The Russian Revolution/Chapter 4
IV.
THE RUSSIAN COMMUNIST PARTY.
The Russian revolution is a standing marvel to the bourgeois world. In the first place, by all the rules of "legitimate" economics, it should not have occured at all; because, for a country to have such a proletarian revolution it would seem to be absolutely necessary that it possess a highly-developed industrial system and an educated working class; whereas Russia is 85 per cent agricultural and her workers are notoriously lacking in industrial training. But the revolution did occur, nevertheless. And then, in the second place, according to the orthodox economists, seeing that the workers did manage in some way to get control, they should have long since been overthrown by the series of terrible civil wars, armed invasions, plagues, famines, and industrial breakdowns to which their "unscientific" society has been constantly exposed. But the workers were not overthrown. On the contrary, they have already conquered a mountain of difficulties and are going right on extending and consolidating their power in the face of strings of "impossibilities." To the average bourgeois mind the Russian revolution is a sort of social miracle.
But if the revolution is a miracle the miracle-worker is not far to seek: it is the Russian Communist Party. This organization is one of the most remarkable in human annals. Some have called it the brains of the revolution. It is all that and much more: it is the brains and nerves and heart and soul. It is the organized intelligence, driving force, courage, and idealism—the very seat of life of the revolution. Without it the whole movement would have collapsed long, long ago; if, indeed, it had ever taken shape at all.
The Russian Communist Party is more than a political party in the accepted sense of the term. It is really a scientific system of social control: an organization which makes every institution of society function in the spirit of the revolution. It is political, legislative, judicial, military, educational, social, industrial. As Zinoviev has said, "The Communist Party is an organization dealing with all sides of all questions, without any exception." And if it is omnipresent it is also omnipotent. Although it is entirely unofficial in character, it has the deciding voice in all social questions, no matter of what sort. When the Communist Party speaks everybody in Russia obeys. Even the Soviet Government itself is no exception: the Communist Party maps out its general policies and virtually issues it direct instructions. In practice, as well as in accepted theory, the dictatorship of the proletariat resolves itself into the dictatorship of the Communist Party.
Many writers have marvelled that an organization so small as the Russian Communist Party—the latest official figures give it only 705,245 members—can exert such throughgoing control. This shows that they have failed utterly to grasp the true nature of the Party. It is not a mass organization. Mere numbers mean nothing to it. Quality, not quantity, is its very breath of life. In the ranks of the workers there are a small percentage of keen, brave, intelligent, tireless idealists; who, man for man, when serious work is to be done, are worth a hundred or a thousand ordinary people. It is of these natural leaders of the working class that the Communist Party is composed; all others being rigidly excluded. The masses would only clog up the organization machinery and prevent the smooth working together of these militants. The Communist Party is the distilled essence of working class energy and revolutionary spirit. It is the little leaven that leaventh the whole lump. Its influence and power is enormously greater than its small numbers would indicate.
The natural power of the Russian Communist Party's militants is multiplied many fold by their scientific system of organization. This is based upon the Communist cell, or "yatchayka." In every institution in Russia where people assemble to work, legislate, fight, educate, or whatnot, the Communists among them always organize themselves into a yatchayka and proceed to influence the general mass about them to the Communist viewpoint. And as the yatchaykas usually contain a monopoly of the brains and idealism of the people in their respective spheres they ordinarily dominate the situation. The Communist Party as a whole is the sum total of thousands of such yatchaykas, all locked together in a general organization. It is the greatest and most efficient "borer-from-within" known to history; it has the whole Russian society honeycombed with its yatchaykas. And when this vast and complicated mechanism moves, containing as it does almost a monopoly of natural social leadership, its power is irresistable.
A further factor in the wonderful power of the Russian Communist Party is the organization's keen consciousness of its role in the revolution. It fully realizes that it is the thinking and doing part of the proletariat, and it boldly claims the right to direct the ignorant, sluggish masses. It systematically and energetically takes charge of all social institutions, so that it may spur them into revolutionary activity. A resolution of the Eighth Congress of the Party says: "The aim of the Communist Party is to obtain a preponderating influence and complete control of all the workers' organizations, the trade unions, co-operatives, rural communes, etc. The Communist Party strives especially to introduce its program into the actual organizations of State—the Soviets—and to obtain complete control there." When he was in hiding during the Kerensky period, Lenin asked this pertinent question (Galin, P. 15, "Sowjet Russland"): "If under the imperial regime 130,000 nobles could govern Russia, why should not 200,000 organized Bolsheviki be able to do it also?" Experience has proved that they are; and the yatchayka system, with its practical monopoly of working-class intelligence, is the explanation. Contrary to the assertions of critics unfriendly to Soviet Russia, force and terrorism are not the decisive factor in maintaining the supremacy of the Communist Party in Russia.
A cardinal principle of the Communist Party is to place its militants in all the strategic points of the social organism. Naturally the Government is thoroughly occupied by the Communists, and the higher and more important the type of Government institution the more complete this occupation. This is well illustrated by the following tables, taken from the statistical exhibition at the recent Congress of the Third International in Moscow:
Delegates to Government Soviet Congressess.
(Average for all Russia.)
| District Soviets. | State Soviets | ||
| Per Cent. | Per Cent. | ||
| Communists | 42.6 | Communists | 79.0 |
| Non-Party | 56.7 | Non-Party | 20.8 |
| Other Parties | .7 | Other Parties | .2 |
| 100. | 100. | ||
In the District congresses the percentage of Communists is many times higher than it is among the population in general, and, characteristically, it is much higher in the State congresses than in those of the Districts—the former being the superior type of organization.
Members of Presiding Boards of Government Soviet Congresses. (Average for all Russia.)
| District Soviets. | State Soviets | ||
| Per Cent. | Per Cent. | ||
| Communists | 80.3 | Communists | 86.1 |
| Non-Party | 19.4 | Non-Party | 13.9 |
| Other Parties | .3 | Other Parties | .0 |
| 100. | 100. | ||
As the presiding boards are very strategic places in the Soviets naturally the Communists, following out their usual policy, always have a very much stronger representation on them than among the rank and file of the delegates. This is the fruit of the excellent Communist organization. And so it goes through the ascending stages of Government institutions; the scale of Communist representation constantly increasing, until we finally arrive at the Council of Peoples' Commissars, which is entirely Communist in its makeup.
The Soviet judicial machinery is completely in the hands of the Communist Party: the powerful Extraordinary Commission, which is used to combat counter-revolution, speculation, etc., is composed altogether of Communists; and there are few, if any, judges in the Revolutionary Tribunals and Peoples' Courts who are not members of the Party. Likewise, the press of the country is taken care of, the editors of all the important papers being tried and trusted Communists. The school system is also held firmly in hand: many of the teachers are Communists, each school has its yatchayka, and the teaching of Communist principles is always one of the most important items in the curriculum of every educational institution in Russia.
In the Red Army Communist sentiment is strong, well-placed and highly-organized. All the officers are either outspoken Communists or, where they are non-party men, they have given ample evidence of their unwavering loyalty to the revolution. All the new officers, the graduates from the Soviet military schools, are Party members—no others may take the course of instruction. Likewise all the Army Commissars are devoted Communists. It is the important function of these officials, one of whom is attached to each military sub-division, to look after the political education of the soldiers: they check up on the commanding officers and see to it that the Red Army is kept faithful to the revolution. And so far they have accomplished their task wonderfully well. Each military unit has its yatchayka, composed of officers and men, all on an equal footing. At its maximum strength the Red Army numbered 5,300,000 men, five-sixths of them peasants, yet this great mass was like so much putty in the hands of the thin sprinkling of planful, determined, and throughly organized Communists. They had no trouble at all in wielding it as a powerful defensive weapon for the revolution.
Naturally, being essentially an industrial movement, the Russian Communist Party exerts a powerful control in the trade unions and co-operatives. Most of these organizations are entirely in the hands of its militants, although one or two national labor unions and here and there a local are still controlled by Menshevik elements. For the various types of labor organization, as indeed for nearly every class of institution, the Communist Party's method of control is indirect, It merely maps out its programs and then instructs its members to put them into effect in their respective organizations. This they proceeded to do in a thorough manner. Before all labor meetings, congresses and deliberative assemblies of every sort the Communist delegations always caucus and decide upon their plans of action. That usually settles the matter. Grace to their splendid organization, discipline, and well-thought-out programs, the Communists ordinarily have but little difficulty in winning the general bodies around to their point of view.
In the industries Communist organization is no less thorough than elsewhere. Every mine, mill, shop, factory, and office has its yatchayka, or organized Communist group. Usually these yatchaykas have regularly established headquarters and assembly halls right in their respective industries. They carry on a multitude of educational activities, all calculated to make clear to the workers the meaning of the revolution and to spur them into meeting its demands. Often they publish plant papers of their own as propaganda organs. The yatchaykas are the life cores of the Soviet industry and, considering their great power, it is remarkable how small they often are. I have in mind a Moscow factory that I visited recently. There were about 700 workers employed, nearly all of them women. Only 22 belonged to the Communist Party yatchayka. But these, because of their ability, energy and organization, were in strong control of the situation. The workers in general naturally looked to them for guidance. They were the spontaneous leaders of the shop. They filled the positions of managers, foremen, skilled workers, and all-round live wires. Four of them made up a majority on the factory committee of seven. Others were similarly situated strategically, not by means of mere machine control, but primarily because of their natural fitness for leadership of the masses. When one becomes acquainted with the high-grade workers enrolled in the industrial yatchaykas he must admit, if he is honest, that the roots of the Communist Party are sunk deep in the richest soil of the working class; that it is really what it claims to be, the vanguard of the proletariat.
One of the great forces giving life and power to the Communist Party's elaborate organization is the marvelous discipline of the membership. This is of a strictness absolutely unknown among other classes of revolutionists, "Party discipline" is a term to conjure with in Russia. When the Party is considering a measure of importance the members discuss it pro and con with the utmost freedom. But once a decision is arrived at all discussion ceases immediately, the opposition subsides, differences of opinion are forgotten or laid aside, and concerted action is the order of the day. The expressed will of the organization becomes the supreme law of the membership, and like a smoothly running machine the hundreds of thousands of Communists, in their political, industrial, military, trade union, and other yatchaykas, set themselves vigorously and unitedly in motion to enforce it. The result is irresistible power; the wonderful party discipline carries the organization on to another victory.
An important phase of this dicipline is the draft, or "mobilization" as it is called, to which the members are subject. Not even the highest officials are exempt. Constantly the paper contain long lists of the names of members sent to all parts of the country to perfom every sort of task. Only recently the Petrograd Communist Party mobilized 300 of its members, serving in high Government offices, and sent them into the factories for three months, so that they could refresh their proletarian spirit. Indeed, in many other respects besides its draft, the Russian Communist Party has the characteristics of a military organization. Its members all have the right to bear arms, and most of them do. They drill regularly once or twice a week in their yatchaykas. During the critical periods of the civil wars the entire Party was under arms.
Despite its semi-military character and its high discipline, the Russian Communist Party remains a voluntary organization. Its members do not absolutely have to follow out its commands. Save in extreme military cases, they may refuse to do so, without fear of physical punishments. But the Party finds ways to square accounts with them nevertheless. And it makes no difference how big their reputation may be nor how irksome or dangerous the mandates that were given them, they must pay the reckoning. It is just a few weeks since Tomsky, who held the very important position of President of the All-Russian Council of Trade Unions, was forced to resign from his office because he declined to carry out vital Party instructions. If the offense is of great importance the offender is expelled from the Party. Thereafter he is a marked man; he has been weighed and found wanting; and he can hold no important post of any kind in Russia.
The Russian Communist Party is a stern, Spartan organization, and its membership requirements are high. Those wishing to join it must come thoroughly recommended for brains, energy, and integrity. Then they must serve a probationary period of one year before they can become full-fledged members. Notwithstanding these strict conditions, however, many careerists and other riff-raff work their way into the Party. Such elements constitute at once one of the greatest dangers and problems of the organization. Indifferent, incompetent, dishonest, and sometimes even counter-revolutionary, they tend to bureaucratize the Party, lower its moral standard, and discredit it in the eyes of the masses. The militant Communists look upon them as a menace and wage ceaseless war against them. They periodically weed them out, and the means to this end is called re-registration.
The Party re-registration is a drastic affair. It takes place once a year, when every member is called before the local boards and made to give an account of his membership. Those who can not show records of real service are dropped forwith. Often the general public, non-party members and all, are invited to come before the boards to give voice to any complaints they may have against Communist officials, so that the Party can locate the unworthy and clean them out. Ordinarily such re-registrations eliminate thousands of "dead-ones." The living revolutionary body of the organization is stripped of the encumbering useless tissue. Last year, in 22 states, the Party membership was cut by the re-registration from 191,687 to 131,085; a reduction of 60,602, or about 32 per cent. The following table indicates how sharply the process operated in the big industrial districts:
| Before | After | |
| Perm, | 14,145 | 9,773 |
| Petrograd, | 26,159 | 21,613 |
| Ekaterinburg | 26,432 | 18,044 |
| Moscow, | 43,389 | 36,407 |
| Totals | 110,125 | 85,837 |
But despite such drastic pruning and the heavy mortality among its members, the size of the Party constantly increases. The figures below (also taken from the statistical exhibition of the III International) indicate the numerical strength of the Russian Communist movement at the periods of its congresses:
| 1903 | Bolshevik faction of Russ. Soc. Dem. Party | 825 |
| 1905 | Bolshevik„ faction„ of„ Russ.„ Soc.„ Dem.„ Party„ | 5,150 |
| 1906 | Bolshevik„ faction„ of„ Russ.„ Soc.„ Dem.„ Party„ | 13,800 |
| 1907 | Bolshevik„ faction„ of„ Russ.„ Soc.„ Dem.„ Party„ | 46,146 |
| 1917 | Russian Communist Party | 172,625 |
| 1918 | Russian„ Communist„ Party„ | [1]148,000 |
| 1919 | Russian„ Communist„ Party„ | 313,766 |
| 1920 | Russian„ Communist„ Party„ | 611,978 |
| 1921 | Russian„ Communist„ Party„ | 705,245 |
In addition to the Communist Party itself there is the organization of the Communist youth. It is now about 400,000 strong and is growing rapidly. It is a feeder for the Party, and the great crop of militants it is now producing will some day play an important part in the history of Russia.
The Russian Communist Party insists that its members conduct themselves as mode! revolutionists under any and all circumstances. Whatever the task in hand, they must set the pace and inspire the masses by their example. The greatest dangers, the severest hardships, and the heaviest burdens fall naturally to their lot. In the industries it is the Communists who must do the hardest and meanest work; upon them falls the weight of all the drives for more efficient production. They are the good and tireless workers, the mainstays of the shops. In times of food shortage they must not only bear their own reduced rations bravely, but also inspire the great rank and file to do the same. And when any Communists go wrong, when they are found guilty of theft or other serious crimes against the revolution, they are always punished with extraordinary severity. They are made an example of. Many a one of them has been shot for offenses that would have brought only mild prison terms to non-party men. Such punishments are always, of course, meted out by the regularly constituted authorities, not by the Party itself.
In the Red Army the Communists are famed as brave and dogged fighters. Their posts are always where the battle is hottest. It was they—a body of student officers—who, by desperate courage in a critical moment, dealt Yudenitch a mortal blow before Petrograd, thus saving that city, and probably with it the revolution itself. When the Red Army, disorganized and demoralized, was flying before Wrangel's victorious soldiers, thousands of special Communist shock troops were thrown into the fray. They not only stopped Wrangel, but sent him reeling back to final defeat. And during the recent Kronstadt revolt the burden of the struggle fell upon the Communists. Large numbers of them perished in the terrible battle to reduce the great rebellious fortress. The Communist Party congress was in session at the time; it mobilized some 300 of its members and sent them to the front. Half of them never came back. And so it has gone all through the revolutionary period: the Communists have sacrificed themselves without stint or limit. It is said that of the total number of Communists in Russia when the revolution began, not more than 20 per cent are now alive. The gaps in the revolutionary ranks have been filled from the growing generation of militants.
The Communists are not among "those pastors who point out to others the steep and thorny path to Heaven, while they themselves the primrose path of dalliance tread." They work harder and live simpler than anyone else in Russia. The opposition, usually masked under the title of non-party, try to make out that they are a favored class who get the best of everything. But the Party's heroic record of self-sacrifice eloquently refutes that. And then the fact that the organization remains so small proves that the heavy duties attaching to membership greatly outweigh any alleged privileges that may come from it. If this were not so the Party would be many times as large as it is now.
The Communists are guided by a great ideal and they are altogether unsparing of themselves in seeking its realization. Moreover, their very lives are at stake. Whenever the counter-revolutionary generals captured a body of soldiers or a town during the civil wars they always killed every Communist they found. With these examples in mind—not to speak of what happened in Finland, Hungary, and elsewhere—the Russian revolutionists are convinced that the fall of the Soviet Government would be the signal for a gigantic massacre of Communists from which probably but few would escape. But they are determined that such a massacre shall not take place. They may be depended upon never to yield their control save after one of the most desperate struggles in history.
Such, in brief, are a few of the broad characteristics of the wonderful Communist Party.
- ↑ The severe war conditions prevailing in 1918 prevented a full party representation at the Congress.