Rise of the working class
Source: Labor College lecture
First published: Labor College Review, November 1986
Transcription, mark-up: Steve Painter
Lenin’s forceful tactics brought rapid support for the Bolshevik Party. This is illustrated in Victor Serge’s, Year One of the Russian Revolution, in which he produces figures of the voting for the Moscow Municipal Duma. In the 1915 elections, the Social Revolutionaries and Mensheviks obtained 70 per cent of the votes cast, this fell to 18 per cent in the 1917 voting; while the Bolsheviks polled more than 50 per cent of the votes in that year, and had 350 delegates out of the 710 elected. (Year one of the Russian Revolution, chapter 2
After Kornilov’s march on Petrograd, (September 25-30, 1917), Lenin’s insistence on marching separately from the provisional government, even though they were both interested in Kornilov’s defeat; resulted after his defeat in the formation of the Red Guard by the arming of the workers, and establishment of the Military Revolutionary Committee (October 16, 1917) over which the president of the soviet presided. This resulted in dual power; that is a situation in which the government’s attempt to order regiments they considered contaminated with revolutionary ideas to the front line to be countermanded by the Military Revolutionary Committee.
The working class character of the Red Guard is noted by Victor Serge in the following:
The statutes of the Red Guard required for admittance, the recommendation of a socialist party, a factory committee or a trade union. Three unexcused absences were punished by expulsion. Infractions of discipline were tried by a jury of comrades. The use of arms without authorisation was a crime. Orders were obeyed without discussion. The officers were elected: in reality, however, they were often appointed by factory committees or other workers’ organisations. If they did not already possess a military education, the officers were required to take special courses. (Year One of the Russian Revolution, chapter 2)
The American socialist journalist, Jack Reed, who was in Russia at the time of these stirring events, describes the scene at a Petrograd Soviet meeting (October 22) in his book, Ten Days that shook the world, in the following lines:
The people around me appeared to be in ecstasy. They seemed about to burst forth spontaneously in a religious hymn. Trotsky read a resolution to the general effect that they were ready to fight for the workers and peasants to the last drop of their blood. Who was in favour of this resolution? The immense crowed raised their hands as a single man. Trotsky went on. The hands remained raised. Trotsky said, “Let this vote be your oath. You swear to give all your strength, not to hesitate before any sacrifice, to support the Soviet, which undertakes to win the revolution and give you land, peace and bread!” The hands remained raised. The crowd approved; they took the oath — and the same was repeated all over Petersburg (Leningrad). The last preparations were made everywhere; everywhere they swore the last oath; thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of men. It was insurrection.[1]
Kerensky escaped from Petersburg, but his ministers were arrested at the Winter Palace. (November 7), and that evening the All Russian Congress of Soviets met with the power of government in its hands. The congress consisted of 562 delegates, of whom 382 were Bolsheviks, 70 were Social Revolutionaries, 16 Right Social Revolutionaries and 21 Mensheviks. The Left Social Revolutionaries decided to support the Bolsheviks. The Bolshevik Kamenev took over the presidency of the congress from the Menshevik Dan.
When the question of the assumption of power by the soviet came up for discussion the Mensheviks and Right Social Revolutionaries withdrew from the congress. Lenin addressed the congress as follows:
In Russia, the immense majority of the peasantry has said: enough of this game with the capitalists, we shall march with the workers. A single decree abolishing the landowner’s estates will win us the confidence of the peasantry. They will understand that their salvation is with the workers. We shall set up workers’ control of industry … We are beginning to build the socialist society.
The first soviet government was set up by the congress. It elected a new All-Russian Soviet executive committee of 102 members: 62 Bolsheviks, 20 Left Social Revolutionaries among them. On a proposal by Trotsky, members of the government were called People’s Commissars instead of ministers. The first Council of People’s Commissars consisted solely of Bolsheviks. The Left Social Revolutionaries wanted a government of every party in the Soviet. Trotsky replied:
There is nothing for us but to leave the Left Social Revolutionaries the task of persuading their neighbours to the right to come over to the revolution. We believe it our duty to assume all responsibility in the name of our party, while they devote themselves to that hopeless enterprise.
After discussing peace proposals, the congress dispersed on November 10, 1917.
Every hour brought encouraging messages from trade unions, the army and local soviets etc, but counter-revolutionary forces began to grow. Petrograd only had supplies for a few days and none of the government agencies functioned.
Denunciatory telegrams poured from general headquarters, municipal dumas, provincial councils and every former government body. The revolutionaries were labeled bandits, usurpers, traitors who were unleashing civil war, and the like. The bourgeois press, which continued to publish, declared that order would soon be restored, that loyal regiments were marching from the front with Kerensky at their head and a new provisional government would be set up. The central telegraph agency refused to send messages from the People’s Commissars. Cadets seized the telephone exchange but were quickly ousted. All other socialist parties were against the seizure of power. The railway workers’ union demanded from the Bolsheviks:
(1) That all troops to be placed under the command of the municipal duma.
(2) That the workers to be disarmed and Kerensky’s troops admitted to the city.
(3) That all political prisoners to be released.
(4) That the Military Revolutionary Committee to be dissolved.
The strength behind these demands waned after news of victory for the soviets in Moscow, and they were rejected. The army under Kerensky was checked by the Red Guard and disbanded. For the time being the situation was saved. But the soviet government was to meet new opposition of a severe nature from the Constituent Assembly, which had been convened to meet in January 1918.
Elections to the Constituent Assembly were agreed to at the soviet congress. They were awaited with mystical faith by the Social Revolutionaries, for their powerful support among the peasant millions and radical bourgeoisie would undoubtedly secure for them a majority, which would most certainly embarrass the Bolsheviks.
“Will there be any progress if the assembly is composed of Cadets, Social Revolutionaries and Mensheviks,” said Lenin, “this mistake shall not cost us the revolution.”
The voting for the assembly was as follows: bourgeois parties (Cadets, etc) 13 per cent, Social Revolutionaries (supported mainly by the peasants with Kerensky their leader) 58 per cent, Mensheviks 4 per cent, Bolsheviks 25 per cent. The social revolutionaries and Mensheviks combined to make their total strength 62 per cent. In a pamphlet, Elections to the Constituent Assembly, Lenin analysed this voting.
“The country.”, he wrote, “being far away from events had voted for their party the Social Revolutionaries. The cities were for the Bolsheviks, that is the immense majority of the workers. For the two capitals, Moscow and Leningrad, the voting was, Cadets 515,000; Bolsheviks 837,000. In the army and navy SR 1,885,000; Cadets 51,000; Bolsheviks 1,791,000. Half the army for the Bolsheviks! Overwhelmingly, where regiments were close to events.” Lenin went on to say:
Political power in the hands of the proletariat can and should become the means of bringing the non-proletarian toiling masses to its side, the means of wresting these masses away from the petty bourgeois and bourgeois parties. Our mistake is plain, we have seized power and now we are put in the position of being forced to seize it again.
A summary of Lenin’s views on the Constituent Assembly is as follows:
(a) The assembly provided the widest democracy possible under a bourgeois republic.
(b) Soviets provides a superior form of democracy that led more rapidly to socialism.
(c) The majority of the people had not yet had time to settle vital questions by formal democratic methods.
(d) Civil war in Finland and the south made it impossible to settle vital questions by the vote.
(e) To consider the Constituent Assembly as above the class struggle and the civil war was to adopt a bourgeois point of view.
The voting elected 520 delegates to the Assembly: 161 Bolsheviks, 267 Social Revolutionaries, 15 Cadets, 41 Mensheviks and Ukrainian Social Revolutionaries. The Bolshevik president, Sverdlov, opened the assembly and urged the adoption of a document drawn up by Lenin and adopted by the All Russian Soviet executive. The content of the document follows:
1. Russia to be a federation of Soviet Republics.
2. Endorsement of the socialist revolution, nationalisation of land and workers’ control of production.
3. Formation of a Supreme Economic Council to ensure the power of the workers over the exploiters as a first step towards the complete expropriation of the means of production and transportation.
4. Nationalisation of the banks.
5. Universal obligation to work.
6. Formation of a Red Socialist army and complete disarming of exploiters: a democratic peace without indemnities or annexations.
7. Annulment of the debts to landowners, bourgeois and the tsar as first blow at international finance capital.
8. No exploiter of labour to hold official position.
9. The Constituent Assembly to devote itself to the general elaboration of the fundamental principles for the transformation to a socialist society.
The majority rejected the document and Socialist Revolutionary Victor Chernov was elected to the presidency. Proposals were then put forward by the Social Revolutionaries and Mensheviks; these declared for a general peace and opposed a separate peace for Russia.
A leading Menshevik delegate spoke as follows:
He is not a socialist who encourages the proletariat to strike for its ultimate goal before it has passed through the democratic stage which enables it to become strong. You have taken over production — have you succeeded in organising it? The land, which is supposed to belong to the peasants, will actually be taken by the rich peasants who have the equipment. Your peace negotiations risk the future of Russian democracy and socialism on the chance of the European revolution. What I say may be unpopular, I do not fear that. We shall guard the torch of the working class for the future. For a democratic republic; universal suffrage; expropriation of landowners; rehabilitation, control and regulation of industry by the state; eight hour day and social insurance.
The Bolsheviks and Left Social Revolutionaries withdrew from the assembly after the following declaration from Lenin:
Not wishing to hide the crimes committed by the enemies of the people for one moment, we declare that we are withdrawing from the Constituent Assembly, trusting in the Soviet to decide what attitude we must adopt toward the counter-revolutionary majority.
The following night the soviet executive issued a decree dissolving the Constituent Assembly. The decree read as follows:
The toiling masses have become convinced by their experience that bourgeois parliamentary democracy is outworn; that it is incompatible with the construction of socialism. For national instruments cannot take the place of class instruments in breaking the resistance of the owning classes and laying the foundations for socialism.
And. Lenin added:
While parliaments never give the slightest support to the revolutionary movement, the Soviets breathe fire into the revolution and cry to the masses: fight for yourselves, organise for yourselves.
Despite extreme hardship and difficulties, the overwhelming support for the soviet government from the armed workers and the Red Guard enabled the soviet to disperse the Constituent Assembly without resistance.
The world war came to an end in November 1918, thus relieving the pressure of the German armies. However, the revolution was confronted with further dangers from an invasion on several fronts organised by international capitalism.
In their efforts to destroy the soviet, no money was spared. Opportunist generals were provided with funds so long as they were prepared to take an army into Russia to destroy the soviet. International recruiting offices were opened for this purpose. At the same time, an economic blockade was enforced by world capitalism on Russia.
The struggle against the invading armies lasted for two years; sometimes on more than one front, but by the end of 1920 the last of the invading armies had been driven over the frontiers. The Soviet power was finally established and the allied blockade lifted in 1920.
Trotsky had created, organised and led the Red Army from the rawest material into a force that defeated invaders from all over the capitalist world.
A dangerous threat to the revolution was contained in the German advance into Russia after the 1917 seizure of power. Peace negotiations had reached a deadlock by January 1918, the Germans becoming furious at Bolshevik propaganda.
On the eve of the All Russian Congress of Soviets, the Bolshevik section leaders met to attempt to clarify the position on peace terms and the German advance. Three points of view were voted on:
(1) Immediate signing of peace terms, supported by Lenin.
(2) Breaking off negotiations, making it evident that German violence was responsible, supported by Trotsky.
(3) Revolutionary war against the German government.
The voting was 15 in favour of one; 16 for two and 32 for three.
The Bolshevik Party central committee met the next day. Lenin outlined the impossibility of fighting against the peace terms, however infamous, adding that refusal to sign would mean that the revolutionary government would be swept away and another government set up that would sign. Trotsky advocated prolonging negotiations and issuing international propaganda for a German revolution, which would be more important than that of Russia. Trotsky’s view won a majority, and on January 14 his slogan “neither war nor peace” was adopted at a meeting of the Bolshevik central committee with the Left Social Revolutionaries.
During February the German armies continued to advance into Russia. Trotsky’s opinion was that the weakened German armies would be finally stopped and great strikes in Berlin that showed signs of spreading, confirmed his position to sit tight and depend on a German attack precipitating a revolution. That remained the majority position despite opposition from Lenin. By February 14 the German armies had marched through Poland and Ukraine, encountering little resistance. The socialist Fatherland was declared to be in a state of danger and the following decree was issued:
a) Defend every position as long as possible, destroy the railways before the advance. b) Destroy food and munition stocks rather than abandon them. c) Mobile city masses to dig trenches under supervision of military experts. All able-bodied adults, male and female, of the bourgeois class must join this work: all those who resist will be shot. d) All papers hostile to revolutionary defence to be suspended, editors and staff of these papers to join in the work of the defence. e) To shoot on sight all agents of the enemy; speculators, thieves, and counter-revolutionary agitators.
While the workers were enthusiastic to defend the revolution, the peasants refused support. A new German offensive brought them close to the capital. Lenin again proposed to the central committee the immediate signing of peace, and again he was defeated, this time by one vote. So critical was the situation that the central committee met twice daily and speakers were limited to five minutes, writes Victor Serge. Finally, when it was seen that the peasants refused co-operation, Trotsky went over to Lenin, resulting in Lenin winning the majority vote. Both Lenin and Trotsky were given the task of drawing up the cablegram to the Germans. More difficult terms were insisted on and Russia was ordered to sign away the Baltic territories, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Ukraine and Finland. Lenin threatened to resign if these terms were not accepted. He won a majority and at the All Russian Soviet Congress in February 1918. Trotsky and Kamenev reported on the peace terms, which the congress endorsed, and which were finally signed at Brest Litovsk in March 1918.
Lenin reminded the soviet congress that the soviet had lasted five days longer than the Paris Commune. Among his notable speeches at this congress, two stand out. Emphasising the bloc between the Bolsheviks and the Left Social Revolutionaries as illustrating the alliance between the workers and peasants Lenin said:
Never in history has any question relating to the class struggle been solved other than by violence. We are partisans of violence as long as it emanates from the exploited toiling masses and is directed against the exploiters.
Again, in presenting an historic conception of the Russian Revolution concerning the world movement:
Marx and Engels used to say, “France will begin and Germany will finish the revolution.” They said France would begin the revolution because during decades of struggle she had acquired the devotion and initiative that put her in the vanguard of the socialist movement. We say that the revolution begins more easily in a country where there is no large class of exploiters who are able to corrupt the upper sections of the working class with the loot of the colonial exploitation. Russia has begun: Germany, France and England will finish the revolution; socialism will triumph.
After Brest Litovsk, Russia lost 40 per cent of its proletariat with the occupation of the Donetz oil basin by German forces; 90 per cent of the fuel industry; 90 per cent of the sugar industry; 65 per cent of the metal industry and 50 per cent of wheat-growing areas. The Left Communists declared the Brest Peace to be “the slow death of the revolution”.
The Left Communists and Left Social Revolutionaries, drew closer to each other in criticism of the Brest treaty; they considered it a greater evil than the war. Lenin and the majority of the party awaited the collapse of Germany and world revolution. Unity was achieved when the opposition was granted representation on the central committee at the Seventh Bolshevik (now Communist) Party congress.
Pointing to the difficulties confronting the countries of Europe in overthrowing the bourgeoisie, Lenin at the Seventh Congress said:
One of the essential differences between a bourgeois revolution and a socialist is that the former, born out of the feudal order, builds up its new economic organs little by little in the heart of the old regime, if only by the development of commerce, which gradually modifies the whole appearance of feudal society. It is quite otherwise with the socialist revolution. Here we have more than the task of destruction, we have the infinitely more difficult task of organisation.
It is quite true without the German revolution we shall perish. Perhaps we shall not perish in Moscow but at Vladivostock. In any case we shall perish without the German revolution.
On the nature of the soviet state, he said:
It is a new type of state, without a bureaucracy, without a police, without a standing army; a state which substitutes for bourgeois democracy a new type of democracy, forces the toiling masses into the vanguard, gives the legislative, executive and military power to the workers, thus creating an apparatus which is destined to re-educate these same masses. We are only beginning our work on Russia, and for the moment we are beginning it badly.
For the rest of his life Lenin devoted his attention to the consolidation of the soviet state. He was seriously wounded in an attempt on his life in August 1918 but recovered to see the civil war brought to a successful conclusion and the repulsion of invading armies.
He also saw the beginning of economic rehabilitation through the New Economic Policy, on which he insisted. Begun in 1921, it used largely peasant private enterprise to revive the shattered national economy. In 1919 Lenin and the Bolsheviks witnessed the establishment of the Third International, an international of revolutionary Marxist parties, which degenerated under Stalin into an international agency serving the Russian bureaucracy’s policy needs. Nevertheless the international held four congresses during Lenin’s lifetime despite the difficulties of civil war and reconstruction.
His last couple of years were preoccupied with the growing bureaucratisation in the Soviet Union. He wrote:
With the exception of the Peoples Commissariat of Foreign Affairs [under Trotsky] our state apparatus is to a considerable extent a survival of the past and has undergone hardly any serious change.
The strike struggle in a state where the proletariat holds political power can be explained and justified only by bureaucratic distortions of the proletarian state and by all sorts of survivals of the old capitalist system in the government offices on the one hand and by the political immaturity and cultural backwardness of the mass of the working people on the other." (Role and functions of the trade unions under the New Economic Policy, January 12, 1922)
A growing alliance developed between Lenin and Trotsky against this bureaucratisation, as personified by men like Stalin. Lenin in his so-called testament called for the removal of Stalin from the post of party secretary. This testament was suppressed after Lenin’s death. We should not see this testament or the struggles between Stalin and Trotsky after Lenin’s death in personal terms, but as a struggle between social forces.
At the end of 1922 Lenin suffered a stroke. He continued to work between and during attacks of paralysis during 1923 and died on January 21, 1924.
1. Victor Serge was wrong in attributing these words to John Reed. They were written by another witness, Nikolai N. Sukhanov, a member of the Petrograd Soviet who later became critic of the Bolsheviks and published his account of the events in 1922 in a book called The Russian Revolution, 1917: a personal record.