On the Road to Insurrection/The Crisis Approaches
The Crisis Approaches
October 7, 1917.
I
THERE can be no doubt that the end of the month of September marked the beginning of a new period in the history of the Russian Revolution; and, very probably, of the world revolution.
The world working-class revolution was first begun with engagements by isolated combatants representing with unequalled courage all the honest elements of official "Socialism "—a socialism rotten to the core, which is in reality nothing but social Chauvinism. Leibknecht in Germany, Adler in Austria, MacLean in England: such are the best known of these isolated heroes who assumed the heavy task of precursors of the revolution.
The second stage was an unrest in the masses which showed itself by splits in the official parties, by illegal publications, and by public demonstrations. The protest against the war became stronger and stronger, the number of victims of government persecution grew bigger and bigger; and in countries like Germany, France, Italy and England, which were noted for their respect of legality and the liberty of their regime, the prisons were filled with tens and hundreds of internationalists, opponents of the war, and advocates of the working-class revolution.
Now we have reached the third stage, which may be called the eve of the revolution. The arrests in mass of the Socialist leaders in Free Italy, and more especially the beginning of military insurrections in Germany—such are the unmistakeable signs of the great turning point; the signs which show that we are on the eve of the world revolution.
It is beyond a doubt that there had previously been isolated cases of mutiny amongst the troops in Germany; but they had been so insignificant, so few in number that it was possible to stifle them and to suppress the news of them—the surest means of preventing contagion. But now, finally, an insurrectionary movement has broken out in the navy, a movement that it has not been possible to stifle or suppress, in spite of the strong measures carefully elaborated and rigorously applied by the German military-barrack regime.
Doubt is no longer permissible. We are on the eve of the world proletarian revolution. And as we, the Russian Bolsheviks, amongst all the proletarian internationalists of all countries, alone enjoy an immense liberty; as we have at our disposal a legal party with twenty journals; as we have on our side the Soviets of workers' and soldiers' deputies of the big towns, and the majority of the popular masses in a revolutionary period, we shall see this motto justly applied to us: "Much to you has been given; much from you will be required."
II.
Russia has undoubtedly arrived at a turning point in the revolution.
In this essentially rural country, under a revolutionary republican government counting on the support of the Socialist-Revolutionary and Menshevik parties, which even yesterday had a preponderance in the petit-bourgeois democracy—in this country a peasant insurrection is developing.
The fact seems incredible, but all the same it exists. It does not astonish us; for we Bolsheviks have always said that the government of "coalition" with the bourgeoisie is the government of the betrayal of democracy and the revolution; the government of imperialist carnage, the government protecting the capitalists and the great landed proprietors against the wrath of the people.
In republican Russia, thanks to the work of deceit of the S.R.'s and the Mensheviks, there still exists in the time of revolution, a government of capitalists and great landowners, alongside the soviets. Such is the bitter and menacing truth. Why be astonished if in Russia, where the people are succumbing beneath the burdens and scourges of the imperialists war, a peasant insurrection has broken out and is extending more and more?
What is there astonishing in the fact that the opponents of the Bolsheviks and the leaders of the official Socialist-Revolutionary party which has constantly supported the "coalition," which, until the last few days or the last few weeks had the majority of the people on its side; which is continuing to censure and molest the "new" S.R.'s who have arrived at the conviction that the policy of coalition is a betrayal of the peasants' interests—what is there astonishing, I say, in the fact that these leaders of the official S.R. party should write in the editorial of their official organ, the Dielo Naroda (September 29) the following words:—
"… Scarcely anything has been done up to the present to put an end to the oppressive rule which still dominates the countryside in the very centre of Russia. … The law on the regulation of agrarian conditions, which has been laid down by the provisional government for a long time, and which had even passed through the purgatory of the judicial conference; this law is now pigeon-holed in the depths of some office or other. … Are we not right in stating that our republican government is still by no means free from the habits of the Tsarist administration, and that the brutal methods of Stolypine are still making themselves strongly felt in the proceedings of the revolutionary ministers"?
This is what the official S.R.'s are writing! The supporters of the coalition are obliged to recognise that after seven months of revolution in an agrarian country, "scarcely anything has been done to put an end to the oppressive rule" of the peasants by the big landed proprietors. And these same S.R.'s are obliged to apply the term Stolypinist to their colleague Kerensky and all his group of ministers.
Is it possible to imagine, coming from our opponents, a more eloquent testimony that the coalition is bankrupt; that the S.R.'s who tolerate Kerensky have become a party which is anti-popular, anti-peasant and counter-revolutionary; and, above all, that the whole revolution has reached a turning point?
A peasant rebellion, in an agrarian country, against the government of the socialist-revolutionary Kerensky, of the Mensheviks Nikitine and Gvozdiev, and of other ministers representing the interests of capital and of the landed seigneurs! A repression of this rebellion by a republican government by means of military measures!
In the face of such facts can any partisan of the proletariat deny that the crisis is about to burst forth, that the revolution is at a decisive turning point, that the victory of the government over the peasant rebellion now would sound the knell of the revolution, and would signify the definite victory of the Korniloff regime?
III.
If, in an agrarian country, after seven months of the democratic republic, a peasant rebellion has broken out, this proves irrefutably that the revolution has gone bankrupt throughout the country; that the crisis through which it is passing has reached a climax, and that the time is near when the counter-revolution will make its supreme effort.
So much is clear. In the presence of a fact like the peasant rebellion, all other political symptoms, even if they contradicted the imminence of a crisis, would have value.
But, on the contrary, they all indicate, without exception, that the crisis is going to burst out.
After the agrarian question, that of most importance for Russia, particularly for the petit-bourgeois masses, is the national question. At the Democratic Conference which was bamboozled by M. Tseretelli and his disciples, the "national" faction occupied a position second only in importance to that of the trade unions, and far in advance of that of the soviets of workers' and soldiers' deputies in the proportion of votes given against the coalition (40 to 55).[1]
The Kerensky government, the government of the repression of the peasant rebellion, withdraws the revolutionary troops from Finland so as to strengthen the reactionary Finnish bourgeoisie. In Ukraine, the conflicts of the Ukrainians, and especially of the Ukrainian troops, with the government, are becoming more and more frequent.
Let us next consider the army, which, in time of war, plays an exceptional part in the whole life of the State. We have seen the complete breakaway of the Finnish troops and the Baltic Fleet from the government. We have seen the declaration of the non-Bolshevik officer, Dubassov, who says, in the name of all those at the front—and in a more revolutionary fashion than any Bolshevik, that the soldiers will not fight in the war any longer. We see government reports declaring that "nervousness" exists amongst the soldiers and that it is impossible to answer for "order" (that is to say, for the aid of the troops in repressing the peasant rebellion). Finally, we see the results of the elections at Moscow, where, out of 17,000 soldiers, 14,000 gave their vote to the Bolsheviks.[2]
The result of these elections in the municipalities of Moscow is one of the most striking symptoms of the profound change which is taking place in the state of mind of the people. It is notorious that Moscow is more petit-bourgeois than Petrograd. As compared with that of Petrograd the Moscow proletariat has many more ties with the country-side and is much nearer to rural ideology. This is an indisputable fact and one which has often been confirmed.
And now at Moscow the number of votes cast for the S.R.'s and the Mensheviks falls from 70 per cent. in July to 18 per cent. in September. The petite bourgeoisie has turned away from the coalition; and the people also: so much cannot be doubted. The Cadets have increased their poll from 17 per cent. to 30 per cent., but they remain a minority—a minority condemned to impotence, although the S.R.'s and the Mensheviks of the Right have undoubtedly rallied to them.
The Rouskia Viedomosti declare that the total number of votes polled by the Cadets has fallen from 67,000 to 62,000. Only the Bolsheviks have had an increase (from 34,000 to 82,000) in the total number of their votes. They have obtained 47 per cent. of the total votes.[3]
Together with the Left-wing S.R.'s, we now have an undoubted majority in the soviets, in the army, and in the country.
It is worth while noting yet one more fact which is very symptomatic, and which has at the same time some tangible consequences: The organisations of railwaymen and postal workers which have a tremendous economic political and military importance are in sharp conflict with the government,[4] to such an extent that the Menshevik apologists themselves are dissatisfied with their "minister " Nikitine, and that the S.R.'s are treating Kerensky and his disciples as "Stolypinists." Is it not obvious that if such a support of the government by the S.R.'s and the Mensheviks is to have any result, they can only be negative ones?
IV.
Yes, the leaders of the Central Executive Committee are beating an ordered retreat for the bourgeoisie and the big landowners. It cannot be doubted that if the Bolsheviks allow themselves to be caught in the snare of constitutional illusions, of "faith" in the calling of the Constituent Assembly, of waiting for the Congress of Soviets, &c., … they will be nothing but miserable traitors to the cause of the working-class.
For internationalism does not consist in phrases, in declarations of solidarity or in resolutions, but in action.
For to allow the peasant rebellion to be crushed by a government that the Dielo Naroda itself compares to that of Stolypine, is to lose the whole revolution, for ever and beyond recall. The growing anarchy and indifference to the masses is complained of. How can the masses not be indifferent to the elections when the peasant class is reduced to rebellion, and when the "Revolutionary Democracy" patiently puts up with the repression of this rebellion by armed force?
To allow the peasant revolt to be crushed at such a time is to allow the elections for the Constituent Assembly to be falsified still more shamefully than the "Democratic Conference" and the "Pre-Parliament " were falsified.
The crisis is approaching its climax. The whole future of the Russian Revolution is at stake. The whole future of the international socialist working class revolution is at stake.
The crisis approaches …
- ↑ In the Trade Unions the proportion was 9 to 10 against the coalition.
- ↑ September 30.
- ↑ And even 52 per cent. according to more exact estimates made later.
- ↑ From September 23 to 26, a Railway Strike, the Government refusing to apply the scale of wages demanded by the All-Russian Railway Congress.