compresses those who will be spared for the time being in order that, by a series of monstrous acts, they may drive the people into inevitable revolt.
18). The third category consists of a great many brutes in high positions distinguished neither by their cleverness nor their energy, while enjoying riches, influence, power and high positions by the virtue of their rank. These must be exploited in every possible way; they must be implicated and embroiled in our affairs, their dirty secrets must be ferreted out, and they must be transformed into slaves. Their power, influence and connections, their wealth and their energy will form an inexhaustible treasure and a precious help in all our undertakings.
19). The fourth category comprises ambitious officeholders and liberals of various shades of opinion. The revolutionary must pretend to collaborate with them, blindly following them, while at the same time prying out their secrets until they are completely in his power. They must be so compromised that there is no way out for them, and then they can be used to create disorder in the state.
20). The fifth category consists of those doctrinaries, conspirators and revolutionists who cut a great figure on paper or in their cliques. They must be constantly driven on to make compromising declarations: as a result the majority of them will be destroyed, while a minority will become genuine revolutionaries.
21). The sixth category is divided into three main groups. First, those frivolous, thoughtless and vapid women, whom we shall use as we use the third and fourth category of men. Second, women who are ardent, capable and devoted, but who do not belong to us because they have not yet achieved a passionless and austere revolutionary understanding; these must be used like the men of the fifth category. Finally, there are the women who are completely on our side, those who are wholly dedicated and who have accepted our program in its entirety. We should regard these women as the most valuable of our treasures; without their help we would never succeed. (From The Life and Death of Lenin, by Robert Payne; The Compleat Patriot, by Phillip Marsh, pp. 141-144) nechayev.htm
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