In certain respects, a revolution is a miracle’, wrote Lenin in 1921. Revolution = miracle; революция = чудо: the permutations of this equation are the concern of this talk. Although revolution is arguably the central theme of Lenin’s extensive writings and political practice, my angle is different from the many others who have dealt with Lenin and revolution, for I am interested in its theological translation – hence miracle. What does it mean for Lenin to say that revolution is a miracle? Miracle is not so much a moment that changes the very coordinates of existence (or in Hume-derived terms as an event that is inexplicable according to the ‘laws’ of nature), but rather a point of contact between two seemingly incommensurable worlds. In theological terms, a miracle is a touching between heaven and earth, the moment when transcendence is bent towards immanence. In Lenin’s appropriation, the two worlds are no longer heaven and earth but those of spontaneity and organisation, between the unexpected the expected. Time and again, he emphasises and devotes immense energy to the need to organise and prepare, yet the moment of revolution-as-miracle inevitably occurs without forewarning. Into this discussion come the related issues of working within or outside the system, and the question of freedom (formal and actual).
