The Problems of the Soviet Government

Thanks to the peace obtained—in spite of its oppressiveness and all its
insecurity—the Russian Soviet Republic is enabled for a certain time to
concentrate its efforts on the most important and most difficult side of the Socialist
revolution, the problem of organization.

This problem is presented clearly and precisely to the masses in the fourth section
of the resolution adopted at the extraordinary Congress of the Soviets held at Moscow
on March 16, 1916, the section which urges self-discipline of the workers and a
merciless struggle against chaos and disorganization.

The insecurity of the peace obtained by the Russian Soviet Republic is not determined,
of course, by the fact that it is now considering the renewal of military activity.
With the exception of the bourgeois counter-revolutionists and their aids (the Mensheviks,
etc.) no sensible statesman thinks of such a renewal. The insecurity of the peace
is determined by the fact that in the imperialistic nations bordering on the West
and on the East of Russia and possessing enormous military power, the upper hand
may at any moment be gained by the military party, which is tempted by the temporary
weakness of Russia and incited by the anti-Socialist capitalists.

Under such conditions our real, and not assumed, guaranty of peace lies exclusively
in the antagonisms among the various great powers. It is obvious that, in view of
the weakness of such guaranty, our Socialist Soviet Republic is in an extremely
precarious, undoubtedly critical international position. We must strain all our
strength in order to utilize the respite granted to us by this situation to overcome
the serious setbacks received by the whole social organism of Russia from the war,
and to rehabilitate the economic resources of the country. Without such rehabilitation
there can be no serious improvement in our ability to offer any kind of resistance.

It is also obvious that we will give valuable aid to a Socialist revolution in the
West, delayed by a number of causes, only to the extent of our success in solving
the organization problems confronting us.

A fundamental condition for the successful solution of our most urgent problems
of organization is the complete comprehension by the political leaders of the people;
i. e., by the members of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) [1] and then by all true representatives of the toiling
masses, of the basic difference between the earlier bourgeois and the present Socialist
revolution with respect to the problem under consideration.

Bourgeois and Socialist Revolutions Contrasted

The main task of the toiling masses in the bourgeois revolutions consisted in performing
the negative, destructive work—the destruction of feudalism and the monarchy. The
positive, constructive work of organizing a new society was the function of the
propertied bourgeois minority of the population. And they accomplished this task,
in spite of the resistance of the workers and the poorest peasants, with comparative
ease, not only because the resistance of the exploited masses was then extremely
weak on account of their unorganized state and their ignorance, but also because
the fundamental organizing force of the anarchic capitalistic society is provided
by the natural, extensive and intensive growth of the national and international
market.

In every Socialist revolution, however, the main task of the proletariat, and of
the poorest peasantry led by it—and, hence, also in the socialist revolution in
Russia inaugurated by us on November 7, 1917 [2] —consists in the positive and constructive
work of establishing an extremely complex and delicate net of newly organized
relationships covering the systematic production and distribution of products which
are necessary for the existence of tens of millions of people. The successful
realization of such a revolution depends on the original historical creative work
of the majority of the population, and first of all, of the majority of the toilers.
The victory of the Socialist revolution will not be assured, unless the proletariat
and the poorest peasantry manifests sufficient consciousness, idealism, self-sacrifice
and persistence. With the creation of a new type of state, the Soviet, offering to
the oppressed toiling masses the opportunity to participate actively in the free
construction of a new society, we have solved only a small part of the difficult
task. The main difficulty is in the economic domain: to raise the productivity of
labor, to establish strict and uniform state accounting and control of production
and distribution, and actually to socialize production.

The Evolution of Bolshevism

The evolution of the Bolshevik party, which is today the governing party of Russia,
shows with great clearness the nature of the crisis, which characterizes the present
political situation and demands a new orientation by the Soviet authority; i. e.,
new methods applied to new problems.

The first problem of any rising party consists in convincing the majority of the
population that its program and policies are correct. This was the most important
problem during czarism and during the period of compromises of the Tchernovs and
Zeretellis, with Kerensky and Koshkin. [3] At present this problem, which is, of course,
far from solved, is, in the main, settled for the majority of the workers and
peasants of Russia, who definitely side with the Bolsheviks, as was shown beyond
doubt by the last Congress of the Soviets in Moscow.

The second problem of our party was the conquest of political power and the suppression
of the resistance of the exploiters. This problem is not yet settled, and we cannot
ignore that fact, for the Monarchists and Cadets [4] on one hand, and the Mensheviks [5] and Socialist-Revolutionists [6] of the right—who echo and follow them on
the other hand, continue their attempts to unite for the overthrow of the Soviet
power. But, in the main, the problem created by the resistance of the exploiters
was already solved in the period between November 7, 1917, and (approximately)
February 1918—the time of the surrender of Bogajevsky. [7]

The Problems of Management

We are now confronted by the third problem, which is the most urgent and which characterizes
the present period—the industrial organization of Russia. We had to deal with it and
have been solving it ever since November 7, 1917. But heretofore, as long as the resistance
of the exploiters manifested itself in open civil warfare, the problem of management could
not become the principal, the central problem.

At present it has become the central problem. We, the Bolshevik party, have convinced
Russia. We have won Russia from the rich for the poor, from the exploiters for the
toilers. And now it is our task to manage Russia. The special difficulty of the present
period consists in understanding the peculiarities of the transition from the problem
of convincing the people and suppressing the exploiters by force, to the problem of management.

For the first time in the history of the world, the Socialist party has succeeded in
completing, essentially, the task of winning power and suppressing the exploiters,
and in approaching to the problem of management. We must prove worthy of this, the
most difficult (and the most promising) problem of the Socialist revolution. We must
not fail to see that, besides the ability to convince the masses and to win in civil
war, our success depends on our ability to organize. This is the most difficult problem.
It means the organization of the economic foundations of life for millions of people
on a new basis. And it is the most promising problem, for only after its solution
shall we be able to say that Russia has become not only a Soviet, but a Socialist
republic.

The objective situation described above, which was created by the extremely oppressive
and insecure peace, by the terrible disorganization, unemployment and starvation,
which we have inherited from the war and from the rule of the bourgeoisie
(represented by Kerensky and his supporters—the Mensheviks and Social-Revolutionists
of the Right), has inevitably produced an extreme weariness in and even exhaustion
of the toiling masses. It is but natural that they insistently demand some rest.
The restoration of the productive forces destroyed by the war and by the management
of the bourgeoisie; the curing of wounds received from the war, speculation and
the attempts of the bourgeoisie to re-establish the overthrown power of the exploiters;
the economic rehabilitation of the country; the maintenance of elementary order—these
are the urgent problems to which we must turn. It may seem paradoxical, but the fact
is that in view of the above-mentioned objective conditions there can be no doubt
that at the present moment the Soviet power cannot make secure the transformation
of Russia toward Socialism, unless it can solve in a practical way these most elementary
problems of social life—in spite of the resistance of the bourgeoisie, the
Mensheviks and the Social-Revolutionists of the Right. In view of the concrete peculiarities
of the present situation and in view of the existence of the Soviet power with its
laws on socialization of the land, on labor control, etc., the practical solution
of these elementary problems would mean that we will have overcome the organization
difficulties of the first steps toward Socialism.

“Keep accurate and conscientious accounts; conduct business economically;
do not loaf; do not steal; maintain strict discipline at work.” These slogans,
which were justly ridiculed by revolutionary proletarians when they were used by
the bourgeoisie to cover its domination as a class of exploiters, have now, after
the overthrow of the bourgeoisie, become our urgent and principal slogans. And
the practical realization of these slogans by the toiling masses is, on the one hand,
the sole condition for the salvation of the country, which has been shattered by
the imperialistic war and by the imperialists (headed by Kerensky), and on the
other hand, the practical realization of these slogans by the Soviet power, with
its methods, and on the basis of its laws, is necessary and sufficient for the
final victory of Socialism. This, however, is not comprehended by those who contemptuously
refuse to urge such “common” and “trivial” slogans. In our
agricultural country, which only a year ago overthrew czarism and less than half
a year ago freed itself from the Kerenskys, there remained, naturally, a good deal
of unconscious anarchism, which is increased by the bestiality and barbarity accompanying
every prolonged and reactionary war, and a good deal of despair and aimless anger
has accumulated. If we should add to this the treasonable policy of the servants
of the bourgeoisie, the Mensheviks, the Social-Revolutionists of the Right, etc.,
it will become clear that energetic and persistent efforts must be exerted by the
best and most conscious workers and peasants to effect a complete change in the
mood of the masses and to turn them to a regular, uninterrupted and disciplined
labor. Only such a change accomplished by the masses of proletarians and near-proletarians
can complete the victory over the bourgeoisie, and especially over the more persistent
and numerous peasant bourgeoisie.

A New Phase in the Struggle with Capitalism

We have defeated the bourgeoisie, but it is not yet destroyed and not even completely
conquered. We must therefore resort to a new and higher form of the struggle with
the bourgeoisie; we must turn from the very simple problem of continuing the
expropriation of the capitalists to the more complex and difficult problem—the
problem of creating conditions under which the bourgeoisie could neither exist nor
come anew into existence. It is clear that this problem is infinitely more complicated
and that we can have no Socialism until it is solved.

Comparing our revolution with the revolutions of Western Europe, we are now approximately
at the point which was reached in France in 1793 and 1871. We have a right to be
proud of the fact that we have reached this point and that in one respect we have,
undoubtedly, gone somewhat further; i. e.: we have decreed and established throughout
Russia a higher type of state—the Soviet rule. But we cannot possibly rest
satisfied with these achievements, for we have only begun the transformation toward
Socialism, and in this respect we have not yet accomplished anything decisive.

Of decisive importance is the organization of strict and uniform accounting and
control of production and distribution. But, we have not yet effected accounting
and control in those enterprises and in those branches and departments of economic
effort which we have taken away from the bourgeoisie. Without this there can be no
question of the second condition, just as essential to the establishment of Socialism,
i. e.: the increase of the productivity of labor on a national scale.

It would therefore be impossible to define the problem of the present period by the
simple formula: “to continue the offensive against capitalism.” In view
of the fact that we have, undoubtedly, not conquered capitalism, and that it is
absolutely necessary to continue the attack on this enemy of the workers, such a
definition would be vague and it would not indicate the peculiarity of the present
period, when in the interests of a successful final offensive it is necessary to “halt”
the offensive for the present.

This can be explained by comparing our position in the war against capitalism with
the position of a victorious army which has captured, let us say, half or two-thirds
of the enemy’s territory and is compelled to halt the offensive in order to
recuperate, to increase the supply of ammunition, to repair and to strengthen the
communication lines, to build new store-houses, to bring up new reserves, etc. A
halt in the offensive of the victorious army under such conditions is necessary
in order to win the remaining territory from the enemy; i. e., in the interests of complete victory . Whoever fails to understand that just such a “halt”
in the offensive against capitalism is dictated to us by the objective situation
of the present period, does not understand anything in the present situation.

Of course, we can speak only metaphorically of a “halt” in the offensive
against capitalism. In an ordinary war it is possible to issue a general order to
halt the offensive; it is possible actually to stop the movement forward. In the
war against capitalism the movement forward cannot be stopped, and there can be
no question of our renouncing any further expropriation of capital. We are considering
here the question of changing the basis of our economic and political structure.
Heretofore, measures for the immediate expropriation of the expropriators were
preeminent. At present preeminence must be given to the organization of accounting
and control in those enterprises in which the capitalists have already been expropriated.

Were we to attempt now to continue the expropriation of capital at the same rate
as heretofore, we would surely be defeated. It is clear to every thinking person
that our work of organizing proletarian accounting and control has not kept pace
with the work of the direct “expropriation of the expropriators.” If
we now turn all our efforts to organizing accounting and control, we shall be able
to solve this problem; we shall overcome our shortcomings and win our “campaign”
against capitalism.

But is not the admission that we have difficulties to overcome equivalent to an
admission that some mistakes have been made? Not at all. We will again use a military
example. If the enemy can be defeated and forced back by the use of light cavalry
only, this should be done. And if this can be done successfully only up to a certain
line, it is quite conceivable that beyond this line it becomes necessary to bring up
the heavy artillery. Admitting that it is now necessary to overcome our difficulties
by bringing up the heavy artillery, we do not admit that the victorious cavalry attack
was a mistake.

We have been frequently reproached by the servants of the bourgeois for conducting
a “Red Guard” attack on capitalism. An absurd reproach, worthy indeed
of servants of the money pouch! The “Red Guard” attack on capitalism
was at that time absolutely dictated by the circumstances: first, capitalists were
offering military resistance through Kerensky and Kransnov, Savinkov and Gotz
(Gegechkori is even now offering such resistance), Dutov and Bogajevsky. [8] Military resistance can be crushed only by
military means, and the Red Guards were contributing to the noblest and greatest
cause in history, the cause of emancipation of the exploited toilers from the oppression
of the exploiters.

Secondly, we could not then give preeminence to the method of management instead
of, the methods of suppression because the art of management is not inherent in
people, but is gained through experience. At that time we did not have this experience.
We have it now!

Thirdly, then we could not have at our disposal specialists in different branches
of science, for they were either fighting in the ranks of the Bogajevskys, or were
still in a position to offer systematic and persistent passive resistance through
sabotage.

Does this mean that the “Red Guard” attack on Capital is the right
method always in all circumstances, and that we have no other methods of combating
capitalism? To think so would be too naive. We have won with light cavalry, but
we also have heavy artillery at our disposal. We have been winning by methods of
suppression. We will be able to win also by methods of management. We should be
able to change the methods of fighting with the change of circumstances. We do
not for a moment reject the “Red Guard” suppression of the Savinkovs
and Gegechkoris as well as of any other bourgeois counter-revolutionist. But we
will not be so stupid as to give preeminence to the “Red Guard” methods.

The Need of Specialists

At present, when the epoch of “Red Guard” attacks is in the main completed
(and completed victoriously), it is becoming urgent for the proletarian state authority
to make use of the bourgeois specialists for the purpose of replowing the soil so
that no bourgeoisie can grow on it.

This is a peculiar stage of development, and in order definitely to defeat capitalism,
we should be able to adapt the forms of our struggle to the peculiar conditions of
such a period.

Without the direction of specialists in different branches of science, such as technical
men, the transformation toward Socialism is impossible, for Socialism demands a
conscious mass movement toward a comparatively higher productivity of labor on the
basis which has been attained by capitalism. Socialism must accomplish this movement
forward in its own way, by its own methods—to make it more definite—by
Soviet methods. But the specialists are inevitably bourgeois, on account of the
whole environment of social life which made them specialists. If our proletariat,
having obtained power, had rapidly solved the problem of accounting, control and
organization on a national scale (this was impossible on account of the war and the
backwardness of Russia), then having crushed the sabotage of the capitalists, we
would have obtained, through uniform accounting and control the complete submission
of the bourgeois specialists. In view of the considerable delay in establishing
accounting and control, although we have succeeded in defeating sabotage, we have
not yet created an environment which would put at our disposal the bourgeois specialists.
Many saboteurs are coming into our service, but the best organizers
and the biggest specialists can be used by the state either in the old bourgeois
way (that is, for a higher salary) or in the new proletarian way (that is, by creating
such an environment of uniform accounting and control which would inevitably and
naturally attract and gain the submission of specialists). We were forced now to
make use of the old bourgeois method and to agree to a very high remuneration for
the services of the biggest of the bourgeois specialists. All those who are acquainted
with the facts understand this, but not to give sufficient thought to the significance
of such a measure on the part of the Proletarian State. It is clear that such a measure
is a compromise, that it is a defection from the principles of the Paris Commune
and of any proletarian rule, which demand the reduction of salaries to the standard
of remuneration of the average workers-principles which demand that “career hunting”
be fought by deed, not by words.

Furthermore, it is clear that such a measure is not merely a halt in a certain part
and to a certain degree, of the offensive against capitalism (for capitalism is not
a quantity of money but a definite social relationship), but also a step backward
by our Socialist Soviet state which has from the very beginning proclaimed and carried
on a policy of reducing high salaries to the standard of wages of the average worker.

Of course, the lackeys of the bourgeoisie, particularly of the petty kind, like the
Mensheviks and the Social-Revolutionists of the Right, will sneer at our admission
that we are taking a step backward. But we should pay no attention to sneers. We
must study the peculiarities of the highly difficult and new road to Socialism without
concealing our mistakes and weaknesses. We must try to overcome our deficiencies
in time. To conceal from the masses that attracting bourgeois specialists by extremely
high salaries is a defection from the principles of the Commune, would mean that
we had lowered ourselves to the level of bourgeois politicians who rule by practicing
deception. To explain openly how and why we have taken a step backward and then to
discuss publicly ways and means overcome our deficiencies, is to educate the masses
and to learn from experience, to learn together with them how to build Socialism.
There has hardly been a single military campaign in history in which the victor has
not made mistakes, suffered partial defeats, and temporarily retreated at some time.
And the “campaign” against capitalism, which we have undertaken, is
a million times more difficult than the most difficult military campaign, and it
would be foolish and disgraceful to become dejected on account of a temporary and
partial retreat.

The Reward of Specialists

Let us take up the question from the practical side. Let us assume that the Russian
Soviet Republic must have a thousand first-class scientists and specialists of recognized
skill and with practical experience in different departments of science, to direct
the work of the people in order to accomplish most quickly the economic rehabilitation
of the country. Let us assume that these great “stars” must be paid 25,000
rubles each per annum. Let us assume that this sum must be doubled (supposing premiums
to be granted for particularly successful and rapid accomplishment of the most important
tasks of organization and technique) or even made four times as large (supposing that
we must get several hundred better paid foreign specialists). Well then, can this
expenditure of 50,000,000 or 100,000,000 rubles a year for the reorganization of
the work of the people along the lines of the latest scientific developments be
considered excessive or unbearable for the Soviet Republic? Of course not. The vast
majority of the enlightened workers and peasants will approve such an expenditure,
knowing from practical life that our backwardness compels us
to lose billions, and that we have not yet attained such a high degree of organization,
accounting and control which would cause the universal and voluntary participation
of these “stars” of the bourgeois intelligentsia [9] in our work.

Of course, there is another side to this question. The corrupting influence of high
salaries is beyond dispute—both on the Soviets (the more so since the swiftness
of the revolution made it possible for a certain number of adventurers and thieves
to join the Soviets, who together with the incapable and dishonest among certain
commissaries would not object to becoming “star grafters”) and on the
mass of workers. But all thinking and honest workers and peasants will agree with
us and will admit that we are unable to get rid at once of the evil heritage of
capitalism that the Soviet Republic can be freed from “tribute” of
50,000,000 or a 100,000,000 rubles (a tribute for our own backwardness in the
organization of accounting and control from the bottom up) only by organization
by increasing discipline among ourselves, by getting rid of all those who “keep
the traditions of capitalism” i. e., the loafers, parasites, and grafters.
If the enlightened and advanced workers and peasants succeed, with the help of
the Soviet institutions, in organizing and disciplining themselves, and in creating
a powerful labor discipline in one year, then we will in one year do away with this
“tribute” (which may be reduced even earlier) depending on the measure
of success attained in creating labor discipline and organization among the workers
and peasants. The sooner we ourselves, workers and peasants, learn better labor
discipline and a higher technique of toil, making use of the bourgeois specialists
for this purpose, the sooner we will get rid of the need of paying tribute to these
specialists.

Workers Must Learn Problems of Management

Our work of organization, under the direction of the proletariat, of state accounting
and control of production and distribution, is considerably behind our work of direct
expropriation of the expropriators. We understand this is fundamentally necessary for
understanding the peculiarities of the present period and of the problems dictated
by these to the Soviets. The centre of gravity of the struggle with the bourgeoisie
is shifted to the organization of accounting and control. This must be taken into
account in order to determine correctly the urgent economic and financial problems
concerning the nationalization of banks, monopolization of foreign trade, state
control of currency, the introduction of a satisfactory wealth and income tax from
the proletarian standpoint, and the introduction of obligatory labor service.

We are extremely backward in regard to Socialist reforms in these fields (and they
are very important fields), and we. are backward for no other reason than this—that
accounting and control, in general, are not sufficiently organized. Of course,
this problem is most difficult, and with the economic disorganization produced by
the war, its solution must take a long time, and it shoud not be overlooked that
just here the bourgeoisie—and especially the numerous petty and peasant bourgeoisie—give
us a good deal of trouble, disturbing the establishment of control; disturbing, for
instance, the grain monopoly, granting opportunities for speculation and speculative
trade. What we have already decreed is yet far from adequate realization, and the
main problem of today consists precisely in concentrating all efforts upon the actual,
practical realization of the reforms which have already become the law, but have
not yet become a reality.

In order to continue further the nationalization of the banks and to move steadily
toward the transformation of the banks into centres of social bookkeeping under
Socialism, we must first of all be successful in increasing the number of branches
of the People’s Bank, in attracting deposits, in making it easier for the
public to deposit and withdraw money, in removing the possibility of panics, in
discovering and executing the grafters and crooks, etc. We must first actually
accomplish the simplest tasks, organize well what is already in our possession—and
only then prepare for the more complex.

We must improve and regulate the state monopolies in grain, leather, etc., which
we have already established and thereby prepare for the state monopolization of
the foreign trade; without such a monopoly we will not be able to “get rid of”
foreign capital except by the payment of a “tribute.” Whatever possibility
of Socialist construction exists, depends on whether we shall able to protect our
internal economic independence during the transition period by paying some “tribute”
to foreign capital.

We are also extremely backward in the collection of taxes in general, and of wealth
and income taxes in particular. The levying of contributions on the bourgeoisie—a
measure which in principle is undoubtedly acceptable, and deserving of proletarian
approval—shows that we are in this respect still nearer to the methods of
conquest (of Russia) from the rich for the poor, than to the methods of management.
But, to become stronger and to make our position firm, we must adopt the last named methods;
we must substitute for the contributions exacted from the bourgeoisie, steadily and
regularly collected wealth and income taxes, which will give more to the proletarian
state and which requires of us greater organization and better regulated accounting
and control.

The delay in introducing obligatory labor service is another proof that the most
urgent problem is precisely the preparatory organization work which, on one hand,
should definitely secure our gains, and which, on the other hand, is necessary to
prepare the campaign to “surround capital” and to “compel its
surrender.” The introduction of obligatory labor service should be started
immediately, but it should be introduced gradually and with great caution, testing
every step by practical experience, and, of course, introducing first of all obligatory
labor service for the rich. The introduction of a labor record book and a consumption-budget
record book for every bourgeois, including the village bourgeois, would be a long step forward
toward a complete “siege” of the enemy and toward the creation of a really
universal accounting and control over production and distribution.

The Significance of the Struggle for State Accounting and Control

The state, an organ of oppression and robbery of the people, left us as a heritage
on the part of the people a great hatred for and distrust of everything connected
with the state. To overcome this is a very difficult task, which only the Soviets
can master, but which requires even from them considerable time and tremendous perseverance.
This “heritage” has a particularly painful effect on the question of
accounting and control—the fundamental question for a Socialist revolution
after the overthrow of the bourgeoisie. It will inevitably take some time before
the masses begin to feel themselves free after the overthrow of the land owners
and the bourgeoisie, and before they comprehend—not from books, but from their
own experience through the Soviets—that without thorough state accounting and
control of production and distribution the authority of the toilers, and their freedom,
cannot last, and a return to the yoke of capitalism is inevitable.

All the habits and traditions of the bourgeoisie, and especially of the petty bourgeoisie,
are also opposed to state control, and are for the inviolability of “sacred
private property” and of “sacred” private enterprise.

It is especially clear to us now how correct is the Marxian proposition that Anarchism
and Anarcho-Syndicalism are bourgeois tendencies, irreconcilable with Socialism,
with a proletarian dictatorship and with Communism. The present struggle is for
the purpose of instilling into the masses the idea of Soviet state control and
accounting, for the realization of this idea, for a break with the accursed past,
which accustomed the people to look upon the work of getting food and clothing as
a “private” affair and on purchase and sale as something that “concerns
only myself.” This is a most momentous struggle, of universal historical significance,
a struggle of Socialist consciousness against bourgeois-anarchistic “freedom.”
We have introduced labor control as a law, but it is barely beginning to be realized
or even to penetrate the consciousness of the proletarian masses. That unaccountability
in production an distribution is fatal for the first steps toward Socialism that it
means corruption, that carelessness in accounting and control is a direct assistance
to the German and Russian Kornilovs, who can overthrow the authority of the toilers
only in case we do not solve the problem of accounting and control, and who with
the aid of the peasant bourgeoisie, the cadets, the Mensheviks and the Socialist-Revolutionists
of the Right are watching us, waiting for their opportunity—this is not adequately
emphasized in our agitation, and is not given sufficient thought and is not sufficiently
discussed by the advanced workers and peasants. And as long as labor control has not
become a fact, as long as the advanced workers have not carried out a successful
and merciless campaign against those who violate this control or who are careless
with regard to control—we cannot move from the first step (from labor control)
to the second step toward Socialism; i. e., to the regulation of production by the
workers.

A Socialist state can come into existence only as a net of production and consumption
communes, which keep conscientious accounts of their production and consumption,
economize labor, at the same time steadily increasing its productivity and thus
making it possible to lower the workday to seven, six or even less hours. Anything
less than rigorous, universal , thorough accounting and control of grain and of the
production of grain, and later also on all other necessary products, will not do.
We have inherited from capitalism mass organizations, which can facilitate the transition
to mass accounting and control of distribution—the consumers’ cooperatives.
They are developed in Russia less than in the more advanced countries, but they
comprise more than 10,000,000 members. The decree on consumers’ associations,
which was recently issued is extremely significant, showing clearly the peculiarity
of the position and of the problem of the Socialist Soviet Republic at the present
time.

The decree is an agreement with the bourgeois co-operatives and with the workmen’s
co-operatives adhering to the bourgeois standpoint. It is noteworthy, in the first place,
that representatives of these institutions not only participated in the deliberations
on this decree, but had practically a determining voice, for parts of the decree
which met determined opposition from these institutions were rejected. Secondly
and essentially, the compromise consists in the rejection by the Soviet authority
of the principles of free admission to the co-operatives (the only consistent principle
from the proletarian standpoint) and that the whole population of a given locality
should be united in a single co-operative. The defection from this, the only Socialist
principles, which are in accord with the problem of doing away with classes, allows
the existence of “working class co-operatives” (which, in this case,
call themselves “class” co-operatives only because they submit to the
class interests of the bourgeoisie.) Lastly, the proposition of the Soviet government
completely to exclude the bourgeoisie from the administration of the co-operatives
was also considerably weakened, and only owners of capitalistic commercial and industrial
enterprises are excluded from the administration.

If the proletariat, acting through the Soviets, should successfully establish accounting
and control on a national scale, there would be no need for such compromise. Through
the Food Departments of the Soviets, through their organs of supply, we would unite
the population in one cooperative directed by the proletariat, without the assistance
from bourgeois co-operatives, without concessions to the purely bourgeois principle
which compels the labor co-operatives to remain side by side with the bourgeois co-operatives
instead of wholly subjecting these bourgeois co-operatives, fusing both.

Entering into such an agreement with the bourgeois co-operatives, the Soviet authority
has concretely defined its tactical problems and characteristic methods of action
for the present stage of development; i. e.: directing the bourgeois elements, using
them, making certain individual concessions to them, we are creating conditions for
a movement forward which will be slower than we at first supposed, but at the same
time more steadfast, with a more solidly protected base and communication line, and
with better fortifications of the conquered positions, The Soviets can (and should)
now measure their successes in the work of Socialist construction, by very simple
and practical tests: “In exactly what number of communities (communes, or
villages, blocks, etc.) and to what extent does the development of the co-operatives
approach the state when they will compromise the whole population?”

Higher Productivity of Labor

In every Socialist revolution—after the proletariat has solved the problem
of winning power, and to the extent to which the problem of expropriating the expropriators
and of suppressing their resistance is solved—it becomes necessary to turn
first of all to the fundamental problem of the creation of a higher social system
than capitalism; namely, to raise the productivity of labor, and in connection with
this (and for this), to improve its organization. Our Soviet power is just in such a
position when, thanks to the victories over the exploiters, from Kerensky to Kornilov,
it has become possible for it to approach this problem directly and to take hold of
it. And here it becomes at once clear that though it is possible to seize the central
state power in a few days, though it is possible to suppress the military resistance
and the sabotage of the exploiters even in the distant corners of a large country in
several weeks, a sound solution of the problem of increasing the productivity of
labor requires at least (especially after a most distressing and destructive war)
several years. The decisive character of this work is determined by purely objective
circumstances.

To increase the productivity of labor we must first of all secure the material basis
of a large industry: the development of the production of fuel, iron, machinery, and
of the chemical industry. The Russian Soviet Republic is in such an advantageous
position that it possesses, even after the Brest-Litovsk peace, colossal stores of
ore (on the Ural), of fuel in western Siberia (hard coal), in Caucasia and in the
southeast (petroleum), in central Russia (turf), vast resources of lumber, water-power
and raw material for the chemical industry (Karabugaz) and so on. The exploitation
of these natural resources by the latest technical methods will furnish a basis for
an unprecedented development of production.

Higher productivity of labor depends, firstly, on the improvement of the educational
and cultural state of the masses of the population. This improvement is now taking
place with unusual swiftness, but is not perceived by those who are blinded by the
bourgeois routine and are unable to comprehend what a longing for light and initiative
is now pervading the masses of the people, thanks to the Soviet organizations. Secondly,
economic improvement depends on higher discipline of the toilers, on higher skill,
efficiency and intensity of labor and its better organization.

In this respect our situation is especially bad and even hopeless—if we should
take the word of those who are frightened by the bourgeoisie or who are paid to
serve it. These people do not understand that there has never been nor can ever
be a revolution in which the adherents of the old regime have not wailed about
disorganization, anarchy, etc. It is natural that among the masses who have just
overthrown an incredibly barbarous oppression, there is profound and widespread
unrest and ferment, that the development of a new basis of labor discipline is a
very long process; that before the landowners and the bourgeoisie had been overcome;
such development could not even begin.

But without being affected by this, often false, despair which is spread by the
bourgeoisie and the bourgeois intellectuals (who have given up hope of retaining
their old privileges), we should by no means conceal any manifest evils. On the
contrary, we will expose them and we will improve the Soviet methods of combating
them, for the success of Socialism is inconceivable without the victory of proletarian
conscious discipline over the instinctive petty bourgeois anarchy, the real guaranty
of a possible restoration of Kerenskyism and Kornilovism.

The most conscious vanguard of the Russian proletariat has already turned to the
problem of increasing labor discipline. For instance, the central committee of the
Metallurgical Union and the Central Council of the Trade Unions have begun work on
respective measures and drafts of decrees This work should be supported and advanced
by all means. We should immediately introduce piece work and try it out in practice.
We should tryout every scientific and progressive suggestion of the Taylor system;
we should compare the earnings with the general total of production or the exploitation
results of railroad and water transportation and so on.

The Russian is a poor worker in comparison with the workers of the advanced nations,
and this could not be otherwise under the regime of the czar and other remnants of feudalism.
To learn how to work—this problem the Soviet authority should present to the people
in all its comprehensiveness. The last word of capitalism in this respect, the Taylor
system—as well as all progressive measures of capitalism—combine the
refined cruelty of bourgeois exploitation and a number of most valuable scientific
attainments in the analysis of mechanical motions during work, in dismissing superfluous
and useless motions, in determining the most correct methods of the work, the best
systems of accounting and control, etc. The Soviet Republic must adopt valuable
scientific and technical advances in this field. The possibility of Socialism will
be determined by our success in combining the Soviet rule and the Soviet organization
of management with the latest progressive measures of capitalism. We must introduce
in Russia the study and the teaching of the Taylor system and its systematic trial
and adaptation. While working to increase the productivity of labor, we must at the
same time take into account the peculiarities of the transition period from capitalism
to Socialism, which require, on one hand, that we lay the foundation for the Socialist
organization of emulation , and, on the other hand, require the use of compulsion
so that the slogan of the dictatorship of the proletariat should not be weakened by
the practice of a too mild proletarian government.

Socialism and Emulation

Among the absurd falsehoods which the bourgeois likes to spread about Socialism,
is the one that Socialists deny the value of emulation . In reality only
Socialism, destroying classes and, hence, the enslavement of the masses, for the
first time opens up opportunities for emulation on a mass scale. And only
the Soviet organization, passing from the formal democracy of a bourgeois republic
to the actual participation in management of the toiling masses, for the first time
puts emulation on a broad basis. This is much easier to accomplish on the political
than on the economic field, but for the success of Socialism the latter is the more
important.

Let us take publicity as a means for stimulating emulation . A bourgeois
republic establishes this only formally, actually subjecting the press to capital,
amusing the “mob” with spicy political trifles, concealing occurrences
in the factories, commercial transactions, etc., as a “business secret,”
protecting “sacred property.” The Soviets abolished commercial secrecy
and entered on a new road, but have done almost nothing to make use of publicity
in the interests of economic emulation . We must systematically endeavor
that—along with the merciless suppression of the thoroughly dishonest and
insolently slanderous bourgeois press—work shall be carried on to create a
press which will not amuse and fool the masses with spicy political trifles, but
which will bring to the attention of the masses, and will help them to study seriously,
the questions of everyday economics. Every factory, every village, is a production
and consumption commune having the right and duty to apply the general Soviet regulations
in its own way (not in the sense of violating the regulations, but in the sense of a
diversity of forms in carrying them out), to solve in its own way the problem of
accounting in production and distribution. Under capitalism, this was the “private
affair” of the individual capitalist or landowner. Under the Soviets, this
is not a private affair, but the most important national affair.

And we have hardly begun the immense and difficult, but also promising and important
work of stimulating emulation between the communes, to introduce reports
and publicity in the process of the production of bread, clothing, etc., to transform
the dry, dead bureaucratic reports into live examples—either repulsive or attractive.
Under the capitalistic system of production the significance of an individual example,
say, of some group of producers was inevitably extremely limited, and it was only
a petty bourgeois illusion to dream that capitalism could be “reformed”
by the influence of models of virtuous establishments. After the political power
has passed into the hands of the proletariat and after the expropriation of the
expropriators has been accomplished, the situation is radically changed, and—as
has been many times pointed out by the most eminent Socialists—the force of
an example can for the first time exert a mass effect. Model communes should and
will serve the purpose of training, teaching and stimulating the backward communes.
The press should serve as a weapon of Socialist construction, giving publicity in
all details to the successes of the model communes, studying the principles of their
success, their methods of economy, and, on the other hand, “blacklisting”
those communes which persist in keeping the “traditions of capitalism”
i. e., anarchy, loafing, disorder and speculation. Statistics under capitalism were
exclusively in the hands of government employees or narrow specialists—we
must bring them to the masses, we must popularize them so that the toilers gradually
learn to understand and to see for themselves what work and how much work is needed
and how much rest they can have. In this way a comparison between the results of
the enterprise of different communes will become a subject of general interest and
study ithe foremost communes will be immediately rewarded (by reducing the workday
for a certain period, by raising the wages, offering them a greater quantity of
cultural or historical advantages and treasures, etc.).

Counter-Revolutions Are Inevitable

The appearance on the historical stage of a new class in the role of a leader of
society never occurs on the one hand without a period of upheavals, struggles and
storms, on the other hand, without a period of false steps, experiments, wavering
and hesitation with regard to the choice—of new methods that will fit the new objective
circumstances. The perishing feudal nobility took revenge on the bourgeoisie, which
was conquering and displacing it, not only by conspiracies, attempts at insurrections
and restoration, but also by torrents of ridicule at the inability, clumsiness and
blunders of the “insolent upstarts” who dared to take hold of the “sacred
helm” of the state without the ancient training of the princes, barons, nobility
and aristocracy for this work—quite like the revenge of the Kornilovs and Kerenskys;
Gotz and Martovs, [10] and other heroes of bourgeois morality or bourgeois skepticism, on the working class
of Russia for its “insolent” attempt to seize power.

Of course, many months and years must pass before the new social class, a class
heretofore oppressed and crushed by want and ignorance, can get accustomed to the
new situation, can take account of everything, regulate its work and produce its
own organizers. It is self-evident that the party, which leads the revolutionary
proletariat, could not have gained experience in organizing large enterprises including
millions and tens of millions of citizens; that to change the old habits of agitation
must take a good deal of time. But it is not impossible, and—provided we have
a clear understanding of the necessity of the change, a firm determination to accomplish
it, and persistence in pursuing a great and difficult end—we will attain it.
There is a great deal of organizing talent in the “people”; i. e., among
the workers and among the peasants who are not exploiters; they have been oppressed,
ruined and discarded in thousands by capitalism; we do not as yet know how to find
them, how to encourage, assist them and give them prominence. But we will learn how,
provided we start learning this with all the revolutionary zeal, without which no
revolution can be victorious.

No profound and powerful popular movement in history ever escaped paying a price
to the scum; the inexperienced, innovators have been preyed upon by adventurers
and crooks, boasters and shouters; there have been stupid confusion, unnecessary
bustle. Individual “leaders” would undertake twenty tasks at once,
completing none of them. Let the poodles of bourgeois society from Bielorussoff
to Martov yelp and bark on account of every additional splinter going to waste
while the big old forest is cut down. Let them bark. That is what poodles are
there for. We will go ahead, trying very cautiously and patiently to test and
discover real organizers, people with sober minds and practical sense, who combine
loyalty to Socialism with the ability to organize quietly (and in spite of confusion
and noise) efficient and harmonious joint work of a large number of people—under
the Soviet organization. Only such persons should, after many trials, advancing them
from the simplest to the most difficult tasks, be promoted to responsible posts to
direct the work of the people, to direct the management. We have not yet learned
this. We will learn this.

Efficiency and Proletarian Dictatorship

The resolution of the last (Moscow) Congress of the Soviets, advocates, as the most
important problem at present, the creation of “efficient organization”
and higher discipline. Such resolutions are now readily supported by everybody.
But that their realization requires compulsion, and compulsion in the form of a
dictatorship, is ordinarily not comprehended. And yet, it would be the greatest
stupidity and the most absurd opportunism to suppose that the transition from
capitalism to Socialism is possible without compulsion and dictatorship. The Marxian
theory has long ago criticized beyond misunderstanding this petty bourgeois-democratic
and anarchistic nonsense. And Russia of 1917-1918 confirms in this respect the Marxian
theory so clearly, palpably and convincingly that only those who, are hopelessly
stupid or who have firmly determined to ignore the truth can still err in this respect.
Either a Kornilov dictatorship (if Kornilov be taken as the Russian type of a bourgeois
Cavaignac), or a dictatorship of the proletariat—no other alternative is possible
for a country which is passing through an unusually swift development with unusually
difficult transitions and which suffers from desperate disorganization created by
the most horrible war. All middle courses are advanced—in order to deceive
the people—by the bourgeois, who are not in a position to tell the truth
and admit openly that they need a Kornilov, or—through stupidity—by
the petty bourgeois democrats, the Tchernovs, Zeretellis and Martovs, prattling
of a united democracy, of the dictatorship of democracy, of a single democratic
front and similar nonsense. Those who have not learned even from the course of the
Russian revolution of 1917-1918 that middle courses are impossible, must be given
up as hopeless.

On the other hand, it is not hard to see that during transition from capitalism
to Socialism a dictatorship is necessary for two main reasons. In the first place,
it is impossible to conquer and destroy capitalism without the merciless suppression
of the resistance of the exploiters, who cannot be at once deprived of their wealth,
of their advantages in organization and knowledge, and who will, therefore, during
quite a long period inevitably attempt to overthrow the hateful (to them) authority
of the poor. Secondly, every great revolution, especially a Socialist revolution,
even if there were no external war, is inconceivable without an internal war, with
thousands and millions of cases of wavering and of desertion from one side to the
other, and with a state of the greatest uncertainty, instability and chaos. And,
of course, all elements of decay of the old order, inevitably very numerous and
connected largely with the petty bourgeoisie (for the petty bourgeoisie is the first
victim of every war and every crisis) cannot fail to “give themselves away”
during such a profound transformation. And these elements of decay cannot appear
otherwise than through the increase of crimes, ruffianism, bribery, speculation and
other indecencies. It takes time. and an iron hand to get rid of this.

There never was a great revolution in history in which the people have not instinctively
felt this and have not displayed a salutary firmness, shooting thieves on the spot. The
trouble with the previous revolutions was this—that the revolutionary zeal of
the masses, which kept them vigilant and gave them strength to suppress mercilessly
the elements of decay, did not last long. The social, the class cause of such weakness
of revolutionary zeal lay in the weakness of the proletariat, which is the only
class capable (if sufficiently numerous, conscious and disciplined) of attracting
the majority of the exploited toilers (the majority of the poor, if we should use
a simpler and more popular expression) and of retaining the power for a sufficiently
long time to suppress completely both all exploiters and all elements of decay.

This historical experience of all revolutions, the universal historical, economic
and political lesson was summed up by Marx in his brief, sharp, exact and vivid formula:
the dictatorship of the proletariat. And that the Russian revolution has correctly
approached this universal historical problem has been proved by the victorious march
of the Soviet organization among all the peoples and tongues of Russia. For the
Soviet rule is nothing else than the organized form of the dictatorship of the proletariat,
the dictatorship of the advanced class awakening to a new Democracy, to independent
participation in the administration of the state, tens and tens of millions of exploited
toilers, who through their experience are discovering that the disciplined and class-conscious
vanguard of the proletariat is their most reliable leader.

But “dictatorship” is a great word. And great words must not be used
in vain. A dictatorship is an iron rule, with revolutionary daring and swift and
merciless in the suppression of the exploiters as well as of the thugs (hooligans.)
And our rule is too mild, quite frequently resembling putty rather than iron. We
must not for a moment forget that the bourgeois and petty bourgeois environment
is offering resistance to the Soviet rule in two ways: on the one hand, by external
pressure—by the methods of the Savinkovs, Gotz, Gegechkoris and Kornilovs,
by conspiracies and insurrections, with their ugly “ideologic” reflection,
by torrents of falsehood and calumny in the press of the Cadets, Socialists-Revolutionists
of the Right and Mensheviks; on the other hand, this environment exerts internal
pressure, taking advantage of every element of decay, of every weakness, to bribe,
to increase the lack of discipline, dissoluteness, chaos. The nearer we get to the
complete military suppression of the bourgeoisie, the more dangerous become for us
the petty bourgeois anarchic inclinations. And these inclinations cannot be combated
only by propaganda and agitation, by the organization of emulation , by the selection
of organizers; they must also be combated by compulsion.

To the extent to which the principal problem of the Soviet rule changes from military
suppression to administration—suppression and compulsion will, as a rule, be
manifested in trials, and not in shooting on the spot. And in this respect the revolutionary
masses have taken, after November 7, 1917, the right road and have proved the vitality
of the revolution, when they started to organize their own workmen’s and peasants’
tribunals, before any decrees were issued dismissing the bourgeois-democratic judicial
apparatus. But our revolutionary and popular tribunals are excessively and incredibly
weak. It is apparent that the popular view of courts—which was inherited from
the regime of the landowners and the bourgeoisie—as not belonging to the workers,
has not yet been completely destroyed. It is not sufficiently appreciated that the
courts serve to attract all the poor to administration (for judicial activity is
one of the functions of state administration); that the court is an organ of the
rule of the proletariat and of the poorest peasantry; that the court is a means of
training in discipline. There is a lack of appreciation of the simple and obvious
fact that, if the chief misfortunes of Russia are famine and unemployment, these
misfortunes cannot be overcome by any outbursts of enthusiasm, but only by thorough
and universal organization and discipline, in order to increase the production of
bread for men and fuel for industry, to transport it in time and to distribute it
in the right way. That therefore responsibility for the pangs of famine and unemployment
falls on everyone who violates the labor discipline in any enterprise and in any
business. That those who are responsible should be discovered, tried and punished
without mercy. The petty bourgeois environment, which we will have to combat persistently
now, shows particularly in the lack of comprehension of the economic and political
connection between famine and unemployment and the prevailing dissoluteness in organization
and discipline—in the firm hold of the view of the small proprietor that “nothing
matters, if only I gain as much as possible.”

This struggle of the petty bourgeois environment against proletarian organizations
is displayed with particular force in the railway industry, which embodies, probably,
most clearly the economic ties created by large capitalism. The “office”
element furnishes saboteurs and grafters in large numbers; the proletarian
element, its best part, is fighting for discipline. But between these two elements
there are, of course, many who waver, who are “weak,” who are unable
to resist the “temptation” of speculation, bribery and personal advantage,
at the expense of the industry, the uninterrupted work of which is necessary to
overcome famine and unemployment.

A characteristic struggle occurred on this basis in connection with the last decree
on railway management, the decree which granted dictatorial (or “unlimited”)
power to individual directors. The conscious (and mostly, probably, unconscious)
representatives of petty bourgeois dissoluteness contended that the granting of “unlimited”
(i. e. dictatorial) power to individuals was a defection from the principle of board
administration, from the democratic and other principles of the Soviet rule. Some
of the Socialist-Revolutionists of the Left carried on a plainly demagogic agitation
against the decree of dictatorship, appealing to the evil instincts and to the petty,
bourgeois desire for personal gain. The question thus presented is of really great
significance; first, the question of principle is, in general, the appointment of
individuals endowed with unlimited power, the appointment of dictators, in accord
with the fundamental principles of the Soviet rule; secondly, in what relation is
this case-this precedent, if you wish—to the special problems of the Soviet
rule during the present concrete period? Both questions deserve serious consideration.

Democracy and Dictatorship

That the dictatorship of individuals has very frequently in the history of revolutionary
movements served as an expression and means of realization of the dictatorship of
the revolutionary classes is confirmed by the undisputed experience of history. The
dictatorship of individuals has undoubtedly been compatible with bourgeois democratic
principles, but this point is always treated adroitly by the petty bourgeois critics
of the Soviet rule and by their petty bourgeois aides. On the one hand, they declare
the Soviet rule simply something absurd and anarchically wild, carefully avoiding
all our historical comparisons and theoretical proofs that the Soviets are a higher
form of democracy; nay, more, the beginning of a Socialist form of democracy. On the
other hand, they demand of us a higher democracy than the bourgeois and argue:
individual dictatorship is absolutely incompatible with your Bolshevist (i. e.
Socialist, not bourgeois) democratic principles, with the Soviet democratic principles.

Extremely poor arguments, these. If we are not, anarchists, we must admit the necessity
of a state; that is, of compulsion, for the transition from, capitalism to Socialism.
The form of compulsion is determined by the degree of development of the particular
revolutionary class, then by such special circumstances as, for instance, the heritage
of a long and reactionary war, and then by the forms of resistance of the bourgeoisie
and the petty bourgeoisie. There is therefore absolutely no contradiction in principle
between the Soviet (Socialist) democracy and the use of dictatorial power of individuals.
The distinction between a proletarian and a bourgeois dictatorship consists in this:
that the first directs its attacks against the exploiting minority in the interests
of the exploited majority; and, further, in, this—that the first is accomplished
(through individuals) not only by the masses of the exploited toilers, but also by
organizations which are so constructed that they arouse these masses to creative
work of historic significance. The Soviets belong to this kind of organization.

With respect to the second question on the significance of individual dictatorial
power from the standpoint of the specific problems of the present period, we must
say that every large machine industry—which is the material productive source
and basis of Socialism—requires an absolute and strict unity of the will which
directs the joint work of hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands of people. This
necessity is obvious from the technical economic and historical standpoint, and has
always been recognized as its prerequisite by all those who had given any thought
to Socialism. But how can we secure a strict unity of will? By subjecting the will
of thousands to the will of one.

This subjection, if the participants in the common work are ideally conscious and
disciplined, may resemble the mild leading of an orchestra conductor; it may also
take the acute form of a dictatorship—if there is no ideal discipline; and
consciousness. At any rate, complete submission to a single will for the success
of the processes of work organized on thc type of large machine industry is absolutely
necessary. This is doubly true of the railways. And just this transition from one
political problem to another, which in appearance has no resemblance to the first,
constitutes the peculiarity of the present period. The revolution has just broken
the oldest, the strongest, and the heaviest chains to which the masses were compelled
to submit. So it was yesterday. And today the same revolution—and indeed in the
interest of Socialism—demands the absolute submission of the masses to the single
will of those who direct the labor process. It is self-evident that such a transition
cannot take place at once. It is self-evident that it can be realized only after great
upheavals, crises, returns to the old; only through the greatest strain of the energy
of the proletarian vanguard which is leading the people to the new order. This is
ignored by those who, like the snug and comfort loving, fall into the hysterics of
the “Novaya Zhizn,” “Vperod,” “Dielo Naroda” and “Nash Viek.” [11]

The Transition Period

Take the psychology of the average, ordinary type of the toiling and exploited masses
and compare this psychology with the objective, material conditions of his social
life. Before the November revolution he had never seen the possessing exploiting
classes sacrifice in his favor anything that was really of value to them. He did
not believe that he would be given the often promised land and liberty; that he
would be given peace; that the interests of a “greater Russia” and of
the secret treaties aiming at a “greater Russia,” would be opposed to
the Bolsheviks would be sacrificed; that capital and profits would be surrendered.
He realized this only after November 7, 1917—when he took it himself by force
and when he had to defend this by force against the Kerenskys, Gotz, Gegechkoris,
Dutovs, and Kornilovs. It is natural that for a certain time all his attention,
all his thoughts, all his energy are turned in one direction—to breathe freely,
to straighten out, to expand, to take the immediate benefits of life which can be
taken and which were denied to him by the overthrown exploiters. It is natural that
it must take some time before the ordinary representative of the masses not only
sees and becomes convinced, but comes to feel that he must not just simply seize,
grab, snatch—that this leads to greater disorganization, to ruin, to the
return of the Kornilovs. A corresponding change in the environment (and, hence,
in the psychology) of the rank and file of the toiling masses is barely beginning.
And we, the Communist party (the Bolsheviks), which gives conscious expression to
the aspiration of the exploited masses for emancipation, should fully comprehend
this change and its necessity, should be in the front ranks of the weary masses
which are seeking a way out and should lead them along the right road—the
road of labor discipline, harmonizing the problem of holding meetings to discuss
the conditions of work, with the problem of absolute submission to the will of the
Soviet director, or the dictator, during work.

The habit of holding meetings is ridiculed, and more often wrathfully hissed at
by the bourgeoisie, Mensheviks, etc., who see only chaos, senseless bustle and
outbursts of petty bourgeois egoism. But without the “holding of meetings”
the oppressed masses could never pass from the discipline forced by the exploiters
to conscious and voluntary discipline. “Meeting holding” is the real
democracy of the toilers, their straightening out, their awakening to new life,
their first steps on the field which they themselves have cleared of reptiles (exploiters,
imperialists, landed proprietors, capitalists) and which they want to learn to put
in order themselves in their own way; for themselves, in accord with the principles
of their, “Soviet,” rule, and not the rule of the foreigners, of the
nobility and bourgeoisie. The November victory of the toilers against the exploiters,
was necessary; it was necessary to have a whole period of elementary discussion
by the toilers themselves of new conditions of life and of the new problems to make
possible a secure transition to higher forms of labor discipline, to a conscious
assimilation of the idea of the dictatorship of the proletariat, to absolute submission
to the personal orders of the representatives of Soviet rule during work.

This transition has now begun.

The Three Stages of the Revolution

We have successfully solved the first problem of the revolution. We saw how the
toiling masses formed in themselves the fundamental condition of a successful solution:
united efforts against the exploiters to overthrow them. Such stages as October,
1905, [12] and March and
November, 1917, are of universal historical significance.

We have successfully solved the second problem of the revolution; to awaken and
arouse the downtrodden social classes which were oppressed by the exploiters and
which only after November 7, 1917, have obtained the freedom to overthrow them and
to begin to take stock and to regulate their lives in their own way. The “meeting
holding” of the most oppressed and downtrodden, of the least trained toiling
masses, their joining the Bolsheviks, their creating Soviet organizations everywhere—this
is the second great stage of the revolution.

We are now in the third stage. Our gains, our decrees, our laws, our plans must be
secured by the solid forms of everyday labor discipline. This is the most difficult,
but also the most promising problem, for only its solution will give us Socialism.
We must learn to combine the stormy, energetic breaking of all restraint on the part
of the toiling masses, with iron discipline during work, with absolute submission
to the will of one person, the Soviet director, during work.

We have not yet learned this, but we will learn it.

The restoration of bourgeois exploitation threatened us yesterday through the Kornilovs,
Gotz, Dutovs, Gegechkoris, Bogajevskys. We defeated them. This restoration, the very
same restoration threatens us today in a different form through the environment
of petty bourgeois dissoluteness and anarchism, in the form of ordinary, small,
but numerous attacks and aggressions of this environment against proletarian discipline.
This environment of petty bourgeois anarchy we must and we will conquer.

The Character of Soviet Organization

The Socialist character of the Soviet democracy—that is, of proletarian democracy
in its concrete particular application—consists first in this: that the electorate
comprises the toiling and exploited masses—that the bourgeoisie is excluded.
Second in this: that all bureaucratic formalities and limitations of elections are
done away with—that the masses themselves determine the order and the time
of elections and with complete freedom of recall of elected officials. Third, that
the best possible mass organization of the vanguard of the toilers—of the industrial
proletariat—is formed, enabling them to direct the exploited masses, to attract
them to active participation in political life, to train them politically through
their own experience, that in this way a beginning has been made for the first time
actually to get the whole population to learn how to manage and to begin managing.

Such are the principal distinctive features of the democracy which is being tried
in Russia and which is a higher type of democracy, which breaks away from bourgeois
distortion, and which is a transition to socialist democracy and to conditions which
will mean the beginning of the end of the state.

Of course, the chaotic petty bourgeois disorganization (which will inevitably manifest
itself in one or another degree during every proletarian revolution, and which in
our revolution, on account of the petty bourgeois character of the country, its
backwardness, and the consequences of the reactionary war, manifests itself with
special strength), cannot but leave its mark on the Soviets.

We must work unceasingly to develop the organization of the Soviets and Soviet rule.
There is a petty bourgeois tendency to turn the members of the Soviets into “parliamentarians”
or, on the other hand, into bureaucrats. This should be combated by attracting all
members of the Soviet to practical participation in management. The departments of
the Soviets are turning in many places into organs which gradually merge with the
commissariats. Our aim is to attract every member of the poor classes to practical
participation in the management, and the different steps leading toward this end
(the more diverse the better), should be carefully registered, studied, systematized,
verified on broader, experiences and legalized. It is our object to obtain the free
performance of state obligations by every toiler after he is through with his eight hour
session of productive work. The transition toward this end is especially difficult,
but only this transition will secure the definite realization of Socialism. The novelty
and the difficulty of the change naturally cause an abundance of steps which are
made, so to speak, in the dark, an abundance of mistakes and hesitations. Without
this, no sudden movement forward is possible. The originality of the present situation
consists, from the standpoint of many who consider themselves Socialists, in this—that
people have been used theoretically to contrast capitalism and Socialism, and between
one and they profoundly put the word “leap” (some, recalling Engels ,
quote more profoundly this: “A leap from the kingdom of necessity to the kingdom
of freedom.”) That the word “leap” was used by the Socialist teachers
to denote the crisis of an historical transformation and that leaps of this kind
comprise periods of ten or more years—this cannot be understood by most of
the so-called Socialists who study Socialism from books, and who have never given
serious thought to this matter. It is natural that the so-called “Intelligentzia”
furnish during such times an infinite number of criers after the dead; one bewails
the Constituent Assembly; another bourgeois discipline; a third, the capitalist order;
a fourth, the cultured aristocrat; a fifth, imperialistic “greater Russia”;
and so on and so forth.

The Socialists and the Passing Order

The real interest of an epoch of great leaps consists in this: that the abundance
of fragments of the old order which sometimes accumulate more rapidly than the germs
of the new order (which are not always immediately discernible), requires ability
to distinguish the most essential in the line or chain of development. There are
historical periods when it is most important for the success of the revolution to
smash as many fragments as possible that is, to blow up as many old institutions
as possible. But there are periods when enough has been blown up, and it becomes
necessary to turn to the “prosaic” work of clearing the ground of the
fragments, which work the bourgeoise revolutionists calls “tedious.”
And there are periods when it is most important to tend carefully the germs of the
new growth under the fragments, on the soil that is yet full of rubbish.

It is not enough to be a revolutionist and an adherent of Socialism or Communism
in general. One must be able to find at any moment that particular link in the chain
that must be grasped with full strength lest the chain slip away, and to prepare
a sound passage to the next link. The order of the links, their form, their connections,
their distinction, from one to another in the historical chain of events is not so
simple as in an ordinary chain which is made by a blacksmith.

The outcome of struggle with the bureaucratic distortion of the Soviet organizations
is assured by the firm bond between the Soviets and the people (in the sense of
the exploited toilers), by the flexibility and elasticity of this bond. The bourgeois
parliaments even in the most democratic capitalist republic are never looked upon
by the poor as “their” institutions. But the Soviets are for the masses
of the workers and peasants, “their own,” and not alien institutions.
The modern “social-democrats” of the Scheidemann kind or, what is almost
synonymous of the Martov kind, are just as averse to the Soviets, are just as much
attracted to the well-behaved bourgeois parliament, or to the Constituent Assembly,
as Turgenev attracted sixty years ago to a moderate monarchist and aristocratic
constitution, as he was averse to the peasant democracy of Dobrolubov and
Tchernyshevsky. [13]

This proximity of the Soviets to the toiling people creates special forms of recall
and other methods of control by the masses which should now be developed with special
diligence. For instance, the councils of popular education deserve the fullest sympathy
and support as periodical conferences of the Soviet electors and their delegates
to discuss and to control the activity of the Soviet authorities of the particular
region. Nothing could be more foolish than turning the Soviets into something settled
and self-sufficient. The more firmly we now have to advocate a merciless and firm
rule and dictatorship of individuals for definite processes of work during certain
periods of purely executive functions, the more diverse should be the forms and
means of mass control in order to paralyze every possibility of distorting the Soviet
role, in order repeatedly tirelessly to remove the wild grass of bureauratism.

Conclusions

An unusually grave, difficult and dangerous international situation exists; a period
of “tacking;” a period of waiting for new outbursts of revolution in
the West, which is painfully slow in coming. Within the country we are passing through
a period of slow constructive work and of merciless rigor, of a long and persistent
struggle of the proletarian discipline with the threatening petty bourgeois dissoluteness
and anarchy. Such, in short, are the distinctive features of the present stage in
the Socialist revolution. Such is the link in the historical chain of events which
we must now grasp with all our strength to come out with honor, before we pass to
the next link—which draws us by its glory, by the glory of the victories of the
international proletarian revolution.

Try to compare with the ordinary, popular idea of a “revolutionist,”
the slogans which are dictated by the peculiarities of the present situation: to
be cautious, to retreat, to wait, to build slowly, to be mercilessly rigorous, to
discipline sternly, to attack dissoluteness. Is it surprising that some “revolutionists,”
hearing this, become full of noble indignation and begin to “attack”
us for forgetting the traditions of the November revolution, for compromising with
bourgeois specialists, for compromises with the bourgeoisie, for petty bourgeois
tendencies, for reformism, etc., etc.?

The trouble with these super-revolutionists is this: that even those who are actuated
by the best motives in the world, and are absolutely loyal to the cause of Socialism,
fail to comprehend the particular and “particularly unpleasant” state
that must inevitably be passed by a backward country which has been shattered by
a reactionary and ill-fated war and which started the Socialist revolution long before
the more advanced countries. They lack firmness in difficult moments of a difficult
transition. It is natural that this kind of “official” opposition to
our party comes from the Socialist-Revolutionist of the Left. Of course there are,
and always will be, individual exceptions to group and class types. But social types
remain. In a country where the petty bourgeois population is vastly predominant in
comparison with the purely proletarian, the difference between the proletarian and
the petty bourgeois revolutionist will inevitably appear, and from time to time
very sharply. The petty bourgeois revolutionist hesitates and wavers at every turn
of events; passes from a violently revolutionary position in March, 1917, to lauding
“coalition” in May; to hatred against the Bolsheviks, to bewailing their
“adventurousness” in July; to cautiously drawing away from them in the
beginning of November; to supporting them in December; and lastly, in March and
April, 1918, such types usually turn up their noses scornfully and say, “I
am not of those who sing hymns to organic work, to practicism and gradualism.”

The social course of such types is that of the small proprietor who has been maddened
by the horrors of the war, by sudden ruin, by the unheard of torments of starvation
and disorganization; who is tossing hysterically, seeking a way out, seeking salvation,
hesitating between confidence and support to the proletariat on the one hand; and
fits of despair on the other hand. We must clearly comprehend and firmly remember
that Socialism cannot be built on such a social base. Only a class that marches
along its road without hesitation, that does not become dejected and does not despair
on the most difficult and dangerous crossings, can lead the toiling and exploited
masses. We do not need hysterical outbursts. We need the regular march of the iron
battalions of the proletariat.

Moscow, April, 1918.

THE BRIGAND’S PEACE

The International Situation

The history of mankind is today recording one of the greatest and most difficult
crises which has an infinite—we can say without the least exaggeration—world-wide
liberating significance. It is not surprising that at the most difficult points of
such a crisis, when everywhere around us the old order is crumbling and falling apart
with tumult and crash, and a new order is being born in indescribable torments—it
is not surprising that some are becoming bewildered, some become victims of despair,
and others, to escape from the bitter reality, are taking cover behind beautifull
and enchanting phrases.

The Story of the Revolution

We were forced, however, to observe most clearly, and to pass through the sharp and
painful experience of the most difficult crisis of history which turns the world
from imperialism towards communistic revolution. In a few days we destroyed one of
the oldest, most powerful, barbarous and cruel monarchies. In a few months we passed
through a number of stages of compromise with the bourgeoisie and got over the petty
bourgeois illusions, in the grip of which other countries have spent decades. In
a few weeks we have overthrown the bourgeoisie and crushed her open resistance in
civil war. We passed in a victorious and triumphant procession of Bolshevism from
one end of an enormous country to the other. We aroused to freedom and independence
the most humble sections of the toiling masses oppressed by czarism and the bourgeoisie.
We introduced and firmly established the Soviet republic—a new type of state—infinitely
higher and more democratic than the best of the bourgeois-parliamentary republics.
We established the dictatorship of the proletariat, supported by the poorest peasantry,
and have inaugurated a comprehensively planned system of Socialist reform. We awakened
self-confidence and kindled the fire of enthusiasm in the hearts of millions upon
millions of workers of all countries. We sent broadcast the clarion call of the
international working class revolution. We challenged the imperialistic plunderers
of all countries.

Brest-Litovsk—A Brigand’s Peace

And in a few days an imperialistic brigand knocked us down, attacking those who had
no arms. He forced us to sign an incredibly oppressive and humiliating peace—a
penalty for our daring to break away, even for as short a time as possible, from
the iron grip of the imperialistic war. And the more threateningly the spectre of
a working class revolution in his own country rises before the brigand, the more
furiously he oppresses and strangles and tears Russia to pieces.

Must Face the Truth

We were compelled to sign a “Tilsit” peace. We must not deceive ourselves.
We must have courage to face the unadorned, bitter truth. We must size up in full,
to the very bottom, the abyss of defeat, partition, enslavement and humiliation into
which we have been thrown. The clearer we understand this, the firmer, the more hardened
and inflexible will become our will for liberation, our desire to arise anew from
enslavement to independence, our firm determination to see at all costs, that Russia
shall cease to be poor and weak, that she may become truly powerful and prosperous.

She can become such, for we still have left sufficient expanse and natural resources
to supply all and everyone, if not with abundance, at least with sufficient means
of subsistence. We have the material in the natural resources, in the supply of human
energy, and in the splendid impetus which the creative spirit of the people received
through the great revolution, to create a really mighty and abundant Russia.

Russia will become such, provided she frees herself of all dejection and phrase-mongering;
provided she strains her every nerve and every muscle; provided she comes to understand
that salvation is possible only on the road of the international Socialist revolution,
which we have chosen. To move forward along this road, not becoming dejected in case of
defeats; to lay, stone after stone, the firm foundation of a Socialist society; to
work tirelessly to create discipline and self-discipline; to strengthen everywhere
organization, order, efficiency, the harmonious cooperation of all the people’s
forces, state accounting and control over production and distribution of products—such
is the road towards the creation of military power and Socialist power.

The Proper Understanding

It is unworthy of a true Socialist, if badly defeated, either to deny that fact or
to become despondent. It is not true that we have no way out and that we can only
choose between a “disgraceful” death (from the standpoint of a feudal
knight), which an oppressive peace is, and a “glorious” death in a hopeless
battle. It is not true that we have betrayed our ideals or our friends when we signed
the “Tilsit” peace. We have betrayed nothing and nobody, we have not
sanctioned or covered any lie, we have not refused to aid any friend and comrade
in misfortune in any way we could, or by any means at our disposal.

A commander who leads into the interior the remnants of an army which is defeated
or disorganized by a disorderly flight and who, if necessary, protects this retreat
by a most humiliating and oppressive peace, is not betraying those parts of the army
which he cannot help and which are cut off by the enemy. Such a commander is only
doing his duty, he is choosing the only way to save what can still be saved, he is
scorning adventures, telling the people the bitter truth, “yielding territory
in order to win time,” utilizing any, even the shortest respite in order to
gather, again his forces, and to give the army, which is affected by disintegration
and demoralization, a chance to rest and recover.

An Historical Parallel

We, have signed a “Tilsit” peace. When Napoleon I forced Prussia in 1807
to accept the Tilsit peace, the conqueror had defeated all the German armies, occupied
the capital and all the large cities, established his police, compelled the conquered
to give him auxiliary corps in order to wage new wars of plunder of the conquerors,
dismembered Germany, forming an alliance with some of the German states against other
German states. And nevertheless, even after such a peace the German people were not
subdued; they managed to recover, to rise and to win the right to freedom and independence.

To any person able and willing to think, the example of the Tilsit peace (which was
only one of the many oppressive and humiliating treaties forced upon the Germans
in that epoch) shows clearly how childishly naive is the thought that an oppressive
peace is, under all circumstances, ruinous, and war the road of valor and salvation.
The war epochs teach us that peace has in many cases in history served as a respite
to gather strength for new battles. The Peace of Tilsit was the greatest humiliation
of Germany and at the same time a turning point to the greatest national awakening.
At that time the historical environment offered, only one outlet for this awakening—a
bourgeois state. At that time, over a hundred years ago, history was made by a handful
of noblemen and small groups of bourgeois intellectuals, while the mass of workers
and peasants were inactive and inert. Owing to this, history at that time could crawl
only with awful slowness.

With an Eye Toward Socialism

Now capitalism has considerably raised the level of culture in general and
of the culture of the masses in particular. The war aroused the masses, awakened
them by unheard of horrors and sufferings. The war has given impetus to history and
now the world is speeding along with the speed of a locomotive. History is now being
independently made by millions and tens of millions of people. Capitalism has now
become ripe for Socialism.

Thus, if Russia now moves—and it cannot be denied that she does move from a
“Tilsit” peace to national awakening and to a great war for the fatherland—the
outlet of such an awakening leads not to the bourgeois state but to an international
Socialist revolution. We are “resistants” since November 7, 1917. We
are for the “defense of our fatherland,” but the war for the fatherland
towards which we are moving is a war for a Socialist fatherland, for Socialism, as
a part of the universal army of Socialism.

---
Notes:
[1]
The Bolsheviks —formerly a faction within the Social-Democratic Labor Party, have recently changed their name
to Communist Party to distinguish themselves from the other Social-Democratic groups.

The terms Bolsheviks and Mensheviks date back to 1903, when at a congress of the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party a difference arose on a seemingly
unimportant question (editorial supervision of the party organ), when upon a vote
which decided the question, there naturally was a majority and minority. Those
who were with the majority were nicknamed Bolsheviks and those with the minority
Mensheviks, deriving their names from the Russian words Bolshinstvo and Menshinstvo,
meaning majority and minority respectively.

[2]
November 7, 1917, is the date of the successful Bolshevik coup d’etat .
The Kerensky coalition government was forced to abdicate on that day and the Soviet
government, with the Bolshevik leaders, Nikolai Lenin and Leon Trotsky, at the helm,
was instituted in its place.

[3]
Tchernov and Zeretelli, leaders of the moderate Socialist-Revolutionists and Social-Democrats
(Mensheviks) respectively were members of the Kerensky government, which had also
non-Socialist (Constitutionalists-Democrats) representatives. They favored coalition,
while the Bolsheviks stood for a complete control of the government by the Soviets.

[4]
The Constitutionalists-Democrats, the party of the bourgeois liberals, led by
Professor Paul N. Miluykov, who was Foreign Minister in the first Provisional Government,
derive the name Cadets from the two Russian initials of their full name.

[5]
The Mensheviks are the moderate wing of the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party,
and have always opposed the Bolsheviks on questions of tactics. The war and the
Revolution have widened the gulf which separated them, though both elements considered
themselves as belonging to one Marxian Socialist movement. Since the beginning of
the war the Mensheviks themselves were split into two factions, the one led by George V. Plechanov ,
which was nationalist, and the other led by Martov, which was internationalist.
During the first eight months of the Revolution (March-November), the Mensheviks
were in control of the Soviets, while the Bolsheviks were the opposition, demanding
the break of the Mensheviks with the bourgeois parties. It was this policy that finally
led to the victory of the Bolsheviks over the Mensheviks in the Soviet.

[6]
The Party of Socialist-Revolutionists was the other Socialist party in Russia. It
represented the non-Marxian Socialist movement. While the Social-Democrats were primarily
active among the city workers, the Socialist-Revolutionists interested themselves
in the agrarian problem and spread their organization among the peasants. With this
party was also connected the Terrorist group, which was responsible for the various
assassinations under the old regime. As with the Social-Democrats, the war and the
Revolution have brought about a split among the Socialist-Revolutionists. Corresponding
to the Plechanov group among the Social-Democrats, were the elements among the Socialist-Revolutionists,
led by Mme. Breshko-Breskovsky, known as Babushka (little mother), who supported
Kerensky, also a member of this party. The moderate Internationalist group led by
Victor Tchernov formed the center and the radical elements led by Spiridonova formed
the left wing.

[7]
Reference is here made to the surrender of the leader of the Don Cossacks during
one of the counter-revolutionary attempts in the region under General Kaledin, the
Hetman of the Don Cossacks.

[8]
Persons representing bourgeois counter-revolutionary elements and Socialist groups
actively opposing the Bolsheviks, and thirdly or indirectly aiding the counter-revolutionists.

[9]
Middle class intellectuals form a separate entity in Russian society.

[10]
See note 8 .

[11]
Liberal and moderate Socialist journals representing group opposed to the Bolsheviks.

[12]
October, 1905, saw the beginning of the first Russian Revolution. It was during that,
month that the General strike was declared and the open struggle between the revolutionary
forces and the autocracy ensued. The Czar’s government was forced to grant a
constitution (October 30) and establish a parliamentary form of government (Duma).

[13]
Noted radical sociologists and publicists of that period.