An Eye-witness from Russia/Chapter 2
II.
A Rural District under the Bolsheviks.
In the following article I discuss the condition of a rural district under Bolshevik rule during the winter and spring of 1917–18. At that time I was engaged in relief work in the Buzuluk department of the Samara government on behalf of the friends' War Victims' Relief Committee.
Of all the industrial and economic enterprises in the district none suffered less change than the Co-operative Society, which had been started before the war under the old régime, and which continued unchanged under the Provisional and Kerensky Governments, and enlarged its membership 500 per cent. under the Bolsheviks. In the time I speak of the Co-operative Society had virtually become a monopoly, and had either put out of business or absorbed the small traders. It could get credit from the Soviet, was recognised by the railway officials almost as a Government department, and could undertake purchasing operations on a large scale and look to guarantee of transport. It had an organisation of sub-branches in nearly every village, and could distribute and sell its goods without having to get permits and licences from the Soviet. The Government decided to purchase wheat and rye in Siberia for seed and consumption, and naturally placed the order with the Co-operative Society. Purchase of medical requirements in Moscow for the numerous Soviet hospitals was done through the same channel, members of the Soviet often travelling with the buyers in order to guarantee good faith.
The profits of the Co-operative Society, which were reduced to a minimum, but which on the millions of roubles of turnover amounted to a considerable sum, were devoted to educational purposes. Evening classes were started in modern languages, geography, history, and the Russian language; in bookkeeping and business training; subsidies were granted for agricultural colleges and schools, and scholarships were founded for the gvmnasia (secondary schools).
An Educational Revival.
The educational programme of the Bolsheviks was ambitious, but it was this ambitiousness which commended it to the people. The Bolsheviks aimed at starting a school in every village and increasing the number of gymnasia in the district and founding a university, but in this project they were stopped by lack of teachers. To overcome this difficulty they started training colleges for teachers, which were financed by the Soviet. Scholarships were given to promising pupils, which would carry them through the gymnasia and on to the universities already founded, such as those at Kazan, Odessa, and Samara. In this work they co-operated with the Buzuluk Co-operative Society.
The enthusiasm of teachers for their work, which had been depressed by the restrictions of the old régime, revived. They gave up their holidays to attend university extension lectures and evening classes, in order to improve their teaching capacity for the coming terms. Technical classes were started, and the agricultural schools and colleges, some of which were already in operation under the old régime, were revived, additional instructors obtained, and new institutions begun. The thoroughness with which the educational programme was dealt with is illustrated by a movement to start a George Junior Republic by the President of the Teachers' Union, a man who had come from Moscow. (A "George Junior Republic," it may be explained, is an experiment which has been successfully tried in the United States for giving self-government to wayward boys and girls who have not proved amenable to ordinary school discipline.) On this subject, as on many others dealing with education, he sought the advice of English and Americans who had had experience in educational problems and with kindred activities, such as the Boy Scout movement. Under the stricter days of the old régime the Boy Scout movement was not permitted in Russia, but latterly was allowed a certain amount of liberty under police supervision. Under the Bolsheviks, however, it flourished, and troops were formed in many of the cities and department towns.
We had few industries in our district, and the few we had were nearly all taken over by the Soviet. A lumber factory, previously run by the Ministry of Forestry with the help of the Zemstvo, was now run by the Soviet of the department, which controlled the same geographical area as the Zemstvo. The wages paid in this factory to the workmen were 300 roubles per month, and the organisation was such that the factory ran full time and could not extend itself, owing to the food shortage in the immediate neighbourhood and to the absence of empty houses near by which prevented an influx of workmen. A large flour mill fitted with the latest machinery was taken over by the Soviet, and, under great difficulties owing to shortage of paraffin and small parts needed for repairs, was able not only to pay its way and its workmen, but also to be a rich source of revenue to the community.
The forests were controlled, so far as they were controlled at all, by the Soviet, who employed the forestry experts who had been brought into the district by the old régime. The forestry schools were full, the Soviet realising the great value of expert advice in any matter that pertained to industry or agriculture.
Railway Administration.
Perhaps in no department of administration did the Bolsheviks realise the need for humouring their workmen more than in the control of the railways. Under the old régime it was a notorious fact that local abuses could never be remedied, suggestions for the improvement of the service received practically no attention at headquarters, and without permission given in writing from headquarters no variation in routine was permitted. There had accumulated through the years in the minds of all the railway workers little ideas which they individually would like to have seen tried, and in the minds both of the workers and of the public there was an impression that the central control from Moscow or Petrograd should be loosened. Soon after the Bolsheviks came into power they showed their wisdom and their courage by favouring an experiment which should teach the people a lesson and satisfy the minds of the workmen with respect to these innumerable little ideas which had irritated them because they had been neglected. Accordingly the railway passing through every county in the Samara government, at any rate, was placed under the full control of the county Soviet. No train could pass along that line without the permission of the county Soviet, and the head stationmaster in the county was made Commissary of Railways.
Complete disorganisation resulted—which was what the Bolsheviks wanted. We were told by one such Commissary that the boiler-cleaners had devised a new way for cleaning the engines—one of the little ideas that had rankled long in their minds. He gave them full permission to go ahead and clean the engines in their own way. Within a week the engine-drivers complained; so he called a meeting—one of millions of such meetings—and let the engine-drivers and engine-cleaners settle the matter in their own way. Within a day the old system of engine-cleaning was restored, to the complete satisfaction of both. In this way the Bolsheviks were building up again a stable railway system, based not so much on orders from Moscow which had to be obeyed as on motives for good work and co-operation which carried their own inducement.
On the land question the Bolsheviks and the peasants were of differing opinions. The former wished to manage the large estates with agricultural experts and the latest machinery that could be obtained; the latter wished to own the land communally, according to the village custom. Nationalisation of land has never appealed to the peasants; village ownership has almost always seemed to them the proper course. There might have been a serious division between the Bolsheviks and the peasants had the matter come to a head, but as there was not enough rye or wheat for planting in the peasants' own allotments the question of what was to be done with the large estates did not arise.
Food, Medicine, and Justice.
Food committees were established in every district for the purpose of commandeering food and for its just distribution, and revenue was raised by the Soviet by means of commandeering stores and selling part of the produce so taken at a high price. Another source of revenue was a capital levy, another by taxation on wages and salaries. No one was exempt. The banks were controlled by the Soviet, and the limit that any private person was allowed to withdraw in any month without previous permission was fixed at 100 roubles.
The medical needs of the community were met by department medical committees and village committees centring round the hospitals. The public sent their delegates to these committees, representing the patients; the doctors in their capacity as workmen also sent delegates. Accounts were audited by a neutral body, usually the Soviet of the district.
The Russian public had not been accustomed to reliable law courts or a just police administration. Under the Bolsheviks, as under the Provisional and Kerensky Governments, the villages appointed their own police when necessary, choosing the oldest men as those most likely to have wisdom and discretion in human affairs. The Red Guard, and later the Red Army, supplemented and sometimes over-rode the simple requirements of the peasants. For six months under Bolshevik rule order of a kind superior to that ever experienced under the old régime was maintained.
As an instance of this may be mentioned the way in which the old régime and the Bolsheviks dealt with illegal vodka distilling. In the days of the Imperial police anyone caught in the act was arrested by the police, but, as everyone knew, each offence had its price, except that of political propaganda, and a sum of money, amounting maybe to several hundred or several thousand roubles, would settle the matter, and until the time of blackmail came round again the business could continue unmolested, however much the public might be against it. Under the Bolsheviks a man found distilling vodka would not be punished, but his still would be taken from him, the public would be informed of his guilt, and the amount of grain which the food committee would allow him to buy would be limited to that needed for his own domestic use.