You have it the wrong way around. Defection wasn't some accident of history that ended up being consequential, it was something with a substantial lead-up.
People don't try on different political hats and then change their philosophy. They have a set philosophy, and they try to make sense of what politics are the most reachable, and then if those don't work out, they change their politics.
Political views are downstream from values, which in turn are downstream from worldview and philosophy. If you have people who self-identify as socialists but who have a might-makes-right outlook on the world, they're not going to stay socialists for long.
I'm not lecturing a dead man, I'm pointing out how the Bolsheviks, at an earlier time, were more likely to be prone to certain mistakes that we have less excuse to make ourselves.
You shouldn't be interested in any kind of formal association with people that prove themselves to be reactionaries. Red-brown alliances are only going to strengthen fascists by giving them the appearance of working-class support.
Meanwhile, a certain V. Ulyanov stated around the same time that Mussolini's defection to fascism was a "huge loss" for the socialist movement.
It was, Mussolini wasn't sharpest knife in the drawer, but he was a very talented agitator.
You want people with deep reactionary persuasions in the socialist movement with you?
If he stay and not defect it would mean he wouldn't have those in the first place.
You have it the wrong way around. Defection wasn't some accident of history that ended up being consequential, it was something with a substantial lead-up.
People don't try on different political hats and then change their philosophy. They have a set philosophy, and they try to make sense of what politics are the most reachable, and then if those don't work out, they change their politics.
Political views are downstream from values, which in turn are downstream from worldview and philosophy. If you have people who self-identify as socialists but who have a might-makes-right outlook on the world, they're not going to stay socialists for long.
I'm baffled now, are you trying to lecture Lenin or you really never encountered simple what if musing in your life before?
I'm not lecturing a dead man, I'm pointing out how the Bolsheviks, at an earlier time, were more likely to be prone to certain mistakes that we have less excuse to make ourselves.
You shouldn't be interested in any kind of formal association with people that prove themselves to be reactionaries. Red-brown alliances are only going to strengthen fascists by giving them the appearance of working-class support.