# We Must Expose the Capitalists
Source: PSS, Volume 32

V. Bazarov, whose expertise on the state of our industry is beyond question, wrote in “Novaya Zhizn” on May 24:

“War—and the economic and financial devastation it has wrought—have brought about a situation in which the private interests of individual entrepreneurs are no longer directed toward strengthening and developing the country’s productive forces, but rather toward their destruction. At present, it is more profitable—while awaiting price increases—to leave the material components of capital idle than to put them into circulation; it is more profitable to produce goods utterly unfit for military supply under conditions that are ruinous for the nation itself than to faithfully meet the pressing needs of the popular masses; and above all, it is most advantageous to build new defense plants that will never be put to use—plants that will only be able to begin operations in two or three years’ time. Is it any wonder that what is called ‘the national economy’ has degenerated in our country into a reckless bacchanalia of plunder, industrial anarchy, and the systematic embezzlement of the nation’s wealth…?”

…In the name of what will a poorly informed—or even a fully conscious—worker renounce a ‘moderate’ bonus of 3–4 rubles when hundreds of millions are being haphazardly looted and squandered before his very eyes?”

No honest person would dare deny that V. Bazarov is speaking the plain truth.

‘A bacchanalia of plunder’—there is no other word to describe the conduct of capitalists during wartime.

This bacchanalia is driving the entire country to ruin.

We cannot remain silent. We cannot tolerate it.

Let every worker who knows and understands what is happening at ‘his’ factory; let every bank clerk, factory employee, or merchant who cares about the fate of the nation; let every engineer, statistician, or accountant devote all their efforts to gathering, however fragmentarily, as accurate—ideally documentary—data as possible on this bacchanalia of plunder: that is, on prices and profits.

We cannot remain silent. We cannot tolerate it. After all, we are not children—we cannot allow ourselves to be lulled into complacency by the promises of quasi-socialist ministers or by commissions, departments, and sub-departments staffed with bureaucrats.

If the government in Russia were not captive to the capitalists—if it were composed of individuals who both desired and were capable of acting decisively, of acting to save the country from ruin—it would have immediately, without delay—not a single day, not a single hour—issued a law mandating the public disclosure of all prices for military supplies, as well as all data concerning profits.

To talk endlessly about the impending collapse, about saving the country from ruin, yet fail to take action—is to sink to the level of a charlatan who deceives the working masses, or to become a mere pawn in the hands of deceivers.

To expect such a law from the capitalist government—from Messrs. Lvov, Tereshchenko, Shingarev, and Co., from their impotent, toy-like ‘appendage,’ Chernov, Tsereteli, Peshekhonov, Skobelev—would be childishly naive. Only those afflicted with ‘ministerial softening of the brain’ could possibly harbor such expectations.

All the more reason we must call upon private initiative. Comrades and fellow citizens! All who wish to truly help save the country from famine should immediately collect and publish whatever data they can obtain regarding prices and profits.

Exposing the capitalists is the first step toward reining in the capitalists.

Unmasking the bacchanalia of plunder is the first step toward combating the plunderers.

“Pravda,” No. 67, June 9 (May 27), 1917

Printed according to the text of the newspaper “Pravda.”