The Proletarian Revolution in Russia/Part 1/Chapter 1
I
THE BOURGEOIS REVOLUTION.
The first revolution arising out of the general imperialistic war has broken out And this first revolution will certainly not be the last.
The first phase of this first revolution, namely, the Russian Revolution of March, 1917, has been completed. Nor will this first phase be the last phase of our Revolution.
How could this "miracle" happen in eight days—the period indicated by M. Milyukov in his boastful telegram to all the representatives of Russia abroad,—the "miracle" involved in the destruction of a monarchy that had maintained itself for centuries and continued to maintain itself during three years of powerful, universal class wars, the revolutionary period of 1905–1907?
In nature and in history there are no miracles; yet, every great convulsion of history, including every great revolution, presents such a wealth of events and material, such unexpectedly peculiar transformations in the forms of conflict and of the alignment of the fighting forces, that there is much that must appear miraculous to the ordinary mind.
In order that the Czarism should be destroyed in a few days, there was required the co-ordinating action of a whole series of conditions of an historical importance, and world-wide in bearing. Let us point out the principal ones.
The main condition for the realization of the "miracle" of the Russian Revolution was the series of revolutionary struggles during the years 1905–1907, slandered so much by the present masters of the situation, the Guchkovs and Milyukovs, the same gentlemen now pleased with the "glorious revolution" of 1917. But if the Revolution of 1905 had not effectively prepared the ground and shown to all parties what action means, exposing the supporters of the Czar in all their infamy and brutality, a rapid victory would have been impossible in 1917.
A fortunate coincidence of favorable conditions in 1917 enabled different social forces opposing Czarism to co-operate in one general faction for power. These forces are:
1.—Anglo-French financial capital, that rules and exploits the whole world through investments and Imperialism. In 1905 it was opposed to the revolution, and helped Czarism crush the revolution by means of the big loan of 1906 (largely engineered by French capital against the despairing protest of the revolutionary democracy). But now Anglo-French finance took an active part in the revolution by organizing the coup d'etat of the Guchkovs and Milyukovs, the bourgeois interests and the leading military groups for the overthrow of the Czar. From the standpoint of world-politics, the Provisional Government of Milyukov-Guchkov is simply the clerk of the banking firm England, France & Co., and a means of prolonging the imperialistic war.
2.—The defeats in the war waged by the government of the Czar. These resulted in clearing out the old guard in control of the army and created a new and young bourgeois group of officers.
3.—The Russian bourgeoisie in its different groups. The bourgeoisie organized itself rapidly between 1905 and 1917, and has united with the nobility in the struggle against the corrupt government of the Czar with the intention of enriching itself by exploiting Armenia, Constantinople and Galicia.
4.—The further power, which combined with the bourgeois, imperialistic forces, and the most important of all, was a strong proletarian movement, the organized and revolutionary workers. The proletariat made the Revolution by demanding peace, bread and liberty. It had nothing in common with the imperialistic government, and it secured the support of the majority of the army, consisting of workers and peasants.
Without the three years, 1905–1917, of tremendous class conflicts and revolutionary energy of the Russian proletariat, this second revolution could not possibly have had the rapid progress indicated in the fact that its first phase, the overthrow of Czarism, is accomplished in a few days. The Revolution of 1905 ploughed the ground deeply and wiped out the prejudices of centuries; it awakened to political life and struggle millions of workers and tens of millions of peasants. The 1905 Revolution revealed to the workers and peasants, as well as to the world, all the classes (and all the principal parties) in their true character, the actual alignment of their interests, their powers and modes of action, their immediate and ultimate objects. This first revolution, and its succeeding counter-revolutionary period during 1907–1914, fully revealed the nature of the Czarist Monarchy and brought it to the verge of ruin, exposing all its infamy and vileness, and the cynicism and corruption of the Czarist circles dominated by the infamous Rasputin ; it exposed all the bestiality of the Romanoff family—that band of assassins which bathed Russia in the blood of the Jews, the workers, the revolutionaries—those "first among peers," who owned millions of acres of land and would stoop to any brutality, to any crime, ready to ruin or crush any section of the population, however numerous, in order to preserve the "sacred property rights" of themselves and of their class.
Without the Revolution of 1905–1907, without the counter-revolution of 1907–1914, it would have been impossible to secure so clear a self-definition of all classes of the Russian people and of all the nationalities in Russia, or so clear an alignment of these classes in relation to each other and to the Czarism, as transpired during the eight days of the March, 1917, Revolution. This eight-day revolution, if we may express ourselves in terms of metaphors, was "performed" after numerous informal as well as dress rehearsals: the "actors" knew each other, their roles, their places on the scene, their entire setting, down to the smallest detail of every significant tendency and mode of action.
But, in order that the first great revolution of 1905, which Messrs. Guchkov and Milyukov and their satellites consider "a great mutiny," should after the lapse of a dozen years lead to the "glorious revolution" of 1917, so termed by the Guchkovs and Milyukovs because (for the present, at least) it has put power into their hands,—there was still needed a great, capable "stage manager," who would, on the one hand, be in a position to accelerate the course of history, on a grand scale, and, on the other, to release or produce the forces of universal crisis in every field: economic, political, national, international. In addition to an unusual acceleration of universal history, there were also needed particularly severe historical upheavals, so that during one of them the blood-stained chariot of Czarism might be overturned in a trice.
This all-powerful "stage manager," this mighty accelerator of events, appeared in the form of the present general imperialistic war. And it can no longer be doubted that this war is universal, for the United States and China haw been half-dragged in already, and to-morrow will be completely involved in the war. Nor can it any longer be doubted that the war is an imperialistic war on both sides; only the capitalists and their adherents, the social-patriotic "Socialists" who support the war and their governments and abandon Socialism, can deny or suppress this fact. Both the German and the Anglo-French bourgeoisie are waging war for the conquest of foreign territory, for the suppression of small nations, for the financial supremacy of the world, for the division and re-distribution of colonies. It is a war to save the tottering capitalist regime, by deceiving he workers in the various countries and causing dissension among them.
The imperialistic war must, with manifest inevitability quicken the class struggle of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie, sharpen and intensify the struggle, and transform itself into a civil war between hostile classes. The transformation of the imperialistic war into a civil war has begun in Russia. This is the cause of the dual character of the Revolution, the initial phase of the first revolution arising out of the imperialistic war.
The first phase of this transformation was the March Revolution, the joint attack delivered against Czarism by two distinct forces: on the one hand, the whole bourgeois and landlord class of Russia, with all their less conscious satellites and all their conscious directors, in the persons of the Anglo-French ambassadors and capitalists; and, on the other, the Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Delegates, the revolutionary Soviets.
Three political groups, three fundamental political forces emerge clearly in the eight days of the "first phase" of the Revolution: 1—The Czarist Monarchy, the head of the feudal propertied class and of the old bureaucratic and military class. 2.—The Russia of the bourgeoisie and of the Constitutional Democratic, the Cadet, landholders, with the petit bourgeoisie, the middle class, floating in their wake. 3.—The Council of Workers' Delegates, its supporters being among the proletariat and the whole mass of the impoverished population.
But before going into further detail in this matter, I must come back to a factor of first importance, namely, the universal imperialistic war.
The belligerent powers, the "masters" of capitalist society and the slave-drivers of capitalistic oppression, have been shackled to each other by the war with chains of iron. One great bloody, congealed mass—that is the proper designation of the historic period through which we are now passing.
Those Socialists who deserted to the bourgeoisie at the begining of the war and who supported the imperialistic war, all the Davids and Scheidemanns in Germany, the Plekhanovs, Gvozdyovs, Potressovs in Russia, have been shouting lustily against Out "illusions" of the revolutionists, against the "illusions" of the Basel Manifesto,[1] against the "vain farce" of urging the conversion of the imperialistic war into a civil war. They have sung hymns of praise to the strength, tenacity and adaptability which they ascribe to Capitalism, while they are aiding the capitalists in "adapting," taming, deceiving and disuniting the working classes of the various countries.
But, "he who laughs last laughs best." The bourgeoisie was not long able to delay the coming of the revolutionary crisis produced by the war. This crisis is growing with irresistible force In all countries. It is natural that in Czarist Russia, with its colossal lack of organization and with the most revolutionary proletariat in the world (not due to any specific characteristic of this proletariat, but because of its living in the memory of 1905), the revolutionary crisis should burst forth earlier than anywhere else. This crisis was called forth, or rather hastened, by a series of most serious defeats inflicted on Russia and her allies. These defeats disorganized the whole mechanism of an antiquated government and the old order of things, arousing the opposition of all classes of the people; they incensed the army and practically wiped out the reactionary officer class, consisting of the worn-out nobility and the most effete elements of bourgeois officialdom, replacing this class with a predominantly bourgeois and petty bourgeois staff of varied origin.
But, if military defeat played the role of a negative factor, hastening the outbreak, then the alliance of Anglo-French finance, of Anglo-French Imperialism, with the Octobrist-Cadet Capitalism of Russia appears as a factor that speeds the crisis after it has arrived.
This phase of the matter, for reasons that are clear, is, in spite of its great importance, ignored by the Anglo-French press, and maliciously emphasized by the German press. We Marxists must face the truth soberly, being confused neither by the sweet diplomatic and ministerial lies of one group of imperialistic belligerents, nor by the sniggering and smirking of its financial and military rivals of the other belligerent group. The whole course of events in the March Revolution shows clearly that the English and French embassies, with their agents and "connections," who had long made tremendous efforts to prevent a "separate" agreement and a separate peace, between Nicholas II and Wilhelm II, had at last determined to dethrone Nicholas and provide a successor for him.
The rapid success of the revolution, and, at first glance, its "radical" success, was produced by the unusual historical conjuncture, in a strikingly "favorable" manner, of absolutely opposedmovements, absolutely different class interests, and absolutely hostile political and social tendencies. The Anglo-French imperialists were behind Milyukov, Guchkov & Co. in their seizure of power in the interests of prolonging an imperialistic war, with the objects of waging the war more savagely and obstinately, accompanied by the slaughter of new millions of Russian workers and peasants, that the class of Guchkov might have Constantinople, the French, might have Syria, the English Mesopotamia, etc. That was one element in the situation, which united with another and opposite element,—the profound proletarian and popular mass movement, consisting of all the poorest classes of the cities and the provinces, revolutionary in character and demanding bread, peace and real freedom.
The revolutionary workers and soldiers overthrew the infamous Czarist Monarchy, down to its very foundations; and they were neither elated nor depressed by the fact that for a certain brief epoch of history, because of merely fortuitous circumstances, they were being aided by the efforts of Buchanan,[2] Guchkov, Milyukov & Co., who simply desired to replace one monarch by another.
Such, and such only, was the lay of the land. Such, and such only, must be the understanding of the statesman who is not afraid of the truth, and who wishes sanely to balance and evaluate the social forces that are aligned in the revolution at any given moment. This is necessary not only from the standpoint of the present peculiarities of these forces, but also from the standpoint of their more fundamental bearings, the deeper juxtaposition of the interests of proletariat and bourgeoisie, in Russia and throughout the world.
The workers and soldiers of Petrograd, as well as of the rest of Russia, self-sacrificingly set themselves to the task of fighting Czarism,—for freedom, for land for the peasants, for peace as against the imperialistic slaughter. Anglo-French finance, in the interest of continuing and sharpening the slaughter, engaged in court intrigues, planned conspiracies, encouraged and gave hopes to the Guchkovs and Milyukovs, and proceeded to erect an entirely new government, which even obtained power after the proletariat had delivered the first blows against Czarism. Nor is this government a fortuitous assemblage of persons.
The persons in this new government are the representatives of a new class that has risen to political power in Russia, the class of the bourgeoisie and capitalistic landowners. This class has already and for a long time been ruling our country economically; in the Revolution of 1905–1907, in the counter-revolutionary period of 1907–1914, and then, with extraordinary rapidity, in the period of the war, this new class organized itself politically, swiftly taking into its hands local administrations, popular education, conventions of every type, the Duma, the war industry committees, etc. This bourgeois class was already practically in power in 1917; therefore the first blows against Czarism were sufficient to destroy it, and to clear the ground for the bourgeoisie. The imperialistic war, requiring an incredible exertion of strength, imparted to backward Russia a tremendous acceleration. At a single stroke, at least it seemed like "a single stroke," we caught up with Italy, England, France almost; we secured a "coalition," a "national" government (which means a government to carry on the imperialistic slaughter and deceive the people),—in short, a "parliamentary" government.
The government of Guchkov-Milyukov, the government of the junkers and the capitalists, can give neither bread nor peace nor liberty to the people. It constitutes a government for the continuation of the war of conquest, which openly declares that it will respect the international treaties of the Czar. These treaties have as their purpose: robbery. This government can at most postpone the crisis, but it can not free the country from hunger; it has no power to give freedom, no matter what has been promised, because it is connected with the interests of feudal land property and of capital.
- ↑ During the first Balkan War, a special Socialist Congress was held at Basel, Switzerand, November 24 and 25, IO12. Confronted by the danger of the Balkan War developing into a general European war, the Congress adopted a vigorous Manifesto declaring that such a war "cannot be justified on any pretext whatsoever of national interest." The most important formulation in the Manifesto was proposed at the Stuttgart Congress in 1907 by Lenin and Rosa Luxemburg, a representative of Germany's revolutionary Socialism, and unanimously adopted at Basel: "Should war nevertheless break out it would be their [the Socialists'] first duty to intervene in order to bring it to a speedy termination and to employ all their power to utilize the economic and political crisis treated by war in order to rouse the masses of the people and thereby hasten the downfall of capitalistic class domination." The Bolsheviki in their declaration against the war issued in November, I9I4, urged "the conversion of the imperialistic war into a civil war of the oppressed against the oppressors, and for Socialism."—L. C. F.
- ↑ Sir George Buchanan was the British ambassador in Petrograd. As has been shown in the introduction, the object of Rodzianko, Guchkov, etc, was to preserve the monarchy with a new Czar amenable to their wishes.—L. C. F.