Date: 1918
Source: ru:PSS/v40

Our newspaper{123} is devoted to the question of communist labor.

This is the most crucial issue in the construction of socialism. First and foremost, we must thoroughly grasp that this question could be raised in practice only after the proletariat had seized political power—only after the expropriation of landowners and capitalists; only after the decisive victories won by the proletariat, which had captured state power, over the exploiters who had mounted desperate resistance, launching counterrevolutionary uprisings and waging civil war.

In early 1918, it seemed that this moment had arrived—and indeed, it did arrive, following the February (1918) military campaign launched by German imperialism against Russia. Yet that brief period was fleeting: a new, even more formidable wave of counterrevolutionary uprisings and invasions surged forward with such swiftness that the Soviet government found itself unable to devote sustained, focused attention to the tasks of peaceful reconstruction.

Now we have endured two years of unprecedented and unimaginable hardships—hunger, deprivation, calamity—while at the same time witnessing the Red Army’s extraordinary victories over the hordes of international capitalist reaction.

With the current situation, there are serious grounds for hope (provided the French capitalists do not drag Poland into war) that we may secure a peace that is more stable and longer lasting.

Over the past two years, we have already accumulated some experience in building on the foundations of socialism. Therefore, the question of communist labor can—and indeed must—be addressed head-on; or rather, to be precise, we should speak not of “communist” labor, but of socialist labor, since we are not dealing with the highest stage of development, but with the lower, the initial stage of a new social order emerging from capitalism.

Communist labor, in its narrower and more rigorous sense, is labor performed free of charge for the benefit of society—not labor undertaken merely to fulfill a prescribed obligation, nor to earn entitlement to specific goods according to pre-established, legally sanctioned norms—but voluntary labor, labor that transcends ordinary standards, labor given without expectation of remuneration, without any stipulation regarding compensation; labor born of habit, of a deep-seated commitment to working for the common good, and of a conscious (and increasingly habitual) recognition of the necessity of labor for the common welfare—labor as a vital need of the healthy organism.

It is clear to everyone that we, our society, our social order, are still very, very far from the widespread, truly mass application of such labor.

But even the fact that this question has been raised—indeed, that it has been raised both by the vanguard of the proletariat (the Communist Party and the trade unions) and by the state authorities—is a step forward on this path.

To achieve the great, one must begin with the small.

And, conversely, after the “great”—after the state revolution that overthrew capitalist property and transferred power to the proletariat—the task of building economic life on a new foundation can only be begun with the small.

Subbotniks, labor armies, compulsory labor—all these represent practical implementations, in various forms, of socialist and communist labor.

There are still numerous shortcomings in this implementation. Only those utterly incapable of thinking can dismiss these shortcomings with laughter—or with bitterness—unless we are speaking of defenders of capitalism.

Shortcomings, errors, and missteps are inevitable in such a new, such a difficult, such a momentous undertaking. Whoever fears the challenges of building socialism, whoever allows themselves to be intimidated by them, whoever falls into despair or cowardly confusion, is not a socialist.

To forge a new discipline of labor, to develop new forms of social connection among people, to create new methods and approaches for engaging individuals in work—this is a task that will take many years, even decades.

It is the most rewarding and noblest of labors.

We are fortunate that, having overthrown the bourgeoisie and crushed its resistance, we were able to secure the very ground upon which such work became possible.

And we will undertake this work with all our energy. Patience, perseverance, readiness, determination, and the ability to try again and again, to correct and refine our efforts a hundred times over—and to achieve our goal at all costs—these are qualities the proletariat cultivated within itself over ten, fifteen, twenty years prior to the October Revolution; they were further honed in the two years following that revolution, as the proletariat endured unimaginable hardship, hunger, ruin, and disaster. It is precisely these qualities of the proletariat that guarantee its ultimate victory.

April 8, 1920

“Communist Subbotnik,” April 11, 1920. Signed: N. Lenin

Printed from the text of the newspaper “Communist Subbotnik.”