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diff --git a/1326-0.txt b/1326-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a4716c8 --- /dev/null +++ b/1326-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3606 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1326 *** + +THE CRISIS IN RUSSIA + +By Arthur Ransome + + + + + TO WILLIAM PETERS + OF ABERDEEN + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +THE characteristic of a revolutionary country is that change is a +quicker process there than elsewhere. As the revolution recedes into +the past the process of change slackens speed. Russia is no longer the +dizzying kaleidoscope that it was in 1917. No longer does it change +visibly from week to week as it changed in 19l8. Already, to get a clear +vision of the direction in which it is changing, it is necessary to +visit it at intervals of six months, and quite useless to tap the +political barometer several times a day as once upon a time one used to +do.... But it is still changing very fast. My journal of "Russia in +1919," while giving as I believe a fairly accurate picture of the state +of affairs in February and March of 1919, pictures a very different +stage in the development of the revolution from that which would be +found by observers today. + + +The prolonged state of crisis in which the country has been kept by +external war, while strengthening the ruling party by rallying even +their enemies to their support, has had the other effects that a +national crisis always has on the internal politics of a country. +Methods of government which in normal times would no doubt be softened +or disguised by ceremonial usage are used nakedly and justified +by necessity. We have seen the same thing in belligerent and +non-revolutionary countries, and, for the impartial student, it has been +interesting to observe that, when this test of crisis is applied, the +actual governmental machine in every country looks very much like that +in every other. They wave different flags to stimulate enthusiasm and +to justify submission. But that is all. Under the stress of war, +"constitutional safeguards" go by the board "for the public good," in +Moscow as elsewhere. Under that stress it becomes clear that, in spite +of its novel constitution, Russia is governed much as other countries +are governed, the real directive power lying in the hands of a +comparatively small body which is able by hook or crook to infect with +its conscious will a population largely indifferent and inert. A visitor +to Moscow to-day would find much of the constitutional machinery that +was in full working order in the spring of 1919 now falling into rust +and disrepair. He would not be able once a week or so to attend All-Russian +Executive and hear discussions in this parliament of the questions of +the day. No one tries to shirk the fact that the Executive Committee has +fallen into desuetude, from which, when the stress slackens enough to +permit ceremonial that has not an immediate agitational value, it may +some day be revived. The bulk of its members have been at the front or +here and there about the country wrestling with the economic problem, +and their work is more useful than their chatter. Thus brutally is the +thing stated. The continued stress has made the muscles, the actual +works, of the revolution more visible than formerly. The working of the +machine is not only seen more clearly, but is also more frankly stated +(perhaps simply because they too see it now more clearly), by the +leaders themselves. + + +I want in this book to describe the working of the machine as I now see +it. But it is not only the machine which is more nakedly visible than +it was. The stress to which it is being subjected has also not so much +changed its character as become easier of analysis. At least, I seem to +myself to see it differently. In the earlier days it seemed quite simply +the struggle between a revolutionary and non-revolutionary countries. I +now think that that struggle is a foolish, unnecessary, lunatic incident +which disguised from us the existence of a far more serious struggle, in +which the revolutionary and non-revolutionary governments are fighting +on the same side. They fight without cooperation, and throw insults +and bullets at each other in the middle of the struggle, but they are +fighting for the same thing. They are fighting the same enemy. +Their quarrel with each other is for both parties merely a harassing +accompaniment of the struggle to which all Europe is committed, for the +salvage of what is left of European civilization. + + +The threat of a complete collapse of civilization is more imminent in +Russia than elsewhere. But it is clear enough in Poland, it cannot be +disregarded in Germany, there is no doubt of its existence in Italy, +France is conscious of it; it is only in England and America that this +threat is not among the waking nightmares of everybody. Unless the +struggle, which has hitherto been going against us, takes a turn for the +better, we shall presently be quite unable to ignore it ourselves. + + +I have tried to state the position in Russia today: on the one hand to +describe the crisis itself, the threat which is forcing these people to +an extreme of effort, and on the other hand to describe the organization +that is facing that threat; on the one hand to set down what are the +main characteristics of the crisis, on the other hand to show how the +comparatively small body of persons actually supplying the Russian +people with its directives set about the stupendous task of moving that +vast inert mass, not along the path of least resistance, but along a +path which, while alike unpleasant and extremely difficult, does seem to +them to promise some sort of eventual escape. + + +No book is entirely objective, so I do not in the least mind stating my +own reason for writing this one (which has taken time that I should have +liked to spend on other and very different things). Knowledge of this +reason will permit the reader to make allowances for such bias I have +been unable to avoid, and so, by judicious reading, to make my book +perhaps nearly as objective as I should myself wish it to be. + + +It has been said that when two armies face each other across a battle +front and engage in mutual slaughter, they may be considered as a single +army engaged in suicide. Now it seems to me that when countries, each +one severally doing its best to arrest its private economic ruin, do +their utmost to accelerate the economic ruin of each other, we are +witnessing something very like the suicide of civilization itself. There +are people in both camps who believe that armed and economic conflict +between revolutionary and non-revolutionary Europe, or if you like +between Capitalism and Communism, is inevitable. These people, in both +camps, are doing their best to make it inevitable. Sturdy pessimists, in +Moscow no less than in London and Paris, they go so far as to say "the +sooner the better," and by all means in their power try to precipitate +a conflict. Now the main effort in Russia to-day, the struggle which +absorbs the chief attention of all but the few Communist Churchills and +Communist Millerands who, blind to all else, demand an immediate pitched +battle over the prostrate body of civilization, is directed to finding +a way for Russia herself out of the crisis, the severity of which can +hardly be realized by people who have not visited the country again and +again, and to bringing her as quickly as possible into a state in which +she can export her raw materials and import the manufactured goods of +which she stands in need. I believe that this struggle is ours as well +as Russia's, though we to whom the threat is less imminent, are less +desperately engaged. Victory or defeat in this struggle in Russia, or +anywhere else on the world's surface, is victory or defeat for every +one. The purpose of my book is to make that clear. For, bearing that in +mind, I cannot but think that every honest man, of whatever parity, +who cares more for humanity than for politics, must do his utmost +to postpone the conflict which a few extremists on each side of the +barricades so fanatically desire. If that conflict is indeed inevitable, +its consequences will be less devastating to a Europe cured of her +wounds than to a Europe scarcely, even by the most hopeful, to be +described as convalescent. But the conflict may not be inevitable after +all. No man not purblind but sees that Communist Europe is changing no +less than Capitalist Europe. If we succeed in postponing the struggle +long enough, we may well succeed in postponing it until the war-like on +both sides look in vain for the reasons of their bellicosity. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + Introduction + The Shortage of Things + The Shortage of Men + The Communist Dictatorship + A Conference at Jaroslavl + The Trade Unions + The Propaganda Trains + Saturdayings + Industrial Conscription + What the Communists Are Trying to do in Russia + Rykov on Economic plans and on the Transformation of the Communist Party + Non-Partyism + Possibilities + + + ***I am indebted to the editor of the "Manchester Guardian" + for permission to make use in some of the chapters of this + book of material which has appeared in his paper. + + + + +THE CRISIS IN RUSSIA + + + + +THE SHORTAGE OF THINGS + + + +Nothing can be more futile than to describe conditions in Russia as a +sort of divine punishment for revolution, or indeed to describe them at +all without emphasizing the fact that the crisis in Russia is part of +the crisis in Europe, and has been in the main brought about like the +revolution itself, by the same forces that have caused, for example, the +crisis in Germany or the crisis in Austria. + + +No country in Europe is capable of complete economic independence. In +spite of her huge variety of natural resources, the Russian organism +seemed in 1914 to have been built up on the generous assumption that +with Europe at least the country was to be permanently at peace, or +at the lost to engage in military squabbles which could be reckoned +in months, and would keep up the prestige of the autocracy without +seriously hampering imports and exports. Almost every country in Europe, +with the exception of England, was better fitted to stand alone, was +less completely specialized in a single branch of production. England, +fortunately for herself, was not isolated during the war, and will not +become isolated unless the development of the crisis abroad deprives +her of her markets. England produces practically no food, but +great quantities of coal, steel and manufactured goods. Isolate her +absolutely, and she will not only starve, but will stop producing +manufactured goods, steel and coal, because those who usually produce +these things will be getting nothing for their labor except money which +they will be unable to use to buy dinners, because there will be no +dinners to buy. That supposititious case is a precise parallel to what +has happened in Russia. Russia produced practically no manufactured +goods (70 per cent. of her machinery she received from abroad), but +great quantities of food. The blockade isolated her. By the blockade I +do not mean merely the childish stupidity committed by ourselves, but +the blockade, steadily increasing in strictness, which began in August, +1914, and has been unnecessarily prolonged by our stupidity. The war, +even while for Russia it was not nominally a blockade, was so actually. +The use of tonnage was perforce restricted to the transport of the +necessaries of war, and these were narrowly defined as shells, guns and +so on, things which do not tend to improve a country economically, but +rather the reverse. The imports from Sweden through Finland were no sort +of make-weight for the loss of Poland and Germany. + + +The war meant that Russia's ordinary imports practically ceased. It +meant a strain on Russia, comparable to that which would have been put +on England if the German submarine campaign had succeeded in putting +an end to our imports of food from the Americas. From the moment of the +Declaration of War, Russia was in the position of one "holding out," of +a city standing a siege without a water supply, for her imports were so +necessary to her economy that they may justly be considered as essential +irrigation. There could be no question for her of improvement, of +strengthening. She was faced with the fact until the war should end +she had to do with what she had, and that the things she had formerly +counted on importing would be replaced by guns and shells, to be used, +as it turned out, in battering Russian property that happened to be in +enemy hands. She even learned that she had to develop gun-making and +shell-making at home, at the expense of those other industries which to +some small extent might have helped her to keep going. And, just as in +England such a state of affairs would lead to a cessation of the output +of iron and coal in which England is rich, so in Russia, in spite of her +corn lands, it led to a shortage of food. + + +The Russian peasant formerly produced food, for which he was paid in +money. With that money, formerly, he was able to clothe himself, to buy +the tools of his labor, and further, though no doubt he never observed +the fact, to pay for the engines and wagons that took his food to +market. A huge percentage of the clothes and the tools and the engines +and the wagons and the rails came from abroad, and even those factories +in Russia which were capable of producing such things were, in many +essentials, themselves dependent upon imports. Russian towns began to +be hungry in 1915. In October of that year the Empress reported to +the Emperor that the shrewd Rasputin had seen in a vision that it was +necessary to bring wagons with flour, butter and sugar from Siberia, +and proposed that for three days nothing else should be done. Then +there would be no strikes. "He blesses you for the arrangement of +these trains." In 1916 the peasants were burying their bread instead of +bringing it to market. In the autumn of 1916 I remember telling certain +most incredulous members of the English Government that there would be +a most serious food shortage in Russia in the near future. In 1917 came +the upheaval of the revolution, in 1918 peace, but for Russia, civil +war and the continuance of the blockade. By July, 1919, the rarity of +manufactured goods was such that it was possible two hundred miles south +of Moscow to obtain ten eggs for a box of matches, and the rarity of +goods requiring distant transport became such that in November, 1919, in +Western Russia, the peasants would sell me nothing for money, whereas +my neighbor in the train bought all he wanted in exchange for small +quantities of salt. + + +It was not even as if, in vital matters, Russia started the war in a +satisfactory condition. The most vital of all questions in a country +of huge distances must necessarily be that of transport. It is no +exaggeration to say that only by fantastic efforts was Russian transport +able to save its face and cover its worst deficiencies even before the +war began. The extra strain put upon it by the transport of troops +and the maintenance of the armies exposed its weakness, and with each +succeeding week of war, although in 1916 and 1917 Russia did receive +775 locomotives from abroad, Russian transport went from bad to worse, +making inevitable a creeping paralysis of Russian economic life, during +the latter already acute stages of which the revolutionaries succeeded +to the disease that had crippled their precursors. + + +In 1914 Russia had in all 20,057 locomotives, of which 15,047 burnt +coal, 4,072 burnt oil and 938 wood. But that figure of twenty thousand +was more impressive for a Government official, who had his own reasons +for desiring to be impressed, than for a practical railway engineer, +since of that number over five thousand engines were more than twenty +years old, over two thousand were more than thirty years old, fifteen +hundred were more than forty years old, and 147 patriarchs had passed +their fiftieth birthday. Of the whole twenty thousand only 7,108 were +under ten years of age. That was six years ago. In the meantime Russia +has been able to make in quantities decreasing during the last five +years by 40 and 50 per cent. annually, 2,990 new locomotives. In 1914 of +the locomotives then in Russia about 17,000 were in working condition. +In 1915 there were, in spite of 800 new ones, only 16,500. In 1916 the +number of healthy locomotives was slightly higher, owing partly to +the manufacture of 903 at home in the preceding year and partly to the +arrival of 400 from abroad. In 1917 in spite of the arrival of a further +small contingent the number sank to between 15,000 and 16,000. Early +in 1918 the Germans in the Ukraine and elsewhere captured 3,000. +Others were lost in the early stages of the civil war. The number of +locomotives fell from 14,519 in January to 8,457 in April, after which +the artificially instigated revolt of the Czecho-Slovaks made possible +the fostering of civil war on a large scale, and the number fell swiftly +to 4,679 in December. In 1919 the numbers varied less markedly, but +the decline continued, and in December last year 4,141 engines were +in working order. In January this year the number was 3,969, rising +slightly in February, when the number was 4,019. A calculation was made +before the war that in the best possible conditions the maximum Russian +output of engines could be not more than 1,800 annually. At this rate +in ten years the Russians could restore their collection of engines +to something like adequate numbers. Today, thirty years would be an +inadequate estimate, for some factories, like the Votkinsky, have been +purposely ruined by the Whites, in others the lathes and other machinery +for building and repairing locomotives are worn out, many of the skilled +engineers were killed in the war with Germany, many others in defending +the revolution, and it will be long before it will be possible to +restore to the workmen or to the factories the favorable material +conditions of 1912-13. Thus the main fact in the present crisis is that +Russia possesses one-fifth of the number of locomotives which in +1914 was just sufficient to maintain her railway system in a state of +efficiency which to English observers at that time was a joke. For six +years she has been unable to import the necessary machinery for making +engines or repairing them. Further, coal and oil have been, until +recently, cut off by the civil war. The coal mines are left, after +the civil war, in such a condition that no considerable output may be +expected from them in the near future. Thus, even those engines which +exist have had their efficiency lessened by being adapted in a rough and +ready manner for burning wood fuel instead of that for which they were +designed. + + + +Let us now examine the combined effect of ruined transport and the six +years' blockade on Russian life in town and country. First of all was +cut off the import of manufactured goods from abroad. That has had +a cumulative effect completed, as it were, and rounded off by the +breakdown of transport. By making it impossible to bring food, fuel +and raw material to the factories, the wreck of transport makes it +impossible for Russian industry to produce even that modicum which +it contributed to the general supply of manufactured goods which the +Russian peasant was accustomed to receive in exchange for his production +of food. On the whole the peasant himself eats rather more than he did +before the war. But he has no matches, no salt, no clothes, no boots, no +tools. The Communists are trying to put an end to illiteracy in Russia, +and in the villages the most frequent excuse for keeping children from +school is a request to come and see them, when they will be found, as I +have seen them myself, playing naked about the stove, without boots +or anything but a shirt, if that, in which to go and learn to read and +write. Clothes and such things as matches are, however, of less vital +importance than tools, the lack of which is steadily reducing Russia's +actual power of food production. Before the war Russia needed from +abroad huge quantities of agricultural implements, not only machines, +but simple things like axes, sickles, scythes. In 1915 her own +production of these things had fallen to 15.1 per cent. of her already +inadequate peacetime output. In 1917 it had fallen to 2.1 per cent. The +Soviet Government is making efforts to raise it, and is planning +new factories exclusively for the making of these things. But, with +transport in such a condition, a new factory means merely a new demand +for material and fuel which there are neither engines nor wagons to +bring. Meanwhile, all over Russia, spades are worn out, men are plowing +with burnt staves instead of with plowshares, scratching the surface of +the ground, and instead of harrowing with a steel-spiked harrow of +some weight, are brushing the ground with light constructions of wooden +spikes bound together with wattles. + + +The actual agricultural productive powers of Russia are consequently +sinking. But things are no better if we turn from the rye and corn lands +to the forests. Saws are worn out. Axes are worn out. Even apart from +that, the shortage of transport affects the production of wood fuel, +lack of which reacts on transport and on the factories and so on in a +circle from which nothing but a large import of engines and wagons will +provide an outlet. Timber can be floated down the rivers. Yes, but it +must be brought to the rivers. Surely horses can do that. Yes, but, +horses must be fed, and oats do not grow in the forests. For example, +this spring (1920) the best organized timber production was in Perm +Government. There sixteen thousand horses have been mobilized for +the work, but further development is impossible for lack of forage. A +telegram bitterly reports, "Two trains of oats from Ekaterinburg are +expected day by day. If the oats arrive in time a considerable success +will be possible." And if the oats do not arrive in time? Besides, not +horses alone require to be fed. The men who cut the wood cannot do it +on empty stomachs. And again rises a cry for trains, that do not arrive, +for food that exists somewhere, but not in the forest where men work. +The general effect of the wreck of transport on food is stated as +follows: Less than 12 per cent. of the oats required, less than 5 per +cent. of the bread and salt required for really efficient working, were +brought to the forests. Nonetheless three times as much wood has been +prepared as the available transport has removed. + + +The towns suffer from lack of transport, and from the combined effect +on the country of their productive weakness and of the loss of their old +position as centres through which the country received its imports from +abroad. Townsfolk and factory workers lack food, fuel, raw materials and +much else that in a civilized State is considered a necessary of life. +Thus, ten million poods of fish were caught last year, but there were +no means of bringing them from the fisheries to the great industrial +centres where they were most needed. Townsfolk are starving, and in +winter, cold. People living in rooms in a flat, complete strangers to +each other, by general agreement bring all their beds into the kitchen. +In the kitchen soup is made once a day. There is a little warmth there +beside the natural warmth of several human beings in a small room. There +it is possible to sleep. During the whole of last winter, in the case I +have in mind, there were no means of heating the other rooms, where the +temperature was almost always far below freezing point. It is difficult +to make the conditions real except by individual examples. The lack of +medicines, due directly to the blockade, seems to have small effect on +the imagination when simply stated as such. Perhaps people will +realize what it means when instead of talking of the wounded undergoing +operations without anesthetics I record the case of an acquaintance, a +Bolshevik, working in a Government office, who suffered last summer +from a slight derangement of the stomach due to improper and inadequate +feeding. His doctor prescribed a medicine, and nearly a dozen different +apothecaries were unable to make up the prescription for lack of one or +several of the simple ingredients required. Soap has become an article +so rare (in Russia as in Germany during the blockade and the war there +is a terrible absence of fats) that for the present it is to be treated +as a means of safeguarding labor, to be given to the workmen for washing +after and during their work, and in preference to miners, chemical, +medical and sanitary workers, for whose efficiency and health it is +essential. The proper washing of underclothes is impossible. To induce +the population of Moscow to go to the baths during the typhus epidemic, +it was sufficient bribe to promise to each person beside the free bath +a free scrap of soap. Houses are falling into disrepair for want of +plaster, paint and tools. Nor is it possible to substitute one thing for +another, for Russia's industries all suffer alike from their dependence +on the West, as well as from the inadequacy of the transport to bring to +factories the material they need. People remind each other that during +the war the Germans, when similarly hard put to it for clothes, +made paper dresses, table-cloths, etc. In Russia the nets used in +paper-making are worn out. At last, in April, 1920 (so Lenin told me), +there seemed to be a hope of getting new ones from abroad. But the +condition of the paper industry is typical of all, in a country which, +it should not be forgotten, could be in a position to supply wood-pulp +for other countries besides itself. The factories are able to produce +only sixty per cent. of demands that have previously, by the strictest +scrutiny, been reduced to a minimum before they are made. The reasons, +apart from the lack of nets and cloths, are summed up in absence of +food, forage and finally labor. Even when wood is brought by river the +trouble is not yet overcome. The horses are dead and eaten or starved +and weak. Factories have to cease working so that the workmen, +themselves underfed, can drag the wood from the barges to the mills. +It may well be imagined what the effect of hunger, cold, and the +disheartenment consequent on such conditions of work and the seeming +hopelessness of the position have on the productivity of labor, the +fall in which reacts on all the industries, on transport, on the general +situation and so again on itself. + + +Mr. J. M. Keynes, writing with Central Europe in his mind (he is, I +think, as ignorant of Russia as I am of Germany), says: "What then is +our picture of Europe? A country population able to support life on the +fruits of its own agricultural production, but without the accustomed +surplus for the towns, and also (as a result of the lack of imported +materials, and so of variety and amount in the salable manufactures of +the towns) without the usual incentives to market food in exchange for +other wares; an industrial population unable to keep its strength for +lack of food, unable to earn a livelihood for lack of materials, and so +unable to make good by imports from abroad the failure of productivity +at home." + + +Russia is an emphasized engraving, in which every line of that picture +is bitten in with repeated washes of acid. Several new lines, however, +are added to the drawing, for in Russia the processes at work elsewhere +have gone further than in the rest of Europe, and it is possible to see +dimly, in faint outline, the new stage of decay which is threatened. +The struggle to arrest decay is the real crisis of the revolution, of +Russia, and, not impossibly, of Europe. For each country that develops +to the end in this direction is a country lost to the economic comity of +Europe. And, as one country follows another over the brink, so will +the remaining countries be faced by conditions of increasingly narrow +self-dependence, in fact by the very conditions which in Russia, so far, +have received their clearest, most forcible illustration. + + + + +THE SHORTAGE OF MEN + + + +In the preceding chapter I wrote of Russia's many wants, and of the +processes visibly at work, tending to make her condition worse and not +better. But I wrote of things, not of people. I wrote of the shortage of +this and of that, but not of the most serious of all shortages, which, +while itself largely due to those already discussed, daily intensifies +them, and points the way to that further stage of decay which is +threatened in the near future in Russia, and, in the more distant future +in Europe. I did not write of the shortage deterioration of labor. + + +Shortage of labor is not peculiar to Russia. It is among the postwar +phenomena common to all countries. The war and its accompanying eases +have cost Europe, including Russia, an enormous number of able-bodied +men. Many millions of others have lost the habit of regular work. German +industrialists complain that they cannot get labor, and that when they +get it, it is not productive. I heard complaints on the same subject in +England. But just as the economic crisis, due in the first instance to +the war and the isolation it imposed, has gone further in Russia than +elsewhere, so the shortage of labor, at present a handicap, an annoyance +in more fortunate countries, is in Russia perhaps the greatest of the +national dangers. Shortage of labor cannot be measured simply by the +decreasing numbers of the workmen. If it takes two workmen as long to do +a particular job in 1920 as it took one man to do it in 1914, then, even +if the number of workman has remained the same, the actual supply of +labor has been halved. And in Russia the situation is worse than that. +For example, in the group of State metal-working factories, those, in +fact which may be considered as the weapon with which Russia is trying +to cut her way out of her transport difficulties, apart from the fact +that there were in 1916 81,600 workmen, whereas in 1920 there are only +42,500, labor has deteriorated in the most appalling manner. In 1916 in +these factories 92 per cent. of the nominal working hours were actually +kept; in 1920 work goes on during only 60 per cent. of the nominal +hours. It is estimated that the labor of a single workman produces now +only one quarter of what it produced in 1916. To take another example, +also from workmen engaged in transport, that is to say, in the most +important of all work at the present time: in the Moscow junction of the +Moscow Kazan Railway, between November 1st and February 29th (1920), +292 workmen and clerks missed 12,048 working days, being absent, on +in average, forty days per man in the four months. In Moscow +passenger-station on this line, 22 workmen missed in November 106 days, +in December 273, in January 338, and in February 380; in an appalling +crescendo further illustrated by the wagon department, where 28 workmen +missed in November 104 days and in February 500. In November workmen +absented themselves for single days. In February the same workmen were +absent for the greater part of the month. The invariable excuse was +illness. Many cases of illness there undoubtedly were, since this period +was the worst of the typhus epidemic, but besides illness, and besides +mere obvious idleness which no doubt accounts for a certain proportion +of illegitimate holidays, there is another explanation which goes nearer +the root of the matter. Much of the time filched from the State was in +all probability spent in expeditions in search of food. In Petrograd, +the Council of Public Economy complain that there is a tendency to turn +the eight-hour day into a four-hour day. Attempts are being made to +arrest this tendency by making an additional food allowance conditional +on the actual fulfilment of working days. In the Donetz coal basin, the +monthly output per man was in 1914 750 poods, in 1916 615 poods, in 1919 +240 poods (figures taken from Ekaterinoslav Government), and in 1920 +the output per man is estimated at being something near 220 poods. In the +shale mines on the Volga, where food conditions are comparatively good, +productivity is comparatively high. Thus in a small mine near Simbirsk +there are 230 workmen, of' whom 50 to 60 are skilled. The output for the +unskilled is 28.9 poods in a shift, for the skilled 68.3. But even there +25 per cent. of the workmen are regular absentees, and actually the mine +works only 17 or 18 days in a month, that is, 70 per cent. of the normal +number of working days. The remaining 30 per cent. of normal working +time is spent by the workmen in getting food. Another small mine in the +same district is worked entirely by unskilled labor, the workers being +peasants from the neighboring villages. In this mine the productivity +per man is less, but all the men work full time. They do not have to +waste time in securing food, because, being local peasants, they are +supplied by their own villages and families. In Moscow and Petrograd +food is far more difficult to secure, more time is wasted on that +hopeless task; even with that waste of time, the workman is not properly +fed, and it cannot be wondered at that his productivity is low. + + +Something, no doubt, is due to the natural character of the Russians, +which led Trotsky to define man as an animal distinguished by laziness. +Russians are certainly lazy, and probably owe to their climate their +remarkable incapacity for prolonged effort. The Russian climate is such +that over large areas of Russia the Russian peasant is accustomed, and +has been accustomed for hundreds of years, to perform prodigies of +labor during two short periods of sowing and harvest, and to spend the +immensely long and monotonous winter in a hibernation like that of the +snake or the dormouse. There is a much greater difference between a +Russian workman's normal output and that of which he is capable for a +short time if he sets himself to it, than there is between the normal +and exceptional output of an Englishman, whose temperate climate has +not taught him to regard a great part of the year as a period of mere +waiting for and resting from the extraordinary effort of a few weeks. +[*] + + * Given any particular motive, any particular enthusiasm, or + visible, desirable object, even the hungry Russian workmen + of to-day are capable of sudden and temporary increase of + output. The "Saturdayings" (see p. 119) provide endless + illustrations of this. They had something in the character + of a picnic, they were novel, they were out of the routine, + and the productivity of labor during a "Saturdaying" was + invariably higher than on a weekday. For example, there is + a shortage of paper for cigarettes. People roll cigarettes + in old newspapers. It occurred to the Central Committee of + the Papermakers' Union to organize a "Sundaying" with the + object of sending cigarette paper to the soldiers in the Red + Army. Six factories took part. Here is a table showing the + output of these factories during the "Sundaying" and the + average weekday output. The figures are in poods. + + Made on Average week + Factory the Sunday Day Output + + Krasnogorodskaya.........615...............450 + Griaznovskaya.............65................45 + Medianskaya..............105................90 + Dobruzhskaya.............186...............250 + Belgiiskaya..............127................85 + Ropshinskaya..............85................55] + + +But this uneven working temperament was characteristic of the Russian +before the war as well as now. It has been said that the revolution +removed the stimulus to labor, and left the Russian laziness to have its +way. In the first period of the revolution that may have been true. +It is becoming day by day less true. The fundamental reasons of low +productivity will not be found in any sudden or unusual efflorescence +of idleness, but in economic conditions which cannot but reduce the +productivity of idle and industrious alike. Insufficient feeding is +one such reason. The proportion of working time consumed in foraging +is another. But the whole of my first chapter may be taken as a compact +mass of reasons why the Russians at the present time should not work +with anything like a normal productivity. It is said that bad workmen +complain of their tools, but even good ones become disheartened if +compelled to work with makeshifts, mended tools, on a stock of materials +that runs out from one day to the next, in factories where the machinery +may come at any moment to a standstill from lack of fuel. There would +thus be a shortage of labor in Russia, even if the numbers of workmen +were the same today as they were before the war. Unfortunately that is +not so. Turning from the question of low productivity per man to that +of absolute shortage of men: the example given at the beginning of +this chapter, showing that in the most important group of factories the +number of workmen has fallen 50 per cent. is by no means exceptional. +Walking through the passages of what used to be the Club of the Nobles, +and is now the house of the Trades Unions during the recent Trades Union +Congress in Moscow, I observed among a number of pictorial diagrams +on the walls, one in particular illustrating the rise and fall of the +working population of Moscow during a number of years. Each year was +represented by the picture of a factory with a chimney which rose and +fell with the population. From that diagram I took the figures for 1913, +1918 and 1919. These figures should be constantly borne in mind by any +one who wishes to realize how catastrophic the shortage of labor in +Russia actually is, and to judge how sweeping may be the changes in the +social configuration of the country if that shortage continues to +increase. Here are the figures: + + + Workmen in Moscow in 1913............159,344 + Workmen in Moscow in 1918...........157,282 + Workmen in Moscow in 1919............105,210 + + +That is to say, that one-third of the workmen of Moscow ceased to +live there, or ceased to be workmen, in the course of a single year. +A similar phenomenon is observable in each one of the big industrial +districts. + + +What has become of those workmen? + + +A partial explanation is obvious. The main impulse of the revolution +came from the town workers. Of these, the metal workers were the most +decided, and those who most freely joined the Red Guard in the early and +the Red Army in the later days of the revolution. Many, in those early +days, when there was more enthusiasm than discipline, when there were +hardly any experienced officers, and those without much authority, were +slaughtered during the German advance of 1918. The first mobilizations, +when conscription was introduced, were among the workers in the great +industrial districts. The troops from Petrograd and Moscow, exclusively +workmen's regiments, have suffered more than any other during the civil +war, being the most dependable and being thrown, like the guards of old +time, into the worst place at any serious crisis. Many thousands of them +have died for the sake of the revolution which, were they living, +they would be hard put to it to save. (The special shortage of skilled +workers is also partially to be explained by the indiscriminate +mobilizations of 1914-15, when great numbers of the most valuable +engineers and other skilled workers were thrown into the front line, and +it was not until their loss was already felt that the Tsar's Government +in this matter came belatedly to its senses.) + + +But these explanations are only partial. The more general answer to +the question, What has become of the workmen? lies in the very economic +crisis which their absence accentuates. Russia is unlike England, where +starvation of the towns would be practically starvation of the whole +island. In Russia, if a man is hungry, he has only to walk far enough +and he will come to a place where there is plenty to eat. Almost every +Russian worker retains in some form or other connection with a village, +where, if he returns, he will not be an entire stranger, but at worst a +poor relation, and quite possibly an honored guest. It is not surprising +that many thousands have "returned to the land" in this way. + +Further, if a workman retains his connection, both with a distant +village and with a town, he can keep himself and his family fat and +prosperous by ceasing to be a workman, and, instead, traveling on the +buffers or the roof of a railway wagon, and bringing back with him sacks +of flour and potatoes for sale in the town at fantastic prices. Thereby +he is lost to productive labor, and his uncomfortable but adventurous +life becomes directly harmful, tending to increase the strain on +transport, since it is obviously more economical to transport a thousand +sacks than to transport a thousand sacks with an idle workman attached +to each sack. Further, his activities actually make it more difficult +for the town population to get food. By keeping open for the village the +possibility of selling at fantastic prices, he lessens the readiness +of the peasants to part with their flour at the lower prices of the +Government. Nor is it as if his activities benefited the working +population. The food he brings in goes for the most part to those who +have plenty of money or have things to exchange for it. And honest +men in Russia to-day have not much money, and those who have things to +exchange are not as a rule workmen. The theory of this man's harmfulness +is, I know, open to argument, but the practice at least is exactly as +I have stated it, and is obviously attractive to the individual who +prefers adventure on a full stomach to useful work on an empty. Setting +aside the theory with its latent quarrel between Free Trade and State +control, we can still recognize that each workman engaged in these +pursuits has become an unproductive middleman, one of that very +parasitic species which the revolutionaries had hoped to make +unnecessary. It is bad from the revolutionary point of view if a workman +is so employed, but it is no less bad from the point of view of people +who do not care twopence about the revolution one way or the other, but +do care about getting Russia on her feet again and out of her economic +crisis. It is bad enough if an unskilled workman is so employed. It is +far worse if a skilled workman finds he can do better for himself as +a "food speculator" than by the exercise of his legitimate craft. From +mines, from every kind of factory come complaints of the decreasing +proportion of skilled to unskilled workmen. The superior intelligence +of the skilled worker offers him definite advantages should he engage in +these pursuits, and his actual skill gives him other advantages in the +villages. He can leave his factory and go to the village, there on +the spot to ply his trade or variations of it, when as a handy man, +repairing tools, etc., he will make an easy living and by lessening +the dependence of the village on the town do as much as the "food +speculator" in worsening the conditions of the workman he has left +behind. + + +And with that we come to the general changes in the social geography +of Russia which are threatened if the processes now at work continue +unchecked. The relations between town and village are the fundamental +problem of the revolution. Town and countryside are in sharp +contradiction daily intensified by the inability of the towns to supply +the country's needs. The town may be considered as a single productive +organism, with feelers stretching into the country, and actual outposts +there in the form of agricultural enterprises taking their directives +from the centre and working as definite parts of the State organism. +All round this town organism, in all its interstices, it too, with its +feelers in the form of "food speculators," is the anarchic chaos of the +country, consisting of a myriad independent units, regulated by no plan, +without a brain centre of any kind. Either the organized town will +hold its own against and gradually dominate and systematize the country +chaos, or that chaos little by little will engulf the town organism. +Every workman who leaves the town automatically places himself on the +side of the country in that struggle. And when a town like Moscow loses +a third of its working population in a year, it is impossible not to +see that, so far, the struggle is going in favor of that huge chaotic, +unconscious but immensely powerful countryside. There is even a danger +that the town may become divided against itself. Just as scarcity of +food leads to food speculation, so the shortage of labor is making +possible a sort of speculation in labor. The urgent need of labor has +led to a resurrection of the methods of the direct recruiting of +workmen in the villages by the agents of particular factories, who by +exceptional terms succeed in getting workmen where the Government organs +fail. And, of course, this recruiting is not confined to the villages. +Those enterprises which are situated in the corn districts are naturally +able to offer better conditions, for the sake of which workmen are ready +to leave their jobs and skilled workmen to do unskilled work, and the +result can only be a drainage of good workmen away from the hungry +central industrial districts where they are most of all needed. + + +Summing up the facts collected in this chapter and in the first on +the lack of things and the lack of men, I think the economic crisis in +Russia may be fairly stated as follows: Owing to the appalling condition +of Russian transport, and owing to the fact that since 1914 Russia has +been practically in a state of blockade, the towns have lost their power +of supplying, either as middlemen or as producers, the simplest needs +of the villages. Partly owing to this, partly again because of the +condition of transport, the towns are not receiving the necessaries of +life in sufficient quantities. The result of this is a serious fall in +the productivity of labor, and a steady flow of skilled and unskilled +workmen from the towns towards the villages, and from employments the +exercise of which tends to assist the towns in recovering their old +position as essential sources of supply to employments that tend to +have the opposite effect. If this continues unchecked, it will make +impossible the regeneration of Russian industry, and will result in +the increasing independence of the villages, which will tend to become +entirely self-supporting communities, tilling the ground in a less and +less efficient manner, with ruder tools, with less and less incentive to +produce more than is wanted for the needs of the village itself. Russia, +in these circumstances, may sink into something very like barbarism, for +with the decay of the economic importance of the towns would decay +also their authority, and free-booting on a small and large scale would +become profitable and not very dangerous. It would be possible, no +doubt, for foreigners to trade with the Russians as with the natives of +the cannibal islands, bartering looking-glasses and cheap tools, but, +should such a state of things come to be, it would mean long years of +colonization, with all the new possibilities and risks involved in the +subjugation of a free people, before Western Europe could count once +more on getting a considerable portion of its food from Russian corn +lands. + + +That is the position, those the natural tendencies at work. But opposed +to these tendencies are the united efforts of the Communists and of +those who, leaving the question of Communism discreetly aside, work with +them for the sake of preventing such collapse of Russian civilization. +They recognize the existence of every one of the tendencies I have +described, but they are convinced that every one of these tendencies +will be arrested. They believe that the country will not conquer the +town but the reverse. So far from expecting the unproductive stagnation +described in the last paragraph, they think of Russia as of the natural +food supply of Europe, which the Communists among them believe will, in +course of time, be made up for "Working Men's Republics" (though, for +the sake of their own Republic, they are not inclined to postpone trade +with Europe until that epoch arrives). At the very time when spades and +sickles are wearing out or worn out, these men are determined that +the food output of Russia shall sooner or later be increased by the +introduction of better methods of agriculture and farming on a larger +scale. We are witnessing in Russia the first stages of a titanic +struggle, with on one side all the forces of nature leading apparently +to an inevitable collapse of civilization, and on the other side nothing +but the incalculable force of human will. + + + + +THE COMMUNIST DICTATORSHIP + + +How is that will expressed? What is the organization welded by adversity +which, in this crisis, supersedes even the Soviet Constitution, and +stands between this people and chaos? + + +It is a commonplace to say that Russia is ruled, driven if you like, +cold, starving as she is, to effort after effort by the dictatorship of +a party. It is a commonplace alike in the mouths of those who wish to +make the continued existence of that organization impossible and in the +mouths of the Communists themselves. At the second congress of the Third +International, Trotsky remarked. "A party as such, in the course of the +development of a revolution, becomes identical with the revolution." +Lenin, on the same occasion, replying to a critic who said that he +differed from, the Communists in his understanding of what was meant by +the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, said, "He says that we understand +by the words 'Dictatorship of the Proletariat' what is actually the +dictatorship of its determined and conscious minority. And that is the +fact." Later he asked, "What is this minority? It may be called a party. +If this minority is actually conscious, if it is able to draw the masses +after it, if it shows itself capable of replying to every question on +the agenda list of the political day, it actually constitutes a party." +And Trotsky again, on the same occasion, illustrated the relative +positions of the Soviet Constitution and the Communist Party when he +said, "And today, now that we have received an offer of peace from the +Polish Government, who decides the question? Whither are the workers to +turn? We have our Council of People's Commissaries, of course, but that, +too, must be under a certain control. Whose control? The control of the +working class as a formless chaotic mass? No. The Central Committee of +the party is called together to discuss and decide the question. And +when we have to wage war, to form new divisions, to find the best +elements for them-to whom do we turn? To the party, to the Central +Committee. And it gives directives to the local committees, 'Send +Communists to the front.' The case is precisely the same with the +Agrarian question, with that of supply, and with all other questions +whatsoever." + + +No one denies these facts, but their mere statement is quite inadequate +to explain what is being done in Russia and how it is being done. I +do not think it would be a waste of time to set down as briefly +as possible, without the comments of praise or blame that would be +inevitable from one primarily interested in the problem from the +Capitalist or Communist point of view what, from observation and +inquiry, I believe to be the main framework of the organization whereby +that dictatorship of the party works. + + +The Soviet Constitution is not so much moribund as in abeyance. The +Executive Committee, for example, which used to meet once a week or even +oftener, now meets on the rarest occasions. Criticism on this account +was met with the reply that the members of the Executive Committee, for +example, which used to meet once a week or even oftener, now meets on +the rarest occasions. Criticism on this account was met with the reply +that the members of the Executive Committee were busy on the front and +in various parts of Russia. As a matter of fact, the work which that +Committee used to do is now done by Central Committee of the Bolshevik +Party, so that the bulk of the 150 members of the Central Executive are +actually free for other work, a saving of something like 130 men. This +does not involve any very great change, but merely an economy in the use +of men. In the old days, as I well remember, the opening of a session of +the Executive Committee was invariably late, the reason being that the +various parties composing it had not yet finished their preliminary and +private discussions. There is now an overwhelming Communist majority +in the Executive Committee, as elsewhere. I think it may be regarded +as proved that these majorities are not always legitimately obtained. +Non-Communist delegates do undoubtedly find every kind of difficulty put +in their way by the rather Jesuitical adherents of the faith. But, no +matter how these majorities are obtained, the result is that when the +Communist Party has made up its mind on any subject, it is so certain +of being able to carry its point that the calling together of the +All-Russian Executive Committee is merely a theatrical demonstration of +the fact that it can do what it likes. When it does meet, the Communists +allow the microscopical opposition great liberty of speech, listen +quietly, cheer ironically, and vote like one man, proving on every +occasion that the meeting of the Executive Committee was the idlest +of forms, intended rather to satisfy purists than for purposes of +discussion, since the real discussion has all taken place beforehand +among the Communists themselves. Something like this must happen with +every representative assembly at which a single party has a great +preponderance and a rigid internal discipline. The real interest is in +the discussion inside the Party Committees. + + +This state of affairs would probably be more actively resented if the +people were capable of resenting anything but their own hunger, or of +fearing anything but a general collapse which would turn that hunger +into starvation. It must be remembered that the urgency of the +economic crisis has driven political questions into the background. The +Communists (compare Rykov's remarks on this subject, p. 175) believe +that this is the natural result of social revolution. They think that +political parties will disappear altogether and that people will band +together, not for the victory of one of several contending political +parties, but solely for economic cooperation or joint enterprise in +art or science. In support of this they point to the number of their +opponents who have become Communists, and to the still greater number +of non-Communists who are loyally working with them for the economic +reconstruction of the country. I do not agree with the Communists in +this, nor yet with their opponents, who attribute the death of political +discussion to fear of the Extraordinary Commission. I think that both +the Communists and their opponents underestimate the influence of the +economic ruin that affects everybody. The latter particularly, feeling +that in some way they must justify themselves to politically minded +foreign visitors, seek an excuse for their apathy in the one institution +that is almost universally unpopular. I have many non-Communist friends +in Russia, but have never detected the least restraint that could be +attributed to fear of anybody in their criticisms of the Communist +regime. The fear existed alike among Communists and non-Communists, +but it was like the fear of people walking about in a particularly bad +thunderstorm. The activities and arrests of the Extraordinary Commission +are so haphazard, often so utterly illogical, that it is quite idle for +any one to say to himself that by following any given line of conduct +he will avoid molestation. Also, there is something in the Russian +character which makes any prohibition of discussion almost an invitation +to discuss. I have never met a Russian who could be prevented from +saying whatever he liked whenever he liked, by any threats or dangers +whatsoever. The only way to prevent a Russian from talking is to cut out +his tongue. The real reason for the apathy is that, for the moment, for +almost everybody political questions are of infinitesimal importance in +comparison with questions of food and warmth. The ferment of political +discussion that filled the first years of the revolution has died away, +and people talk about little but what they are able to get for dinner, +or what somebody else his been able to get. I, like other foreign +visitors coming to Russia after feeding up in other countries, am all +agog to make people talk. But the sort of questions which interest me, +with my full-fed stomach, are brushed aside almost fretfully by men who +have been more or less hungry for two or three years on end. + + +I find, instead of an urgent desire to alter this or that at once, +to-morrow, in the political complexion of the country, a general desire +to do the best that can be done with things as they are, a general fear +of further upheaval of any kind, in fact a general acquiescence in +the present state of affairs politically, in the hope of altering the +present state of affairs economically. And this is entirely natural. +Everybody, Communists included, rails bitterly at the inefficiencies of +the present system, but everybody, Anti-Communists included, admits that +there is nothing whatever capable of taking its place. Its failure is +highly undesirable, not because it itself is good, but because such +failure would be preceded or followed by a breakdown of all existing +organizations. Food distribution, inadequate as it now is, would come to +an end. The innumerable non-political committees, which are rather like +Boards of Directors controlling the Timber, Fur, Fishery, Steel, Matches +or other Trusts (since the nationalized industries can be so considered) +would collapse, and with them would collapse not only yet one more hope +of keeping a breath of life in Russian industry, but also the +actual livelihoods of a great number of people, both Communists and +non-Communists. I do not think it is realized out-side Russia how large +a proportion of the educated classes have become civil servants of one +kind or another. It is a rare thing when a whole family has left +Russia, and many of the most embittered partisans of war on Russia have +relations inside Russia who have long ago found places under the new +system, and consequently fear its collapse as much as any one. One case +occurs to me in which a father was an important minister in one of the +various White Governments which have received Allied support, while his +son inside Russia was doing pretty well as a responsible official under +the Communists. Now in the event of a violent change, the Communists +would be outlaws with a price on every head, and those who have worked +with them, being Russians, know their fellow countrymen well enough to +be pretty well convinced that the mere fact that they are without cards +of the membership of the Communist Party, would not save them in the +orgy of slaughter that would follow any such collapse. + + +People may think that I underestimate the importance of, the +Extraordinary Commission. I am perfectly aware that without this police +force with its spies, its prisons and its troops, the difficulties of +the Dictatorship would be increased by every kind of disorder, and the +chaos, which I fear may come, would have begun long ago. I believe, too, +that the overgrown power of the Extraordinary Commission, and the +cure that must sooner or later be applied to it, may, as in the French +Revolution, bring about the collapse of the whole system. The Commission +depends for its strength on the fear of something else. I have seen it +weaken when there was a hope of general peace. I have seen it tighten +its grip in the presence of attacks from without and attempted +assassination within. It is dreaded by everybody; not even Communists +are safe from it; but it does not suffice to explain the Dictatorship, +and is actually entirely irrelevant to the most important process of +that Dictatorship, namely, the adoption of a single idea, a single +argument, by the whole of a very large body of men. The whole power of +the Extraordinary Commission does not affect in the slightest degree +discussions inside the Communist Party, and those discussions are the +simple fact distinguishing the Communist Dictatorship from any of the +other dictatorships by which it may be supplanted. + + +There are 600,000 members of the Communist Party (611,978 on April +2, 1920). There are nineteen members of the Central Committee of that +party. There are, I believe, five who, when they agree, can usually sway +the remaining fourteen. There is no need to wonder how these fourteen +can be argued into acceptance of the views of the still smaller inner +ring, but the process of persuading the six hundred thousand of the +desirability of, for example, such measures as those involved in +industrial conscription which, at first sight, was certainly repugnant +to most of them, is the main secret of the Dictatorship, and is not in +any way affected by the existence of the Extraordinary Commission. + + +Thus the actual government of Russia at the present time may be not +unfairly considered as a small group inside the Central Committee of the +Communist Party. This small group is able to persuade the majority of +the remaining members of that Committee. The Committee then sets about +persuading the majority of the party. In the case of important measures +the process is elaborate. The Committee issues a statement of its +case, and the party newspapers the Pravda and its affiliated organs are +deluged with its discussion. When this discussion has had time to spread +through the country, congresses of Communists meet in the provincial +centres, and members of the Central Committee go down to these +conferences to defend the "theses" which the Committee has issued. These +provincial congresses, exclusively Communist, send their delegates of +an All-Russian Congress. There the "theses" of the Central Committee +get altered, confirmed, or, in the case of an obviously unpersuaded +and large opposition in the party, are referred back or in other ways +shelved. Then the delegates, even those who have been in opposition at +the congress, go back to the country pledged to defend the position of +the majority. This sometimes has curious results. For example, I heard +Communist Trades Unionists fiercely arguing against certain clauses in +the theses on industrial conscription at a Communist Congress at the +Kremlin; less than a week afterwards I heard these same men defending +precisely these clauses at a Trades Union Congress over the way, they +loyally abiding by the collective opinion of their fellow Communists +and subject to particularly uncomfortable heckling from people who +vociferously reminded them (since the Communist debates had been +published) that they were now defending what, a few days before, they +had vehemently attacked. + + +The great strength of the Communist Party is comparable to the strength +of the Jesuits, who, similarly, put themselves and their opinions at the +disposal of the body politic of their fellow members. Until a decision +had been made, a Communist is perfectly free to do his best to prevent +it being made, to urge alterations in it, or to supply a rival decision, +but once it has been made he will support it without changing his +private opinion. In all mixed congresses, rather than break the party +discipline, he will give his vote for it, speak in favor of it, and use +against its adversaries the very arguments that have been used against +himself. He has his share in electing the local Communist Committee, +and, indirectly, in electing the all-powerful Central Committee of the +party, and he binds himself to do at any moment in his life exactly what +these Committees decide for him. These Committees decide the use that is +to be made of the lives, not only of the rank and file of the party, but +also of their own members. Even a member of the Central Committee does +not escape. He may be voted by his fellow members into leaving a job +he likes and taking up another he detests in which they think his +particular talents will better serve the party aims. To become a member +of the Communist Party involves a kind of intellectual abdication, or, +to put it differently, a readiness at any moment to place the collective +wisdom of the party's Committee above one's individual instincts or +ideas. You may influence its decisions, you may even get it to endorse +your own, but Lenin himself, if he were to fail on any occasion to +obtain the agreement of a majority in the Central Committee, would have +to do precisely what the Committee should tell him. Lenin's opinion +carries great weight because he is Lenin, but it carries less weight +than that of the Central Committee, of which he forms a nineteenth +part. On the other hand, the opinion of Lenin and a very small group of +outstanding figures is supported by great prestige inside the Committee, +and that of the Committee is supported by overwhelming prestige among +the rank and file. The result is that this small group is nearly always +sure of being able to use the whole vote of 600,000 Communists, in the +realization of its decisions. + + +Now 600,000 men and women acting on the instructions of a highly +centralized directive, all the important decisions of which have been +thrashed out and re-thrashed until they have general support within the +party; 600,000 men and women prepared, not only to vote in support of +these decisions, but with a carefully fostered readiness to sacrifice +their lives for them if necessary; 600,000 men and women who are +persuaded that by their way alone is humanity to be saved; who are +persuaded (to put it as cynically and unsympathetically as possible) +that the noblest death one can die is in carrying out a decision of the +Central Committee; such a body, even in a country such as Russia, is an +enormously strong embodiment of human will, an instrument of struggle +capable of working something very like miracles. It can be and is +controlled like an army in battle. It can mobilize its members, 10 per +cent. of them, 50 per cent., the local Committees choosing them, and +send them to the front when the front is in danger, or to the railways +and repair shops when it is decided that the weakest point is that of +transport. If its only task were to fight those organizations of loosely +knit and only momentarily united interests which are opposed to +it, those jerry-built alliances of Reactionaries with Liberals, +United-Indivisible-Russians with Ukrainians, Agrarians with +Sugar-Refiners, Monarchists with Republicans, that task would long ago +have been finished. But it has to fight something infinitely stronger +than these in fighting the economic ruin of Russia, which, if it is too +strong, too powerful to be arrested by the Communists, would make +short work of those who are without any such fanatic single-minded and +perfectly disciplined organization. + + + + +A CONFERENCE AT JAROSLAVL + + +I have already suggested that although the small Central Committee of +the Communist Party does invariably get its own way, there are essential +differences between this Dictatorship and the dictatorship of, for +example, a General. The main difference is that whereas the General +merely writes an order about which most people hear for the first time +only when it is promulgated, the Central Committee prepares the way +for its dictation by a most elaborate series of discussions and counter +discussions throughout the country, whereby it wins the bulk of the +Communist Party to its opinion, after which it proceeds through local +and general congresses to do the same with the Trades Unions. This done, +a further series of propaganda meetings among the people actually to be +affected smooths the way for the introduction of whatever new measure +is being carried through at the moment. All this talk, besides lessening +the amount of physical force necessary in carrying out a decision, must +also avoid, at least in part, the deadening effect that would be caused +by mere compulsory obedience to the unexplained orders of a military +dictator. Of the reality of the Communist Dictatorship I have no sort +of doubt. But its methods are such as tend towards the awakening of a +political consciousness which, if and when normal conditions-of feeding +and peace, for example-are attained, will make dictatorship of any kind +almost impossible. + + +To illustrate these methods of the Dictatorship, I cannot do better than +copy into this book some pages of my diary written in March of this year +when I was present at one of the provincial conferences which were held +in preparation of the All-Russian Communist Conference at the end of the +month. + + +At seven in the evening Radek called for me and took me to the Jaroslavl +station, where we met Larin, whom I had known in 1918. An old Menshevik, +he was the originator and most urgent supporter of the decree annulling +the foreign debts. He is a very ill man, partially paralyzed, having to +use both hands even to get food to his mouth or to turn over the leaves +of a book. In spite of this he is one of the hardest workers in Russia, +and although his obstinacy, his hatred of compromise, and a sort of +mixed originality and perverseness keep him almost permanently at +loggerheads with the Central Committee, he retains everybody's respect +because of the real heroism with which he conquers physical disabilities +which long ago would have overwhelmed a less unbreakable spirit. Both +Radek and Larin were going to the Communist Conference at Jaroslavl +which was to consider the new theses of the Central Committee of the +party with regard to Industrial Conscription. Radek was going to defend +the position of the Central Committee, Larin to defend his own. Both +are old friends. As Radek said to me, he intended to destroy Larin's +position, but not, if he could help it, prevent Larin being nominated +among the Jaroslavl delegates to All-Russian Conference which was in +preparation. Larin, whose work keeps him continually traveling, has his +own car, specially arranged so that his uninterrupted labor shall have +as little effect as possible on his dangerously frail body. Radek and I +traveled in one of the special cars of the Central Executive Committee, +of which he is a member. + + +The car seemed very clean, but, as an additional precaution, we began +by rubbing turpentine on our necks and wrists and angles for the +discouragement of lice, now generally known as "Semashki" from the name +of Semashko, the Commissar of Public Health, who wages unceasing war +for their destruction as the carriers of typhus germs. I rubbed the +turpentine so energetically into my neck that it burnt like a collar of +fire, and for a long time I was unable to get to sleep. + + +In the morning Radek, the two conductors who had charge of the wagons +and I sat down together to breakfast and had a very merry meal, they +providing cheese and bread and I a tin of corned beef providently sent +out from home by the Manchester Guardian. We cooked up some coffee on +a little spirit stove, which, in a neat basket together with plates, +knives, forks, etc. (now almost unobtainable in Russia) had been +a parting present from the German Spartacists to Radek when he was +released from prison in Berlin and allowed to leave Germany. + + +The morning was bright and clear, and we had an excellent view of +Jaroslavl when we drove from the station to the town, which is a mile or +so off the line of the railway. The sun poured down on the white snow, +on the barges still frozen into the Volga River, and on the gilt and +painted domes and cupolas of the town. Many of the buildings had been +destroyed during the rising artificially provoked in July, 1918, and its +subsequent suppression. More damage was done then than was necessary, +because the town was recaptured by troops which had been deserted by +most of their officers, and therefore hammered away with artillery +without any very definite plan of attack. The more important of the +damaged buildings, such as the waterworks and the power station, have +been repaired, the tramway was working, and, after Moscow, the town +seemed clean, but plenty of ruins remained as memorials of that wanton +and unjustifiable piece of folly which, it was supposed, would be the +signal for a general rising. + + +We drove to the Hotel Bristol, now the headquarters of the Jaroslavl +Executive Committee, where Rostopchin, the president, discussed with +Larin and Radek the programme arranged for the conference. It was then +proposed that we should have something to eat, when a very curious state +of affairs (and one extremely Russian) was revealed. Rostopchin admitted +that the commissariat arrangements of the Soviet and its Executive +Committee were very bad. But in the center of the town there is a +nunnery which was very badly damaged during the bombardment and is now +used as a sort of prison or concentration camp for a Labor Regiment. +Peasants from the surrounding country who have refused to give up their +proper contribution of corn, or leave otherwise disobeyed the laws, are, +for punishment, lodged here, and made to expiate their sins by work. +It so happens, Rostopchin explained, that the officer in charge of the +prison feeding arrangements is a very energetic fellow, who had served +in the old army in a similar capacity, and the meals served out to +the prisoners are so much better than those produced in the Soviet +headquarters, that the members of the Executive Committee make a +practice of walking over to the prison to dine. They invited us to +do the same. Larin did not feel up to the walk, so he remained in the +Soviet House to eat an inferior meal, while Radek and I, with Rostopchin +and three other members of the local committee walked round to the +prison. The bell tower of the old nunnery had been half shot away by +artillery, and is in such a precarious condition that it is proposed +to pull it down. But on passing under it we came into a wide courtyard +surrounded by two-story whitewashed buildings that seemed scarcely to +have suffered at all. We found the refectory in one of these buildings. +It was astonishingly clean. There were wooden tables, of course without +cloths, and each man had a wooden spoon and a hunk of bread. A great +bowl of really excellent soup was put down in the middle of table, and +we fell to hungrily enough. I made more mess on the table than any one +else, because it requires considerable practice to convey almost boiling +soup from a distant bowl to one's mouth without spilling it in a shallow +wooden spoon four inches in diameter, and, having got it to one's mouth, +to get any of it in without slopping over on either side. The regular +diners there seemed to find no difficulty in it at all. One of the +prisoners who mopped up after my disasters said I had better join them +for a week, when I should find it quite easy. The soup bowl was followed +by a fry of potatoes, quantities of which are grown in the district. For +dealing with these I found the wooden spoon quite efficient. After that +we had glasses of some sort of substitute for tea. + + +The Conference was held in the town theatre. There was a hint of comedy +in the fact that the orchestra was playing the prelude to some very +cheerful opera before the curtain rang up. Radek characteristically +remarked that such music should be followed by something more +sensational than a conference, proposed to me that we should form a +tableau to illustrate the new peaceful policy of England with regard to +Russia. As it was a party conference, I had really no right to be +there, but Radek had arranged with Rostopchin that I should come in with +himself, and be allowed to sit in the wings at the side of the stage. +On the stage were Rostopchin, Radek, Larin and various members of the +Communist Party Committee in the district. Everything was ready, but the +orchestra went on with its jig music on the other side of the curtain. +A message was sent to them. The music stopped with a jerk. The curtain +rose, disclosing a crowded auditorium. Everybody stood up, both on the +stage and in the theater, and sang, accompanied by the orchestra, first +the "Internationale" and then the song for those who had died for the +revolution. Then except for two or three politically minded musicians, +the orchestra vanished away and the Conference began. + + +Unlike many of the meetings and conferences at which I have been present +in Russia, this Jaroslavl Conference seemed to me to include practically +none but men and women who either were or had been actual manual +workers. I looked over row after row of faces in the theatre, and could +only find two faces which I thought might be Jewish, and none that +obviously belonged to the "intelligentsia." I found on inquiry that only +three of the Communists present, excluding Radek and Larin, were old +exiled and imprisoned revolutionaries of the educated class. Of these, +two were on the platform. All the rest were from the working class. The +great majority of them, of course, had joined the Communists in 1917, +but a dozen or so had been in the party as long as the first Russian +revolution of 1905. + + +Radek, who was tremendously cheered (his long imprisonment in Germany, +during which time few in Russia thought that they would see him +alive again, has made him something of a popular hero) made a long, +interesting and pugnacious speech setting out the grounds on which the +Central Committee base their ideas about Industrial Conscription. +These ideas are embodied in the series of theses issued by the Central +Committee in January (see p. 134). Larin, who was very tired after the +journey and patently conscious that Radek was a formidable opponent, +made a speech setting out his reasons for differing with the Central +Committee, and proposed an ingenious resolution, which, while expressing +approval of the general position of the Committee, included four +supplementary modifications which, as a matter of fact, nullified that +position altogether. It was then about ten at night, and the Conference +adjourned. We drove round to the prison in sledges, and by way of supper +had some more soup and potatoes, and so back to the railway station to +sleep in the cars. + + +Next day the Conference opened about noon, when there was a long +discussion of the points at issue. Workman after workman came to the +platform and gave his view. Some of the speeches were a little naive, as +when one soldier said that Comrades Lenin and Trotsky had often before +pointed out difficult roads, and that whenever they had been followed +they had shown the way to victory, and that therefore, though there was +much in the Central Committee's theses that was hard to digest, he was +for giving them complete support, confident that, as Comrades Lenin and +Trotsky were in favor of them, they were likely to be right this time, +as so often heretofore. But for the most part the speeches were directly +concerned with the problem under discussion, and showed a political +consciousness which would have been almost incredible three years ago. +The Red Army served as a text for many, who said that the methods which +had produced that army and its victories over the Whites had been proved +successful and should be used to produce a Red Army of Labor and similar +victories on the bloodless front against economic disaster. Nobody +seemed to question the main idea of compulsory labor. The contest +that aroused real bitterness was between the methods of individual and +collegiate command. The new proposals lead eventually towards individual +command, and fears were expressed lest this should mean putting +summary powers into the hands of bourgeois specialists, thus nullifying +"workers' control". In reply, it was pointed out that individual command +had proved necessary in the army and had resulted in victory for the +revolution. The question was not between specialists and no specialists. +Everybody knew that specialists were necessary. The question was how to +get the most out of them. Effective political control had secured that +bourgeois specialists, old officers, led to victory the army of the Red +Republic. The same result could be secured in the factories in the same +way. It was pointed out that in one year they had succeeded in training +32,000 Red Commanders, that is to say, officers from the working class +itself, and that it was not Utopian to hope and work for a similar +output of workmen specialists, technically trained, and therefore +themselves qualified for individual command in the factories. Meanwhile +there was nothing against the employment of Political Commissars in +the factories as formerly in the regiments, to control in other than +technical matters the doings of the specialists. On the other hand, +it was said that the appointment of Commissars would tend to make +Communists unpopular, since inevitably in many cases they would have +to support the specialists against the workmen, and that the collegiate +system made the workmen feel that they were actually the masters, and so +gave possibilities of enthusiastic work not otherwise obtainable. This +last point was hotly challenged. It was said that collegiate control +meant little in effect, except waste of time and efficiency, because at +worst work was delayed by disputes and at best the workmen members +of the college merely countersigned the orders decided upon by the +specialists. The enthusiastic work was said to be a fairy story. If it +were really to be found then there would be no need for a conference to +discover how to get it. + + +The most serious opposition, or at least the most serious argument put +forward, for there was less opposition than actual discussion, came from +some of the representatives of the Trade Unionists. A good deal was said +about the position of the Trades Unions in a Socialist State. There was +general recognition that since the Trade Unions themselves controlled +the conditions of labor and wages, the whole of their old work of +organizing strikes against capitalists had ceased to have any meaning, +since to strike now would be to strike against their own decisions. +At the same time, certain tendencies to Syndicalism were still in +existence, tendencies which might well lead to conflict between +different unions, so that, for example, the match makers or the metal +worker, might wish to strike a bargain with the State, as of one country +with another, and this might easily lead to a complete collapse of the +socialist system. + + +The one thing on which the speakers were in complete agreement was the +absolute need of an effort in industry equal to, if not greater than, +the effort made in the army. I thought it significant that in many +of the speeches the importance of this effort was urged as the only +possible means of retaining the support of the peasants. There was a +tacit recognition that the Conference represented town workers only. +Larin, who had belonged to the old school which had grown up with +its eyes on the industrial countries of the West and believed that +revolution could be brought about by the town workers alone, that it +was exclusively their affair, and that all else was of minor importance, +unguardedly spoke of the peasant as "our neighbor." In Javoslavl, +country and town are too near to allow the main problem of the +revolution to be thus easily dismissed. It was instantly pointed out +that the relation was much more intimate, and that, even if it were only +"neighborly," peace could not long be preserved if it were continually +necessary for one neighbor to steal the chickens of the other. These +town workers of a district for the most part agricultural were very sure +that the most urgent of all tasks was to raise industry to the point +at which the town would really be able to supply the village with its +needs. + + +Larin and Radek severally summed up and made final attacks on each +other's positions, after which Radek's resolution approving the theses +of the Central Committee was passed almost unanimously. Larin's four +amendments received 1, 3, 7 and 1 vote apiece. This result was received +with cheering throughout the theater, and showed the importance of such +Conferences in smoothing the way of the Dictatorship, since it had +been quite obvious when the discussion began that a very much larger +proportion of the delegates than finally voted for his resolution +had been more or less in sympathy with Larin in his opposition to the +Central Committee. + + +There followed elections to the Party Conference in Moscow. Rostopchin, +the president, read a list which had been submitted by the various +ouyezds in the Jaroslavl Government. They were to send to Moscow fifteen +delegates with the right to vote, together with another fifteen with +the right to speak but not to vote. Larin, who had done much work in the +district, was mentioned as one of the fifteen voting delegates, but he +stood up and said that as the Conference had so clearly expressed +its disagreement with his views, he thought it better to withdraw his +candidature. Rostopchin put it to the Conference that although they +disagreed with Larin, yet it would be as well that he should have the +opportunity of stating his views at the All-Russian Conference, so that +discussion there should be as final and as many-sided as possible. +The Conference expressed its agreement with this. Larin withdrew +his withdrawal, and was presently elected. The main object of these +conferences in unifying opinion and in arming Communists with argument +for the defence of this unified opinion a mong the masses was again +illustrated when the Conference, in leaving it to the ouyezds to choose +for themselves the non-voting delegates urged them to select wherever +possible people who would have the widest opportunities of explaining +on their return to the district whatever results might be reached in +Moscow. + + +It was now pretty late in the evening, and after another very +satisfactory visit to the prison we drove back to the station. Larin, +who was very disheartened, realizing that he had lost much support in +the course of the discussion, settled down to work, and buried himself +in a mass of statistics. I prepared to go to bed, but we had hardly got +into the car when there was a tap at the door and a couple of railwaymen +came in. They explained that a few hundred yards away along the line a +concert and entertainment arranged by the Jaroslavl railwaymen was going +on, and that their committee, hearing that Radek was at the station, had +sent them to ask him to come over and say a few words to them if he were +not too tired. + + +"Come along," said Radek, and we walked in the dark along the railway +lines to a big one-story wooden shanty, where an electric lamp lit a +great placard, "Railwaymen's Reading Room." We went into a packed hall. +Every seat was occupied by railway workers and their wives and children. +The gangways on either side were full of those who had not found room on +the benches. We wriggled and pushed our way through this crowd, who were +watching a play staged and acted by the railwaymen themselves, to a side +door, through which we climbed up into the wings, and slid across the +stage behind the scenery into a tiny dressing-room. Here Radek was laid +hold of by the Master of the Ceremonies, who, it seemed, was also part +editor of a railwaymen's newspaper, and made to give a long account of +the present situation of Soviet Russia's Foreign Affairs. The little box +of a room filled to a solid mass as policemen, generals and ladies of +the old regime threw off their costumes, and, in their working clothes, +plain signalmen and engine-drivers, pressed round to listen. When the +act ended, one of the railwaymen went to the front of the stage and +announced that Radek, who had lately come back after imprisonment in +Germany for the cause of revolution, was going to talk to them about +the general state of affairs. I saw Radek grin at this forecast of his +speech. I understood why, when he began to speak. He led off by a direct +and furious onslaught on the railway workers in general, demanding +work, work and more work, telling them that as the Red Army had been +the vanguard of the revolution hitherto, and had starved and fought and +given lives to save those at home from Denikin and Kolchak, so now it +was the turn of the railway workers on whose efforts not only the Red +Army but also the whole future of Russia depended. He addressed himself +to the women, telling them in very bad Russian that unless their men +worked superhumanly they would see their babies die from starvation next +winter. I saw women nudge their husbands as they listened. Instead +of giving them a pleasant, interesting sketch of the international +position, which, no doubt, was what they had expected, he took the +opportunity to tell them exactly how things stood at home. And the +amazing thing was that they seemed to be pleased. They listened with +extreme attention, wanted to turn out some one who had a sneezing fit +at the far end of the hall, and nearly lifted the roof off with cheering +when Radek had done. I wondered what sort of reception a man would have +who in another country interrupted a play to hammer home truths about +the need of work into an audience of working men who had gathered solely +for the purpose of legitimate recreation. It was not as if he sugared +the medicine he gave them. His speech was nothing but demands for +discipline and work, coupled with prophecy of disaster in case work and +discipline failed. It was delivered like all his speeches, with a strong +Polish accent and a steady succession of mistakes in grammar. + + +As we walked home along the railway lines, half a dozen of the +railwaymen pressed around Radek, and almost fought with each other as to +who should walk next to him. And Radek entirely happy, delighted at his +success in giving them a bombshell instead of a bouquet, with one stout +fellow on one arm, another on the other, two or three more listening in +front and behind, continued rubbing it into them until we reached our +wagon, when, after a general handshaking, they disappeared into the +night. + + + + +THE TRADE UNIONS + + +Trade Unions in Russia are in a different position from that which is +common to all other Trades Unions in the world. In other countries the +Trades Unions are a force with whose opposition the Government must +reckon. In Russia the Government reckons not on the possible opposition +of the Trades Unions, but on their help for realizing its most difficult +measures, and for undermining and overwhelming any opposition which +those measures may encounter. The Trades Unions in Russia, instead of +being an organization outside the State protecting the interests of +a class against the governing class, have become a part of the State +organization. Since, during the present period of the revolution the +backbone of the State organization is the Communist Party, the +Trade Unions have come to be practically an extension of the party +organization. This, of course, would be indignantly denied both by +Trade Unionists and Communists. Still, in the preface to the All-Russian +Trades Union Reports for 1919, Glebov, one of the best-known Trade Union +leaders whom I remember in the spring of last year objecting to the use +of bourgeois specialists in their proper places, admits as much in the +following muddleheaded statement:-- + + +"The base of the proletarian dictatorship is the Communist Party, which +in general directs all the political and economic work of the State, +leaning, first of all, on the Soviets as on the more revolutionary form +of dictatorship of the proletariat, and secondly on the Trades Unions, +as organizations which economically unite the proletariat of factory and +workshop as the vanguard of the revolution, and as organizations of the +new socialistic construction of the State. Thus the Trade Unions must +be considered as a base of the Soviet State, as an organic form +complementary to the other forms of the Proletariat Dictatorship." These +two elaborate sentences constitute an admission of what I have just +said. + + +Trades Unionists of other countries must regard the fate of their +Russian colleagues with horror or with satisfaction, according to their +views of events in Russia taken as a whole. If they do not believe +that there has been a social revolution in Russia, they must regard +the present position of the Russian Trades Unions as the reward of a +complete defeat of Trade Unionism, in which a Capitalist government has +been able to lay violent hands on the organization which was protecting +the workers against it. If, on the other hand, they believe that there +has been a social revolution, so that the class organized in Trades +Unions is now, identical with the governing, class (of employers, etc.) +against which the unions once struggled, then they must regard the +present position as a natural and satisfactory result of victory. + + +When I was in Moscow in the spring of this year the Russian Trades +Unions received a telegram from the Trades Union Congress at Amsterdam, +a telegram which admirably illustrated the impossibility of separating +judgment of the present position of the Unions from judgments of the +Russian revolution as a whole. It encouraged the Unions "in their +struggle" and promised support in that struggle. The Communists +immediately asked "What struggle? Against the capitalist system in +Russia which does not exist? Or against capitalist systems outside +Russia?" They said that either the telegram meant this latter only, or +it meant that its writers did not believe that there had been a social +revolution in Russia. The point is arguable. If one believes that +revolution is an impossibility, one can reason from that belief and say +that in spite of certain upheavals in Russia the fundamental arrangement +of society is the same there as in other countries, so that the position +of the Trade Unions there must be the same, and, as in other countries +they must be still engaged in augmenting the dinners of their members at +the expense of the dinners of the capitalists which, in the long run +(if that were possible) they would abolish. If, on the other hand, +one believes that social revolution has actually occurred, to speak of +Trades Unions continuing the struggle in which they conquered something +like three years ago, is to urge them to a sterile fanaticism which has +been neatly described by Professor Santayana as a redoubling of your +effort when you have forgotten your aim. + + +It 's probably true that the "aim" of the Trades Unions was more clearly +defined in Russia than elsewhere. In England during the greater part of +their history the Trades Unions have not been in conscious opposition +to the State. In Russia this position was forced on the Trades Unions +almost before they had time to get to work. They were born, so to speak, +with red flags in their hands. They grew up under circumstances of +extreme difficulty and persecution. From 1905 on they were in decided +opposition to the existing system, and were revolutionary rather than +merely mitigatory organizations. + + +Before 1905 they were little more than associations for mutual help, +very weak, spending most of their energies in self-preservation from the +police, and hiding their character as class organizations by electing +more or less Liberal managers and employers as "honorary members." 1905, +however, settled their revolutionary character. In September of that +year there was a Conference at Moscow, where it was decided to call +an All-Russian Trades Union Congress. Reaction in Russia made this +impossible, and the most they could do was to have another small +Conference in February, 1906, which, however, defined their object as +that of creating a general Trade Union Movement organized on All-Russian +lines. The temper of the Trades Unions then, and the condition of the +country at that time, may be judged from the fact that although they +were merely working for the right to form Unions, the right to strike, +etc., they passed the following significant resolution: "Neither from +the present Government nor from the future State Duma can be expected +realization of freedom of coalition. This Conference considers the +legalization of the Trades Unions under present conditions absolutely +impossible." The Conference was right. For twelve years after that there +were no Trades Unions Conferences in Russia. Not until June, 1917, three +months after the March Revolution, was the third Trade Union Conference +able to meet. This Conference reaffirmed the revolutionary character of +the Russian Trades Unions. + + +At that time the dominant party in the Soviets was that of the +Mensheviks, who were opposed to the formation of a Soviet Government, +and were supporting the provisional Cabinet of Kerensky. The Trades +Unions were actually at that time more revolutionary than the Soviets. +This third Conference passed several resolutions, which show clearly +enough that the present position of the Unions has not been brought +about by any violence of the Communists from without, but was definitely +promised by tendencies inside the Unions at a time when the Communists +were probably the least authoritative party in Russia. This Conference +of June, 1917, resolved that the Trades Unions should not only "remain +militant class organizations... but... should support the activities of +the Soviets of soldiers and deputies." They thus clearly showed on which +side they stood in the struggle then proceeding. Nor was this all. They +also, though the Mensheviks were still the dominant party, resolved +on that system of internal organizations and grouping, which has +been actually realized under the Communists. I quote again from the +resolution of this Conference: + + +"The evolution of the economic struggle demands from the workers +such forms of professional organization as, basing themselves on +the connection between various groups of workers in the process of +production, should unite within a general organization, and under +general leadership, as large masses of workers as possible occupied +in enterprises of the same kind, or in similar professions. With this +object the workers should organize themselves professionally, not by +shops or trades, but by productions, so that all the workers of a given +enterprise should belong to one Union, even if they belong to different +professions and even different productions." That which was then no +more than a design is now an accurate description of Trades Union +organization in Russia. Further, much that at present surprises the +foreign inquirer was planned and considered desirable then, before the +Communists had won a majority either in the Unions or in the Soviet. +Thus this same third Conference resolved that "in the interests of +greater efficiency and success in the economic struggle, a professional +organization should be built on the principle of democratic centralism, +assuring to every member a share in the affairs of the organization and, +at the same time, obtaining unity in the leadership of the struggle." +Finally "Unity in the direction (leadership) of the economic struggle +demands unity in the exchequer of the Trades Unions." + + +The point that I wish to make in thus illustrating the pre-Communist +tendencies of the Russian Trades Unions is not simply that if their +present position is undesirable they have only themselves to thank for +it, but that in Russia the Trades Union movement before the October +Revolution was working in the direction of such a revolution, that the +events of October represented something like a Trade Union victory, +so that the present position of the Unions as part of the organization +defending that victory, as part of the system of government set up by +that revolution, is logical and was to be expected. I have illustrated +this from resolutions, because these give statements in words easily +comparable with what has come to pass. It would be equally easy to point +to deeds instead of words if we need more forcible though less accurate +illustrations. + + +Thus, at the time of the Moscow Congress the Soviets, then Mensheviks, +who were represented at the Congress (the object of the Congress was to +whip up support for the Coalition Government) were against strikes +of protest. The Trades Unions took a point of view nearer that of +the Bolsheviks, and the strikes in Moscow took place in spite of the +Soviets. After the Kornilov affair, when the Mensheviks were still +struggling for coalition with the bourgeois parties, the Trades Unions +quite definitely took the Bolshevik standpoint. At the so-called +Democratic Conference, intended as a sort of life belt for the sinking +Provisional Government, only eight of the Trades Union delegates voted +for a continuance of the coalition, whereas seventy three voted against. + + +This consciously revolutionary character throughout their much shorter +existence has distinguished Russian from, for example, English Trades +Unions. It has set their course for them. + + +In October, 1917, they got the revolution for which they had been asking +since March. Since then, one Congress after another has illustrated +the natural and inevitable development of Trades Unions inside a +revolutionary State which, like most if not all revolutionary States, is +attacked simultaneously by hostile armies from without and by economic +paralysis from within. The excited and lighthearted Trades Unionists +of three years ago, who believed that the mere decreeing of "workers' +control" would bring all difficulties automatically to an end, are now +unrecognizable. We have seen illusion after illusion scraped from them +by the pumice-stone of experience, while the appalling state of the +industries which they now largely control, and the ruin of the country +in which they attained that control, have forced them to alter their +immediate aims to meet immediate dangers, and have accelerated the +process of adaptation made inevitable by their victory. + + +The process of adaptation has had the natural result of producing new +internal cleavages. Change after change in their programme and theory +of the Russian Trades Unionists has been due to the pressure of life +itself, to the urgency of struggling against the worsening of conditions +already almost unbearable. It is perfectly natural that those Unions +which hold back from adaptation and resent the changes are precisely +those which, like that of the printers, are not intimately concerned in +any productive process, are consequently outside the central struggle, +and, while feeling the discomforts of change, do not feel its need. + + +The opposition inside the productive Trades Unions is of two kinds. +There is the opposition, which is of merely psychological interest, of +old Trades Union leaders who have always thought of themselves as in +opposition to the Government, and feel themselves like watches without +mainsprings in their new role of Government supporters. These are men +in whom a natural intellectual stiffness makes difficult the complete +change of front which was the logical result of the revolution for which +they had been working. But beside that there is a much more interesting +opposition based on political considerations. The Menshevik standpoint +is one of disbelief in the permanence of the revolution, or rather in +the permanence of the victory of the town workers. They point to the +divergence in interests between the town and country populations, +and are convinced that sooner or later the peasants will alter the +government to suit themselves, when, once more, it will be a government +against which the town workers will have to defend their interests. The +Mensheviks object to the identification of the Trades Unions with the +Government apparatus on the ground that when this change, which they +expect comes about, the Trade Union movement will be so far emasculated +as to be incapable of defending the town workers against the peasants +who will then be the ruling class. Thus they attack the present Trades +Union leaders for being directly influenced by the Government in fixing +the rate of wages, on the ground that this establishes a precedent from +which, when the change comes, it will be difficult to break away. The +Communists answer them by insisting that it is to everybody's interest +to pull Russia through the crisis, and that if the Trades Unions were +for such academic reasons to insist on their complete independence +instead of in every possible way collaborating with the Government, they +would be not only increasing the difficulties of the revolution in +its economic crisis, but actually hastening that change which the +Mensheviks, though they regard it as inevitable, cannot be supposed +to desire. This Menshevik opposition is strongest in the Ukraine. Its +strength may be judged from the figures of the Congress in Moscow +this spring when, of 1,300 delegates, over 1,000 were Communists or +sympathizers with them; 63 were Mensheviks and 200 were non-party, the +bulk of whom, I fancy, on this point would agree with the Mensheviks. + + +But apart from opposition to the "stratification" of the Trades Unions, +there is a cleavage cutting across the Communist Party itself and +uniting in opinion, though not in voting, the Mensheviks and a section +of their Communist opponents. This cleavage is over the question of +"workers' control." Most of those who, before the revolution, looked +forward to the "workers' control", thought of it as meaning that the +actual workers in a given factory would themselves control that factory, +just as a board of directors controls a factory under the ordinary +capitalist system. The Communists, I think, even today admit the +ultimate desirability of this, but insist that the important question is +not who shall give the orders, but in whose interest the orders shall +be given. I have nowhere found this matter properly thrashed out, though +feeling upon it is extremely strong. Everybody whom I asked about it +began at once to address me as if I were a public meeting, so that I +found it extremely difficult to get from either side a statement not +free from electioneering bias. I think, however, that it may be fairly +said that all but a few lunatics have abandoned the ideas of 1917, which +resulted in the workmen in a factory deposing any technical expert or +manager whose orders were in the least irksome to them. These ideas +and the miseries and unfairness they caused, the stoppages of work, the +managers sewn up in sacks, ducked in ponds and trundled in wheelbarrows, +have taken their places as curiosities of history. The change in these +ideas has been gradual. The first step was the recognition that the +State as a whole was interested in the efficiency of each factory, and, +therefore, that the workmen of each factory had no right to arrange +things with no thought except for themselves. The Committee idea was +still strong, and the difficulty was got over by assuring that the +technical staff should be represented on the Committee, and that the +casting vote between workers and technical experts or managers should +belong to the central economic organ of the State. The next stage was +when the management of a workshop was given a so called "collegiate" +character, the workmen appointing representatives to share the +responsibility of the "bourgeois specialist." The bitter controversy now +going on concerns the seemingly inevitable transition to a later stage +in which, for all practical purposes, the bourgeois specialist will be +responsible solely to the State. Many Communists, including some of +the best known, while recognizing the need of greater efficiency if +the revolution is to survive at all, regard this step as definitely +retrograde and likely in the long run to make the revolution not worth +preserving. [*] + + * Thus Rykov, President of the Supreme Council of Public + Economy: "There is a possibility of so constructing a State + that in it there will be a ruling caste consisting chiefly + of administrative engineers, technicians, etc.; that is, we + should get a form of State economy based on a small group of + a ruling caste whose privilege in this case would be the + management of the workers and peasants." That criticism of + individual control, from a communist, goes a good deal + further than most of the criticism from people avowedly in + opposition.] The enormous importance attached by everybody + to this question of individual or collegiate control, may + be judged from the fact that at every conference I attended, + and every discussion to which I listened, this point, which + might seem of minor importance, completely overshadowed the + question of industrial conscription which, at least inside + the Communist Party, seemed generally taken for granted. It + may be taken now as certain that the majority of the + Communists are in favor of individual control. They say that + the object of "workers' control" before the revolution was + to ensure that factories should be run in the interests of + workers as well of employers. In Russia now there are no + employers other than the State as a whole, which is + exclusively made up of employees. (I am stating now the view + of the majority at the last Trades Union Congress at which I + was present, April, 1920.) They say that "workers' control" + exists in a larger and more efficient manner than was + suggested by the old pre-revolutionary statements on that + question. Further, they say that if workers' control ought + to be identified with Trade Union control, the Trades Unions + are certainly supreme in all those matters with which they + have chiefly concerned themselves, since they dominate the + Commissariat of Labor, are very largely represented on the + Supreme Council of Public Economy, and fix the rates of pay + for their own members. [*] + + * The wages of workmen are decided by the Trades Unions, who + draw up "tariffs" for the whole country, basing their + calculations on three criteria: (I) The price of food in the + open market in the district where a workman is employed, + (2)the price of food supplied by the State on the card + system, (3)the quality of the workman. This last is decided + by a special section of the Factory Committee, which in each + factory is an organ of the Trades Union.] + + +The enormous Communist majority, together with the fact that however +much they may quarrel with each other inside the party, the Communists +will go to almost any length to avoid breaking the party discipline, +means that at present the resolutions of Trades Union Congresses +will not be different from those of Communists Congresses on the same +subjects. Consequently, the questions which really agitate the members, +the actual cleavages inside that Communist majority, are comparatively +invisible at a Trades Union Congress. They are fought over with great +bitterness, but they are not fought over in the Hall of the Unions-once +the Club of the Nobility, with on its walls on Congress days the hammer +and spanner of the engineers, the pestle and trowel of the builders, and +so on-but in the Communist Congresses in the Kremlin and throughout +the country. And, in the problem with which in this book we are mainly +concerned, neither the regular business of the Unions nor their internal +squabbles affects the cardinal fact that in the present crisis the +Trades Unions are chiefly important as part of that organization of +human will with which the Communists are attempting to arrest the steady +progress of Russia's economic ruin. Putting it brutally, so as to offend +Trades Unionists and Communists alike, they are an important part of the +Communist system of internal propaganda, and their whole organization +acts as a gigantic megaphone through which the Communist Party makes +known its fears, its hopes and its decisions to the great masses of the +industrial workers. + + + + +THE PROPAGANDA TRAINS + + +When I crossed the Russian front in October, 1919, the first thing I +noticed in peasants' cottages, in the villages, in the little town where +I took the railway to Moscow, in every railway station along the line, +was the elaborate pictorial propaganda concerned with the war. There +were posters showing Denizen standing straddle over Russia's coal, while +the factory chimneys were smokeless and the engines idle in the yards, +with the simplest wording to show why it was necessary to beat Denizen +in order to get coal; there were posters illustrating the treatment +of the peasants by the Whites; posters against desertion, posters +illustrating the Russian struggle against the rest of the world, showing +a workman, a peasant, a sailor and a soldier fighting in self-defence +against an enormous Capitalistic Hydra. There were also-and this I took +as a sign of what might be-posters encouraging the sowing of corn, and +posters explaining in simple pictures improved methods of agriculture. +Our own recruiting propaganda during the war, good as that was, was +never developed to such a point of excellence, and knowing the general +slowness with which the Russian centre reacts on its periphery, I +was amazed not only at the actual posters, but at their efficient +distribution thus far from Moscow. + + +I have had an opportunity of seeing two of the propaganda trains, the +object of which is to reduce the size of Russia politically by bringing +Moscow to the front and to the out of the way districts, and so to +lessen the difficulty of obtaining that general unity of purpose which +it is the object of propaganda to produce. The fact that there is some +hope that in the near future the whole of this apparatus may be turned +over to the propaganda of industry makes it perhaps worth while to +describe these trains in detail. + + +Russia, for purposes of this internal propaganda, is divided into +five sections, and each section has its own train, prepared for the +particular political needs of the section it serves, bearing its own +name, carrying its regular crew-a propaganda unit, as corporate as the +crew of a ship. The five trains at present in existence are the "Lenin," +the "Sverdlov," the "October Revolution," the "Red East," which is now +in Turkestan, and the "Red Cossack," which, ready to start for Rostov +and the Don, was standing, in the sidings at the Kursk station, together +with the "Lenin," returned for refitting and painting. + + +Burov, the organizer of these trains, a ruddy, enthusiastic little +man in patched leather coat and breeches, took a party of foreigners-a +Swede, a Norwegian, two Czechs, a German and myself to visit his trains, +together with Radek, in the hope that Radek would induce Lenin to visit +them, in which case Lenin would be kinematographed for the delight of +the villagers, and possibly the Central Committee would, if Lenin were +interested, lend them more lively support. + + +We walked along the "Lenin" first, at Burov's special request. Burov, +it seems, has only recently escaped from what he considered a bitter +affliction due to the Department of Proletarian Culture, who, in the +beginning, for the decoration of his trains, had delivered him bound +hand and foot to a number of Futurists. For that reason he wanted us to +see the "Lenin" first, in order that we might compare it with the result +of his emancipation, the "Red Cossack," painted when the artists "had +been brought under proper control." The "Lenin" had been painted a year +and a half ago, when, as fading hoarding in the streets of Moscow still +testify, revolutionary art was dominated by the Futurist movement. Every +carriage is decorated with most striking but not very comprehensible +pictures in the brightest colors, and the proletariat was called upon to +enjoy what the pre-revolutionary artistic public had for the most part +failed to understand. Its pictures are "art for art's sake," and cannot +have done more than astonish, and perhaps terrify, the peasants and +the workmen of the country towns who had the luck to see them. The "Red +Cossack" is quite different. As Burov put it with deep satisfaction, +"At first we were in the artists' hands, and now the artists are in +our hands," a sentence suggesting the most horrible possibilities of +official art under socialism, although, of course, bad art flourishes +pretty well even under other systems. + + +I inquired exactly how Burov and his friends kept the artists in the +right way, and received the fullest explanation. The political section +of the organization works out the main idea and aim for each picture, +which covers the whole side of a wagon. This idea is then submitted to a +"collective" of artists, who are jointly responsible for its realization +in paint. The artists compete with each other for a prize which is +awarded for the best design, the judges being the artists themselves. It +is the art of the poster, art with a purpose of the most definite kind. +The result is sometimes amusing, interesting, startling, but, whatever +else it does, hammers home a plain idea. + + +Thus the picture on the side of one wagon is divided into two sections. +On the left is a representation of the peasants and workmen of the +Soviet Republic. Under it are the words, "Let us not find ourselves +again..." and then, in gigantic lettering under the right-hand section +of the picture, "... in the HEAVEN OF THE WHITES." This heaven is shown +by an epauletted officer hitting a soldier in the face, as was done in +the Tsar's army and in at least one army of the counter revolutionaries, +and workmen tied to stakes, as was done by the Whites in certain towns +in the south. Then another wagon illustrating the methods of Tsardom, +with a State vodka shop selling its wares to wretched folk, who, when +drunk on the State vodka, are flogged by the State police. Then there +is a wagon showing the different Cossacks-of the Don, Terek, Kuban, +Ural-riding in pairs. The Cossack infantry is represented on the other +side of this wagon. On another wagon is a very jolly picture of Stenka +Razin in his boat with little old-fashioned brass cannon, rowing up the +river. Underneath is written the words: "I attack only the rich, with +the poor I divide everything." On one side are the poor folk running +from their huts to join him, on the other the rich folk firing at him +from their castle. One wagon is treated purely decoratively, with a +broad effective characteristically South Russian design, framing a +huge inscription to the effect that the Cossacks need not fear that +the Soviet Republic will interfere with their religion, since under its +regime every man is to be free to believe exactly what he likes. Then +there is an entertaining wagon, showing Kolchak sitting inside a fence +in Siberia with a Red soldier on guard, Judenitch sitting in a little +circle with a sign-post to show it is Esthonia, and Denikin running at +full speed to the asylum indicated by another sign-post on which is the +crescent of the Turkish Empire. Another lively picture shows the young +Cossack girls learning to read, with a most realistic old Cossack woman +telling them they had better not. But there is no point in describing +every wagon. There are sixteen wagons in the "Red Cossack," and every +one is painted all over on both sides. + + +The internal arrangements of the train are a sufficient proof that +Russians are capable of organization if they set their minds to it. +We went through it, wagon by wagon. One wagon contains a wireless +telegraphy station capable of receiving news from such distant stations +as those of Carnarvon or Lyons. Another is fitted up as a newspaper +office, with a mechanical press capable of printing an edition of +fifteen thousand daily, so that the district served by the train, +however out of the way, gets its news simultaneously with Moscow, many +days sometimes before the belated Izvestia or Pravda finds its way to +them. And with its latest news it gets its latest propaganda, and in +order to get the one it cannot help getting the other. Next door to that +there is a kinematograph wagon, with benches to seat about one hundred +and fifty persons. But indoor performances are only given to children, +who must come during the daytime, or in summer when the evenings are too +light to permit an open air performance. In the ordinary way, at night, +a great screen is fixed up in the open. There is a special hole cut in +the side of the wagon, and through this the kinematograph throws its +picture on the great screen outside, so that several thousands can see +it at once. The enthusiastic Burov insisted on working through a couple +of films for us, showing the Communists boy scouts in their country +camps, children's meetings in Petrograd, and the big demonstrations +of last year in honor of the Third International. He was extremely +disappointed that Radek, being in a hurry, refused to wait for a +performance of "The Father and his Son," a drama which, he assured us +with tears in his eyes, was so thrilling that we should not regret being +late for our appointments if we stayed to witness it. Another wagon is +fitted up as an electric power-station, lighting the train, working the +kinematograph and the printing machine, etc. Then there is a clean little +kitchen and dining-room, where, before being kinematographed-a horrible +experience when one is first quite seriously begged (of course by Burov) +to assume an expression of intelligent interest--we had soup, a plate of +meat and cabbage, and tea. Then there is a wagon bookshop, where, while +customers buy books, a gramophone sings the revolutionary songs of +Demian Bledny, or speaks with the eloquence of Trotsky or the logic of +Lenin. Other wagons are the living-rooms of the personnel, divided up +according to their duties-political, military, instructional, and so +forth. For the train has not merely an agitational purpose. It carries +with it a staff to give advice to local authorities, to explain what +has not been understood, and so in every way to bring the ideas of the +Centre quickly to the backwoods of the Republic. It works also in the +opposite direction, helping to make the voice of the backwoods heard +at Moscow. This is illustrated by a painted pillar-box on one of the +wagons, with a slot for letters, labelled, "For Complaints of Every +Kind." Anybody anywhere who has grievance, thinks he is being unfairly +treated, or has a suggestion to make, can speak with the Centre in +this way. When the train is on a voyage telegrams announce its +arrival beforehand, so that the local Soviets can make full use of +its advantages, arranging meetings, kinematograph shows, lectures. +It arrives, this amazing picture train, and proceeds to publish and +distribute its newspapers, sell its books (the bookshop, they tell me, +is literally stormed at every stopping place), send books and posters +for forty versts on either side of the line with the motor-cars which it +carries with it, and enliven the population with its kinematograph. + + +I doubt if a more effective instrument of propaganda has ever been +devised. And in considering the question whether or no the Russians will +be able after organizing their military defence to tackle with similar +comparative success the much more difficult problem of industrial +rebirth, the existence of such instruments, the use of such propaganda +is a factor not to be neglected. In the spring of this year, when the +civil war seemed to be ending, when there was a general belief that +the Poles would accept the peace that Russia offered (they ignored this +offer, advanced, took Kiev, were driven back to Warsaw, advanced again, +and finally agreed to terms which they could have had in March without +bloodshed any kind), two of these propaganda trains were already being +repainted with a new purpose. It was hoped that in the near future all +five trains would be explaining not the need to fight but the need to +work. Undoubtedly, at the first possible moment, the whole machinery of +agitation, of posters, of broadsheets and of trains, will be turned over +to the task of explaining the Government's plans for reconstruction, +and the need for extraordinary concentration, now on transport, now on +something else, that these plans involve. + + + + +SATURDAYINGS + + +So much for the organization, with its Communist Party, its system of +meetings and counter-meetings, its adapted Trades Unions, its infinitely +various propaganda, which is doing its best to make headway against +ruin. I want now to describe however briefly, the methods it has adopted +in tackling the worst of all Russia's problems-the non-productivity and +absolute shortage of labor. + + +I find a sort of analogy between these methods and those which we used +in England in tackling the similar cumulative problem of finding men for +war. Just as we did not proceed at once to conscription, but began by +a great propaganda of voluntary effort, so the Communists, faced with +a need at least equally vital, did not turn at once to industrial +conscription. It was understood from the beginning that the Communists +themselves were to set an example of hard work, and I dare say a +considerable proportion of them did so. Every factory had its little +Communist Committee, which was supposed to leaven the factory with +enthusiasm, just as similar groups of Communists drafted into the armies +in moments of extreme danger did, on more than one occasion, as the +non-Communist Commander-in-Chief admits, turn a rout into a stand and +snatch victory from what looked perilously like defeat. But this was +not enough, arrears of work accumulated, enthusiasm waned, productivity +decreased, and some new move was obviously necessary. This first move in +the direction of industrial conscription, although no one perceived its +tendency at the time, was the inauguration of what have become known as +"Saturdayings". + + +Early in 1919 the Central Committee of the Communist Party put out a +circular letter, calling upon the Communists "to work revolutionally," +to emulate in the rear the heroism of their brothers on the front, +pointing out that nothing but the most determined efforts and an +increase in the productivity of labor would enable Russia to win through +her difficulties of transport, etc. Kolchak, to quote from English +newspapers, was it "sweeping on to Moscow," and the situation was pretty +threatening. As a direct result of this letter, on May 7th, a meeting +of Communists in the sub-district of the Moscow-Kazan railway passed +a resolution that, in view of the imminent danger to the Republic, +Communists and their sympathizers should give up an hour a day of their +leisure, and, lumping these hours together, do every Saturday six hours +of manual labor; and, further, that these Communist "Saturdayings" +should be continued "until complete victory over Kolchak should be +assured." That decision of a local committee was the actual beginning of +a movement which spread all over Russia, and though the complete victory +over Kolchak was long ago obtained, is likely to continue so long as +Soviet Russia is threatened by any one else. + + +The decision was put into effect on May 10th, when the first Communist +"Saturdaying" in Russia took place on the Moscow-Kazan railway. The +Commissar of the railway, Communist clerks from the offices, and every +one else who wished to help, marched to work, 182 in all, and put in +1,012 hours of manual labor, in which they finished the repairs of four +locomotives and sixteen wagons and loaded and unloaded 9,300 poods of +engine and wagon parts and material. It was found that the productivity +of labor in loading and unloading shown on this occasion was about 270 +per cent. of the normal, and a similar superiority of effort was shown +in the other kinds of work. This example was immediately copied on other +railways. The Alexandrovsk railway had its first "Saturdaying" on May +17th. Ninety-eight persons worked for five hours, and here also did +two or three times as much is the usual amount of work done in the +same number of working hours under ordinary circumstances. One of the +workmen, in giving an account of the performance, wrote: "The Comrades +explain this by saying that in ordinary times the work was dull and they +were sick of it, whereas this occasion they were working willingly and +with excitement. But now it will be shameful in ordinary hours to do +less than in the Communist 'Saturdaying.'" The hope implied in this last +sentence has not been realized. + + +In Pravda of June 7th there is an article describing one of these early +"Saturdayings," which gives a clear picture of the infectious character +of the proceedings, telling how people who came out of curiosity to +look on found themselves joining in the work, and how a soldier with an +accordion after staring for a long time open-mouthed at these +lunatics working on a Saturday afternoon put up a tune for them on his +instrument, and, delighted by their delight, played on while the workers +all sang together. + + +The idea of the "Saturdayings" spread quickly from railways to +factories, and by the middle of the summer reports of similar efforts +were coming from all over Russia. Then Lenin became interested, seeing +in these "Saturdayings" not only a special effort in the face of common +danger, but an actual beginning of Communism and a sign that Socialism +could bring about a greater productivity of labor than could be obtained +under Capitalism. He wrote: "This is a work of great difficulty and +requiring much time, but it has begun, and that is the main thing. If +in hungry Moscow in the summer of 1919 hungry workmen who have lived +through the difficult four years of the Imperialistic war, and then the +year and a half of the still more difficult civil war, have been able to +begin this great work, what will not be its further development when we +conquer in the civil war and win peace." He sees in it a promise of +work being done not for the sake of individual gain, but because of a +recognition that such work is necessary for the general good, and in all +he wrote and spoke about it he emphasized the fact that people worked +better and harder when working thus than under any of the conditions +(piece-work, premiums for good work, etc.) imposed by the revolution +in its desperate attempts to raise the productivity of labor. For this +reason alone, he wrote, the first "Saturdaying" on the Moscow-Kazan +railway was an event of historical significance, and not for Russia +alone. + + + +Whether Lenin was right or wrong in so thinking, "Saturdayings" became a +regular institution, like Dorcas meetings in Victorian England, like the +thousands of collective working parties instituted in England during the +war with Germany. It remains to be seen how long they will continue, +and if they will survive peace when that comes. At present the most +interesting point about them is the large proportion of non-Communists +who take an enthusiastic part in them. In many cases not more than ten +per cent. of Communists are concerned, though they take the initiative in +organizing the parties and in finding the work to be done. The movement +spread like fire in dry grass, like the craze for roller-skating swept +over England some years ago, and efforts were made to control it, so +that the fullest use might be made of it. In Moscow it was found +worth while to set up a special Bureau for "Saturdayings." Hospitals, +railways, factories, or any other concerns working for the public good, +notify this bureau that they need the sort of work a "Saturdaying" +provides. The bureau informs the local Communists where their services +are required, and thus there is a minimum of wasted energy. The local +Communists arrange the "Saturdayings," and any one else joins in who +wants. These "Saturdayings" are a hardship to none because they are +voluntary, except for members of the Communist Party, who are considered +to have broken the party discipline if they refrain. But they can avoid +the "Saturdayings" if they wish to by leaving the party. Indeed, Lenin +points, out that the "Saturdayings" are likely to assist in clearing out +of the party those elements which joined it with the hope of personal +gain. He points out that the privileges of a Communists now consist in +doing more work than other people in the rear, and, on the front, in +having the certainty of being killed when other folk are merely taken +prisoners. + + +The following are a few examples of the sort of work done in the +"Saturdayings." Briansk hospitals were improperly heated because of +lack of the local transport necessary to bring them wood. The Communists +organized a "Saturdaying," in which 900 persons took part, including +military specialists (officers of the old army serving in the new), +soldiers, a chief of staff, workmen and women. Having no horses, they +harnessed themselves to sledges in groups of ten, and brought in the +wood required. At Nijni 800 persons spent their Saturday afternoon in +unloading barges. In the Basman district of Moscow there was a gigantic +"Saturdaying" and "Sundaying" in which 2,000 persons (in this case all +but a little over 500 being Communists) worked in the heavy artillery +shops, shifting materials, cleaning tramlines for bringing in fuel, etc. +Then there was a "Saturdaying" the main object of which was a +general autumn cleaning of the hospitals for the wounded. One form of +"Saturdaying" for women is going to the hospitals, talking with the +wounded and writing letters for them, mending their clothes, washing +sheets, etc. The majority of "Saturdayings" at present are concerned +with transport work and with getting and shifting wood, because at +the moment these are the chief difficulties. I have talked to many +"Saturdayers," Communist and non-Communist, and all alike spoke of these +Saturday afternoons of as kind of picnic. On the other hand, I have met +Communists who were accustomed to use every kind off ingenuity to find +excuses not to take part in them and yet to preserve the good opinion of +their local committee. + + +But even if the whole of the Communist Party did actually indulge in +a working picnic once a week, it would not suffice to meet Russia's +tremendous needs. And, as I pointed out in the chapter specially devoted +to the shortage of labor, the most serious need at present is to keep +skilled workers at their jobs instead of letting them drift away into +non-productive labor. No amount of Saturday picnics could do that, and +it was obvious long ago that some other means, would have to be devised. + + + + +INDUSTRIAL CONSCRIPTION + + +The general principle of industrial conscription recognized by the +Russian Constitution, section ii, chapter v, paragraph 18, which reads: +"The Russian Socialist Federate Soviet Republic recognizes that work is +an obligation on every citizen of the Republic," and proclaims, "He who +does not work shall not eat." It is, however, one thing to proclaim such +a principle and quite another to put it into action. + + +On December 17, 1919, the moment it became clear that there was a real +possibility that the civil war was drawing to an end, Trotsky allowed +the Pravda to print a memorandum of his, consisting of "theses" or +reasoned notes about industrial conscription and the militia system. +He points out that a Socialist State demands a general plan for the +utilization of all the resources of a country, including its human +energy. At the same time, "in the present economic chaos in which are +mingled the broken fragments of the past and the beginnings of the +future," a sudden jump to a complete centralized economy of the country +as a whole is impossible. Local initiative, local effort must not +be sacrificed for the sake of a plan. At the same time industrial +conscription is necessary for complete socialization. It cannot be +regardless of individuality like military conscription. He suggests a +subdivision of the State into territorial productive districts which +should coincide with the territorial districts of the militia system +which shall replace the regular army. Registration of labor necessary. +Necessary also to coordinate military and industrial registration. At +demobilization the cadres of regiments, divisions, etc., should form +the fundamental cadres of the militia. Instruction to this end should +be included in the courses for workers and peasants who are training to +become officers in every district. Transition to the militia system must +be carefully and gradually accomplished so as not for a moment to leave +the Republic defenseless. While not losing sight of these ultimate aims, +it is necessary to decide on immediate needs and to ascertain exactly +what amount of labor is necessary for their limited realization. He +suggests the registration of skilled labor in the army. He suggests that +a Commission under general direction of the Council of Public Economy +should work out a preliminary plan and then hand it over to the War +Department, so that means should be worked out for using the military +apparatus for this new industrial purpose. + + +Trotsky's twenty-four theses or notes must have been written in odd +moments, now here now there, on the way from one front to another. They +do not form a connected whole. Contradictions jostle each other, and +it is quite clear that Trotsky himself had no very definite plan in his +head. But his notes annoyed and stimulated so many other people that +they did perhaps precisely the work they were intended to do. Pravada +printed them with a note from the editor inviting discussion. The +Ekonomitcheskaya Jizn printed letter after letter from workmen, +officials and others, attacking, approving and bringing new suggestions. +Larin, Semashko, Pyatakov, Bucharin all took a hand in the discussion. +Larin saw in the proposals the beginning of the end of the revolution, +being convinced that authority would pass from the democracy of the +workers into the hands of the specialists. Rykov fell upon them with +sturdy blows on behalf of the Trades Unions. All, however, agreed on the +one point--that something of the sort was necessary. On December 27th +a Commission for studying the question of industrial conscription was +formed under the presidency of Trotsky. This Commission included the +People's Commissars, or Ministers, of Labor, Ways of Communication, +Supply, Agriculture, War, and the Presidents of the Central Council of +the Trades Unions and of the Supreme Council of Public Economy. They +compiled a list of the principal questions before them, and invited +anybody interested to bring them suggestions and material for +discussion. + + +But the discussion was not limited to the newspapers or to this +Commission. The question was discussed in Soviets and Conferences of +every kind all over the country. Thus, on January 1st an All-Russian +Conference of local "departments for the registration and distribution +of labor," after prolonged argument, contributed their views. They +pointed out (1) the need of bringing to work numbers of persons who +instead of doing the skilled labor for which they were qualified were +engaged in petty profiteering, etc.; (2) that there evaporation of +skilled labor into unproductive speculation could at least be checked +by the introduction of labor books, which would give some sort of +registration of each citizen's work; (3) that workmen can be brought +back from the villages only for enterprises which are supplied with +provisions or are situated in districts where there is plenty. ("The +opinion that, in the absence of these preliminary conditions, it will be +possible to draw workmen from the villages by measures of compulsion or +mobilization is profoundly mistaken.") (4) that there should be a census +of labor and that the Trades Unions should be invited to protect the +interests of the conscripted. Finally, this Conference approved the idea +of using the already existing military organization for carrying out a +labor census of the Red Army, and for the turning over to labor of parts +of the army during demobilization, but opposed the idea of giving the +military organization the work of labor registration and industrial +conscription in general. + + +On January 22, 1920, the Central Committee of the Communist Party, after +prolonged discussion of Trotsky's rough memorandum, finally adopted +and published a new edition of the "theses," expanded, altered, almost +unrecognizable, a reasoned body of theory entirely different from +the bundle of arrows loosed at a venture by Trotsky. They definitely +accepted the principle of industrial conscription, pointing out the +immediate reasons for it in the fact that Russia cannot look for much +help from without and must somehow or other help herself. + + +Long before the All-Russian Congress of the Communist Party approved the +theses of the Committee, one form of industrial conscription was already +being tested at work. Very early in January, when the discussion on the +subject was at its height, the Soviet of the Third Army addressed itself +to the Council of Defense of the Republic with an invitation to make use +of this army (which at least for the moment had finished its military +task) and to experiment with it as a labor army. The Council of Defense +agreed. Representatives of the Commissariats of Supply, Agriculture, +Ways and Communications, Labor and the Supreme Council of Public Economy +were sent to assist the Army Soviet. The army was proudly re-named "The +First Revolutionary Army of Labor," and began to issue communiques +"from the Labor front," precisely like the communiques of an army in the +field. I translate as a curiosity the first communique issued by a Labor +Army's Soviet: + + +"Wood prepared in the districts of Ishim, Karatulskaya, Omutinskaya, +Zavodoutovskaya, Yalutorovska, Iushaly, Kamuishlovo, Turinsk, Altynai, +Oshtchenkovo, Shadrinsk, 10,180 cubic sazhins. Working days, 52,651. +Taken to the railway stations, 5,334 cubic sazhins. Working days on +transport, 22,840. One hundred carpenters detailed for the Kizelovsk +mines. One hundred carpenters detailed for the bridge at Ufa. One +engineer specialist detailed to the Government Council of Public Economy +for repairing the mills of Chelyabinsk Government. One instructor +accountant detailed for auditing the accounts of the economic +organizations of Kamuishlov. Repair of locomotives proceeding in the +works at Ekaterinburg. January 20, 1920, midnight." + + +The Labor Army's Soviet received a report on the state of the district +covered by the army with regard to supply and needed work. By the end of +January it had already carried out a labor census of the army, and found +that it included over 50,000 laborers, of whom a considerable number +were skilled. It decided on a general plan of work in reestablishing +industry in the Urals, which suffered severely during the Kolchak regime +and the ebb and flow of the civil war, and was considering a suggestion +of one of its members that if the scheme worked well the army should be +increased to 300,000 men by way of mobilization. + + +On January 23rd the Council of Defense of the Republic, encouraged +to proceed further, decided to make use of the Reserve Army for the +improvement of railway transport on the Moscow-Kazan railway, one of +the chief arteries between eastern food districts and Moscow. The main +object is to be the reestablishment of through traffic between Moscow +and Ekaterinburg and the repair of the Kazan-Ekaterinburg line, which +particularly suffered during the war. An attempt was to be made to +rebuild the bridge over the Kama River before the ice melts. The +Commander of the Reserve Army was appointed Commissar of the eastern +part of the Moscow-Kazan railway, retaining his position as Commander +of the Army. With a view of coordination between the Army Soviet and the +railway authorities, a member of the Soviet was also appointed Commissar +of the railway. On January 25th it was announced that a similar +experiment was being made in the Ukraine. A month before the ice broke +the first train actually crossed the Kama River by the rebuilt bridge. + + +By April of this year the organization of industrial conscription had +gone far beyond the original labor armies. A decree of February 5th had +created a Chief Labor Committee, consisting of five members, Serebryakov +and Danilov, from the Commissariat of War; Vasiliev, from the +Commissariat of the Interior; Anikst, from the Commissariat of Labor; +Dzerzhinsky, from the Commissariat of Internal Affairs. Dzerzhinsky was +President, and his appointment was possibly made in the hope that the +reputation he had won as President of the Extraordinary Committee for +Fighting Counter-Revolution would frighten people into taking this +Committee seriously. Throughout the country in each government or +province similar committees, called "Troikas," were created, each of +three members, one from the Commissariat of War, one from the Department +of Labor, one from the Department of Management, in each case from +the local Commissariats and Departments attached to the local Soviet. +Representatives of the Central Statistical Office and its local organs +had a right to be present at the meeting of these committees of three, +or "Troikas," but had not the right to vote. An organization or a +factory requiring labor, was to apply to the Labor Department of the +local Soviet. This Department was supposed to do its best to satisfy +demands upon it by voluntary methods first. If these proved insufficient +they were to apply to the local "Troika," or Labor Conscription +Committee. If this found that its resources also were insufficient, it +was to refer back the request to the Labor Department of the Soviet, +which was then to apply to its corresponding Department in the +Government Soviet, which again, first voluntarily and then through the +Government Committee of Labor Conscription, was to try to satisfy the +demands. I fancy the object of this arrangement was to prevent local +"Troikas" from referring to Government "Troikas," and so directly to +Dzerzhinsky's Central Committee. If they had been able to do this there +would obviously have been danger lest a new network of independent and +powerful organizations should be formed. Experience with the overgrown +and insuppressible Committees for Fighting Counter-Revolution had taught +people how serious such a development might be. + +Such was the main outline of the scheme for conscripting labor. A +similar scheme was prepared for superintending and safeguarding labor +when conscripted. In every factory of over 1,000 workmen, clerks, etc., +there was formed a Commission (to distinguish it from the Committee) of +Industrial Conscription. Smaller factories shared such Commissions +or were joined for the purpose to larger factories near by. These +Commissions were to be under the direct control of a Factory Committee, +thereby preventing squabbles between conscripted and non-conscripted +labor. They were to be elected for six months, but their members could +be withdrawn and replaced by the Factory Committee with the approval of +the local "Troika." These Commissions, like the "Troikas," consisted +of three members: (1) from the management of the factory, (2) from the +Factory Committee, (3) from the Executive Committee of the workers. (It +was suggested in the directions that one of these should be from the +group which "has been organizing 'Saturdayings,' that is to say that he +or she should be a Communist.) The payment of conscripted workers was +to be by production, with prizes for specially good work. Specially bad +work was also foreseen in the detailed scheme of possible punishments. +Offenders were to be brought before the "People's Court" (equivalent +to the ordinary Civil Court), or, in the case of repeated or very bad +offenses, were to be brought before the far more dreaded Revolutionary +Tribunals. Six categories of possible offenses were placed upon the new +code: + + + (1)Avoiding registration, absenteeism, or desertion. + (2)The preparation of false documents or the use of such. + (3)Officials giving false information to facilitate these crimes. + (4)Purposeful damage of instruments or material. + (5)Uneconomical or careless work. + (6)(Probably the most serious of all: Instigation to any of + these actions. + + +The "Troikas" have the right to deal administratively with the less +important crimes by deprival of freedom for not more than two weeks. +No one can be brought to trial except by the Committee for Industrial +Conscription on the initiative of the responsible director of work, and +with the approval either of the local labor inspection authorities or +with that of the local Executive Committee. + + +No one with the slightest knowledge of Russia will suppose for a moment +that this elaborate mechanism sprang suddenly into existence when +the decree was signed. On the contrary, all stages of industrial +conscription exist simultaneously even today, and it would be possible +by going from one part of Russia to another to collect a series of +specimens of industrial conscription at every stage of evolution, just +as one can collect all stages of man from a baboon to a company director +or a Communist. Some of the more primitive kinds of conscription were +not among the least successful. For example, at the time (in the spring +of the year) when the Russians still hoped that the Poles would be +content with the huge area of non-Polish territory they had already +seized, the army on the western front was without any elaborate system +of decrees being turned into a labor army. The work done was at first +ordinary country work, mainly woodcutting. They tried to collaborate +with the local "Troikas," sending help when these Committees asked +for it. This, however, proved unsatisfactory, so, disregarding the +"Troikas," they organized things for themselves in the whole area +immediately behind the front. They divided up the forests into definite +districts, and they worked these with soldiers and with deserters. +Gradually their work developed, and they built themselves narrow-gauge +railways for the transport of the wood. Then they needed wagons and +locomotives, and of course immediately found themselves at loggerheads +with the railway authorities. Finally, they struck a bargain with +the railwaymen, and were allowed to take broken-down wagons which the +railway people were not in a position to mend. Using such skilled labor +as they had, they mended such wagons as were given them, and later made +a practice of going to the railway yards and in inspecting "sick" wagons +for themselves, taking out any that they thought had a chance even +of temporary convalescence. Incidentally they caused great scandal +by finding in the Smolensk sidings among the locomotives and wagons +supposed to be sick six good locomotives and seventy perfectly healthy +wagons. Then they began to improve the feeding of their army by sending +the wood they had cut, in the trains they had mended, to people who +wanted wood and could give them provisions. One such train went to +Turkestan and back from the army near Smolensk. Their work continually +increased, and since they had to remember that they were an army and +not merely a sort of nomadic factory, they began themselves to mobilize, +exclusively for purposes of work, sections of the civil population. +I asked Unshlicht, who had much to do with this organization, if the +peasants came willingly. He said, "Not very," but added that they did +not mind when they found that they got well fed and were given packets +of salt as prizes for good work. "The peasants," he said, "do not +grumble against the Government when it shows the sort of common +sense that they themselves can understand. We found that when we said +definitely how many carts and men a village must provide, and used them +without delay for a definite purpose, they were perfectly satisfied and +considered it right and proper. In every case, however, when they saw +people being mobilized and sent thither without obvious purpose or +result, they became hostile at once." I asked Unshlicht how it was that +their army still contained skilled workmen when one of the objects of +industrial conscription was to get the skilled workmen back into the +factories. He said: "We have an accurate census of the army, and when we +get asked for skilled workmen for such and such a factory, they go there +knowing that they still belong to the army." + + +That, of course, is the army point of view, and indicates one of the +main squabbles which industrial conscription has produced. Trotsky would +like the various armies to turn into units of a territorial militia, and +at the same time to be an important part of the labor organization +of each district. His opponents do not regard the labor armies as a +permanent manifestation, and many have gone so far as to say that +the productivity of labor in one of these armies is lower than among +ordinary workmen. Both sides produce figures on this point, and Trotsky +goes so far as to say that if his opponents are right, then not only +are labor armies damned, but also the whole principle of industrial +conscription. "If compulsory labor-independently of social condition-is +unproductive, that is a condemnation not of the labor armies, but of +industrial conscription in general, and with it of the whole Soviet +system, the further development of which is unthinkable except on a +basis of universal industrial conscription." + + +But, of course, the question of the permanence of the labor armies is +not so important as the question of getting the skilled workers back +to the factories. The comparative success or failure of soldiers or +mobilized peasants in cutting wood is quite irrelevant to this recovery +of the vanished workmen. And that recovery will take time, and will be +entirely useless unless it is possible to feed these workers when they +have been collected. There have already been several attempts, not +wholly successful, to collect the straying workers of particular +industries. Thus, after the freeing of the oil-wells from the Whites, +there was a general mobilization of naphtha workers. Many of these had +bolted on or after the arrival of Krasnov or Denikin and gone far into +Central Russia, settling where they could. So months passed before the +Red Army definitely pushed the area of civil war beyond the oil-wells, +that many of these refugees had taken new root and were unwilling to +return. I believe, that in spite of the mobilization, the oil-wells +are still short of men. In the coal districts also, which have passed +through similar experiences, the proportion of skilled to unskilled +labor is very much smaller than it was before the war. There have also +been two mobilizations of railway workers, and these, I think, may be +partly responsible for the undoubted improvement noticeable during +the year, although this is partly at least due to other things beside +conscription. In the first place Trotsky carried with him into the +Commissariat of Transport the same ferocious energy that he has shown in +the Commissariat of War, together with the prestige that he had gained +there. Further, he was well able in the councils of the Republic to +defend the needs of his particular Commissariat against those of all +others. He was, for example able to persuade the Communist Party to +treat the transport crisis precisely as they had treated each crisis +on the front-that is to say, to mobilize great numbers of professed +Communists to meet it, giving them in this case the especial task of +getting engines mended and, somehow or other, of keeping trains on the +move. + + +But neither the bridges mended and the wood cut by the labor armies, +nor the improvement in transport, are any final proof of the success of +industrial conscription. Industrial conscription in the proper sense +of the words is impossible until a Government knows what it has to +conscript. A beginning was made early this year by the introduction of +labor books, showing what work people were doing and where, and serving +as a kind of industrial passports. But in April this year these had not +yet become general in Moscow although the less unwieldy population of +Petrograd was already supplied with them. It will be long even if it is +possible at all, before any considerable proportion of the people not +living in these two cities are registered in this way. A more useful +step was taken at the end of August, in a general census throughout +Russia. There has been no Russian census since 1897. There was to have +been another about the time the war began. It was postponed for obvious +reasons. If the Communists carry through the census with even moderate +success (they will of course have to meet every kind of evasion), they +will at least get some of the information without which industrial +conscription on a national scale must be little more than a farce. +The census should show them where the skilled workers are. Industrial +conscription should enable them to collect them and put them at their +own skilled work. Then if, besides transplanting them, they are able to +feed them, it will be possible to judge of the success or failure of a +scheme which in most countries would bring a Government toppling to the +ground. + + +"In most countries"; yes, but then the economic crisis has gone +further in Russia than in most countries. There is talk of introducing +industrial conscription (one year's service) in Germany, where things +have not gone nearly so far. And perhaps industrial conscription, like +Communism itself, becomes a thing of desperate hope only in a country +actually face to face with ruin. I remember saying to Trotsky, when +talking of possible opposition, that I, as an Englishman, with the +tendencies to practical anarchism belonging to my race, should certainly +object most strongly if I were mobilized and set to work in a particular +factory, and might even want to work in some other factory just for the +sake of not doing what I was forced to do. Trotsky replied: "You would +now. But you would not if you had been through a revolution, and seen +your country in such a state that only the united, concentrated effort +of everybody could possibly reestablish it. That is the position here. +Everybody knows the position and that there is no other way." + + + + +WHAT THE COMMUNISTS ARE TRYING TO DO IN RUSSIA + + +We come now to the Communist plans for reconstruction. We have seen, in +the first two chapters, something of the appalling paralysis which is +the most striking factor in the economic problem to-day. We have seen +how Russia is suffering from a lack of things and from a lack of labor, +how these two shortages react on each other, and how nothing but a vast +improvement in transport can again set in motion what was one of the +great food-producing machines of the world. We have also seen something +of the political organization which, with far wider ambitions before +it, is at present struggling to prevent temporary paralysis from turning +into permanent atrophy. We have seen that it consists of a political +party so far dominant that the Trades Unions and all that is articulate +in the country may be considered as part of a machinery of propaganda, +for getting those things done which that political party considers +should be done. In a country fighting, literally, for its life, no man +can call his soul his own, and we have seen how this fact-a fact that +has become obvious again and again in the history of the world, whenever +a nation has had its back to the wall-is expressed in Russia in terms +of industrial conscription; in measures, that is to say, which would be +impossible in any country not reduced to such extremities; in measures +which may prove to be the inevitable accompaniment of national crisis, +when such crisis is economic rather than military. Let us now see what +the Russians, with that machinery at their disposal are trying to do. + + +It is obvious that since this machinery is dominated by a political +party, it will be impossible to understand the Russian plans, without +understanding that particular political party's estimate of the +situation in general. It is obvious that the Communist plans for Russia +must be largely affected by their view of Europe as a whole. This view +is gloomy in the extreme. The Communists believe that Europe is steadily +shaking itself to pieces. They believe that this process has already +gone so far that, even given good will on the part of European +Governments, the manufacturers of Western countries are already +incapable of supplying them with all the things which Russia was +importing before the war, still less make up the enormous arrears which +have resulted from six years of blockade. They do not agree with M. +Clemenceau that "revolution is a disease attacking defeated countries +only." Or, to put it as I have heard it stated in Moscow, they believe +that President Wilson's aspiration towards a peace in which should be +neither conqueror nor conquered has been at least partially realized in +the sense that every country ended the struggle economically defeated, +with the possible exception of America, whose signature, after all, is +still to be ratified. They believe that even in seemingly prosperous +countries the seeds of economic disaster are already fertilized. They +think that the demands of labor will become greater and more difficult +to fulfill until at last they become incompatible with a continuance of +the capitalist system. They think that strike after strike, irrespective +of whether it is successful or not, will gradually widen the cracks +and flaws already apparent in the damaged economic structure of Western +Europe. They believe that conflicting interests will involve our nations +in new national wars, and that each of these will deepen the cleavage +between capital and labor. They think that even if exhaustion makes +mutual warfare on a large scale impossible, these conflicting interests +will produce such economic conflicts, such refusals of cooperation, as +will turn exhaustion to despair. They believe, to put it briefly, that +Russia has passed through the worst stages of a process to which +every country in Europe will be submitted in turn by its desperate and +embittered inhabitants. We may disagree with them, but we shall not +understand them if we refuse to take that belief into account. If, as +they imagine, the next five years are to be years of disturbance and +growing resolution, Russia will get very little from abroad. If, for +example, there is to be a serious struggle in England, Russia will get +practically nothing. They not only believe that these things are +going to be, but make the logical deductions as to the effect of such +disturbances on their own chances of importing what they need. For +example, Lenin said to me that "the shock of revolution in England would +ensure the final defeat of capitalism," but he said at the same time +that it would be felt at once throughout the world and cause such +reverberations as would paralyze industry everywhere. And that is why, +although Russia is an agricultural country, the Communist plans for her +reconstruction are concerned first of all not with agriculture, but with +industry. In their schemes for the future of the world, Russia's part is +that of a gigantic farm, but in their schemes for the immediate future +of Russia, their eyes are fixed continually on the nearer object of +making her so far self-supporting that, even if Western Europe is +unable to help them, they may be able to crawl out of their economic +difficulties, as Krassin put it to me before he left Moscow, "if +necessary on all fours, but somehow or other, crawl out." + + +Some idea of the larger ambitions of the Communists with regard to the +development of Russia are given in a conversation with Rykov, which +follows this chapter. The most important characteristic of them is that +they are ambitions which cannot but find an echo in Russians of any +kind, quite regardless of their political convictions. The old anomalies +of Russian industry, for example, the distances of the industrial +districts from their sources of fuel and raw material are to be done +away with. These anomalies were largely due to historical accidents, +such as the caprice of Peter the Great, and not to any economic reasons. +The revolution, destructive as it has been, has at least cleaned the +slate and made it possible, if it is possible to rebuild at all, to +rebuild Russia on foundations laid by common sense. It may be said +that the Communists are merely doing flamboyantly and with a lot of +flag-waving, what any other Russian Government would be doing in their +place. And without the flamboyance and the flag-waving, it is doubtful +whether in an exhausted country, it would be possible to get anything +done at all. The result of this is that in their work of economic +reconstruction the Communists get the support of most of the best +engineers and other technicians in the country, men who take no interest +whatsoever in the ideas of Karl Marx, but have a professional interest +in doing the best they can with their knowledge, and a patriotic +satisfaction in using that knowledge for Russia. These men, caring not +at all about Communism, want to make Russia once more a comfortably +habitable place, no matter under what Government. Their attitude is +precisely comparable to that of the officers of the old army who have +contributed so much to the success of the new. These officers were not +Communists, but they disliked civil war, and fought to put an end of it. +As Sergei Kamenev, the Commander-in-Chief, and not a Communist, said +to me, "I have not looked on the civil war as on a struggle between two +political ideas, for the Whites have no definite idea. I have considered +it simply as a struggle between the Russian Government and a number of +mutineers." Precisely so do these "bourgeois" technicians now working +throughout Russia regard the task before them. It will be small +satisfaction to them if famine makes the position of any Government +impossible. For them the struggle is quite simply a struggle between +Russia and the economic forces tending towards a complete collapse of +civilization. + + +The Communists have thus practically the whole intelligence of the +country to help them in their task of reconstruction, or of salvage. +But the educated classes alone cannot save a nation. Muscle is wanted +besides brain, and the great bulk of those who can provide muscle +are difficult to move to enthusiasm by any broad schemes of economic +rearrangement that do not promise immediate improvement in their own +material conditions. Industrial conscription cannot be enforced +in Russia unless there is among the conscripted themselves an +understanding, although a resentful understanding, of its necessity. The +Russians have not got an army of Martians to enforce effort on an alien +people. The army and the people are one. "We are bound to admit," says +Trotsky, "that no wide industrial mobilization will succeed, if we do +not capture all that is honorable, spiritual in the peasant working +masses in explaining our plan." And the plan that he referred to was +not the grandiose (but obviously sensible) plan for the eventual +electrification of all Russia, but a programme of the struggle before +them in actually getting their feet clear of the morass of industrial +decay in which they are at present involved. Such a programme has +actually been decided upon-a programme the definite object of which +is to reconcile the workers to work not simply hand to mouth, each for +himself, but to concentrate first on those labors which will eventually +bring their reward in making other labors easier and improving the +position as a whole. + + +Early this year a comparatively unknown Bolshevik called Gusev, to whom +nobody had attributed any particular intelligence, wrote, while busy on +the staff of an army on the southeast front, which was at the time being +used partly as a labor army, a pamphlet which has had an extraordinary +influence in getting such a programme drawn up. The pamphlet is based +on Gusev's personal observation both of a labor army at work and of +the attitude of the peasant towards industrial conscription. It was +extremely frank, and contained so much that might have been used by +hostile critics, that it was not published in the ordinary way but +printed at the army press on the Caucasian front and issued exclusively +to members of the Communist Party. I got hold of a copy of this +pamphlet through a friend. It is called "Urgent Questions of Economic +Construction." Gusev sets out in detail the sort of opposition he had +met, and says: "The Anarchists, Social Revolutionaries and Mensheviks +have a clear, simple economic plan which the great masses can +understand: 'Go about your own business and work freely for yourself in +your own place.' They have a criticism of labor mobilizations equally +clear for the masses. They say to them, 'They are putting Simeon in +Peter's place, and Peter in Simeon's. They are sending the men of +Saratov to dig the ground in the Government of Stavropol, and the +Stavropol men to the Saratov Government for the same purpose.' Then +besides that there is 'nonparty' criticism: + +"'When it is time to sow they will be shifting muck, and when it is time +to reap they will be told to cut timber.' That is a particularly clear +expression of the peasants' disbelief in our ability to draw up a proper +economic plan. This belief is clearly at the bottom of such questions +as, 'Comrade Gusev, have you ever done any plowing?' or 'Comrade Orator, +do you know anything about peasant work?' Disbelief in the townsman who +understands nothing about peasants is natural to the peasant, and we +shall have to conquer it, to get through it, to get rid of it by showing +the peasant, with a clear plan in our hands that he can understand, that +we are not altogether fools in this matter and that we understand more +than he does." He then sets out the argument which he himself had found +successful in persuading the peasants to do things the reward for which +would not be obvious the moment they were done. He says, "I compared our +State economy to a colossal building with scores of stories and tens of +thousands of rooms. The whole building has been half smashed; in places +the roof has tumbled down, the beams have rotted, the ceilings are +tumbling, the drains and water pipes are burst; the stoves are falling +to pieces, the partitions are shattered, and, finally, the walls +and foundations are unsafe and the whole building is threatened with +collapse. I asked, how, must one set about the repair of this building? +With what kind of economic plan? To this question the inhabitants of +different stories, and even of different rooms on one and the same story +will reply variously. Those who live on the top floor will shout that +the rafters are rotten and the roof falling; that it is impossible to +live, there any longer, and that it is immediately necessary, first of +all, to put up new beams and to repair the roof. And from their point of +view they will be perfectly right. Certainly it is not possible to live +any longer on that floor. Certainly the repair of the roof is necessary. +The inhabitants of one of the lower stories in which the water pipes +have burst will cry out that it is impossible to live without water, and +therefore, first of all, the water pipes must be mended. And they, from +their point of view, will be perfectly right, since it certainly is +impossible to live without water. The inhabitants of the floor where the +stoves have fallen to pieces will insist on an immediate mending of the +stoves, since they and their children are dying of cold because there is +nothing on which they can heat up water or boil kasha for the children; +and they, too, will be quite right. But in spite of all these just +demands, which arrive in thousands from all sides, it is impossible to +forget the most important of all, that the foundation is shattered and +that the building is threatened with a collapse which will bury all +the inhabitants of the house together, and that, therefore, the only +immediate task is the strengthening of the foundation and the walls. +Extraordinary firmness, extraordinary courage is necessary, not only not +to listen to the cries and groans of old men, women, children and +sick, coming from every floor, but also to decide on taking from the +inhabitants of all floors the instruments and materials necessary for +the strengthening of the foundations and walls, and to force them to +leave their corners and hearths, which they are doing the best they can +to make habitable, in order to drive them to work on the strengthening +of the walls and foundations." + + +Gusev's main idea was that the Communists were asking new sacrifices +from a weary and exhausted people, that without such sacrifices these +people would presently find themselves in even worse conditions, and +that, to persuade them to make the effort necessary to save themselves, +it was necessary to have a perfectly clear and easily understandable +plan which could be dinned into the whole nation and silence the +criticism of all possible opponents. Copies of his little book came to +Moscow. Lenin read it and caused excruciating jealousy in the minds +of several other Communists, who had also been trying to find the +philosopher's stone that should turn discouragement into hope, by +singling out Gusev for his special praise and insisting that his plans +should be fully discussed at the Supreme Council in the Kremlin. Trotsky +followed Lenin's lead, and in the end a general programme for Russian +reconstruction was drawn up, differing only slightly from that which +Gusev had proposed. I give this scheme in Trotsky's words, because they +are a little fuller than those of others, and knowledge of this plan +will explain not only what the Communists are trying to do in Russia, +but what they would like to get from us today and what they will want to +get tomorrow. Trotsky says:-- + +"The fundamental task at this moment is improvement in the condition of +our transport, prevention of its further deterioration and preparation +of the most elementary stores of food, raw material and fuel. The whole +of the first period of our reconstruction will be completely occupied in +the concentration of labor on the solution of these problems, which is a +condition of further progress. + + +"The second period (it will be difficult to say now whether it will +be measured in months or years, since that depends on many factors +beginning with the international situation and ending with the unanimity +or the lack of it in our own party) will be a period occupied in the +building of machines in the interest of transport, and the getting of +raw materials and provisions. + + +"The third period will be occupied in building machinery, with a view to +the production of articles in general demand, and, finally, the fourth +period will be that in which we are able to produce these articles." + + +Does it not occur, even to the most casual reader, that there is very +little politics in that program, and that, no matter what kind of +Government should be in Russia, it would have to endorse that programme +word for word? I would ask any who doubt this to turn again to my first +two chapters describing the nature of the economic crisis in Russia, and +to remind themselves how, not only the lack of things but the lack of +men, is intimately connected with the lack of transport, which keeps +laborers ill fed, factories ill supplied with material, and in this way +keeps the towns incapable of supplying the needs of the country, with +the result that the country is most unwilling to supply the needs of +the town. No Russian Government unwilling to allow Russia to subside +definitely to a lower level of civilization can do otherwise than to +concentrate upon the improvement of transport. Labor in Russia must be +used first of all for that, in order to increase its own productivity. +And, if purchase of help from abroad is to be allowed, Russia must +"control" the outflow of her limited assets, so that, by healing +transport first of all, she may increase her power of making new assets. +She must spend in such a way as eventually to increase her power of +spending. She must prevent the frittering away of her small purse on +things which, profitable to the vendor and doubtless desirable by the +purchaser, satisfy only individual needs and do not raise the producing +power of the community as a whole. + + + + +RYKOV ON ECONOMIC PLANS AND ON THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY + + +Alexei Rykov, the President of the Supreme Council of Public Economy, is +one of the hardest worked men in Russia, and the only time I was able to +have a long talk with him (although more than once he snatched moments +to answer particular questions) was on a holiday, when the old Siberian +Hotel, now the offices of the Council, was deserted, and I walked +through empty corridors until I found the President and his secretary at +work as usual. + + +After telling of the building of the new railway from Alexandrovsk +Gai to the Emba, the prospects of developing the oil industry in that +district, the relative values of those deposits and of those at Baku, +and the possible decreasing significance of Baku in Russian industry +generally, we passed to broader perspectives. I asked him what he +thought of the relations between agriculture and industry in Russia, and +supposed that he did not imagine that Russia would ever become a great +industrial country. His answer was characteristic of the tremendous +hopes that nerve these people in their almost impossible task, and I +set it down as nearly as I can in his own words. For him, of course, the +economic problem was the first, and he spoke of it as the director of +a huge trust might have spoken. But, as he passed on to talk of what he +thought would result from the Communist method of tackling that problem, +and spoke of the eventual disappearance of political parties, I felt I +was trying to read a kind of palimpsest of the Economist and + +News from Nowhere, or listening to a strange compound of William Morris +and, for example, Sir Eric Geddes. He said: "We may have to wait a +long time before the inevitable arrives and there is a Supreme Economic +Council dealing with Europe as with a single economic whole. If that +should come about we should, of course, from the very nature of our +country, be called upon in the first place to provide food for Europe, +and we should hope enormously to improve our agriculture, working on +a larger and larger scale, using mechanical plows and tractors, which +would be supplied us by the West. But in the meantime we have to face +the fact that events may cause us to be, for all practical purposes, in +a state of blockade for perhaps a score of years, and, so far as we +can, we must be ready to depend on ourselves alone. For example, we want +mechanical plows which could be procured abroad. We have had to start +making them ourselves. The first electric plow made in Russia and used +in Russia started work last year, and this year we shall have a number +of such plows made in our country, not because it is economic so to make +them, but because we could get them in no other way. In so far as is +possible, we shall have to make ourselves self-supporting, so as +somehow or other to get along even if the blockade, formal or perhaps +willy-nilly (imposed by the inability of the West to supply us), compels +us to postpone cooperation with the rest of Europe. Every day of such +postponement is one in which the resources of Europe are not being used +in the most efficient manner to supply the needs not only of our own +country but of all." + + +I referred to what he had told me last year about the intended +electrification of Moscow by a station using turf fuel. + + +"That," he said, "is one of the plans which, in spite of the war, has +gone a very long way towards completion. We have built the station in +the Ryezan Government, on the Shadul peat mosses, about 110 versts from +Moscow. Before the end of May that station should be actually at work. +(It was completed, opened and partially destroyed by a gigantic fire.) +Another station at Kashira in the Tula Government (on the Oka), using +the small coal produced in the Moscow coalfields, will be at work +before the autumn. This year similar stations are being built at +Ivano-Voznesensk and at Nijni-Novgorod. Also, with a view to making the +most economic use of what we already possess, we have finished both +in Petrograd and in Moscow a general unification of all the private +power-stations, which now supply their current to a single main cable. +Similar unification is nearly finished at Tula and at Kostroma. The big +water-power station on the rapids of the Volkhov is finished in so far +as land construction goes, but we can proceed no further until we have +obtained the turbines, which we hope to get from abroad. As you know, we +are basing our plans in general on the assumption that in course of time +we shall supply the whole of Russian industry with electricity, of which +we also hope to make great use in agriculture. That, of course, will +take a great number of years." + + +[Nothing could have been much more artificial than the industrial +geography of old Russia. The caprice of history had planted great +industrial centers literally at the greatest possible distance from the +sources of their raw materials. There was Moscow bringing its coal from +Donetz, and Petrograd, still further away, having to eke out a living by +importing coal from England. The difficulty of transport alone must +have forced the Russians to consider how they could do away with such +anomalies. Their main idea is that the transport of coal in a modern +State is an almost inexcusable barbarism. They have set themselves, +these ragged engineers, working in rooms which they can hardly keep +above freezing-point and walking home through the snow in boots without +soles, no less a task than the electrification of the whole of Russia. +There is a State Committee presided over by an extraordinary optimist +called Krzhizhanovsky, entrusted by the Supreme Council of Public +Economy and Commissariat of Agriculture with the working out of a +general plan. This Committee includes, besides a number of well-known +practical engineers, Professors Latsinsky, Klassen, Dreier, Alexandrov, +Tcharnovsky, Dend and Pavlov. They are investigating the water power +available in different districts in Russia, the possibilities of using +turf, and a dozen similar questions including, perhaps not the least +important, investigation to discover where they can do most with least +dependence on help from abroad.] + + +Considering the question of the import of machinery from abroad, I asked +him whether in existing conditions of transport Russia was actually in a +position to export the raw materials with which alone the Russians could +hope to buy what they want. He said: + + +"Actually we have in hand about two million poods (a pood is a little +over thirty-six English pounds) of flax, and any quantity of light +leather (goat, etc.), but the main districts where we have raw material +for ourselves or for export are far away. Hides, for example, we have in +great quantities in Siberia, in the districts of Orenburg and the Ural +River and in Tashkent. I have myself made the suggestion that we should +offer to sell this stuff where it is, that is to say not delivered at a +seaport, and that the buyers should provide their own trains, which we +should eventually buy from them with the raw material itself, so that +after a certain number of journeys the trains should become ours. In +the same districts we have any quantity of wool, and in some of these +districts corn. We cannot, in the present condition of our transport, +even get this corn for ourselves. In the same way we have great +quantities of rice in Turkestan, and actually are being offered rice +from Sweden, because we cannot transport our own. Then we have over a +million poods of copper, ready for export on the same conditions. But +it is clear that if the Western countries are unable to help in the +transport, they cannot expect to get raw materials from us." + + +I asked about platinum. He laughed. + + +"That is a different matter. In platinum we have a world monopoly, and +can consequently afford to wait. Diamonds and gold, they can have as +much as they want of such rubbish; but platinum is different, and we +are in no hurry to part with it. But diamonds and gold ornaments, the +jewelry of the Tsars, we are ready to give to any king in Europe who +fancies them, if he can give us some less ornamental but more useful +locomotives instead." + + +I asked if Kolchak had damaged the platinum mines. He replied, "Not at +all. On the contrary, he was promising platinum to everybody who wanted +it, and he set the mines going, so we arrived to find them in good +condition, with a considerable yield of platinum ready for use." + + +(I am inclined to think that in spite of Rykov's rather intransigent +attitude on the question, the Russians would none the less be willing to +export platinum, if only on account of the fact in comparison with its +great value it requires little transport, and so would make possible for +them an immediate bargain with some of the machinery they most urgently +need.) + + +Finally we talked of the growing importance of the Council of Public +Economy. Rykov was of opinion that it would eventually become the centre +of the whole State organism, "it and Trades Unions organizing the actual +producers in each branch." + + +"Then you think that as your further plans develop, with the creation +of more and more industrial centres, with special productive populations +concentrated round them, the Councils of the Trades Unions will tend to +become identical with the Soviets elected in the same districts by the +same industrial units?" + + +"Precisely," said Rykov, "and in that way the Soviets, useful during the +period of transition as an instrument of struggle and dictatorship, will +be merged with the Unions." (One + +important factor, as Lenin pointed out when considering the same +question, is here left out of count, namely the political development of +the enormous agricultural as opposed to industrial population.) + + +"But if this merging of political Soviets with productive Unions occurs, +the questions that concern people will cease to be political questions, +but will be purely questions of economics." + + +"Certainly. And we shall see the disappearance of political parties. +That process is already apparent. In the present huge Trade Union +Conference there are only sixty Mensheviks. The Communists are +swallowing one party after another. Those who were not drawn over to us +during the period of struggle are now joining us during the process of +construction, and we find that our differences now are not political at +all, but concerned only with the practical details of construction." He +illustrated this by pointing out the present constitution of the Supreme +Council of Public Economy. There are under it fifty-three Departments or +Centres (Textile, Soap, Wool, Timber, Flax, etc.), each controlled by +a "College" of three or more persons. There are 232 members of these +Colleges or Boards in all, and of them 83 are workmen, 79 are +engineers, 1 was an ex-director, 50 were from the clerical staff, and 19 +unclassified. Politically 115 were Communists, 105 were "non-party," and +12 were of non-Communist parties. He continued, "Further, in swallowing +the other parties, the Communists themselves will cease to exist as a +political party. Think only that youths coming to their manhood during +this year in Russia and in the future will not be able to confirm from +their own experience the reasoning of Karl Marx, because they will have +had no experience of a capitalist country. What can they make of +the class struggle? The class struggle here is already over, and the +distinctions of class have already gone altogether. In the old days, +members of our party were men who had read, or tried to read, Marx's +"Capital," who knew the "Communist Manifesto" by heart, and were +occupied in continual criticism of the basis of capitalist society. Look +at the new members of our party. Marx is quite unnecessary to them. They +join us, not for struggle in the interests of an oppressed class, but +simply because they understand our aims in constructive work. And, as +this process continues, we old social democrats shall disappear, and our +places will be filled by people of entirely different character grown up +under entirely new conditions." + + + + +NON-PARTYISM + + +Rykov's prophecies of the disappearance of Political parties may be +falsified by a development of that very non-partyism on which he bases +them. It is true that the parties openly hostile to the Communists +in Russia have practically disappeared. Many old-time Mensheviks have +joined the Communist Party. Here and there in the country may be found +a Social Revolutionary stronghold. Here and there in the Ukraine the +Mensheviks retain a footing, but I doubt whether either of these parties +has in it the vitality to make itself once again a serious political +factor. There is, however, a movement which, in the long run, may alter +Russia's political complexion. More and more delegates to Soviets +or Congresses of all kinds are explicitly described as "Non-party." +Non-partyism is perhaps a sign of revolt against rigid discipline of +any kind. Now and then, of course, a clever Menshevik or Social +Revolutionary, by trimming his sails carefully to the wind, gets himself +elected on a non-party ticket. 'When this happens there is usually +a great hullabaloo as soon as he declares himself. A section of his +electors agitates for his recall and presently some one else is elected +in his stead. But non-partyism is much more than a mere cloak of +invisibility for enemies or conditional supporters of the Communists. I +know of considerable country districts which, in the face of every kind +of agitation, insist on returning exclusively non-party delegates. The +local Soviets in these districts are also non-party, and they elect +usually a local Bolshevik to some responsible post to act as it were as +a buffer between themselves and the central authority. They manage local +affairs in their own way, and, through the use of tact on both sides, +avoid falling foul of the more rigid doctrinaires in Moscow. + + +Eager reactionaries outside Russia will no doubt point to non-partyism +as a symptom of friendship for themselves. It is nothing of the sort. +On all questions of the defense of the Republic the non-party voting is +invariably solid with that of the Communists. The non-party men do not +want Denikin. They do not want Baron Wrangel. They have never heard of +Professor Struhve. They do not particularly like the Communists. +They principally want to be left alone, and they principally fear any +enforced continuation of war of any kind. If, in the course of time, +they come to have a definite political programme, I think it not +impossible that they may turn into a new kind of constitutional +democrat. That does not mean that they will have any use for M. Milukov +or for a monarch with whom M. Milukov might be ready to supply them. +The Constitution for which they will work will be that very Soviet +Constitution which is now in abeyance, and the democracy which they +associate with it will be that form of democracy which were it to be +accurately observed in the present state of Russia, that Constitution +would provide. The capitalist in Russia has long ago earned the position +in which, according to the Constitution, he has a right to vote, +since he has long ago ceased to be a capitalist. Supposing the Soviet +Constitution were today to be literally applied, it would be found +that practically no class except the priests would be excluded from +the franchise. And when this agitation swells in volume, it will be +an agitation extremely difficult to resist, supposing Russia to be at +peace, so that there will be no valid excuse with which to meet it. +These new constitutional democrats will be in the position of saying to +the Communists, "Give us, without change, that very Constitution which +you yourselves drew up." I think they will find many friends inside the +Communist Party, particularly among those Communists who are also Trade +Unionists. I heard something very like the arguments of this new variety +of constitutional democrat in the Kremlin itself at an All-Russian +Conference of the Communist Party. A workman, Sapronov, turned suddenly +aside in a speech on quite another matter, and said with great violence +that the present system was in danger of running to seed and turning +into oligarchy, if not autocracy. Until the moment when he put his +listeners against him by a personal attack on Lenin, there was no doubt +that he had with him the sympathies of quite a considerable section of +an exclusively Communist audience. + + +Given peace, given an approximate return to normal conditions, +non-partyism may well profoundly modify the activities of the +Communists. It would certainly be strong enough to prevent the rasher +spirits among them from jeopardizing peace or from risking Russia's +chance of convalescence for the sake of promoting in any way the growth +of revolution abroad. Of course, so long as it is perfectly obvious that +Soviet Russia is attacked, no serious growth of non-partyism is to be +expected, but it is obvious that any act of aggression on the part of +the Soviet Government, once Russia had attained peace-which she has not +known since 1914-would provide just the basis of angry discontent which +might divide even the disciplined ranks of the Communists and give +non-partyism an active, instead of a comparatively passive, backing +throughout the country. + + +Non-partyism is already the peasants' way of expressing their aloofness +from the revolution and, at the same time, their readiness to defend +that revolution against anybody who attacks it from outside. Lenin, +talking to me about the general attitude of the peasants, said: "Hegel +wrote 'What is the People? The people is that part of the nation which +does not know what it wants.' That is a good description of the Russian +peasantry at the present time, and it applies equally well to your +Arthur Hendersons and Sidney Webbs in England, and to all other +people like yourself who want incompatible things. The peasantry are +individualists, but they support us. We have, in some degree, to +thank Kolchak and Denikin for that. They are in favor of the Soviet +Government, but hanker after Free Trade, not understanding that the +two things are self-contradictory. Of course, if they were a united +political force they could swamp us, but they are disunited both in +their interests and geographically. The interests of the poorer and +middle class peasants are in contradiction to those of the rich peasant +farmer who employs laborers. The poorer and middle class see that we +support them against the rich peasant, and also see that he is ready +to support what is obviously not in their interests." I said, "If State +agriculture in Russia comes to be on a larger scale, will there not be +a sort of proletarianization of the peasants so that, in the long run, +their interests will come to be more or less identical with those of the +workers in other than agricultural industry!" He replied, "Something in +that direction is being done, but it will have to be done very carefully +and must take a very long time. When we are getting many thousands of +tractors from abroad, then something of the sort would become possible." +Finally I asked him point blank, "Did he think they would pull through +far enough economically to be able to satisfy the needs of the peasantry +before that same peasantry had organized a real political opposition +that should overwhelm them!" Lenin laughed. "If I could answer that +question," he said, "I could answer everything, for on the answer to +that question everything depends. I think we can. Yes, I think we can. +But I do not know that we can." + + +Non-partyism may well be the protoplasmic stage of the future political +opposition of the peasants. + + + + +POSSIBILITIES + + +I have done my best to indicate the essential facts in Russia's problem +today, and to describe the organization and methods with which she is +attempting its solution. I can give no opinion as to whether by these +means the Russians will succeed in finding their way out of the quagmire +of industrial ruin in which they are involved. I can only say that they +are unlikely to find their way out by any other means. I think this is +instinctively felt in Russia. Not otherwise would it have been possible +for the existing organization, battling with one hand to save the towns +front starvation, to destroy with the other the various forces clothed +and armed by Western Europe, which have attempted its undoing. The mere +fact of continued war has, of course, made progress in the solution of +the economic problem almost impossible, but the fact that the economic +problem was unsolved, must have made war impossible, if it were not that +the instinct of the people was definitely against Russian or foreign +invaders. Consider for one moment the military position. + + +Although the enthusiasm for the Polish war began to subside (even among +the Communists) as soon as the Poles had been driven back from Kiev to +their own frontiers, although the Poles are occupying an enormous area +of non-Polish territory, although the Communists have had to conclude +with Poland a peace obviously unstable, the military position of Soviet +Russia is infinitely better this time than it was in 1918 or 1919. In +1918 the Ukraine was held by German troops and the district east of the +Ukraine was in the hands of General Krasnov, the author of a flattering +letter to the Kaiser. In the northwest the Germans were at Pskov, +Vitebsk and Mohilev. We ourselves were at Murmansk and Archangel. In the +east, the front which became known as that of Kolchak, was on the +Volga. Soviet Russia was a little hungry island with every prospect of +submersion. A year later the Germans had vanished, the flatterers of the +Kaiser had joined hands with those who were temporarily flattering the +Allies, Yudenitch's troops were within sight of Petrograd, Denikin was +at Orel, almost within striking distance of Moscow; there had been a +stampede of desertion from the Red Army. There was danger that Finland +might strike at any moment. Although in the east Kolchak had been swept +over the Urals to his ultimate disaster, the situation of Soviet Russia +seemed even more desperate than in the year before. What is the position +today! Esthonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Finland are at peace with +Russia. The Polish peace brings comparative quiet to the western front, +although the Poles, keeping the letter rather than the spirit of their +agreement, have given Balahovitch the opportunity of establishing +himself in Minsk, where, it is said, that the pogroms of unlucky Jews +show that he has learnt nothing since his ejection from Pskov. + + +Balahovitch's force is not important in itself, but its existence will +make it easy to start the war afresh along the whole new frontier of +Poland, and that frontier shuts into Poland so large an anti-Polish +population, that a moment may still come when desperate Polish statesmen +may again choose war as the least of many threatening evils. Still, +for the moment, Russia's western frontier is comparatively quiet. Her +northern frontier is again the Arctic Sea. Her eastern frontier is in +the neighborhood of the Pacific. The Ukraine is disorderly, but occupied +by no enemy; the only front on which serious fighting is proceeding is +the small semi-circle north of the Crimea. There Denikin's successor, +supported by the French but exultantly described by a German +conservative newspaper as a "German baron in Cherkass uniform," is +holding the Crimea and a territory slightly larger than the peninsula +on the main land. Only to the immense efficiency of anti-Bolshevik +propaganda can be ascribed the opinion, common in England but comic to +any one who takes the trouble to look at a map, that Soviet Russia is on +the eve of military collapse. + + +In any case it is easy in a revolution to magnify the influence of +military events on internal affairs. In the first place, no one who +has not actually crossed the Russian front during the period of active +operations can well realize how different are the revolutionary wars +from that which ended in 1918. Advance on a broad front no longer +means that a belt of men in touch with each other has moved definitely +forward. It means that there have been a series of forward movements +at widely separated, and with the very haziest of mutual, connections. +There will be violent fighting for a village or a railway station or the +passage of a river. Small hostile groups will engage in mortal combat to +decide the possession of a desirable hut in which to sleep, but, except +at these rare points of actual contact, the number of prisoners is far +in excess of the number of casualties. Parties on each side will be +perfectly ignorant of events to right or left of them, ignorant even of +their gains and losses. Last year I ran into Whites in a village which +the Reds had assured me was strongly held by themselves, and these +same Whites refused to believe that the village where I had spent the +preceding night was in the possession of the Reds. It is largely an +affair of scouting parties, of patrols dodging each other through the +forest tracks, of swift raids, of sudden conviction (often entirely +erroneous) on the part of one side or the other, that it or the enemy +has been "encircled." The actual number of combatants to a mile of front +is infinitely less than during the German war. Further, since an immense +proportion of these combatants on both sides have no wish to fight at +all, being without patriotic or political convictions and very badly fed +and clothed, and since it is more profitable to desert than to be +taken prisoner, desertion in bulk is not uncommon, and the deserters, +hurriedly enrolled to fight on the other side, indignantly re-desert +when opportunity offers. In this way the armies of Denikin and Yudenitch +swelled like mushrooms and decayed with similar rapidity. Military +events of this kind, however spectacular they may seem abroad, do not +have the political effect that might be expected. I was in Moscow at the +worst moment of the crisis in 1919 when practically everybody outside +the Government believed that Petrograd had already fallen, and I could +not but realize that the Government was stronger then than it had been +in February of the same year, when it had a series of victories and +peace with the Allies seemed for a moment to be in sight. A sort of fate +seems to impel the Whites to neutralize with extraordinary rapidity any +good will for themelves which they may find among the population. +This is true of both sides, but seems to affect the Whites especially. +Although General Baron Wrangel does indeed seem to have striven more +successfully than his predecessors not to set the population against him +and to preserve the loyalty of his army, it may be said with absolute +certainty that any large success on his part would bring crowding to +his banner the same crowd of stupid reactionary officers who brought +to nothing any mild desire for moderation that may have been felt by +General Denikin. If the area he controls increases, his power of +control over his subordinates will decrease, and the forces that led to +Denikin's collapse will be set in motion in his case also. [*] + + * On the day on which I send this book to the printers news + comes of Wrangel's collapse and flight. I leave standing + what I have written concerning him, since it will apply to + any successor he may have. Each general who has stepped + into Kolchak's shoes has eventually had to run away in them, + and always for the same reasons. It may be taken almost as + an axiom that the history of great country is that of its + centre, not of its periphery. The main course of English + history throughout the troubled seventeenth and eighteenth + centuries was never deflected from London. French history + did not desert Paris, to make a new start at Toulon or at + Quiberon Bay. And only a fanatic could suppose that Russian + history would run away from Moscow, to begin again in a + semi-Tartar peninsula in the Black Sea. Moscow changes + continually, and may so change as to make easy the return of + the "refugees." Some have already returned. But the + refugees will not return as conquerors. Should a Russian + Napoleon (an unlikely figure, even in spite of our efforts) + appear, he will not throw away the invaluable asset of a + revolutionary war-cry. He will have to fight some one, or + he will not be a Napoleon. And whom will he fight but the + very people who, by keeping up the friction, have rubbed + Aladdin's ring so hard and so long that a Djinn, by no means + kindly disposed towards them, bursts forth at last to avenge + the breaking of his sleep? + + +And, of course, should hostilities flare up again on the Polish +frontier, should the lions and lambs and jackals and eagles of Kossack, +Russian, Ukrainian and Polish nationalists temporarily join forces, no +miracles of diplomacy will keep them from coming to blows. For all these +reasons a military collapse of the Soviet Government at the present +time, even a concerted military advance of its enemies, is unlikely. + + +It is undoubtedly true that the food situation in the towns is likely to +be worse this winter than it has yet been. Forcible attempts to get food +from the peasantry will increase the existing hostility between town and +country. There has been a very bad harvest in Russia. The bringing of +food from Siberia or the Kuban (if military activities do not make that +impossible) will impose an almost intolerable strain on the inadequate +transport. Yet I think internal collapse unlikely. It may be said almost +with certainty that Governments do not collapse until there is no one +left to defend them. That moment had arrived in the case of the Tsar. It +had arrived in the case of Kerensky. It has not arrived in the case +of the Soviet Government for certain obvious reasons. For one thing, +a collapse of the Soviet Government at the present time would be +disconcerting, if not disastrous, to its more respectable enemies. +It would, of course, open the way to a practically unopposed military +advance, but at the same time it would present its enemies with enormous +territory, which would overwhelm the organizing powers which they have +shown again and again to be quite inadequate to much smaller tasks. Nor +would collapse of the present Government turn a bad harvest into a +good one. Such a collapse would mean the breakdown of all existing +organizations, and would intensify the horrors of famine for every town +dweller. Consequently, though the desperation of hunger and resentment +against inevitable requisitions may breed riots and revolts here and +there throughout the country, the men who, in other circumstances, might +coordinate such events, will refrain from doing anything of the sort. +I do not say that collapse is impossible. I do say that it would be +extremely undesirable from the point of view of almost everybody +in Russia. Collapse of the present Government would mean at best a +reproduction of the circumstances of 1917, with the difference that no +intervention from without would be necessary to stimulate indiscriminate +slaughter within. I say "at best" because I think it more likely that +collapse would be followed by a period of actual chaos. Any Government +that followed the Communists would be faced by the same economic +problem, and would have to choose between imposing measures very like +those of the Communists and allowing Russia to subside into a new area +for colonization. There are people who look upon this as a natural, even +a desirable, result of the revolution. They forget that the Russians +have never been a subject race, that they have immense powers of +passive resistance, that they respond very readily to any idea that they +understand, and that the idea of revolt against foreigners is difficult +not to understand. Any country that takes advantage of the Russian +people in a moment of helplessness will find, sooner or later, first +that it has united Russia against it, and secondly that it has given all +Russians a single and undesirable view of the history of the last +three years. There will not be a Russian who will not believe that the +artificial incubation of civil war within the frontiers of old Russia +was not deliberately undertaken by Western Europe with the object of so +far weakening Russia as to make her exploitation easy. Those who look +with equanimity even on this prospect forget that the creation in Europe +of a new area for colonization, a knocking out of one of the sovereign +nations, will create a vacuum, and that the effort to fill this vacuum +will set at loggerheads nations at present friendly and so produce a +struggle which may well do for Western Europe what Western Europe will +have done for Russia. + + +It is of course possible that in some such way the Russian Revolution +may prove to be no more than the last desperate gesture of a stricken +civilization. My point is that if that is so, civilization in Russia +will not die without infecting us with its disease. It seems to me that +our own civilization is ill already, slightly demented perhaps, and +liable, like a man in delirium, to do things which tend to aggravate +the malady. I think that the whole of the Russian war, waged directly +or indirectly by Western Europe, is an example of this sort of dementia, +but I cannot help believing that sanity will reassert itself in time. +At the present moment, to use a modification of Gusev's metaphor, Europe +may be compared to a burning house and the Governments of Europe to fire +brigades, each one engaged in trying to salve a wing or a room of the +building. It seems a pity that these fire brigades should be fighting +each other, and forgetting the fire in their resentment of the fact that +some of them wear red uniforms and some wear blue. Any single room to +which the fire gains complete control increases the danger of the whole +building, and I hope that before the roof falls in the firemen will come +to their senses. + + +But turning from grim recognition of the danger, and from speculations +as to the chance of the Russian Government collapsing, and as to the +changes in it that time may bring, let us consider what is likely to +happen supposing it does not collapse. I have already said that I think +collapse unlikely. Do the Russians show any signs of being able to carry +out their programme, or has the fire gone so far during the quarrelling +of the firemen as to make that task impossible? + + + +I think that there is still a hope. There is as yet no sign of a general +improvement in Russia, nor is such an improvement possible until the +Russians have at least carried out the first stage of their programme. +It would even not be surprising if things in general were to continue to +go to the bad during the carrying out of that first stage. Shortages of +food, of men, of tools, of materials, are so acute that they have had +to choose those factories which are absolutely indispensable for the +carrying out of this stage, and make of them "shock" factories, like the +"shock" troops of the war, giving them equipment over and above their +rightful share of the impoverished stock, feeding their workmen even at +the cost of letting others go hungry. That means that other factories +suffer. No matter, say the Russians, if only that first stage makes +progress. Consequently, the only test that can be fairly applied is that +of transport. Are they or are they not gaining on ruin in the matter of +wagons and engines! Here are the figures of wagon repairs in the seven +chief repairing shops up to the month of June: + + + December 1919............475 wagons were repaired. + January 1920.............656 + February.................697 + March...................1104 + April...................1141 + May.....................1154 + June....................1161 + + +After elaborate investigation last year, Trotsky, as temporary Commissar +of Transport, put out an order explaining that the railways, to keep up +their present condition, must repair roughly 800 engines every month. +During the first six months of 1920 they fulfilled this task in the +following percentages: + + + January..................32 per cent + February.................50 + March....................66 + April....................78 + May......................98 + June....................104 + + +I think that is a proof that, supposing normal relations existed between +Russia and ourselves, the Russian would be able to tackle the first +stage of the problem that lies before them, and would lie before them +whatever their Government might be. Unfortunately there is no proof that +this steady improvement can be continued, except under conditions of +trade with Western Europe. There are Russians who think they can pull +through without us, and, remembering the miracles of which man is +capable when his back is to the wall, it would be rash to say that this +is impossible. But other Russians point out gloomily that they have been +using certain parts taken from dead engines (engines past repair) in +order to mend sick engines. They are now coming to the mending, not of +sick engines merely, but of engines on which post-mortems have already +been held. They are actually mending engines, parts of which have +already been taken out and used for the mending of other engines. There +are consequently abnormal demands for such things as shafts and piston +rings. They are particularly short of Babbitt metal and boiler tubes. In +normal times the average number of new tubes wanted for each engine put +through the repair shops was 25 (10 to 15 for engines used in the more +northerly districts, and 30 to 40 for engines in the south where the +water is not so good). This number must now be taken as much higher, +because during recent years tubes have not been regularly renewed. +Further, the railways have been widely making use of tubes taken from +dead engines, that is to say, tubes already worn. Putting things at +their very best, assuming that the average demand for tubes per engine +will be that of normal times, then, if 1,000 engines are to be repaired +monthly, 150,000 tubes will be wanted every six months. Now on the +15th of June the total stock of tubes ready for use was 58,000, and the +railways could not expect to get more than another 13,000 in the +near future. Unless the factories are able to do better (and their +improvement depends on improvement in transport), railway repairs must +again deteriorate, since the main source of materials for it in Russia, +namely the dead engines, will presently be exhausted. + + +On this there is only one thing to be said. If, whether because we do +not trade with them, or from some other cause, the Russians are unable +to proceed even in this first stage of their programme, it means an +indefinite postponement of the moment when Russia will be able to export +anything, and, consequently, that when at last we learn that we need +Russia as a market, she will be a market willing to receive gifts, but +unable to pay for anything at all. And that is a state of affairs a +great deal more serious to ourselves than to the Russians, who can, +after all, live by wandering about their country and scratching the +ground, whereas we depend on the sale of our manufactured goods for the +possibility of buying the food we cannot grow ourselves. If the Russians +fail, their failure will affect not us alone. It will, by depriving her +of a market, lessen Germany's power of recuperation, and consequently +her power of fulfilling her engagements. What, then, is to happen to +France? And, if we are to lose our market in Russia, and find very +much weakened markets in Germany and France, we shall be faced with an +ever-increasing burden of unemployment, with the growth, in fact, of the +very conditions in which alone we shall ourselves be unable to recover +from the war. In such conditions, upheaval in England would be possible, +and, for the dispassionate observer, there is a strange irony in the +fact that the Communists desire that upheaval, and, at the same time, +desire a rebirth of the Russian market which would tend to make that +upheaval unlikely, while those who most fear upheaval are precisely +those who urge us, by making recovery in Russia impossible, to improve +the chances of collapse at home. The peasants in Russia are not alone in +wanting incompatible things. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Crisis in Russia, by Arthur Ransome + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1326 *** |