Stalin did not fall PDF edition Feb 2001 from the moon! http://surf.to/anarchism Articles from Workers Solidarity The importance of

Originally given as talk to WSM public meeting (1991)

larly in Kronstadt. They were however such thing. Russia much fewer in number than the Bolshe- vik party which came to claim the revolu- The was made by no single The Russian revolution of 1917 has been a tion as its legacy alone. During the 1905 organisation, but rather was the work of subject of key importance to anarchists revolution the anarchists had raised the the working class of Russia. During the for 70 years now, for two reasons. The October revolution 4 anarchists were first reason is that for the first time in members of the Revolutionary military history a working class revolution suc- committee that co-ordinated the military ceeded in ousting the old ruling classes. side of the revolution.. An Anarchist sailor The second reason is that after the old from Kronstadt led the delegation which ruling class was ousted a new class came dissolved the constituent assembly. to power. Those of us who want to make a revolution to-day must understand where the successes and failures of the Explaining failure past came from. After October the working class of the The Russian revolution demonstrated that Russia set about the process of building it was possible for the working class to the new society on the ruins of the old. take over the running of the economy and Within a few short years however the to bring down their old rulers, not once revolution had collapsed. The old bosses but twice in a single year. After the Febru- never came back as a class although many ary revolution of 1917 the workers en- individuals returned. Instead a new class tered into a period of almost constant of rulers arose, one which successfully struggle with the state and the bosses. At incorporated many of the revolutionaries the start of this period many workers of 1917. Too socialists to-day there is no supported the Kerensky government. more pressing task than understanding This struggle changed their attitudes on a not only why the revolution failed but mass basis and gave them the confidence also why it failed in such a manner. The to try to overturn all the old order and fact the patient died is now obvious, the privilege. Committees sprung up in the question is what it died of. factories and the armed forces. In the run up to October the workers had already Many Socialists have tried to explain this taken control of the factories, for the most degeneration of the revolution as a prod- slogan “All power to the soviets”, at the part. The purpose of the October revolu- uct of a unique set of circumstances, com- time this was opposed by what became tion was to smash the state, destroying prising the backwards state of the USSR the Bolshevik party but in 1917 they used the power of the bosses to use armed force and the heavy toll inflicted by three years this slogan to gain mass support. Other to recover their property. of civil war and western intervention. Marxists at the time were, incorrectly to According to this theory the accuse the Bolsheviks as having aban- There were several organisations arguing were forced to take dictatorial measures doned for but as for a workers revolution in this period. in order to preserve the revolution. These events were to show they had done no This included many anarchists particu- were intended as emergency measures A Workers Solidarity Movement

Page 1 only and would have been repealed later time when the workers had showed them- sion of workers control but as we have if not for Stalin’s rise to power in the 20’s. selves capable of making a revolution but seen this was a process that was already This interpretation of history presents the according to the Bolsheviks incapable of under way. It did however mean that Bolsheviks as helpless victims of circum- running the economy. The basis of the most of the non-Bolshevik revolutionar- stances. Bolshevik attack on the factory commit- ies temporarily sunk their differences with tees was simple, the Bolsheviks wanted the Bolsheviks in order to defeat the This is not a view we would accept as the factories to be owned and managed whites. most of you are no doubt aware. It is a by the state, the factory committees view that falls beneath even a casual look wanted the factories to be owned and The Civil War at what occurred in the USSR between managed by the workers. One Bolshevik 1917 and 1921. It also collapses when you described the factory committees attitude The civil war greatly weakened the abil- look at what Leninist ideology had stood as “ We found a process which recalled ity of the working class to resist the fur- for before and after the revolution. We the anarchist dreams of autonomous pro- ther undermining of the gains they had instead lay the blame at the feet of Lenin ductive communes”. made in 1917. During the civil war em- and the Bolshevik party. The degenera- phasis was placed on the need for unity to tion was part and parcel of the policies of There were many anarchists involved in defeat the whites. After the civil war a the Bolsheviks. the factory committee movement at the much weakened working class found it- time, mainly through the K.A.S., the Con- self faced with a complete state structure Workers Control: More than a federation of Anarcho-Syndicalists. In armed with all the repression apparatus slogan? some areas they were the dominant influ- of the modern state. Many of the activists ence in the factories. From this stage on had been jailed or executed by the Bolshe- What actually happened in this period the influence of the KAS was to grow viks. In 1921 at the end of the civil war was the replacement of all the organs of rapidly in the Unions to the point where only a fresh revolution could have set the workers democracy and self-management the Bolsheviks started to physically sup- USSR back on the path towards . with Bolshevik imposed state rule. One press its activists in 1918. At the first all example of many is given by the factory Russian council of trade unions the The repression of workers democracy by committees. These were groups of work- anarcho-syndicalists had delegates rep- the Bolsheviks was as a result of Bolshe- ers elected at most factories before, dur- resenting 75, 000 workers. Their resolu- vik ideology rather then due to character ing and after the October revolution. The tion calling for real workers control and flaws in the Bolshevik leadership. Lenin delegates to these committees were mandatable and recallable. They were elected initially in order to prevent the individual bosses from sabotaging equip- Trotsky even more than ment. They quickly attempted to ex- panded their scope to cover the complete administration of the workplace and dis- Stalin or Lenin was the placed the individual managers. As each workplace relied on many others to sup- ply raw materials, power and to take their most prominent supporter products on to the next stage of produc- tion the Factory Committees tried to fed- of what was called the erate in November 1917.

They were prevented from doing so by parties historical the Bolsheviks through the trade union bureaucracy. The planned "All Russian Congress of Factory Committees" never birthright. took place. Instead the Bolshevik party decided to set up the “All Russian council of workers control” only 25% of the del- egates coming from the factory commit- not state workers control was defeated by had a very limited view of what socialism tees. In this way the creative energy of an alliance of the Bolshevik, Menshevik was, seeing it as little more then an exten- Russian workers which would have re- and Social-Revolutionary delegates. By sion of state capitalism. sulted in a co-ordinating centre not under the end of 1918 Workers Control was “State capitalism is a complete material Bolshevik control was blocked in favour replaced with individual management of of an organisation the party could con- the factories (by Bolshevik decree) and preparation for socialism, the threshold of trol. This body was in itself still born, it the KAS had been weakened by armed socialism, a rung on the ladder of history only met once. In any case it was soon raids and the closing down of its between which and the rung called socialism absorbed by the Supreme Economic Coun- national publication in April and May there are no gaps”. cil set up in November 1917 which was 1918. attached to the Council of Peoples Com- The introduction of Taylorism and one missars, itself entirely made up of Bolshe- All this occurred before the civil war and man management in the factories in 1918 vik party members. the allied intervention attempted to smash and 1919 displays a similar fixation with the revolution. The civil war was to reap efficiency and productivity. So within a few short months of October an enormous harvest on the the Bolsheviks had taken control of the as the combined forces of White generals Lenin also believed that ordinary work- economy out of the hands of the Working and 17 foreign armies captured up to 60% ers could not run society. A party of intel- class and into the hands of the Bolshevik of the land area and threatened to capture lectuals was necessary to do this. He party. This was before the civil war, at a Petrograd. It also provided the excuse the thought that workers were unable to go Bolsheviks were to use for the suppres- beyond having a “trade union conscious-

Page 2 ness” because of the fact they had no time prising all the advanced revolutionaries instance were spontaneous events, to study socialism. (vanguard). They saw socialism as some- unguided by any organisation. Revolu- thing best implemented by a professional tionary organisations are created by sec- “There are many...who are not enlightened leadership of intellectuals. So when they tions of the working class although it is socialists and cannot be such because they talked of dictatorship of the proletariat certainly true that as the ruling class domi- have to slave in the factories and they have they did not mean the working class as a nate education it may well be ex-mem- neither the time nor the opportunity to be- whole exercising control of society. They bers of this class that write down and come socialists”. meant the party holding power on behalf formalise these ideas. of the working class and in practise the Briefly in 1917 Lenin was forced to ac- leadership of the party being the ones The Leninists also see their party as repre- knowledge this to be wrong when he making all the important policy decisions. senting the working class. This was the admitted that the workers were 100 times justification of the suppression of all ri- ahead of the party from February to Octo- The Parties birth-right vals in 1918 for the Bolsheviks and for the ber. closing down of factions in the party from They believed the party, because of its 1918 to 1921. Trotsky even more then This was the justification behind the dic- unique position was always right and Stalin or Lenin was the most prominent tatorship of the party. In a modern sense therefore it had the right to rule over all supporter of what was called the parties it is the justification behind putting the the class. Therefore while the Soviets had historical birthright. In the early 20’s he party before all else. Some Leninists to- been useful to the Bolsheviks up to the was to repeatedly use this idea of the day will happily argue that a socialist October revolution after the revolution parties birthright against minority groups should have no principles beyond build- they became a threat. They could and did and individuals in the Bolshevik party. ing the party and that even scabbing is decide policy which would contradict the The most astounding part of this however excusable if it is in the parties interests. party line. Most of them were not under was the willingness of the same groups Leninist organisations tend to look at sufficiently under the control of the party and individuals to accept this silencing in struggles purely in terms of recruitment, as they contained many other revolution- the name of the party. By the 30’s this remaining involved just long enough to aries also. So the Bolsheviks proceeded to whole process was to reach its logical pick up any activists then heading on for turn them into organs which rubber conclusion with Stalins show trials of the next one. For the Leninists the chance stamped party decisions. many of the old Bolshevik leadership. of a revolution being successful is mainly determined by the size of their party at By 1918 this process had been completed The right of the party to dictate over the the time. to the extent that the decisions to sign the class was clearly expressed in 1921 by treaty of Brest-Livtosk which surrendered Trotsky at the 10th party congress. In What is socialism a huge area of the revolutionary attacking a faction within the Bolshevik to Germany and the Austro-Hungarian party he said of them Anarchists have a different view of what empire was made at a party Central Com- socialism is and how people become so- mittee meeting. Indeed the central com- “They have come out with dangerous slo- cialists. We do not think it is something mittee was split, the decision going gans. They have made a fetish of democratic that comes from reading books or engag- through only by one vote, yet the Soviets principles. They have placed the workers ing in debates. The basic ideas of social- had no role at all in this decision making. right to elect representatives above the party. ism are produced whenever workers come This was again before the Civil war and As if the party were not entitled to assert its into conflict with the bosses. It is at this the famine was to provide an excuse for dictatorship even if that dictatorship tem- time that large numbers of people ac- such manoeuvres. porarily clashed with the passing moods of tively ask who runs the factories, what is the workers’ democracy!” the role of the state, etc. The purpose of a The success and failure throws up all the anarchist organisation is not simply to questions that still separate anarchism Here we have one of the clearest state- grow by grabbing activists out of cam- from all other socialist theories. Where do ments of the ideology behind Bolshevik paigns. Its function is to get involved with revolutionary ideas come from. Lenin practise in these years. This is the road such struggles using its reservoir of expe- was quite clear on this in 'What is to be many of to-days revolutionaries would rience and theory to win them. It’s func- Done like to lead us on to. tion is to link up many individual strug- “History in all countries attests that, on it’s gles into a widespread anti-capitalist We have an entirely different project of movement. Its function is to agitate for own, the working class cannot go beyond how capitalism is to be overthrown and the smashing of the state and it’s replace- the level of trade union consciousness, the what is to replace it. We don’t think ment with a society based on realisation that they must combine into trade Workers democracy is icing on the cake or and workers self-management. unions, fight against the employers, force a step towards a workers state. We have the governments to pass such laws as benefit no illusions in the neutrality of the state, We do not see the number of people in our the conditions of the workers...As for the no matter in whose hands power may lie. organisation as being the most important socialist doctrine, it was constructed out of We wish to take part in the building of a factor behind the success or failure of a the philosophical, historical and economic workers movement not only capable of revolution. Rather we look at the level of tearing down existing society but also of theories elaborated by educated members of confidence in the class, and the level of building a new society free of exploitation understanding about what needs to be the ruling class by intellectuals”. on its ruins. built as well as what must be destroyed. Although we want our ideas to be taken up and used on a mass basis we have no Creative energy wish to get become leaders in order for this to happen. Anarchists on the other hand point to the creative energy of the working class, the The Bolsheviks saw their party as com- creation of Soviets in 1905 and of the Hungarian Workers Councils in 1956 for

Page 3 ANARCHISTS

An alternative explanation of events in Russia is provided by the anarchists, who see the prime cause of the revolu- tion’s failure in the ideas of the Bolshe- A fresh look viks. The anarchist argument has the great advantage that it was not con- structed to explain events after they took place but was formulated before and during the revolution.

Anarchists had always gone in for dire predictions of what would happen if at Lenin.. revolutionaries attempted to take over the state instead of smashing it at the Originally published in Workers Solidarity No. 31 (1991) first opportunity. They understood two things: firstly, either the working class THE COLLAPSE of the regimes in had all the power and privileges. has direct and absolute control or some Eastern has thrown up all TROTSKY other class does; secondly, the state only sorts of questions about socialism. serves the needs of a minority class So let’s go back to the beginning. Two explanations seem the most wor- which seeks to rule over the majority. The Russian revolution of 1917 was, thy of consideration. The first, put for- No party could claim the right to make initially, a shot in the arm for so- ward by Trotsky and his subsequent decisions for the working class, this cialists everywhere. It was possi- followers, comes down to this: no amount would be the start of their progress ble, it existed and now it only re- of dedication on behalf of the commu- towards becoming a new ruling class. mained to imitate it everywhere nists could offset the dreadful weight of else. the material difficulties. TOLD YOU SO!!!

But as time passed it became obvious In such a backward country, beset by Forty five years before 1917, Michael that something had gone terribly wrong. civil war on all sides, with much of its Bakunin, the leading anarchist in the Instead of being the inspiring picture of working class destroyed in battle, de- International Working Mens’ Associa- our future, Russia had turned into a generation was avoidable. Perhaps if tion, warned of just such a prospect. He squalid class-ridden dictatorship. Lenin had lived, or if Trotsky had re- saw that the authoritarians would in- placed him as the no.1 leader, things terpret the ‘dictatorship of the prole- As purge followed purge and the new might have been different - but it was tariat’ to mean their own dictatorship rulers allocated themselves the best of not to be. which everything, the socialist movement in the West floundered as it sought expla- LENIN ...AND FATE “would be the rule of scientific intellect, the nations for what had gone wrong. most autocratic, the most despotic, the most “Lenin certainly did not call for a dictator- arrogant and the most contemptuous of all FLAT EARTH SOCIETY ship of the party over the proletariat, even regimes. They will be a new class, a new less for that of a bureaucratised party over a hierarchy of sham savants, and the world There were those who found the idea of decimated proletariat. But fate - the desper- will be divided into a dominant minority in an existing socialist society so attrac- ate condition of a backward country be- tive that they refused to believe all the the name of science, and an immense igno- sieged by world capitalism - led to precisely evidence to the contrary. These were rant majority” this”. the people who wrote glowing articles , , about the mechanisation of agriculture Tony Cliff, Lenin, Vol.3, page 111. page 93. while old Bolsheviks were being tor- tured in the cellars of Stalin’s secret While a small minority of anarchists police. “The proletariat of a backward country was thought it would be possible to co-oper- fated to accomplish the first socialist revolu- ate with the Bolsheviks, the majority With the upheavals in Eastern Europe tion. For this historic privilege it must, were positive that, though the Bolshe- most of these Stalinists with rose-tinted viks did not set out to create a new class spectacles have had to start facing real- according to all the evidences, pay with a second supplementary revolution against bu- system, this was precisely what they ity, albeit begrudgingly. Those who still were achieving. The anarchist Sergven reaucratic absolutism” refuse to do so are no different in atti- recorded in 1918 that tude or degree of stupidity from the Flat Trotsky, The Age of Permanent Revolu- Earth Society or the fanatics of the Ber- tion: A Trotsky Anthology, page 278. “The proletariat is being gradually enserfed muda Triangle. by the state. The people are being trans- Thus according to the Trotskyists, it formed into servants over whom there has Among those socialists who accept that was hard material factors such as back- something went badly wrong (and not arisen a new class of administrators - a new wardness and the isolation of the young just in the last year or two!), the debate class born mainly from the womb of the so- Bolshevik state which resulted in the continues. Why should a revolution led called intelligentsia. Isn’t this merely a new tragic degeneration of the revolution. by dedicated followers of Lenin have class system looming on the revolutionary And don’t forget “fate” - a most unusual produced an oppressive regime where term for ‘scientific socialists’ to use. horizon”. workers had no rights and bureaucrats

Page 4 Paul Avrich, The Anarchists in the “...those who believe that socialism will be socialist, after Marx, by the vast major- Russian Revolution, page 123 built at a time of peace and tranquillity are ity of those who see themselves as revo- profoundly mistaken: it will everywhere be lutionary socialists. CENTRALISED POWER built at a time of disruption, at a time of It can be a dangerous practice to pick And he could point a finger at the cause famine. quotations for use in an article such as of this enserfment. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol.27 page this. Who is to say that they are not 517. taken out of context. To allow the reader “We do not mean to say ...that the Bolshevik to make up his/her own mind all sources party set out to create a new class system This makes sense. Revolution, by its are provided so that the complete piece But we do say that even the best intentions very nature, involves some disruption can be read if desired. It is felt neces- and aspirations must inevitably be smashed and civil war (though not necessarily sary to use Lenin’s own words lest there against the evils inherent in any system of famine). If a party organised on Bolshe- be an accusation that words are being centralised power” vik lines cannot survive a period of dis- put in his mouth. ruption without degenerating into a Ibid page 124. bureaucratic monolith then clearly such LENIN’S SOCIALISM a form of organisation must be avoided In other words, unless centralised state at all costs. The starting point must be Lenin’s con- power is immediately destroyed, the ception of ‘socialism’: revolution is doomed to create a new Some anarchists tend to oversimplify ruling class. Either the masses have the problem and see the Bolsheviks as “When a big enterprise assumes gigantic real power or the state does. For the setting out from day one to become an proportions, and, on the basis of an exact anarchists it was a case of either a elite of privileged rulers. This is simi- computation of mass data, organises accord- federation of workers’ councils where larly unsatisfying. Are we really to ing to plan the supply of raw materials to the the power came from below or the au- believe that the whole Bolshevik party extent of two-thirds, or three fourths, of all thority of the party/state giving orders were only interested in making a revo- that is necessary for tens of millions of to the masses. The two could not co- lution for the sole purpose of getting people; when raw materials are transported exist. their grubby hands on state power so in a systematic and organised manner to the that they could make themselves into a most suitable places of production, some- “SCIENTIFIC” SOCIALISTS new ruling class? times situated hundreds of thousands of Thus the two most plausible explana- The briefest look at what they suffered miles from each other; when a single centre tions for the failure of the revolution are in the Tsarist prisons, in Siberia, in directs all the consecutive stages of process- opposed to each other. On the one hand exile and later in Stalin’s purges sug- ing the materials right up to the manufac- we have the Trotskyists who, being ‘sci- gests that such a notion is highly sus- ture of numerous varieties of finished arti- entific socialists’ see the cause of the pect! We must accept that most of them cles; when the products are distributed ac- failure in ‘material circumstances’ such were courageous men and women with cording to a single plan among tens of mil- as Russian backwardness, civil war and high ideals. the failure of the revolution to spread lions of customers. across Europe. The Bolsheviks, had, it WHAT POLITICS? appears, understood Marxism and ap- “....then it becomes evident that we have plied it correctly and yet were faced Nevertheless there is a great strength socialisation of production, and not mere with events beyond their control that to the anarchist case. It points to errors ‘interlocking’; that private economic and conspired to defeat them. Consequently in the theory and practice of Bolshevism private property relations constitute a shell the theory and party structure put for- itself. It says that no matter how honest which no longer fits its contents, a shell ward by Lenin, remain, according to their intentions, their politics still lead this school of thought, adequate today. them to be objectively opposed to the which must inevitably decay if its removal is interests of the working class. It turns artificially delayed, a shell which may re- The Anarchists would agree that a revo- our attention to the theories of those main in a state of decay for a fairly long lution can’t survive for too long if iso- who led Russia from workers’ control to period ...but which will inevitably be re- lated in the middle of a sea of capital- Stalinism. moved” ism. They don’t, however, believe that this explains everything that happened. It is too often taken for granted among Lenin, Collected Works, Vol.22, page What you end up with will be related to socialists that we know what the Bol- 303. what you seek and how you fight for it. sheviks stood for. Before we can under- They argue that it was precisely the stand why things went wrong in Russia SOCIALISM? theory and party structures of Bolshe- we need to know what exactly the Bol- vism that led to the bureaucratisation sheviks proposed to do on coming to This is an important passage of Lenin’s. and death of the genuine liberatory revo- power, what kind of structure they put What he is describing here is the eco- lution. forward, what form they thought the nomic set-up which he thought typical revolution would take, and what kind of of both advanced monopoly capitalism BEING REALISTIC society did they set out to create. and socialism. Socialism was, for Lenin, planned capitalism with the private Neither argument is entirely satisfying. FROM LENIN’S MOUTH ownership removed. It is undoubtably true that the Bolshe- viks had to face very difficult conditions It is particularly interesting to look at when they assumed power. But accord- the ideas of V.I.Lenin - he was the un- “Capitalism has created an accounting ap- ing to their own mentor this will always questioned leader of the Bolsheviks and paratus in the shape of the banks, syndi- be the case. is still regarded as the greatest ever cates, postal service, consumers’ societies,

Page 5 and office employees unions. Without the big banks socialism would be impossible. BUILDING CAPITALISM NO TIME FOR SOCIALISM!

This too is important. History is com- Lenin could not accept that working The big banks are the “state apparatus” pared to a ladder that has to be climbed. class people were more than capable of which we need to bring about socialism, and Each step is a preparation for the next running their own lives. He continually which we take ready made from capitalism; one. After state capitalism there was sought justifications for the dictator- our task is merely to lop off what character- only one way forward - socialism. But it ship of his party. istically mutilates this excellent apparatus, was equally true that until capitalism had created the necessary framework, In June 1918 he informed the trade to make it even bigger, even more demo- socialism was impossible. Lenin and unions that cratic, even more comprehensive. Quantity the Bolshevik leadership saw their task will be transformed into quality. as the building of a state capitalist appa- “there are many...who are not enlightened ratus. socialists and cannot be such because they “A single state bank, the biggest of the big, have to slave in the factories and they have “...state capitalism would be a step forward with branches in every rural district, in neither the time nor the opportunity to be- as compared with the present state of affairs every factory, will constitute as much as come socialists” in our Soviet Republic. If in approximately nine-tenths of the socialist apparatus. This six months time state capitalism became Lenin, Ibid, Vol. 27 page 466. will be country-wide book-keeping, coun- established in our Republic, this would be a try-wide accounting of the production and great success and a sure guarantee that within The month previously he had written distribution of goods, this will be, so to a year socialism will have gained a perma- speak, something in the nature of the skel- “Now power has been siezed, retained and nently firm hold and will become invincible eton of socialist society. consolidated in the hands of a single party, in our country” the party of the proletariat...”. Lenin, Ibid, Vol.26 page 106. Lenin, Ibid, Vol. 27 page 294. Lenin, Ibid, Vol. 27 page 346. This passage contains some amazing “While the revolution in Germany is still statements. The banks have become One could be forgiven for thinking that nine-tenths of the socialist apparatus. slow in “coming forth”, our task is to study the party which had siezed power was All we need to do is unify them, make the state capitalism of the Germans, to spare not a party of the proletariat when it so this single bank bigger, and “Hey no effort in copying it and not shrink from clearly distrusted them, dissolved their Presto”, you now have your basic social- adopting dictatorial methods to hasten the workplace councils, suppressed the ris- ist apparatus. copying of it” ing of the Kronstadt workers in 1921, when it gradually strangled criticism Quantity is to be transformed into qual- Lenin, Ibid, Vol. 27 page 340. from within its own ranks, and when its ity. In other words, as the bank gets own leader flatly instructed the work- bigger and more powerful it changes WHAT DIFFERENCE? ers in October 1921: from an instrument of oppression into one of liberation. We are further told The sole difference between state capi- “Get down to business all of you! You will that the bank will be made “even more talism under the ‘dictatorship of the have capitalists beside you, including for- democratic”. Not “made democratic” as proletariat’ and the capitalism of other eign capitalists, concessionaries and lease- countries is that a different class would we might expect but made more so. This holders. They will squeeze profits out of you be in control of the state, according to means that the banks, as they exist amounting to hundreds per cent; they will under capitalism, are in some way demo- Lenin’s theory. But what, we are enti- enrich themselves, operating alongside of cratic. No doubt this is something that tled to ask, is the difference between the workers in Bank of Ireland and AIB two states if the working class does not you. Let them, Meanwhile you will learn have been unaware of. control the Soviet state, becomes in fact from them the business of running an controlled by it, and dictated to by it? economy, and only when you do that will For Lenin it was not only the banks you be able to build up a communist repub- which could be transformed into a means Anarchists have always held that the lic.” for salvation. state, in the real sense of the word, is the means by which a minority justifies and Lenin, Ibid, Vol. 33 page 72. “Socialism is merely the next step forward enforces its control over the majority. from state capitalist monopoly. Or, in other Lenin knew too much about socialism to words, socialism is merely state capitalist Lenin underlined this point when in simply drop all talk of workers eventu- March 1918 he told the Bolshevik Party ally running the economy. As he once monopoly which is made to serve the inter- that they must said, in a lucid moment: ests of the whole people and has to that extent ceased to be capitalist monopoly” “...stand at the head of the exhausted people “The liberation of the workers can be achieved Lenin, Ibid, Vol. 25 page 358. who are wearily seeking a way out and lead only by the workers’ own efforts”. them along the true path of labour discipline, along the task of co-ordinating the task of Lenin, Ibid, Vol. 27 page 491. “State capitalism is a complete material He was too little of one to actually allow preparation for socialism, the threshold of arguing at mass meetings about the condi- them to do so. socialism, a rung on the ladder of history tions of work with the task of unquestion- between which and the rung called socialism ingly obeying the will of the Soviet leader, of Joe King there are no immediate rungs”. the dictator during the work.

Lenin, Ibid, Vol. 24 page 259. Lenin, Ibid, Vol. 27 page 270.

Page 6 FOR THE LENINIST far left the collapse of the USSR has thrown up more questions then it answered. If the Soviet Union really was a ‘work- ers state’ why were the workers Stalin did not unwilling to defend it? Why did they in fact welcome the changes?

What happened to Trotskys “political revolution or bloody counter revolution”? Those Leninist organisations which no fall from the longer see the Soviet Union as a work- ers state do not escape the contradic- tions either. If Stalin was the source of the problem why do so many Russian workers blame Lenin and the other Bol- shevik leaders too.

The mythology of “Lenin, creator and moon! sustainer of the Russian revolution” is Originally published in Workers Solidarity No. 33 (1991) now dying. With it will go all the Leninist groups for as the Soviet archives are cially as the Bolsheviks had used the publications were closed down4. Both increasingly opened it will become in- slogan “peace, bread, land” to win mass of these events occurred before the ex- creasingly difficult to defend Lenin’s support). Yet, the presence of the cuse of the outbreak of the Civil War legacy. The Left in the west has dodged Makhnovist movement in the Ukraine, could be used as a ‘justification’. These and falsified the Lenin debate for 60 clearly demonstrated a vast revolution- raids occurred because the Bolsheviks years now. Now however there is a ary potential among the Ukrainian peas- were beginning to lose the arguments proliferation of articles and meetings by ants and workers. No attempt was about the running of Russian industry. the various Trotskyist groups trying to made to supply or sustain those forces convince workers that Lenin did not which did seek to fight a revolutionary In 1918 also a faction of the Bolshevik lead to Stalin. Unfortunately much of war against the Austro-Hungarians. party critical of the party’s introduction this debate is still based on the slander They were sacrificed in order to gain a of ‘Talyorism’ (the use of piece work and and falsifications of history that has respite to build “socialism” in Russia. time & motion studies to measure the been symptomatic of Bolshevism since output of each worker, essentially the 1918. The key questions of what com- The second point worth considering science of sweat extraction) around the prises Stalinism and when did “Stalin- about Lenin’s internationalism is his journal Kommunist were forced out of ism” first come into practice are dodged insistence from 1918 onwards, that the Leningrad when the majority of the in favour of rhetoric and historical false- task was to build “state capitalism, as Leningrad party conference supported hood. Lenin’s demand “If we introduced state capitalism in ap- Stalinism is defined by many features proximately 6 months’ time we would achieve “that the adherents of Kommunist cease and indeed some of these are more diffi- a great success..”.1 He was also to say “So- their separate organisational existence”. 5 cult then others to lay at the feet of cialism is nothing but state capitalist mo- The paper was last published in May, Lenin. The guiding points of Stalin’s nopoly made to benefit the whole people”. 2 foreign policy for instance was the idea silenced of peaceful co-existence with the West This calls into question Lenin’s concept while building socialism in the USSR of socialism. ”Not by discussion, persuasion or compro- (“socialism in one country”). Lenin is mise, but by a high pressure campaign in the often presented as the opposite extreme, ONE PARTY STATE Party organisations, backed by a barrage of being willing to risk all in the cause of violent invective in the party press...”. 6 international revolution. This story like Another key feature many would asso- many others however is not all it seems. ciate with Stalinism was the creation of So much for encouraging debate!! Other points that many would consider a one party state, and the silencing of all characteristic of Stalinism include, the opposition currents within the party. A further example of the Bolsheviks creation of a one party state, no control Many Trotskyists will still try to tell you ‘encouraging debate’ was seen in their by the working class of the economy, the that the Bolsheviks encouraged work- treatment of the Makhnovist in the dictatorial rule of individuals over the ers to take up and debate the points of Ukranine. This partisan army which mass of society, the brutal crushing of the day, both inside and outside the fought against both the Ukrainian na- all workers’ action and the use of slan- party. The reality is very different for tionalists and the White generals at one der and historical distortion against the Bolsheviks rapidly clamped down time liberated over 7 million people. It other left groups. on the revolutionary forces outside the was led by the anarchist Nestor Mhakno party, and then on those inside that and anarchism played the major part in SOCIALISM IN ONE COUNTRY failed to toe the line . the ideology of the movement. The lib- erated zone was ran by a democratic The treaty of Brest-Livtosk of 1918, In April 1918 the Bolshevik secret po- soviet of workers and peasants and many which pulled Russia out of World War I, lice (The Cheka) raided 26 Anarchist collectives were set up. also surrendered a very large amount of centres in . 40 Anarchists were the Ukraine to the Austro-Hungarians. killed or injured and over 500 impris- ECHOS OF SPAIN Obviously, there was no potential of oned 3. In May the leading Anarchist continuing a conventional war (espe- The Makhnovists entered into treaties

Page 7 with the Bolsheviks three times in order shevik ‘guidance’, by the trade unions. ONE MAN MANAGEMENT to maintain a stronger united front against the Whites and nationalists. By early 1918 the basis of the limited At the trade union congress that April, Despite this they were betrayed by the workers control offered by the Bolshe- Lenin was to boast how in 1918 he had Bolsheviks three times, and the third viks (in reality little more then account- time they were destroyed after the Bol- ing) became clear when all decisions “pointed out the necessity of recognising the sheviks arrested and executed all the had to be approved by a higher body of dictatorial authority of single individuals delegates sent to a joint military coun- which no more than 50% could be work- for the purpose of carrying out the soviet cil. This was under the instructions of ers. Daniel Guerin describes the Bol- idea”. 14 Trotsky! Daniel Guerin’s description of shevik control of the elections in the Trotskys dealings with the Makhnovists factories Trotsky declared that is instructive “elections to factory committees continued “labour..obligatory for the whole country, “He refused to give arms to Makhno’s par- to take place , but a member of the Commu- compulsory for every worker is the basis of tisans, failing in his duty of assisting them, nist cell read out a list of candidates drawn socialism”15 and subsequently accused them of betrayal up in advance and voting was by show of and that the militarisation of labour and of allowing themselves to be beaten by hands in the presence of armed ‘Communist’ 16 white troops. The same procedure was fol- was no emergency measure . In War guards. Anyone who declared his opposition Communism and Terrorism published lowed 18 years later by the Spanish Stalinists to the proposed candidates became subject to by Trotsky that year he said against the anarchist brigades” 7 wage cuts, etc.” 9 “The unions should discipline the workers The final lid was put on political life On March 26th 1918 workers control and teach them to place the interests of outside or inside the party in 1921. The was abolished on the railways in a de- 1921 party congress banned all factions cree full of ominous phrases stressing production above their own needs and de- in the communist party itself. Trotsky “iron labour discipline” and individual mands”. made a speech denouncing one such management. At least, say the It is impossible to distinguish between faction, the Workers Opposition as hav- Trotskyists, the railways ran on time. these policies and the labour policies of ing In April Lenin published an article in Stalin. Isvestiya which included the introduc- “placed the workers right to elect repre- tion of a card system for measuring each WORKERS REVOLTS sentatives above the party. As if the party workers productivity. He said were not entitled to assert its dictatorship Perhaps the most telling condemnation even if that dictatorship temporarily clashed “..we must organise in Russia the study and with the passing moods of the workers de- teaching of the Talyor system”. “Unques- mocracy”. 8 tioning submission to a single will is abso- lutely necessary for the success of the labour ON QUOTES AND MISQUOTES process...the revolution demands, in the in- Shortly afterwards the Kronstadt ris- terests of socialism, that the masses unques- The problem when writing an ing was used as an excuse to exile, tioningly obey the single will of the leaders article covering this period of imprison and execute the last of the 10 anarchists. Long before Lenins death of the labour process” history is where you select your the political legacy now blamed on Sta- quotations from. Both Lenin This came before the civil war broke and Trotsky changed their posi- lin had been completed. Dissent had out and makes nonsense of the claims been silenced inside and outside the that the Bolsheviks were trying to max- tions many times in this period. party. The one party state existed as of imise workers control until the civil war Many Leninists for example try 1921. Stalin may have been the first to prevented them from doing so. to show Lenin’s opposition to execute party members on a large scale Stalinism by quoting from State but with the execution of those revolu- With the outbreak of the Civil War things and Revolution (1917). This is tionaries outside the party and the si- became much worse. In late May it was little more then deception as lencing of dissidents within it from 1918 decreed that no more than 1/3 of the Lenin made no attempt to put the logic for these purges was clearly in management personnel of industrial place. 11 the program outlined in this enterprises should be elected. A few pamphlet into practise. In any “highlights” of the following years are THE WORKING CLASS UNDER worth pointing out. At the ninth party case it still contains his curious LENIN congress in April of 1920 Trotsky made conception of Workers control. his infamous comments on the Another key area is the position of the militarization of labour I have only used quotes from working class in the Stalinist society. the October revolution to 1921 No Trotskyist would disagree that un- “the working class...must be thrown here and in every case these quotes der Stalin workers had no say in the and there, appointed, commanded just like running of their workplaces and suf- are either statements of policy, soldiers. Deserters from labour ought to be fered atrocious conditions under threat or what should be policy at the of the state’s iron fist. Yet again these formed into punitive battalions or put into time. As socialists are aware 12 conditions came in under Lenin and not concentration camps”.” The congress itself governments in opposition may Stalin. Immediately after the revolu- declared “no trade union group should di- well say “Health cuts hurt the tion the Russian workers had attempted rectly intervene in industrial management”. old, the sick and the handi- to federate the factory committees in 13 capped”. It is however in power order to maximise the distribution of that you see their real programe resources. This was blocked, with Bol- exposed.

Page 8 of the Stalinist regimes came from their against their political opponents. Both as “Fascists” and agents of international crushing of workers’ revolts, both the attempted to paint the revolt as being imperialism. They were to be written well known ones of East 1953, organised and lead by the whites. Pravda and air-brushed out of the history of the Hungary 1956 and Czechoslovakia in on March 3rd, 1921 described it as revolution. Yet to-day his followers, the 1968 and scores of smaller, less known last surviving Leninists use the same risings. The first such major revolt was “A new White plot....expected and undoubt- tactics against their political opponents. to happen at the height of Lenin’s direc- edly prepared by the French counter-revolu- tion of the party in 1921 at Kronstadt, a tion”. The intention of this article is to pro- naval base and town near Petrograd. voke a much needed debate on the Irish The revolt essentially occurred when Lenin in his report to the 10th party left about the nature of Leninism and Kronstadt attempted to democratically congress on March 8th said where the Russian revolution went bad. elect a Soviet and issued a set of procla- The collapse of the Eastern European mations calling for a return to demo- “White generals, you all know it, played a regimes makes it all the more urgent cratic soviets and freedom of press and great part in this. This is fully proved”. 21. that this debate goes beyond trotting speech for out the same old lies. If Leninism lies at Yet even Isaac Deutscher, Trotskys bi- the heart of Stalinism then those or- “the anarchists and left socialist parties”.17 ographer said in ‘The Prophet Armed’ ganisations that follow Lenin’s teach- ing stand to make the same mistakes This won the support of not only the “The Bolsheviks denounced the men of again. Anybody in a Leninist organisa- mass of workers and sailors at the base Kronstadt as counter-revolutionary muti- tion who does not take this debate seri- but of the rank and file of the Bolshevik neers, led by a White general. The denuncia- ously is every bit as blind and misled as party there as well. Lenin’s response tion appears to have been groundless”22. all those Communist Party members was brutal. The base was stormed and who thought the Soviet Union was a many of the rebels who failed to escape socialist country until the day it col- were executed. Kronstadt had been the RE-WRITING HISTORY lapsed. driving force for the revolution in 1917 and in 1921 the revolution died with it. Some modern day Trotskyists repeat Andrew Flood such slanders, others like Brian Pearce There are other commonly accepted (historian of the Socialist Labour League 1. V.I. Lenin “Left wing childishness characteristics of Stalinism. One more in Britain) try to deny it ever occurred and petty-bourgeois mentality”, 2. V.I. that is worth looking at is the way Lenin “The threatening catastrophe and Stalinist organsiations have used slan- “No pretence was made that the Kronstadt how to fight it”, 3. M. Brinton “The 23 der as a weapon against other left groups. mutineers were White Guards” Bolsheviks and Workers Control” page Another is the way that Stalin re-wrote 38, 4. M. Brinton page 38, 5. Brinton, In actual fact the only czarist general in history. Yet again this is something page 39, 6. Brinton, page 40, 7. D. the fort had been put there as com- which was a deep strain within Lenin- Guerin “Anarchism”, page 101, 8. mander by Trotsky some months ear- ism. Mhakno for example went from Brinton, page 78, 9. Guerin, page 91, lier! Lets leave the last words on this to being hailed by the Bolshevik newspa- 10. Brinton, page 41, 11. Brinton, page 18 the workers of Kronstadt pers as the “Nemesis of the whites” to 43, 12. Brinton, page 61, 13. Brinton, being described as a Kulak and a bandit “Comrades, don’t allow yourself to be mis- page 63, 14. Brinton, page 65, 15. . Brinton, page 6 , 16. I. Deutscher, “The led. In Kronstadt, power is in the hands of Prophet Armed” pages 500-07, 17. Ida SLANDER the sailors, the red soldiers and of the revo- Mett,”The Kronstadt Uprising”, page 24 lutionary workers” 38, 18. A. Berkman, “”, Modern day Trotskyists are happy to page 25, 19. quoted by Voline “The repeat this sort of slander along with Unknown Revolution”, page 572, 20. P. There is irony in the fact that these describing Mhakno as an anti-Semite. Berland, “Mhakno”, Le Temps, 28 Aug, tactics of slander and re-writing history Yet the Jewish historian M. 1934, 21. Lenin, Selected Works, vol IX, as perfected by the Bolsheviks under Tchernikover says p. 98, 22. Deutscher, The Prophet Lenin were later to be used with such Armed, page 511. 23. Labour Review, effect against the Trotskyists. Trotsky “It is undeniable that, of all the armies, vol V, No. 3. 24. I. Mett, page 51. including the , the Makhnovists and his followers were to be denounced behaved best with regard to the civilian population in general and the Jewish popu- Further reading lation in particular.”19 •The Bolsheviks and Workers control by Maurice Brinton. The leadership of the Makhnovists con- •The Kronstadt Uprising by Ida Mett. tained Jews and for those who wished to organise in this manner there were spe- •Anarchism by Daniel Guerin. cific Jewish detachments. The part the •History of the Makhnovist movement (1918-21) by Piotr Arshinov. Makhnovists played in defeating the Whites has been written out of history October 1917 : A lost opportunity for socialism? by every Trotskyist historian, some other historians however consider they played http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/russia.html a far more decisive role then the Red Army in defeating Wrangel20. Anarchism and the Russian Revolution http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/russia_wsm.html Kronstadt provides another example of how Lenin and Trotsky used slander

Page 9 Review HISTORY OF THE MAKHNOVIST MOVEMENT Originally published in Workers Solidarity No. 37 (1992) by . (Freedom Press) £5.50 Makhnovists. It’s an easy non-academic “It seemed as though a giant grate com- read. However the book is an almost posed of bayonets shuttled back and forth THE TREATY OF Brest-Litovsk con- exclusively military account of the move- across the region , from North to South and cluded by the Bolsheviks in March ment. Arshinov makes no apologies for back again, wiping out all traces of creative 1918, which sawRussia get out of this. Of necessity the Makhnovists spent the bloodbath of World War 1, most of their time in military engage- social construction”. handed most of the Ukraine over to ments. Over the three years 1918-1921 This excellent metaphor of Arshinov’s the German and Austro-Hungarian they had to fight the forces of the sums up the difficulty. However, unlike empires. Needless to say, the in- Hetman, White Generals Denikin and the Bolsheviks, the Makhnovists did habitants were not consulted. Nei- Wrangel, nationalists like Petliura and not use the war as an excuse for gener- ther were they too pleased. Various Grigor’ev and, of course, the Bolsheviks. alised repression and counter-revolu- insurgent movements arose and tion. On the contrary they used every gradually consolidated. The Revo- Makhno and his commanders won opportunity to drive the revolution for- lutionary Insurgent Army of the against odds of 30:1 and more on occa- ward. Ukraine led by Nester Makhno, an sion. One example was on September anarchist-communist from the vil- 25th 1919 at the village of Peregonovka THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION lage of Gulyai Polye, quickly won when the Makhnovists after retreating the support of the South for it’s 400 miles found themselves surrounded The Makhnovist movement was almost daring attacks on the Austro-Hun- by Denikin’s army. They succeeded in exclusively poor peasant in origin. The garian puppet, Hetman turning Denikin flank with a tiny force very existence of a revolutionary peas- Skoropadsky and the Nationalist of cavalry and in the ensuing panic ant movement made a mockery of Petliurists. Denikin’s army were routed. This ac- Trotsky’s and Lenin’s conception of the tion probably saved Petrograd from the peasants as automatically reactionary. This book is an extremely valuable eye- Whites and was one of the most massive Peasants who made up the vast major- witness account from Peter Arshinov - defeats inflicted on them. ity of the USSR’s population were seen one of the main participants and editor as a brutalised and unthinking mass of their paper Put’k Svobode (The Road Of course Makhno’s military skill, his who could not organise collectively. to Freedom). Arshinov and Makhno use of cavalry and mounted infantry to When not faced with bayonets and forced were later to draw up the Platform of cover huge distances, isn’t directly of requisitions they related naturally to- the Libertarian Communists in dur- relevance to us. What is of interest is wards the workers in the towns and ing their exile in 1926 (see Work- how the Makhnovists could fight and cities. The Makhnovists provided a ers Solidarity 34). win as a revolutionary army with deep unifying force encouraging and protect- roots among the Ukrainian peasants ing peasant expropriations of landlords It may seem strange that the Revolu- and workers. The insurgent army was and large farmers (kulaks). They spread tionary Insurgent Army of the Ukraine an entirely democratic military forma- the idea of voluntary collectives and (its proper title) is constantly referred to tion. It’s recruits were volunteers drawn tried to make links with urban workers. as the “Makhnovists”. Anarchists are from peasants and workers. It elected Their motto was “worker give us your the last people to engage in blind hero- it’s officers and codes of discipline were hand”. worship. At its height it had 30,000 worked out democratically. Officers volunteer combatants under arms. could be, and were, recalled by their Around Gulyai-Polye several communes While all were inspired by anarchist troops if they acted undemocratically. sprang up. These include the originally ideas, only a small minority had worked- named communes 1,2 and 3, as well as out anarchist views. Through the ar- Wherever they appeared they were wel- the “Rosa Luxembourg” commune with my’s cultural-educational section politi- comed by the local population who sup- 300 members. Several regional con- cal discussion and learning was encour- plied food and lodging as well as infor- gresses of peasants and workers were aged but the majority of combatants mation about about enemy forces. The organised. A general statute support- and supporters continued to call them- Bolsheviks and Whites were forced to ing the creation of ‘free soviets’ (elected selves “Makhnovists” and to this day rely on massive campaigns of terror councils of workers’, soldiers’ and peas- the name has stuck. against the peasantry, with thousands ants’ delegates) was passed though lit- being killed and imprisoned. tle could be done towards it’s implemen- ENEMIES ON ALL SIDES tation in much of the Ukraine because of The speed at which areas changed hands the constantly changing battlefront. Arshinov’s book mainly consists of a in the Ukraine made it virtually impos- blow-by-blow account of the movement sible for them to do engage in widescale The Makhnovists held the cities of along with some consideration of na- constructive activity to further the so- Ekaterinoslav and Aleksandrovsk for a tionalism and anti-semitism, and short cial revolution. few months after their September 1919 biographies of some of the main defeat of Denikin. In both cities full

Page 10 political rights, freedom of association Unfortunately, more than few anar- and press freedom were established. In chists were content to remain in ivory Arshinov documents the re-emergence Ekaterinoslav five political papers ap- towers of theoretical abstraction. Their of minority class rule. He describes the peared, including a Bolshevik one. Sev- sole contribution was to whine about Bolshevik nationalisation of production eral conferences of workers and peas- the military nature of the movement. as with uncanny accuracy as ants were held in Aleksandrovsk. As we have seen the Makhnovists had Though workers liked the idea of of no choice in this regard. ”a new kind of production relations in which running their own factories, the near- economic dependence of the working class is ness of the front and the newness of the They constantly acknowledged that they concentrated in a single fist, the State. In idea made them cautious. The railway were weak on theory, mainly due to lack essence this in no way improves the situa- workers did set up a committee which of education. It was essential for all who tion of the working class”. began investigating new systems of called themselves anarchists to get stuck movement and payment but, again, in. It is a sad reflection on the political military difficulties prevented further and organisational weaknesses of Rus- The Bolsheviks did realise the political advances. Ekaterinoslav, for example, sian anarchism that they failed to do so. significance of the Makhnovists. Any was under constant bombardment from Though they were in a minority, well autonomous movement posing the idea the Whites just across the river. organised intervention in groups like of direct economic control and manage- Makhno’s might have had an important ment by workers and peasants was a IVORY TOWERS influence on the course of events in the political threat. From 1917 onwards revolution. Arshinov rightly accuses the Bolsheviks responded to such threats Arshinov attacks the Russian anarchists them of total disorganisation and irre- in one way, physical annihilation. for almost totally ignoring the sponsibility leading to “impoverished Makhnovists. The Bolsheviks saw them ideas and futile practice”. This book explodes the long list of false- as important enough to send in 15,000 hoods and myths about the Makhnovists. troops in 1921 to wipe them out. Too A new set of chains It serves as further evidence (is any many of the anarchists “slept through” more needed?!?) of the authoritarian events. It is absolutely vital that this be Above all this book is a tragic indict- role of the Bolsheviks in the Russian acknowledged and learnt from. ment of Bolshevik leadership and mis- revolution. Most of all, it serves as an rule. The Bolsheviks clung to the theory inspiration to all serious class struggle The only significant number of anar- that the masses couldn’t handle social- anarchists. It poses clearly the need for chists to participate as a group were ism. Workers and peasants proved them anarchists to organise and win the bat- those of the Nabat (Alarm) Confedera- wrong by continually throwing up their tle of ideas in the working class. This is tion. These included the famous Rus- own organs of democratic economic con- how we can finally begin to fight to sian anarchist Voline who wrote the trol. If the facts didn’t fit the theory make anarchism a reality. preface for this book. They worked then the facts had to be disposed off. mainly in the cultural-educational sec- Once again impoverished theory led to Conor McLoughlin tion, though some fought in the army. impoverished practice.

In defence of the truth Originally published in Workers Solidarity No. 34 (1992) Because of Kronstadt's leading role in the 1917 Leninists have always insisted that the revolutionaries in The Kronstadt Uprising against the Bolsheviks Kronstadt in 1921 were not the same ones that had been there in 1917. The revolu- We have been insisting on the need for the far left to re-appraise the tradition tionaries had been replaced at this stage of the Russian revolution and in particular the role the Bolsheviks played in with "Coarse peasants". The evidence destroying that revolution. One of the most detailed responses to the anar- Rees musters for this point is a useful chists critique of Bolshevism was published in the winter issue of International indication of the general Leninist method Socialism the journal of the Socialist Workers Party (the largest Leninist when it comes to the Russian revolution. group in England). The quote below is in Rees article on page 61. Unfortunately the article fails to seriously The Kronstadt rising of 1921 represented address the criticisms of Lenin, prefer- the last major upsurge of working class "In September and October 1920 the writer ring instead to repeat more sophisticated resistance to the by then consolidated and the Bolshevik party lecturer versions of old slanders and distortions. Bolshevik dictatorship. Kronstadt itself Ieronymus Yasinksky went to Kronstadt Due to space considerations we cannot was a naval town on an island off the coast to lecture 400 naval recruits. They were cover the entire article (80 pages) here, of Petrograd (St Petersburg). In 1917 it 'straight from the plough'. And he was however in looking at John Rees (the had been the heart of the Russian Revolu- shocked to find that many, 'including a author) treatment of the Kronstadt rising tion, although it had never been under few party members, were politically of 1921 a useful impression of the flaws Bolshevik party control. illiterate,worlds removed from the highly in his approach can be gleaned. Page 11 politicised veteran Kronstadt sailors who of the battleships Petropavlovsk and duced by the Bolsheviks in 1921 went far had deeply impressed him'. Yasinsky Sevastopol which formed the core of the beyond the granting of the economic de- worried that those steeled in the revolu- rising, were recruited into the navy before mands of Kronstadt. The crushing of tionary fire' would be replaced by 'inex- 1917, only 6.9% having been recruited Kronstadt was followed by what the SWP perienced freshly mobilised young sail- between 1918 and 1921. These figures has referred to as "unilateral killings" 5ie ors'. are on the same page as the earlier quotes executions of many revolutionaries and Rees uses but are ignored by him. The the expelling of over 15,000 sailors from This quote is referenced to a book called remainder of the section on Kronstadt the fleet. Thousands more were sent to the Kronstadt 1917-21 by Israel Getzler, an relies on more traditional smear tactics. Black sea, the Caspian and Siberia. Even academic but useful look at Kronstadt Much is placed on the fact that the whites the Kronstadt soviet was never re-estab- throughout this period. Rees account is a thought they might be able to gain from lished. This demonstrates that even after fair version of the first half of Yasinskys the . The fact that Petrochenko the rising the Bolsheviks feared the po- report. The quote however continues ex- an ex-Bolshevik and chair of the Revolu- litical demands that had been raised in its actly as reproduced below. tionary committee was later to join the course. "Yasinsky was apprehensive about the whites and attempted to contact them at The real danger of Kronstadt was not a future when, 'sooner or later, Kronstadt's the time of the rising is mentioned, the military one, it was a political one. veteran sailors, who were steeled in revo- fact that the Revolutionary Committee Kronstadt had to be brutally suppressed lutionary fire and had acquired a clear itself constantly warned against any idea in case its call for a third revolution had revolutionary world-view would be re- of an alliance with the whites is not. succeeded in mobilising the workers of placed by inexperanced, freshly mobi- Any real examination of what happened Russia. The Bolshevik party by 1921 was lised young sailors'. Still he comforted at Kronstadt has look at what the real a counter revolutionary one composed himself with the hope that Kronstadt's balance of forces were at the time and even by their own figures of more bureau- sailors would gradually infuse them with what the actual demands of Kronstadt crats than workers. Leninism was not the their 'noble spirit of revolutionary self- were. The work of academics like Israel sole cause of the defeat of the October dedication' to which Soviet Russia owed Getzler in uncovering Soviet records of revolution, the whites played a major part so much. As for the present he felt reas- the period have demonstrated that of those as well. Whether or not Kronstadt could sured that 'in Kronstadt the red sailor still serving in the Baltic fleet at the time at have led to a successful revolution is one predominates".1 least 75.5% were recruited before the of the 'What if's' of history. It did however Rees handy 'editing' of this quote trans- 1917 revolution. The majority of the revo- represent the last hope of setting the revo- forms it from one showing that three lutionary committee were veterans of the lution back on course. months before the rising that Kronstadt Kronstadt Soviet and the October revolu- It is unfortunate that the SWP has chosen had retained its revolutionary spirt to one tion. to continue the Leninist tradition of lying, implying the garrison had indeed been So why did these revolutionaries who even to their own members about the replaced. Rees then goes on to contradict were the backbone of the 1917 revolution Bolsheviks role in defeating the Russian himself about the composition of the rise against the Bolsheviks in 1921. At the revolution. Rather then learning from a Bolshevik party at the time. On page 61 time Lenin said "White general, you all critical look at the mistakes of the Bolshe- he says "The same figures for the Bolshe- know played a great part in this. This is viks they have chosen to do a crude plas- vik party as a whole in 1921 are 28.7% fully proved"3. Later day Leninists are tering job and are hoping no-body exam- peasants, 41% workers and 30.8% white more subtle and try to place the root of the ines it too closely. Similar methods aided collar and others". On page 66 however rising at discontent with the economic the western communist parties to build a he says the figures at the end of the civil policies of the day. As far as I am aware castle, but the events of the last couple of war (also 1921) were 10% factory work- no Leninist publication has ever repro- years demonstrate what happens when ers, 25% army and 60% in "the govern- duced the Kronstadt programme. This is you build on sand. ment or party machine". A note at the probably because only 3 of the 15 de- back says even of those classed as factory mands are economic the rest are political workers "most were in administration". demands designed to replace Bolshevik 1. Kronstadt 1917-21, Israel Getzler, p. 207. Rees also attempts blame the decline in dictatorship over the working class with 2. Ibid, p218-219. the number of Bolshevik party members the direct rule of the working class4. 3. Lenin, report to 10th congress of the RCP, in Kronstadt to the Civil war but in fact 1921. Selected works, Vol IX, p98. In any case the New Economic Plan intro- 4. Ida Mett, The Kronstadt uprising, p37-38. the fall in numbers in 1920 was due to 5. Abbie Bakan, Socialist Worker Review, purges and resignations from the party. Issue 136, page 58. The attitude of the remaining party mem- bers is demonstrated by the fact that dur- ing the rising three veteran Kronstadt Find Out More! Bolsheviks formed a Preparatory Com- Interested in Anarchism and our ideas? mittee of the Russian Communist party Then get in contact by writing to which called upon local communists not to sabotage the efforts of the Revolution- W.S.M.,P.O. Box 1528 ary committee. A further 497 members of A Dublin 8, Ireland the party resigned from the party2. http://surf.to/anarchism Getzler also demonstrates that the crew [email protected]

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