“So much the worse for the facts.” With these words of Fichte, Lukács closed the first draft of “What Is Orthodox Marxism?” To the skeptical, perhaps to the sympathetic, the words are outrageous. Marxism is not contradicted by the facts. The facts are duplicit, or, at best, mute. To quantify, classify, or categorize facts is to capitulate to them. “Truly orthodox dialectical Marxists paid little attention to the so called ‘facts.’”

The obverse is plainer and more convincing: The facts confirm Marxism. The large events, as well as the small, prove the truth of the theory. The Russian and Chinese revolutions, imperialism, and the crises of capitalism all demonstrate the continuous validity of Marxism. Marxism is compelling precisely because it is accurate and, finally, because it is successful: It works. The strength of the working class, as well as the victory of several revolutions, leaves little doubt. Success is the proof.

Success: This is the rub. How does one evaluate success? The Seventeenth Congress of the Soviet Communist party (1934) announced that the party had “triumphed” everywhere. Stalin declared that socialism was now “the sole commanding force.” The official account dubbed this meeting the “The Congress of Victors.” Several decades later, in 1956, Khruschev indicated how the victors fared: “Of the 139 members and candidates of the party's Central Committee who were elected at the Seventeenth Congress, 98 persons, i.e. 70 percent, were arrested and shot… The same fate met… the majority of the delegates to the Seventeenth Party Congress. Of 1,966 delegates… 1,108 were arrested on charges of revolutionary crimes, i.e. decidedly more than a majority.”