Gibbons How the rev was lost ocr

8/7/2019 Gibbons How the rev was lost ocr

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THERE WERE TWO revolutions in Russ ia in 1917. Th e f i rs t occurred inFebruary. I t must have beenvery like th e overthrow ofthe Shah ofIran in ourown times. Th e Tsar 's regime ha d lost th e support of virtually th e whole populat ion, an d wasswep t away by a vast uprisingof workers, peasant s and soldiers. Even many from th e privilegedclasses wanted th e Tsar to go .

Tired of wa r an d corruption, t he Russian people demanded a

ne w society. Butwha t kind of society? Therewas noway th e womentext i l e worke rs who ha d sparked th e February revolution couldi nden ti fy wi th th e hopes o f t he ir boss. T he re w as no wa y th epeasant could share th e a im s o f t he l and lord who ha d bled hisfami ly dry these many years. I t seemed th e wholeworld wa s beingturned upside down, y et t h e workers still toiled for th e boss, th epeasant for t he l andlo rd . Theun i ty o f purpose t hey may have felt indumping an unpopular m o na rc h w a s to vanish like t he morn ingmists before th e realities of Russia in 1917.

To a new premier, Kerensky, t h e a i m wa s th e kind of society wehave in Br i ta in t oday. Le t the masses vote for whoever they will. Le tt he m h av e t he ir toothless parl iaments. The real power wou ld s t il lrest with those who were born to wealth an d privilege. Kerensky

wanted to make Russ ia safe for th e employers to make their profits.But th e workers an d peasants ha d other ideas. They hadn't foughtan d died to su ffe r more of the same on ly under another name.

Fo r months t here was this uneasy ba lance of power i n Russ i a ..F ir st t he huge workers' demonstrations an d strikes would

paralyse the government. Then that same governmen t would beprodded by th e bosses i n to pu tt ing the workers in their p lace withgu n an d baton. Victory ha d to fall to o ne s id e or th e other.

In October, th e break ing po in t came. Kerensky's governmentw as b y no w totally discredited. It was incapable ofgi ving t he vas tmajority ofthe population - th e workers and peasan t s - what they

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wanted. Instead of peace, it gave them fine words aboutfighting onuntil th e w ar w as won. Instead of bread, it g av e t he m continuedhunger. Instead of land, it g a ve t he m t h e l an dl or ds ' rack-renting

4 bailiffs.Th e government which took power th rough the revolution of '

October 1917 wa s of a kind th e world ha d never seen before - aworkers' socialist republic. This secondrevolution was the product

oftwo social movements which took place at one a n d t h e s a m e time.In the countryside, home of th e vast majority o f R us si a 's

enormous populat ion, th e struggle wa s between two proper tyowning .classes, t h e l an do w ne rs a n d t h e p ea sa n ts . T h e despised,impoverished an d oppressed p e as a nt s s a w t h e old power shaken.They ha d risen in revolt before, bu t never before ha d their masters 'grip on th e reins of power looked so unsure. Thepeasan t s seized th eestates of the landowners and began dividing them intoindividualplots. I t seemed they could achieve their long-cherished ambitions:to own their own pa tch of land an d farm it as they liked - free of th elandlords who demanded extortionate payments in rents, taxes an dproduce. They ha d t he ir o wn peasant party, th e Social Revolutionaries, to represent their interests.

In th e towns an d cities, th e revolution bore a different face.Here, th e struggle wa s between new classes thrown up by th e rapiddevelopment of i n du s tr y a s Russia tried to drag herself i nt o t hetwen t ie th cen tury. There were th e employers who made massivefortunes out of th e huge, new m a nu f ac t ur i ng p l an t s a n d weredetermined to hang on to them at all costs. Ranged against themwa s th e enemy industrialisation ha d created, a numerically t inybu t powerful working class marsha l led in the enormous factories.

T he se w or ke rs s en se d their power a nd l ea rn ed a newphilosophy radically different to th e centuries-old ideas theirpeasant forefathers ha d accepted in the unchang ing villages. Theylearned socialism. They wanted to decide ho w to use what theymade. They wanted to elect their ow n managements. They wanted

t he m ar ve ll ou s n ew t ec hn ol og y which w as r is in g everywherearound them tobe pu t at th e service of every man,woman an d childin Russia, no t just th e miserable money-grubbing employingclass.

In 1905 the workers ha d challenged th e Tsar in a series of massstrikes, bu t they faced a peasan t a rmy st i ll loyal to the Tsar. Theypaid dearly for th e failure to defeat th e old order duringyears thatfollowed of imprisonment, shootings, poverty an d police terror. Bu tth e workers learned from their defeat. They discovered from theirown experienceof organising strikes that they were able to managethe day-to-day running of society better than their rulers.

In Petrograd in 1905, they ha d organised their own workers'

HOW THE REVOLUTION WAS LOST

c?uncil, made up of delegates elected from workplaces al l over th eC I t ~ .Fr.om economic demands, they grew to organise political

.strikes In defence of mutineering sai lors at the Kronstad t navalbas.e who w ~ r ethreatened with execution. We know this bodybetterby Its Russian name, th e Soviet.

T he C ha ir ma n o f t he P et ro gr ad Soviet or workers' councilLeon Trotsky, ha s explained how it worked: '

'The Soviet is in reality an embryo of a revolutionary government.I t organises street patrols to secure th e safety o f t he citizens Ittakes over ... th e post office, t h e t el eg ra ph a n d t he r ai lr oa ds Itmade an effort to introduce the eight-hour da y ... Th e first wave oft h e n ex t revolution will lead to th e creation of Soviets al l over th ecountry.'

T ~ o t s k ywa s right. W hat be ga n a s a kind of giant strikecommittee wa s forced, in th e dislocation an d chaos of revolution todevelop into an alternative government. Twelve yearsafter thefirstSoviets appeared, they became t h e b a si s for th e .national government of October 1917, a government infini tely more democrat ict ha n a ny parliament. You didn't just pu t a cross on a ballot' an dwatch them sellyou out for the next five years. Th e delegates to th eSoviets were subject to recall by th e voters an d ha d to explainthemselves regularly at workers' mass meetings. They involved th em a ss o f working people.

American journalist John Reed wrote this eye-witness accoun t:

'N o political bodymore sensi t ive an d responsive to th e popular willwa s ever in ven ted. Andth i swas necessary, for in time ofrevoluti on,th e popular will changes with great rapidity. Fo r example, duringth e first weeks of December 1917, there were m as s p ar ad es a nddemonstrations in favour of the Consti tuent Assembly - that i s tosay, against t h ~Soviet Power. On e of these paradeswas f ired onbysome irresponsible Red Guards an d several people killed.'The reaction to this stupid violence wa s immediate. Within twelvehours the complexion of the Petrograd Soviet changed. More than adozen B?lshev ik deput i es were wi thdra wn an d replaced byMensheviks [moderate socialists]. An d it w as t hr ee weeks beforepublic sentiment subsided - b efore th e Mensheviks were one by oneretired a nd t he Bolsheviks sent back.'

Ca n you imagine ourrulers responding in 12 hours? We're luckyif they take notice in 12 months!

Working people could exer t con t ro l over national decisionmaking bodies on a day-to-day bas is a f t er October 1917 in a wa ythat ha s never been possible in capitalist societies. A lot of people

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who don't want to believe that working people ca n control ~ t h e i row nlives tr y to convince us that th e revolution in Russ ia was no thinglike this. They never ment ion th e torrent of debate an d argument,the f lood of newspapers, th e act ive democracy of th e revolution inferment. They paint a very different picture, with Lenin, Trotskya nd t h e Bolshevik Party as dark, conspiratorialvi l lains plott inginsecret to seize power. This is sheer nonsense. The Bolsheviks formedthe new Sovie t government because they ha d proved over twentylong year s o f s t ruggle that they were t he best f igh ter s against th erotten Tsarist regime.

Jus t before th e October revolution, th e B ol s he vi k s w on amajori ty in th e Soviets. So it wa s wi th the support o fv i r tual ly th ewhole work ing c las s that they mounted th e insurrect ion whichtoppled th e bankrupt K er e ns ky r eg im e. L it tl e wonder th e olds ys te m w en t d ow n l ik e a pack of cards. So bloodless w as t heinsurrection that more people died in th e making of E i senste in ' ss i l en t f i lm about it than died in t h e r ea l thing!

A moderate s oc ia li st c al le d M ar to v, who opposed th einsurrect ion, wrote at th e time:

'Understand, please, what we have before us after al l is a victorious

uprising of the proletariat - almostthe entire proletariat supportsLenin an d expects it s social liberation from th e uprising.'

Th e Bolshevik Par ty in July 1917 ha d 176,000 members. Whenyou think that there were just three mill ion workers in th e townsyou ca n imagine the enormous support it had. In Britain, it wouldadd up to a party of 2 1/ 2 mill ion members! A n d t he se w er en 't t h epassive card-holders you get in t he LabourPar ty.They were act iveparty workers. By th e time th e Bolsheviks came to form th e firstSoviet government, something like o ne w or ke r i n every ten wa s amember o f t he Bolshevik Party.

The October revolut ion could no t have happened wi thout thecoming togetherof th e revolution in thetowns a n d t h e revolution inth e countryside. Without th e industrial power of th e workers, th e

peasant r evo l t wou ld have become just one more uncoordinatedfailure. Without the support of th e millions of peas ants in the army,the workers would have beencrushed, as they were in 1905, bysheerforce of numbers an d mili tary strength.

Though they d id un it e , th e workers a n d p e as a nt s s h ar e d nolong-term identity of interests. W h at u ni te d t he m w as th e allianceof their enemies - th e big industrialists an d t heg rea t land-owners- against them.

When the workers rose in insurrect ion in October they ha d th esympathy of the peasan t s and t hea rmy, made up a s i t wa s mainly

HOW THE REVOLUTION WASLOST

of peasant recruits. Th e revolution was init iated, led an d completedby the organ ised work ing class, d r aw i ng i n behind it t h e p e a sa n tmasses. Because th e workers' insurrection allowed them to seizean d hold th e l an d, t he peasants accepted t he n ew Soviet power.And, by accepting th e rule of th e Soviets, th e peasants accepted th emajority par ty of the Soviets, th e Bolsheviks, an d it s r ight to be theparty of government.

In th e first months of Soviet Russia, th e peasants continued toaccept t he l eade rsh ip of th e workers, an d th e workers' party, theBolsheviks. After all, th e l and wasbe ing divided up betweenthem.Thei r hopes were being fulfilled. B ut w h at would h ap pe n i f th einterests o f t h e workers an d the peasants came in to conflict? Thisw as t he quest ion which would haunt th e revolution.

SO TH E WORKERS held power. Thedream of generat ions of socialistsha d come true. The working people ha d overthrown th e old rulingclass an d he ld power through their ow n workers' governments, th eSoviets.

John Reed ha s described th e feelings of t he Russian workers:

'Across th e horizon spread th e g li tt er in g l ig ht s o f t he capital,immeasurably more sp lend id by night than by day, like a dyke ofjewels on th e barren plain. Th e old workman who drove he ld th ewheel in one hand, whil e wi th t he o the r he swept th e far-gleamingcapi t al wi th an exultant gesture."Mine!" he cried, hi s face a l igh t, "All mine now! My Petrograd!".'

Well might they celebrate t hei r new power. From the offices ofth e Bolsheviks who formed t he f ir st Soviet government poured

decree after decree. T he y a nn o un ce d workers' control of thefactories, t he y a bo li sh ed t h e death p en al ty, t he y a nn ou nc ed t hes ep ar at io n o f state an d educat ion f rom th e church, an d theyannounced full freedom of religion - end ing the anti-semitic terrorwhich ha d ruled Russia for hundreds of years. They embarked on agreat expe r iment in education, e nd in g t he d ic ta to rs hi p o f t heteacher. They launched a m a ss c a mp a ig n to t each reading an dwriting to th e millions of i l l iterate people i n R us si a. T h ey s we ptaway th e degrading legislation which ha d crushed women forcenturies. Marriages could be dissolved by eitherpartner. Children

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b or n o ut of wedlock were g iven equa l rights with theichildren ofmarri ed pa ren ts . They announced th e provision of free abortion ondemand.

Andto spell out that these weren' t jus t the empty promises or aself-seeking elite, they announced that government officialswouldbe paid th e average wage ofa skilled industrial worker. Hopewas'i!{th e air. The freedom they ha d wo n almost i n t o x i c a t ~ d -th eBolsheviks . How else ca n we explain the ir na ive ty in releasingGeneral Kaledin, later to become th e leader of th e White Armieswho fought against them, solely on th e promise that he would no tfight against them?

But p eo pl e do n ot , unfortunately, make history in circumstances of their own choosing.

Th e Russia now ruled by th e Soviet government was a grimplace. Sha tt e red by theravages ofthe First WorldWar, its railways,communications an d industry dislocated, Russ ia was n o t t h e kindof place in which past socialists ha d expected th e workers to seizepower. Until t hen , a ll soc ial i st s ha d expected that workers wouldfirst take over in th e wealthyadvanced countries of western Europeand nor th America. The material basis of socialism would be highproductivity, sophisticated technology an d a high level of human

skill.Tr a vel t he n in e -t en t hs of R ussia sti ll shroud ed in

b ac kw ar dn es s a n d ignorance in 1917, an d you would havecompared it to Europe in the Middle Ages rather than to anadvanced capitalist nation. As early as t h e s um m er of 1918 th esituation in which th e Bolsheviks sought to create their ne w worldw as a lr ea dy despe ra te . There wa s cholera i n t he c ap it al city,Petrograd. Famine stalked the country. Opponents of th e workers'state resorted to assassination, th e Bolshevik leader Lenin beings ho t a n d seriously injured.

Th e Bolsheviks looked beyond th e frontiers of their devastatedcountry for help. Th e only wa y a socialist republic could survive inRussia, where th e workingclass wa s a minority of just three million

out of 160 mil lions , would be w i th t he a id o f other, more developedsocialis t s tates, they said. Workers' republics in great, industrialnations like Germany a nd F ran ce could send tractors an dmachinery to improve th e lot of the peasan t s, so winning the irloyalty to Soviet Russia. They could help Russia industrial iserapidly an d d ra g h er b y t h e bootstraps into the twentieth century.The alternative would be even deeper crisis, worse shortages, an dultimately th e en d of th e peasants ' support for th e Soviet state. Th eBolsheviks ha d no doubt that i thad tobe international soc ia l i smor destruction.

HOW THE REVOLUTIONWAS LOST

Lenin returned to this quest ion time an d t ime again :

'We ar e l i ving no ton ly in a state, bu t in a system of states, an d i t i sinconceivable for th e Soviet R ep ub li c to e xi st a lo ng si de t heimperialist states for a ny l en gt h o f time. One or th e other musttriumph in th e end.'

And:

'We have a lways s taked our play upon an international revolutiona n d t h i s w a s unconditionally right. We havea lways emphasised ...

, t he f ac t that in one country it is impossible to accomplish such awork as a socialist revolution.'

An d again, in March 1919:

'The absolute t ruth is that without a revolution in Germany weshall perish.'

Nor w a s t h is t h e d re am in g of a few idealists. In those days thewhole world seemed to be in the rap ids of revolution. In Germanya nd A us tr ia t he m on ar ch y collapsed an d workers', sailors: an dsoldiers' councils were set up. In H u ng a ry a n d B av a ri a, F i nl a ndan d Latvia, Soviet governments briefly came to power. In I t a ly thefactories were occupied. The Turkish Sultan was overthrown. Th eBritish A rm y w as fought to a standstill by t he I ri sh nationalliberation movement. Even i n B r it a in i tself terror gripped th e rulin g class and gunboa t s were anchored on the Mersey a n d t h e Clyde.

Millions of workers in every country of th e world were inspiredby th e courage an d vision of th e Bolsheviks. They seemed tooffer analternative to th e horrors of war, unemployment an d poverty.Harry Pollitt, later to become a l ead ing member of t he Bri t ishCommunis t Par ty, ha s written about what it wa s li ke to livethrough th e grea tdays when workers throughout the world ralliedto th e cause of socialist Russia:

'I n November 1917, w h en n ew s of th e Russian Revolution camethrough, it sent a thrill of excitement through every revolutionaryworker. Bu t information other than th e distorted news thatappeared in th e press was hard to g et . I pounced on everything thatdealt with th e Russian Revolution, an d th e knowledge that workersl ike me an d all those around me ha d won power, ha d defeated theboss c la ss , kept me in a growing state of enthusiasm.'

I n t he event, th e Communist Left were too weak or too poorlyorganised to seize their chance. T h e g a p left by th e Conservativesan d other rul ing class part i es was filled by th e l ikes of the LabourParty and thei rEuropean coun terpar t s and the sell-out trade union

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leaders. Like many Labour leaders today, they talked socialist bu twhen it came down to i t, they preferred what they ha d to thegrea tgamble of revolution. In some countr ies , l ike Germany, they evenwent so f ar a s to have their left-wing opponents murdered.

Capitalism gained a breathing space, bu t it w as b y no meanso ut o f d an g er. T h e n ew C o mm u ni st Parties m i gh t n o t be ready totake power bu t they were r apid ly growing in s tr en g th . T h e n ewCommunist International, unit ing th e Communist Parties

ofth e

world, soon commanded the support of hundreds of thousands, evenmillions of workers.

Th e Bolsheviks c ou ld n ot , h ow ev er , wait for t he E ur o pe anworkers to take power. Defence o f t h e revolution at home an d itsextension abroad became inseparable. W ha t t he Bolsheviks didnext wa s d ict a ted by the in terna tional cap it a l is t powers. Sixteenforeign armies, i n cl u di ng t h e British an d Americans , invadedRussia an d equipped th e White Armies of th e deposed ruling class.The cap it a li s t coun t ri es , an d no t th e Russian people, b e ga n t h ebloody civil wa r which followed. Before the Bolsheviks could eventhink of implementing their policies they ha d first to drive back th eWhite an d foreign armies. Every effort wa s thrown into th e defenceof t he Soviet Republic. The economy o f t h e country wa s geared toth e needs of t he a rm ie s of t h e w or ke rs ' republic. This strict,militarised system of sacrifice an d rat ioning th e Bolsheviks called'War Communism'.

THE BOLSHEVIKS WONth e Civil

War.Trotsky w as t he Bolshevikleader entrusted w it h t he task of creating a new revolutionary

army, th e Re d Army. When th e forces of th e workers' republic wereeverywhere on th e r et re at , h e an d many of th e most devotedBolsheviks arr ived at th e front to rally them. Th e ideal which ha dspurred th e workers to r evo lut ion car r ied them to victory on th ebattlefield. Trotsky travelled t he l e ng t h a n d b r ea d th ofRuss ia in aspecial armoured train, urging th e Red Army to ever greater feats ofheroism an d courage. Eventually, underhis leadership th e forces ofth e counter-revolution were driven back an d defeated.

Bu t th e price pa id in lives an d in material terms was appalling.Th e already shattered economy wa s delivered blow after crushingblow. By Ma y 1919 Russianindustry was reduced to10 percentof i tsnormal fuel supply. Production of all manufactured goods ha dfallen to 13 pe r cent o f th e alreadymiserable 1913 level. In a countryw heremotor t ransport wa s hardly known, 79 percent ofthe rai lwaylines were o u t o f action. Such simple things as thread, matches an dparaffin ha d disappeared from th e shops . Tro tsky even reportedoccurrences of cannibalism i n s om e provinces!

T h e n u m be r of workers i n t he towns fell from three million tojust 1% million. Historian E H Carr wrote tha t there ha d been a'mass flight ofindustrial workers from th e towns an d reversion toth e s ta tus and occupation of peasants.' Fo r to stay wa s to starve. By1921, Petrograd, the hear t of th e revolution, ha d lost57.5 per cent ofi t s to ta l population, an d Moscow 44.5 pe r cent. Th e working classwhich led t h e r ev ol ut io n ha d m a de t re me nd o us sacrifices.Thousands of t he best members o f th e Bolshevik Party perished onth e battlefield.

Th e working c las s which m ad e t he October Revolution ha dbeen decimated.

I t wa s no longer th e living core of Soviet power. Desperate tostay alive in th e famine-ridden cities of th e CivilWar, workers soldwhat they ha d for food. S o me e ve n stole machinery from theirworkplaces to barter. Th e black market ruled their l ives. A bitterindividual struggle for existence replaced th e collective democracyof th e revolutionary days of 1917.

Every gain of th e revolution wa s imperilled by th e sheer

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scarci ty of resources. When th e workshops are half empty an d youdon't know where th e next supply of iron will come from, workers'power ca n beno more than a slogan. Th e few workers who remainedin the cold, dese r t ed facto ri e s no longer ha d th e confidence oroptimism of 1917. They couldn' t feel t he ir s tr en gt h; o nl y t he ir.weakness. Th e Bolsheviks ha d to appoint managers to ge t an yproduction at all.

When a woman doesn 't know where t h e n ex t meal is comingfrom s he d oe sn 't d ar e t ak e advantage of the l ibe rat ing legislationan d end the mar ri ageshe hates so much. At least herhusband ma yfind something for th e kids to eat.

When revolutionary workers are being massacred (in Finlandalone, in April 1918, more than te n thousand workers died at th ehands of counter-revolutionaries), you can' t afford th e luxury ofabolishing the death penalty for their murderers.

Th e decrees of the first, hopeful days would remain mere piecesof paper if th e revolution didn't spread abroad. Tragically, it didn't.The ' t empora ry' measures forced on th e Bolsheviks began to lookdisturbingly permanent .

Th e question facing the Bolsheviks wa s this. I f th e class whichm ad e t he revolution ha d effectively ceased to exist, how could aworking-class party continue to rule'? They certainlycouldn' t handover power to the White armies. Hadn't revolutionary workers beentortured an d killed when captured'? In some parts o f R us si a t heBolsheviks ' enemiesreverted to feudal barbarism. They would f ix akind of leather tourniquet round their victims' head and tu rn it untilthe skul l bu rs t .

As Trotsky once said, if th e Bolsheviks ha d surrendered controlof Russ i a , f a sc i sm would be a Russian an d not an I tal ian word.Workers' Russia ha d survi ved, bu t in a drastically altered form. Th eSoviets, the democratic workers' councils, could mean no th ing independently o f t he worke rs who elected them. I f a major ity o f theworkers were Mensheviks, moderate socialists, th e Soviets would beMenshevik. I f t he major i ty were Bolsheviks, th e Soviets would be

Bolshevik.The Bolsheviks di d have that majority in: th e Soviets. They

exercised control by proving, week in, week out , that t he y b es trepresented the interests of Russia's working people. Otherpart ies( ' I \ l npeted with th e Bolsheviks in the Soviets. The Menshev iksl


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Th e single-party state wa s no t born ou t of individu'al lust for Ipower. As we have seen, every retreat, every concession wa s forcedby the pressure of events an d was intended to be purely temporary.,.Th e erosion of democracy wa s th e direct result of t he ho locaus to fwar, responsibility for which must be laid at th e doorofthe Western.'capitalist powers. They ha d been unable to c rush the workers' statefrom outside, bu t they ha d no w created th e conditions for de'(;ayfrom within.

TH E END OF THE Civil War gave no respite to th e Bolsheviks. Th ealmost uninterrupted cycle of war, revolut ion, a n d a g ai n more wa rha d exhausted a country already so backward that it oftenresembled 18th centu ry F r an c e r a th e r than advanced twentiethcentury society.

Once t he immedia te threat of counter-revolution ha d beenbeaten back, the potential conflict between th e two classes whichmade the revolution - th e workers an d th e peasants - erupted. Thep ea sa nt s h ad wanted one t hi ng a nd one thing only from th erevolution - land. Now that th e White Armies were driven fromRussia, there was no chance of a restorat ion ofthe landowners. Thepeasants were confident that their land wa s safe. Theall iance withthe workers wa s over. Theirinterests no w stretched no further thantheir own little piece of property. Many peasan t s saw a new enemy:the Bolshevik regime, wi th i t sdemands for th e g r ai n a n d t he t axesit needed to ensure the su rv iva l of th e cities. When th e Bolshevikschanged thei r name to t he Communist Party of th e Soviet Union,many peasants summed up their feel ings l ike this:

'The Bolsheviks were OK. They gave us l an d. B ut t he se Commu- 'nists ... they take everything from th e countryside an d give it to th etowns.'

This new opposi t ion to th e Bolsheviks came to a head with th eKroristadt mutiny of 1921. T he K r on st a dt fortress g ua rd ed t h eapproaches to Petrograd. In October 1917 the Kronstadtsai lors ha dbeen at the very storm centre of the revolution. Many Bolshevikswere horrified when t he y h ea rd t he news that th e sailors ha d nowrisen in revolt. If Kronstadt is no t ours then we are surely doomed!

HOWTIIE REVOLUTION WAS LOST

Bu t Kronstad t in 1921 w a s n o t th e Kronstadt of th e revolution.Many of i t s best f igh te r s ha d gone to fight in th e army in the frontline. Many ha d died in th e defence o f t h e revolution. In their placeha d come peasant recruits, their loya l ty only ensured by fear of a 15return to th e landlords. The Kronstadt upri s ing was a reflection ofth e peasants ' break with th e socia li s t a ims of th e Bolsheviks.Consider their demands: Soviets without Bolsheviks an d a freemarket in agriculture. To accept t hedemands ofKronstadt would beto surrender th e socialist revolution.

VictorSerge, an anarchist who ha d comeover to th e Bolsheviksa ft er t he October Revo lut ion , ha d great sympathy with th eKronstadt sailors an d wa s ve ry c r i ti c a l of the ruthlessness withwhich they were pu t down. But, in th e end, he knew that th eBolsheviks were right . Socialist Russi a was in peril. There were atthe time no fewer than fifty outbreaks of peasant insurrection. Hewrote:

'After many hesitations, an d w it h u nu tt er ab le a ng u is h, myCommunist fr iends an d I finally d ~ c l a r e dourselves on th e side ofth e Party ... The country was absolutelyexhausted, and productionpractically at a standst i l l: there were no reserves of an y kind, noteven

reserves of stamina in th e hearts of t he masses . Thework ingclass elite that ha d been moulded in th e struggle a g ai n st t h e oldregimes wa s literally decimated.' The Par ty, swollen b y t he in flux of power-seekers, inspired littleconfidence. O f t h e o th er parties, only minute nuclei existed, whosec ha ra ct er w as h ig hl y questionable. It s ee me d c l ea r that thesegroupings could come back to l ife in a matter of weeks, bu ton lybyincorporating embittered, m a lc on te nt ed a n d i nf la m m at or yelements in their thousands, no longer, a s i n 1917, enthusiasts forth e young r ev ol ut io n. S ov ie t d em oc ra cy l ac ke d leadership,institutions an d inspiration; at i t s back there were on ly masses ofs ta rving and desperate men.'The popular counter-revolution t ranslated t he demand for freelyelected Soviets into on e for "Soviets without Communists". I f theBolshevik dictatorship fell, it w a s o nl y a short step to chaos, an dthrough chaos to a peasant uprising, the massac re of th e Communists, t he re tu rn of the emigres, an d in th e end, t h rough the shee rforce of events, another dictatorship, this time anti-proletarian.'

Th e Bolsheviks could no t re linqu i sh state power. To do sowould, as S erge s ay s, open th e wa y to full-blooded counterrevolution. No r could t hey cont inue the auste ri ty pol ic ies of 'W HrCommunism', whose harshness ha d driven the peasan t s to revolt.I t was t ime to change course. As Lenin said: 'The Kronstadtevents

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were l ik e a flash of lightning w hi ch t hr ew m or e of a ~ l a r euponreality than anything else.'

Th e Bolsheviks decided to call a temporary re t rea t in order tosave workers' Russia from certain death. This re t rea t they calledth e New Economic Policy, o r NEP, which a imed to reconcile th epeasants by making concessions, while at thesame t ime maintainin g a s t rong, cent ral i sed socia li s t state apparatus. Th e NewEconomic Policy ca n be summed up as follows:

Reintroduction of private trade.A tax on grain in place of th e hated requisitioning.Small scale capitalist manufacture.Acceptance of the principle of profitability in t he s t at e sector.Strict financial orthodoxy.

Th e NE P wa s a desperate gamble indeed. Every Bolshevikleader knew it meant reviving parts of th e old capitalist economy,an d in tu rn remnants of the old classes. A nagging doubt occurredto many devoted party members; what is left of oursocialist Russia?Th e workers did not exercise power in an y meaningful sense. Howcould they, when mos t of them were out of work? Th e economy wa snot planned. Howcould i t be when there wa s anarchy everywhere?

Victor Serge explains what Russ ia was like t he n i n h is book,'Memoirs of a Revolutionary':

'And no w th e ci ties we ruled over assumed a foreign aspect : we feltourselves sinking into th e mire - paralysed, corrupted ... Moneylubricated th e entire machine as under capitalism. A million an d ahalf unemployed received relief - inadequate relief - in th e bi gtowns ... Classes were reborn under our ve ry eyes; at th e bottom ofthe scale, th e unemployed receiving 24 roubles a month; a t th e top,t he enginee r [ the expert, no t th e shopfloor worker] receiving 800,an d between th e two, the par ty functionary with 222, butobtaininga g oo d m a n y t h in g s f re e of charge. There was a growing chasmbetween th e prosperity of th e few an d t he mise ry o f t he m a ny.'

Thedreams of October,of equality, workers' control, a classlesssociety, were drowning in a sea of poverty an d isolation imposed bya hosti le, capitalist world. Only th e state, s taffed by Communists,seemed to ensure th e socialist aims of th e besieged revolution.

Yet even that is a hopelessly optimistic account of events. Bythe end of1920, there werea staggering 5,880,000 state officials; fivetimes a s m an y a s t he number of industrial workers! A nd a s i f tha tw as n ot gloomy enough, of t hose mi ll ions on ly a minority wereBolsheviks. Of th e rest , few could be re lied upon to remain faithfulto th e revolution. Th e par ty had been forced to employ thousands of

HOWTHE REVOLUTIONWASLOST

,J

1}

members of th e old Tsarist bureaucracy in order to maintain a functioning government administrat ion. Lenin sa w the dangers ofthiswhen he spoke a t th e 1922 Party Congress:

'What we lack is c le ar eno ugh. Th e r ul in g stratum of th e 17Communists is lacking in culture. Let us look at Moscow. Thismassof bureaucrats - wh o is leading whom? Th e 4,700 responsiblecommunists in th e mass of bureaucrats, or th e o the r way round? I

do no t believe you ca n honestly s a y t h e communists ar e leading th emass. To pu t it honestly, they a re n ot th e leaders, b u t t he led.'

T h e s t at e apparatus wa s 'borrowed from Ts ar is m a n d h a rd l ytouched b y t h e Soviet world . .. a bourgeois an d Tsarist mechanism'.Th e state wa s 'a workers' state with bureaucrat ic distort ions. '

An d if th e Bolsheviks were being led by the remnants of th e oldsociety, there ca n be no doubt in which direction. We have heardho w th e whole d i rty mess of class society ha d begun to revive. Therepresentatives of th e rich peasants, th e small capitalists, th ebureaucrats , al l began to influence th e communists.

Th e revolutionary social ist party could no t remain .immunefrom such immense social pressures. Th e party i tselfwas deteriorating. I f Russia had disintegrated 'from th e Commune state of 1917to t he p a rt y dictatorship of late 1918' (a slide which accelerateddramatically after 1918) t he n t he party too was changing from ademocratic workers' organisation to a bureaucratic monster. Nowthat they were in power, th e Communists attracted all sorts ofpeople who would have gladly seenthem dead before th e revolution.

The repor t of t h e E i gh t h Party Congress of March 1919 said:

' E lement s which a re no t suff ic i en t ly communis t, or even direct lyparasi t ic, are flowing into th e p a rt y i n a broadstream.The RussianCommunist Party is in power an d this inevitably attracts to it,together with th e better elements, careerist elements as well.'

In 1922 Lenin admitted that: 'We have a bureaucracy no t onlyin th e Soviet institutions bu t in th e institutions of th e party. ' The

Party Congress demanded: 'a serious purge ... in Soviet a n d P a r tyinstitutions.' Th e word 'purge' ha d none of the sinister overtones itwa s later to acquire. It meant par t ing companywith th e careeristsan d freeloaders whose expulsion Lenin repeatedly demanded. Butstill they flooded into th e party. Membership grew from 200,000 inearly 1918 to 650,000 in October 1921. Nine-tenths ofparty membersha d no t held p a rt y c ar d s i n October 1917.

The Bolshevik Party wa s born, developed, grew strong an dcame to power as a party of workers , s teeled in workers' struggles,f i red by th e workers' hopes. But now that th e best members o f t h e

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working class ha d died on th e battlefield or been drawn into th estate apparatus, no w that th e workers in th e factories weredemoralised an d weak, th e party was gradually transformed into abureaucratic organisation.

When th e party 's ranks were filled by workers wh o ha d fought i.-for Bolshevik policies i n t he two revolut ions of 1917, it wa s hardto:imagine the party departing from i ts social ist aims. In 1919, theseparty stalwarts made up onein t enof the party's members. By 1922,they were only one in forty. Now, Communist workers with a totaldevotion to th e cause of social ist revolution rubbed shoulders withpeople of ve ry dubious po li t ic a l o r ig in.

Th e party wa s bloated. I t w a s l ef t to th e leading Bolsheviks,with their unshakeable revolutionary commitment, to hold it oncourse. As Lenin wrote:

'I t must be recognised that t he p ar ty 's proletarian p ol ic y isdetermined at p re se nt n o t b y i ts r an k a nd file, bu t by th e immensean d undivided authority ofthetiny sections that might be called th eparty's "Old Guard" .'

Th e old Bolsheviks ha d to protect th e par tyaga ins t people whomore an d more came to regard it a s p a r t a n d parcel of their careers.

They couldn' t appeal to th e dispirited working class. The only wayw as b y exerting an iron discipl ine over party members. This mostdemocratic of part ies no w ' temporarily' banned in terna l factions.No minority voices of opposition could be expressed in case theyp la yed i nt o t he hands of anti-social is t forces. The Bolshevikleadership alone guaranteed social ist policy.

A minor ity o f a minority n ow r ul ed Russ ia . The Bolsheviksmaintained a dictatorship over th e people. Th e Bolshevik leadership maintained a dictatorship over th e p ar ty r an k a nd file. Howdi ff e ren t f rom t he d em oc ra ti c t ra di ti o ns o f t h e p ar ty. L en in ha dhimself been in a minority in th e p a rt y m a n y times. In April 1917for example, h e h a d h a d to organise a platformin opposition to mostof th e Bolshevik Cent ral Commit t ee to argue for immediate

socialist revolution. Later that y ea r, t wo party leaders Kamenevan d Zinoviev, ha d publicly argued aga inst the decision to stage th einsurrection. They were s t il l a l lowed to hold party office.

As late as 1921, at th e conclusion of th e Civil War, t h e p a rt yprinted 250,000 copies ofthe ProgrammeoftheWorkers ' Oppositionan d two m em be rs o f t he opposition w er e e le ct ed to th e CentralCommittee. No capi t al i st gove rnment ha s ever allowed suchfreedom of discussion in wartime.

By 1922, these traditions were dead or dying. Not, a s m an y oft he ' expe rt s ' would have us bel ieve , because of something fun-


damental lywrong with socialism, or th e ' total i tarian ' nature of th eBolsheviks, b ut b ec au se th e i so la ti on o f th e revolution ha ddestroyed them.

H ow d ee p th e ro t ha d g one w as n ot fully realised until th eeconomy began to recover afterthe Civil War. I t wa s to be expectedthat wages would slowly begin to rise an d that th e workers' movement would recover it s pre-war s t reng th and confidence. Fa r fromit. Because o f t h e m ea su re s o f t h e N ew Economic Policy, th e newmoney made available went mainly to the peasantry. Everyonebutth e workers seemed to benefit. In trying to bu y off th e peasants 'discontent, th e Bolsheviks failed to improve the lot ofthe onlyclasson w ho m t h ey could depend to support the ir socia li s t a ims , th eworkers.

An d th e workers didn' t jus t lose o ut i n c om pa ri so n w it h t hepeasantry. In 1922 workers ha d made up 65 per cent of them a na g em e nt s t af f o f i ndu str y, so ensuring some e le me nt o fworke rs ' cont rol su rv ived . By 1923 th e figure ha d fallen to 36 percent. A new privi leged group emerged: th e 'red industrialists'. Theybenefit ted from high salaries, they could hire an d fire at will.

LITTLE WONDER that when divisions developed i n t h e p a r t y over th edirection th e revolution was taking, th e workers took li t t le interest.

Th e Bolshevik P arty h ad held Russian society togetherth rough the chaos of Civil War, counter-revolut ion an d famine, bu tin victory it found i t se l f trying to k ee p p ea ce b et we en th e contending social forces which emerged during th e New EconomicPolicy. It tried to balance between th e workers an d t he peasan ts ,between th e peasant s and the new private capitalis ts or 'NEPmen' .I t could no t do this without responding to th e pressures o f thesedifferent classes.

Th e danger wa s that th e small trader, th e rich peasant, th e factory manager would al l arrive at th e office o f t he C om mu ni stofficial to press their case. Bu t what of the shopfloor workers? Theycould exert l i t tl e p res sure . T h e C om m un is ts found themselvestrying to defend the interests of workers theyrarely met, an d whosecond i tions they no longer shared, against people who were everpresent wi th thei r demands, thei r pe rsuas ion . The s i tua tion of the

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Communist official in fact resembled that of today's full-time tradeunion official. Without c o ns t an t r a n k a n d file control, they beganmore an d more to adapt to th e representatives of alien social forces.

The c las s s t ruggle which wa s taking place in Russian societyincreasingly reflected i t se l f wi thin th e party. Un t il t he d e at h ofLenin in 1924, th e conflict remained benea th the surface. After hi sdeath open war fa re was to break ou t wi thin th e party. I n t he l as tyears of hi s life, Lenin continually warned of th e threat of bureaucracy, ' that same Russian apparatus which we to ok o ve r f ro mTsari sm and slightly annointed with Soviet oil.' Hi s last desperatebattle in the party wa s over th e Workers' a nd P ea sa nt s'Inspectorate, a body se t up to combat just that terrible e vi l ofb ur ea uc ra ti sm . T he u rg en cy w it h w hi ch L en in c on du ct ed h iscampaign aga inst the bureaucrats confirms th e seriousness of th eth rea t they posed.

Th e job ofthe Workers' and Peasan t s' Inspectorate was to 'fightencroaching bureaucratism, careerism, th e abuse of the irpa r ty andsoviet positions by party members, th e violation of comradelyrelations within th e party, the spread of unfounded an d unv.erifiedrumours an d insinuations, wh ich d isc redi t t he p ar ty or it s individual members, an d o the r such repor ts that damage the par ty ' sunity an d authority.'

In t he l igh t of what we have said, this wa s a vital organisation.But th e Inspectorate i tself was a l ready a tool of th e growing partybureaucracy. I t s head wa s a leader of second rank in th e revolution,Stalin. As Isaac Duetscher later pu t it, S t al in t r an sf or m ed t h eInspectorate into 'his private police within th e government.'

In h is f in al d ay s, Lenin a t ta c ke d t h e Inspectorate for it s'ridiculous swank ... w hi ch p la ys e nt ir el y i nt o th e h an ds o f oursoviet an d party bureaucracy.' In the end, in one last desperateattempt to reverse th e t rend towards bureaucracy, Lenin called forthe removal of S t al i n a s Secretary-General of th e party. It wa s toolate. Stalin wa s too deeply entrenched. He wa s the par ty machine'sman, th e real beneficiary of t he i nn er p ar ty struggle which tookplace a f te r Lenin 's death .

Three majo r trends developed in th e contest for control of th eCommunist Party.

T he L ef t Opposit ion, grouped around Trotsky, th e organiser ofth e Octoberinsurrection an d leader of th e Red Army, embodied th etradition of revolutionary socialism. Th e start ing point of it sa rgu m en t w a s that you can' t have socialism without workers 'democracy. The Left Opposition sought to democratise th e party,curb th e growing bureaucracy an d implement a programme of

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industrialisation.Their ai m wa s to revive the working class a s t h e central social

an d political force an d recreate the bas is of real Soviet democracy.T h ey h a d no illusions t h at i t wa s poss ible to do this purely by aneffort of will. Soviet Russia jus td idn ' thave the resources to achievemore rapid industrialisation without demanding massive s a c r i f i G e ~from th e peasantry. The extension of th e revolution abroadremained, for th e Left Opposition, an absolute priority.

But if th e Left Opposition ha d th e advantage that theypossessed a clear,forceful policy rooted in th e Bolsheviktradition, italso possessed-one great disadvantage. I ts supporters were arguingon behalf of a working class so weakened that it could itself take nop ar t i n t he political debate. _

Th e other factions with which they ha d to compete, the 'Right'an d th e 'Centre', were more deeply entrenched i n t h e p a r ty bureaucracy. To functionaries more accustomed to rubbing shoulderswithother functionaries, th e conservative policies of the Right an d th eCentre seemed both more real is tic an d more attract ive.

Th e Right was made up of those who no t onlyfavoured th e presentconcessions to t he p e as a nt r y at th e expense of th e workers, bu twanted even more. They ha d come to reflect th e interests of th ewealthy peasants, known as Kulaks. So fa r ha d they moved fromtheir r evo lut iona ry socia li s t beginnings that their leader,Bukharin, called on the peasan t s to 'enrich yourselves'.

Th e Cent re , though few thought so at th e time, wa s th e mostimportant of a ll . This w a s t h e party bureaucracy, grouped aroundStalin, spokesman for that influential s ta te appara tus Lenin ha dfeared so much.

It wa s clear to most people w h at t h e Left a n d R i gh t stood for.On th e one hand, rebuilding th e workers' movement; on th e other,protecting the interests of t he p ea sa n tr y. B ut w h a t of th e Centre?Fo r a time it allied i ts el f w it h t he Right against Trotsky'ssupporters. Some thought that th e Right an d Centre together weremoving towards a restoration of the old capitalists. But the Centrewas increasingly developing distinctive ideas an d interests of itsown. The i n ne r p a rt y battles of th e twenties signalled more thanjust th e factional struggle of different wings of th e Bolshevik Party;they s aw t he development of th e bureaucracy as a cl as s.

Perhaps the most telling milestone i n t h e m a r ch of th e bureauc racy was the announcement of the doctrine of 'Socialism in On eCountry', a no tion which would have been rejected as absurd at

HOWTHE REVOLUTIONWASLOST

earlier Congresses of t he P a rt y. A g ai n st t he i n te r na t io n al i sm ofTrotsky a nd t he Left Opposit ion, once held by th e whole party,Stalin's g ro up n ow u ni te d around a philosophy o f u n as h am e dnationalism.

The Sta lin i st bureaucracy - th e centre - at f i rs t p l ayed off 23right against left. Bu t it quickly developed th e s tr e ng t h a n d independent will to challenge both. Even when Zinoviev, Kamenevand Lenin 's widow Krupskaya joinedTrotsky in united oppositionto Stalin, they were unable to s top h im. Whereas they representedt he d yi ng e mb er s of workers' power, Stalin embodied a real an dliving force, a f or ce which wa s growing stronger al l th e time.Agains t S ta lin ' s machine, th e opposition were l ike generals whot ak e t he field without an army.

Th e bureauc racy la id i t s c l aim to power when it launched awithering p r op a ga n da w a r on it s opponents immediately afterLenin 's death.

Lenin's funeral w a s t u rn ed i nt o an almost religious occasion,with Sta lin in ton ing a kind of hymn to th e dead man. AgainsteverythingLenin ha d said in hi s lifetime, a n d a g ai n st t h e wishes ofhi s widow, Krupskaya, t h e r ul i ng faction l aunched the cult of'Leninism'. They interred Lenin's mummified body in a hugemausoleum, elevating hi m to almost godlike status. His writingswere no longer a guide to ac tion, t e st ed day-to-day b y t he irrelevance to real struggles; they became a Holy Writ, to be r ead ou tin order to exorcise some heret ic or other i n t he party.

Th e first target wa s Trotsky an d th e Left Opposition,who weresubjected to a torrent of lies, abuse an d intimidation. They werehowled down at meetings, their protest demonstrations broken up.In th e demonology invented by Stalin 's supporters, th e g oo d of'Leninism' faced th e evil of 'Trotskyism'in a life or death struggle.

Th e years of cooperation between th e two leading figures of th erevolution were forgotten. Lenin's last statement referring toTrotsky as ' the most able member of the Cent ra l Committee' an drecommending th e removal of Sta l in was jgnored. Thepropagandamachine worked full-time discovering long-forgotten disagreements between th e two men, an d justifying th e expulsion an ddeportation of th e 'Trotskyists'. Theway was open to the nightmarewitch-hunts of th e thirties, w it h t he ir a bs ur d t al k of 'Trotskyfascism' a nd t he rest.

Ayear laterthe followers of Zinoviev an d Kamenev suffered th esame fate. Zinoviev, th e recognised leader of th e party, wa s forcedout of hi s post as h e ~ dof th e party in Leningrad. Stalin's opponentswere expelled an d deported, just as th e Tsa r h ad expelled hisopponents i n t he past . Anyone who resisted wa s imprisoned. A new

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atmosphere could be fe lt in thepar ty. Gone was the free d i s ~ u s s i o nof past year s . Now the chairperson would ask: 'Anyone disagree?'Nobody did.

24 Th e leaders of th e October Revolution were d ri ve n o u t an dreplaced with people who ha d come l a te r, func t iona ri e s whose i r-loyalty wa s to th e bureaucracy. Between 1923 an d 1929 the bureaucracy became aware that i t s in te res t s differed f rom those of th eworkers. In ousting th e Old Guard of th e revolution, th e bureaucracy wascrush ing the last of th e people wh o were keeping alive th etradition of workers' democracy. Sta lin ' s ' t heory ' o f 'Socialism inOne Country ' was no t just a different, morecautious road to th e goalof international socialism; it se t i t se l f a different goal.

1929WAS TH E year of reckoning. In response to grain strikes by richp ea s an ts , t h e S t al i ni s t bureaucracy no w made a sharp t ur n i npolicy. Every thing was to be s ac ri fi ce d to t he a im of competitionwith th e west. As Sta lin h imse l f said:

'To slacken th e pace would mean to l ag behind an d t hose who la gbehind ar e beaten. Wedo no t want to b e beaten. No, we don' t wantto. The histo ry of old Russia ... sh e was ceaselessly beaten for he rbackwardness ... by th e Monghol Khans ... bythe Turkish Beys byPolish-Lithuanian Panz ... by Angle-French capitalists byJapanese barons, shewas bea ten by a l l - for he r backwardness, form i li t ar y b ac k wa rd n es s, for i n du s tr i al b ac k wa r dn es s , foragricultural backwardness ... We ar e fifty or a h un dr ed y ea rsbehind the advanced countries. We must make good this la g in te nyears.'

In the countryside th e bureaucracy se t ou t to break th eeconomic power of th e peasantry. They se tabou t the ' liquidation ofth e Kulaks [rich peasants] as a class.'Armed detachments weresen t in to the villages to seize grain to feed the growing towns. Theyenforced state control, or 'collectivisation', of agriculture, breakingup th e peasants ' holdings. Th e peasants inevitably resisted an dwere suppressedwith unprecedented savagery. Literallymillions ofpeasants died, a nd t he y were by no means a ll members of th ewealthy Kulak class.

HOW THE REVOLUTIONWAS LOST

In th e towns, th e bureaucracy wa s determined to force down th estandard of l i ving of th e workers. Unti11929, th e workers hadhungon to some of t h e g a in s of October. Through a body known as th e' troika', t he t ra de u ni on s an d Communist workers influencedmanagement policy. Workersstill ha d th e right to strike an d wo n athird of strikes. Th e wage of a party official wa s still t h e s a me asthat of a s ki ll ed w or ke r. Th e state m i gh t h a ve sl ipped from th ehands of th e workers, bu t traces of workers ' power l ingered still.

At the end of 1928 th e powers ofthe troika werereduced. Strikeswere no longer permitted or even reported i n t h e press. From theendof 1930, workers couldn't even change jobs without permission.

In the programme of th e LeftOpposition, industrialisation ha dmeant reviving worke rs ' power and the Soviets. Trotsky ha dspoken of a 20 percen t ra te of growth. No w Stalin drove it up to 40pe r cent. An d nowhere was there an y mention of greater democracyor of internationalism. In th e hands of the S ta l in i s t bureaucracy,th e policy of industrialisation meant subordinating everything tothe na t iona l in te rest s of th e Russian state.

What S ta l in an d th e bureaucracy ha d achieved wa s no palacecoup, no minor change at th e top. Th e virtual destruction of th eworking c la ss b y a decade of war, counter-revolution, siege an d

starvation ha d left them in control of th e state. They successfullyc rushed a l l oppos it ion , whether from th e peasants or from th epeople in th e party still faithful to the ideals of October. Th e bureacracy was th e new ruling class. From 1929 onwards, th e bureaucracy tu rned every gain of th e revolution on it s head. As IsaacDeutscher h as p ut it:

'I n 1929, five y ea rs a ft er L e ni n' s d ea th , Soviet Russia embarkedupon he r second revolution, w hi ch w as directed solely an d exclusively by Stalin.'

Stalin's supporters were in control of industry, th e civilservice,th e police an d the a rmy. They faced no significant opposition. Theycontrolled th e state. They didn' t have to seize political power. I t wa salready theirs. They ha d purged their opponents within th e party,they ha d destroyed th e last vestiges of workers ' democracy, theyha d broken th e power of the peasantry. They were th e only power inRussia.

I t wa s full-blooded counter-revolution. Wages between th eyears 1930 an d 1937 were c ut b y half. Wage differentials were increased. Abortion an d divorce reforms were withdrawn. Educationwa s forced backinto its authori tarian strait jacket . Revolutionariesabroad w er e f or ce d to f ol lo w suicidal strategies decided by theRussian s tate , cu lminat ing t ragical ly in th e victory of Nazism in

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Germany. The Communist International wa s no longer a weaponin th e struggle for international socialist revolution; it wa s a toolofRussian foreign policy.

Most tragic of all, Stalin converted Russia into one hugelabourcamp. He ha d turned th e revolution inside out. In 1928, even after adecade of wars, there were only 30,000 political prisoners in Russ iaan d the number was falling. They were not ill-treated an d could not 'be used for forced labour. By 1931, two million people were in th e

camps. By 1933, th e figure wa s five million. By 1942a staggering 15million. An d these w ere in no wa y counter-revolutionaries. Theywere workers, peasants, teachers, people who ha d believed in th erevolution.

In 1935-7 a mass s laugh ter th rough a series of grotesque showtrials destroyed what wa s left of the Bolshevik 'Old Guard' whichled th e revolution. Th e Moscow Trials were th e victory of th ebureaucracy in their Civil Wa r aga inst the masses. Theywitnessedth e f ina l f reeing of th e bureaucracy from an y fo rm of popularcontrol. Krushchev later described what happened to th e delegatesto th e 17th Party Congress of 1934:

'O f th e 1,966 delegates, 1,108 were arrested . .. of th e 139 membersan d candidates of th e party's Central Committee a t th e Congress,98, that is 70 per cent, were arrested an d shot.'

Anyone who ha d joined t he p a rt y i n t he great yea rs - 80 percent of th e delegates to th e 17thCongress ha d beenmembers in 1921- wa s liquidated an d replaced by new personne l who h ad n ot t heslightest links with th e workers' movement. Sta lin i st Russ ia wasth e absolute opposite of the Soviet Republic. Lenin ha d spoken ofthe withering away of th e state:

'We shall see th e progressive withering away of th e state, an d th eSoviet state will no t be like th e others bu t a vast workers' commune.'

Now listen to Stalin's grotesque distortion of these words:

'We a dv an ce t ow ar ds t he abolition of t he s ta te by l:vay of

strengthening the state. '

An d strengthen it he did, making it entirely independent of an ydemocratic pressure. Th e Soviets didn't meet at al l during theyears1931-5, th e per iod of the greatest t r ans formation of Russia. Th eFirst Five Year P l an , t he years which sa w th e achievement of th ecounter-revolution, took place without even consult ing the 'highestauthority' i n t he country, th e Supreme Soviet!

A 'cult of th e personality' w a s i n ve nt ed a ro u nd t he f igure ofStalin. He became th e 'beloved leader', th e 'wisest an d greatest of all


t,'"

ages', ' ra d ia n t a s th e sun'. Society again resolved itself into th eages-old tyranny of classes, with th e 'GreatMan' at th e top, then th eGenerals, Ministers, an d Civil Servants, and, at th e very bottom,the working people who create th e wealth such parasites live off sowell.

Equality became a dirty word. T hi s w as w ha t one Russianforeign minister, Molotov, ha d to sa y of it:

'Bolshevik policy demands a resolute struggle against egalitariansas accomplices of th e classenemy, as elements hostile to socialism.'

One of th e ideals which ha d fired th e October Revolution wa snow a counter-revolutionary crime!

Th e very wordsocialism w a s t a i nt e d a n d corrupted by th e newTsar S ta li n a nd h is murderous system.

THE NEW RULING CLASS

27


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28

/....

BETWEENTHE SOCIAUSTstateof Russia in 1917 an d the bureaucraticmonolith of today there exists a vast chasm. A monstrous transformation ha s taken place. From in ternational socialist revolutionto nationalism. From th e workers' democracy of th e Soviets to th edictatorship of th e party apparatus. From full d eb at e a n d t he freeacceptance of disc ipl ine in t he p ar ty to unthink ing , pass iveobedience before faceless bureaucrats . From an inspiration to acruel mockery of our hopes.

Competition with th e West replaced internationalism. I f th eWest had tanks then Russia mus thave tanks, ifi t ha d bombs, thenso must Russia. I f th e United States ha d to crush Vietnam, an dBritain Ireland, then Russia would trample on ' its own' satellites,Hungary, Czechoslovakia an d Afghanistan. These days, Russia is

eagerly constructing its nuclear power stations, an d having it s ow nlittle-publicised Three Mile Island disasters.An d if th e West pays for these signs of 'progress' by forcing

down th e living standards of th e workers, so must Russia. From thethirties o n wa r ds R u ss ia b eg a n to ac t like an y other cap it a li s tpower, except that a state bureaucracy, no t private capitalists,rodeon th e backs of th e workers. F ew h av e expressed th e logic of th eRussian system be tte r than Stalin himself:

'The environment in which we ar e placed ... at home an d abroadcompels us to adopt a rap id ra te of growth in our industry.'

Th e roleof th e bureaucracy in history ha s been to establish theRussian s ta te as a major world power. There is nothing socialistabout such a transformation. A very similarexpansion occurred inJapan.

T h e r e a so n w h y socialism, workers' power, failed i n R u ss ia i n1917 is no t because dictatorship is th e inevitable result of socialistrevolution - as propagandists for the presen t system would haveus think. The Russian Revolution wa s lost because th e foundationson which socialism could have beenbuilt were destroyed bya WorldWar, b y t he i n va s io n of Russia by foreign armies, by a long CivilWar.

There ca n be no workers' power without workers - an d th e

HOW THE REVOLUTION WAS LOST

working class ha d been destroyed. There ca n be no socialismwithout resources - an d Russia wa s in economic ruin an d on th everge of total starvation.

Thereason th e Russian Bolshevik P arty became first a burea u- 29cracy, then a new ruling elite under Stalin, is no t b e c a u s e t h i ~ i sth einevitable development of an y revolutionary party - as, agam, th epropagandists would have us believe. Th e workers' party dr a ws li!efrom th e working class - with that class destroyed, th e party mRussia becameisolated an d ultimately a bureaucratic elite. Thefactthat tens of thousands of socialists died in S t al i n' s c a mp s an dbefore firing squads in their struggle to prevent thisis a testimonyto th e strength and socialist dedication of t h e p a rt y that made th erevolution.

Once the bureaucracy was in power, it acted like an y other rulin g class in th e world. 1929 sa w th e abolition of independenttradeunions, th e abolition of th e right to s tr ike , th e forc ing down ofwages. That thesea re the policiesof Torygovernmentstodayshowsthat Russia ha d become bu t one capitalist power among othersth e only difference being that in Russia the state i t se l fwas the rulin g class, that it wa s state capitalism.

Russia ha s ceased to be a beacon of a future socialist societytoth e workers of th e cap it a li s t na tions. I t ha s become o ne m or ecompetitor in th e murderous game of theft, intrigue an d war, an imperialist power, a symbolof oppression an d inj ustice. Th e victoryofth e new state capital ist class ha d horrifying consequences whichfor generations led working people to withdraw in disgust fromsocialism. I t tu rned the -dream of human liberation into a darknightmare. As Trot sky sa id in th e year before his death:

'Stalinism ha d first to exterminate politically, then physically, th eleading cadres of Bolshevism in order to become that which it nowis, an apparatus ofthe privileged, a brake upon historical progress,an agency of world imperialism.'

Today we socialists have to explain what happened in Russia.

'Wasn' t Stal inism just a continuation of th e revolution? Won't an yrevolution go th e same way?' people ask. No, we answer. What wesee in Russia today is no t ' social ism gone wrong' . I t is th e absoluteopposite of social ism, an d only a new workers ' r evo lut ion willchange it.

Th e world today ha s harnessed fa r greater resources oftechnology than th e world of50 years ago. We have at our disposalimmense reserves of wealth and creativity. A world free of drudgeryan d to il i s no longer a dream. I t is a real possibility as never beforein history, even in 1917. Only a corrupt, profit-thirsty ruling class

THE MESSAGE FOR TODAY


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s tands in th e way, E a s t a n d West. Socialism remains th e only alternative to t he ba rba r ic priorities of capitalism.

I n th e Bolsheviks' struggle for socialism, there is a wealth ofexperience on which we ca n draw. In the refusal of many revolu- 31tionaries to succumb to despair an d anti-communism, there is adetermination an d idealism we ca n emulate.

Vic to r S er ge l iv ed t hr ou gh t he g re at y ea rs o f t he revolution,t h rough i t s decline an d defeat. Yet st i l l hewould no t su r render h i sfaith in t he capac ity of working people to change th e world. Hereplied to those wh o tr y to ta r th e October Revolution w it h t hedismal spectre o f S t a li n i n these terms:

'I t is often said that "the germ of allStal inismwas in Bolshevism ati ts beginning". Well, I have no objection., Only, Bolshevism alsocontained many other germs - a mass of othergerms s- an d thosew ho l iv ed t hr o ug h t h e e nt h us i as m of t he f ir st y ea rs of th e firstvictorious revolution oughtnot to forget it. To judge th e living ma nby t h e d e at h ge rms which the au topsy revea ls in a corpse - an dw hi ch h e m ay h av e carried i n h im s ince h i s birth - i s t h is verysensible?.'

Th e 'mass of other germs' of which Serge speaks a re workers'power, women's liberation, an en d to poverty an d oppression, a newcomradeship an d generosity between people, th e relationship ofme n an d women freed from concernsof ownership an d domination,the withering away of racism an d prejudice. In short, th e birth ofhuman freedom.

Th e Bolsheviks struggled. They lost.The ir de fea t spawned the twin barbarisms offascism an d war.

Theirstruggle for human l iberat ion was crushed an d there followeda second d ark age in which a bloody r oa d s tr et ch ed fromBuchenwald to My Lai, Guernica to Cambodia, an d so many in th eworkers' movement accepted al l th e grim mythology of Stalinism.

Bu t th e achievements of th e Bolsheviks were no t eradicated.Just a s t he y l ea rn ed from t he achievemen t s an d errors of th e

generation of social ists who preceded them, so we, revolutionarysocialists today, learn from their achievements an d errors. An dtoday, as th e world capital is t system faces ye t another period ofcrisis, withruling classesboth East an d West again seeking to solvetheir problems at th e expense of th e workers, oursocial ist ideas ar eof day-to-day practical relevance. Increasingly, th e i de as o f t heRussian Revolution, o f t he Bolshevik tradition, of revolutionarysocialism, connect wi th the everyday s t ruggles o f workers againstrepression, unemployment, increased exploitation an d al l th e otherresorts of a world in crisis.

THE MESSAGE FOR TODAY

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