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The Essence of the Class Struggle.
Consequently it is not merely the experience of the Red Army and of the victorious civil war, but something far deeper than that, something connected with the problems of proletarian dictatorship, that is compelling us now, just as it did two years ago, to concentrate all our attention on questions of labour discipline, which is the essence of socialist economic construction and which helps us to understand the nature of proletarian dictatorship. With the overthrow of capitalism, every day of our revolution removed us further from former ideas so much in vogue with the old internationalists who are thoroughly imbued with a petty bourgeois spirit; the belief that, while private property in land, in the means of production and in capital were retained, the decisions of a majority in a democratic institution of bourgeois parliamentarism can really be an effective solution of questions which can in fact only be solved by an acute class struggle. The full significance and actual conditions of proletarian dictatorship became fully apparent to us when governmental power had been acquired and proletarian dictatorship was approached from a practical standpoint. We then learned that the class struggle had not ceased and that the victory over the capitalists and landlords had only defeated these classes but had failed to destroy them completely.
It is sufficient to mention the international relationship of capital, which is much closer and firmer than the relationship which exists between the working classes of the various countries. Capital, considered on an international scale, is both in a military and economic sense stronger than the Soviet Government and the Soviet system. This is the basic principle which has to be laid down. The form of the struggle against Capital constantly changes; at one time it is of an international character, whilst at another it is concentrated in one country. But though the form changes, the struggle continues, and the basic law of class struggle as formulated by preceding revolutions is confirmed by our revolution. The greater the unity of the proletariat which leads to the overthrow of the bourgeois classes, the more practical knowledge is gained by the working class, and the wider is the progress of the revolution in the course of the struggle itself. With the overthrow of capitalism the struggle does not cease, and the fact itself of the overthrow of the capitalist class in one country only becomes of a practical world importance when such overthrow is made absolutely definite. It will be remembered that at the beginning of the October revolution our revolution was looked upon in the light of a curiosity—many a strange happening of no importance occurs in this world.
To make this manifestation one of universal importance an actual coup d'etat was required to take place in some country. It was only then that the capitalists of all countries, who at first hesitated to help the Russian capitalists, became aware that what had happened was of grave universal significance. And it was only then that the resistance of the capitalists on an international scale attained the power which it was able to wield. It was only then that the civil war fully developed in Russia,
