effort. In order to prevent this bringing about a renaissance of capitalism, however, it is planned to organize the newly-created private industries into the co-operative movement. The aim is to make that movement a tremendous machine for the manufacture, collection, and distribution of products among city and country workers, thus relieving the strain upon the new, state organization. It is felt that the co-operative movement, with its many devices for encouraging individual production, can be of great service in this direction. In addition to this direct economic reason for reviving the co-operatives, may be added the fact that as the military crisis is now passed and the bourgeoisie thoroughly smashed, the general tendency in Russia is to grant greater freedom of action all around, both for individuals and institutions.
Although the Communists at the head of the Russian Government have conceded the co-operative movement this new freedom of action they labor under no illusions about it. They realize that it encourages all sorts of primitive small-scale production—with a resultant narrowly selfish, petty bourgeois point of view. They pin their faith to large-scale production, as the only type that can at once properly meet the people's needs and develop a true revolutionary psychology. But they are sure they can control the co-operatives and use them advantageously during this crisis. The whole movement has been purified and strengthened. It went into the revolutionary wringer purely petty-bourgeois in character and loaded down with reactionary leaders; it came out with a proletarian viewpoint and manned with revolutionists. The cleansing process was a severe, one but had to be gone through with. The Communists believe that the movement will now stand the revolutionary test. But the situation is full of uncertainties and unknown quantities. What the renaissance of the Russian co-operatives will finally lead to few venture to prophecy.
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