Evola on Bolshevism

by Julius Evola

Julius Evola analyzes the Bolshevik Revolution, emphasizing its methodical, impersonal, and technocratic nature, which he views as a dangerous embodiment of totalitarianism aimed at eradicating individualism and spiritual values in favor of a collectivist and materialistic world order.

The Bolshevik Revolution already exhibited typical features worth highlighting. The romantic, turbulent, chaotic, and irrational traits characteristic of other revolutions, particularly the French Revolution, played only a minor role in it. Instead, one can clearly see the presence of intelligence, a well-thought-out plan, and a certain technique. Lenin approached the problem of the proletarian revolution much like a mathematician tackling a complex equation, analyzing it calmly and methodically, down to the smallest details. His statement: “Martyrs and heroes are not necessary for the cause of the revolution. What it needs is logic and an iron hand. Our task is not to bring the revolution down to the level of the amateur, but to raise the amateur to the level of the revolution.” Trotsky complemented this by making the question of insurrection and coup not so much an issue of the masses and the people but rather a matter of specialized technique, requiring the deployment of trained and well-directed combat units.

Among the leaders, one can observe a ruthless consistency in their guiding ideas and their execution, indifferent to the practical consequences and the nameless suffering that resulted from the application of abstract principles. For them, the individual human being does not exist. Bolshevism brought forth elemental forces within a group of people, combining the fanatic’s brutal concentration of power with exact logic and method, always focused solely on the means suited to the end, much like what is characteristic of a technician. Only in a second phase, largely predetermined by them, did the release of the underground forces of the old Russian Empire occur, resulting in the terror of the masses, which sought to destroy and eradicate everything connected to the previous ruling classes and Russian-Boyar culture.¹