Part 7 (1/2)

It is the purpose of every Socialist party to revolutionize the minds of the working cla.s.s in the same way as development of capitalism has revolutionized social relations. The work of propaganda and organization among the proletariat, however, has its own intrinsic inertia. The Socialist parties of Europe--in the first place the most powerful of them, the German Socialist party--have developed a conservatism of their own, which grows in proportion as Socialism embraces ever larger ma.s.ses and organization and discipline increase. Social-Democracy, personifying the political experience of the proletariat, can, therefore, at a certain juncture, become an immediate obstacle on the way of an open proletarian conflict with the bourgeois reaction. In other words, the propaganda-conservatism of a proletarian party can, at a certain moment, impede the direct struggle of the proletariat for power. The colossal influence of the Russian revolution manifests itself in killing party routine, in destroying Socialist conservatism, in making a clean contest of proletarian forces against capitalist reaction a question of the day.

The struggle for universal suffrage in Austria, Saxony and Prussia has become more determined under the direct influence of the October strike in Russia. An Eastern revolution imbues the Western proletariat with revolutionary idealism and stimulates its desire to speak ”Russian” to its foes.

The Russian proletariat in power, even if this were only the result of a pa.s.sing combination of forces in the Russian bourgeois revolution, would meet organized opposition on the part of the world's reaction, and readiness for organized support on the part of the world's proletariat.

Left to its own resources, the Russian working cla.s.s must necessarily be crushed the moment it loses the aid of the peasants. Nothing remains for it but to link the fate of its political supremacy and the fate of the Russian revolution with the fate of a Socialist revolution in Europe.

All that momentous authority and political power which is given to the proletariat by a combination of forces in the Russian bourgeois revolution, it will thrust on the scale of cla.s.s struggle in the entire capitalistic world. Equipped with governmental power, having a counter-revolution behind his back, having the European reaction in front of him, the Russian workingman will issue to all his brothers the world over his old battle-cry which will now become the call for the last attack: _Proletarians of all the world, unite!_

EXPLANATORY NOTES

The first _Council of Workmen's Deputies_ was formed in Petersburg, on October 13th, 1905, in the course of the great general October strike that compelled Nicholas Romanoff to promise a Const.i.tution.

It represented individual factories, labor unions, and included also delegates from the Socialist parties. It looked upon itself as the center of the revolution and a nucleus of a revolutionary labor government. Similar Councils sprung up in many other industrial centers. It was arrested on December 3d, having existed for fifty days. Its members were tried and sent to Siberia.

_Intelligentzia_ is a term applied in Russia to an indefinite, heterogeneous group of ”intellectuals,” who are not actively and directly involved in the industrial machinery of capitalism, and at the same time are not members of the working cla.s.s. It is customary to count among the _Intelligentzia_ students, teachers, writers, lawyers, physicians, college professors, etc. However, the term _Intelligentzia_ implies also a certain degree of idealism and radical aspirations.

_Witte_ was the first prime-minister under the quasi-const.i.tution granted on October 17th, 1905. _Stolypin_ was appointed prime minister after the dissolution of the first Duma in July, 1906.

Under the _minimum program_ the Social-Democrats understand all that range of reforms which can be obtained under the existing capitalist system of ”private owners.h.i.+p of the means of production,” such as an eight hour workday, social insurance, universal suffrage, a republican order. The _maximum program_ demands the abolition of private property and public management of industries, i.e., Socialism.

”_Some prejudices among the ma.s.ses_” referred to in this essay is the alleged love of the primitive ma.s.ses for their Tzar. This was an argument usually put forth by the liberals against republican aspirations.

_Lower-Middle-Cla.s.s_ is the only term half-way covering the Russian ”Mieshchanstvo” used by Trotzky. ”Mieshchanstvo” has a socio-economic meaning, and a flavor of moral disapproval. Socially and economically it means those numerous inhabitants of modern cities who are engaged in independent economic pursuits, as artisans (masters), shopkeepers, small manufacturers, petty merchants, etc., who have not capital enough to rank with the bourgeoisie. Morally ”Mieshchanstvo” presupposes a limited horizon, lack of definite revolutionary or political ideas, and lack of political courage.

The _Village community_ is a remnant of old times in Russia. Up to 1906 the members of the village were not allowed to divide the land of the community among the individual peasants on the basis of private property. The land legally belonged to the entire community which allotted it to its members. Since 1906 the compulsory character of communal land-owners.h.i.+p was abandoned, yet in very great areas of Russia it still remained the prevailing system of land-owners.h.i.+p.

Besides having a share in the community-land, the individual peasant could acquire a piece of land out of his private means (the seller being usually the landlord) and thus become a _small private owner_.

THE SOVIET AND THE REVOLUTION

(Fifty Days)

About two years after the arrest of the Soviet of 1905, a number of former leaders of that organization, among them Chrustalyov Nossar, the first chairman, and Trotzky, the second chairman, met abroad after having escaped from Siberian exile. They decided to sum up their Soviet experiences in a book which they called _The History of the Council of Workingmen's Deputies_. The book appeared in 1908 in Petersburg, and was immediately suppressed. One of the essays of this book is here reprinted.

In his estimation of the role of the Soviet Trotzky undoubtedly exaggerates. Only by a flight of imagination can one see in the activities of the Soviet regarding the postal, telegraph and railroad strikers the beginnings of a Soviet control over post-office, telegraph and railroads. It is also a serious question whether the Soviet was really a leading body, or whether it was led by the current of revolutionary events which it was unable to control. What makes this essay interesting and significant is Trotzky's a.s.sertion that ”the first new wave of the revolution will lead to the creation of Soviets all over the country.” This has actually happened. His predictions of the formation of an all-Russian Soviet, and of the program the Soviets would follow, have also been realized in the course of the present revolution.

1

The history of the Soviet is a history of fifty days. The Soviet was const.i.tuted on October 13th; its session was interrupted by a military detachment of the government on December 3rd. Between those two dates the Soviet lived and struggled.

What was the substance of this inst.i.tution? What enabled it in this short period to take an honorable place in the history of the Russian proletariat, in the history of the Russian Revolution?

The Soviet organized the ma.s.ses, conducted political strikes, led political demonstrations, tried to arm the workingmen. But other revolutionary organizations did the same things. The substance of the Soviet was its effort to become _an organ of public authority_. The proletariat on one hand, the reactionary press on the other, have called the Soviet ”a labor government”; this only reflects the fact that the Soviet was in reality _an embryo of a revolutionary government_. In so far as the Soviet was in actual possession of authoritative power, it made use of it; in so far as the power was in the hands of the military and bureaucratic monarchy, the Soviet fought to obtain it. Prior to the Soviet, there had been revolutionary organizations among the industrial workingmen, mostly of a Social-Democratic nature. But those were organizations _among_ the proletariat; their immediate aim was to _influence the ma.s.ses_. The Soviet is an organization _of_ the proletariat; its aim is to fight for _revolutionary power_.

At the same time, the Soviet was _an organized expression of the will of the proletariat as a cla.s.s_. In its fight for power the Soviet applied such methods as were naturally determined by the character of the proletariat as a cla.s.s: its part in production; its numerical strength; its social h.o.m.ogeneity. In its fight for power the Soviet has combined the direction of all the social activities of the working cla.s.s, including decisions as to conflicts between individual representatives of capital and labor. This combination was by no means an artificial tactical attempt: it was a natural consequence of the situation of a cla.s.s which, consciously developing and broadening its fight for its immediate interests, had been compelled by the logic of events to a.s.sume a leading position in the revolutionary struggle for power.

The main weapon of the Soviet was a political strike of the ma.s.ses. The power of the strike lies in disorganizing the power of the government.