💾 Archived View for library.inu.red › file › damian-lawlor-beware-the-bolsheviks.gmi captured on 2023-01-29 at 09:11:46. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Title: Beware the Bolsheviks Author: Damian Lawlor Date: January 1998 Language: en Topics: anti-Bolshevism, Russian Revolution, Workers Solidarity Source: http://struggle.ws/ws98/ws53_bolshevik.html Notes: This article is from Workers Solidarity No 53
IN 1922, after seeing the product of the Russian revolution first hand,
the anarchist Emma Goldman described how "Soviet Russia had become the
modern socialist Lourdes". Eighty years after the revolution in Russia a
reflection on that period has more than just historical value. Many left
wing organisations still hold up this era as the model for future
revolution. In order to challenge this Bolshevik conception of
organisation and revolution we look at what the consequences of this
model were.
The Bolsheviks organised as a vanguard party, which intended to lead the
revolution. This structure led to particular outcomes and a look at the
'hidden' history of the Russian Revolution illustrates this. Lenin, in
his book 'State and Revolution', talks of a society where every cook
shall govern.
But in reality the Party, in its capacity of leader of the revolution,
was governing. By November 9th 1917 a soviet (committee of elected
workers' delegates) in the Peoples Commissariat of Posts & Telegraphs
had already been abolished by decree. Even earlier than this, the
revolution having barely liberated the workers from virtual slavery,
Bolshevik leaders were telling workers that "the best way to support
Soviet Government is to carry on with one's job".
Lenin, in March 1918, wrote (Collected Works, Vol. 27 page 270) that the
Party relates to workers by leading "them along the true path of labour
discipline, along the task of coordinating the task of arguing at mass
meetings about the conditions of work with the task of unquestioningly
obeying the will of the Soviet leader, of the dictator during the work".
So much for every cook governing.
These are not just isolated incidents. The Party soon began to
institutionalise its dominance, for instance factory committees, instead
of being allowed to form federations across the industries, had to
report to undemocratic bodies which were hand picked by the Party. It is
in this context that Daniel Guerin argued that "In fact the power of the
soviets only lasted a few months, from October 1917 to the spring of
1918."
How did the Bolsheviks go about 'securing' the revolution? Trotsky, as
leader of the Red Army, reintroduced regular army discipline, not only
including executions for desertion but also all the petty regulations
like saluting that gave officers special positions. He abolished
election of officers, writing "the elective basis is politically
pointless and technically inexpedient and has already been set aside by
decree".
The White Terror was responded to with collective punishments,
categorical punishments, torture, hostage taking and random punishments.
These were not just directed at known 'Whites' but also at their friends
and families. On 3rd September 1918, the Bolshevik newspaper 'Ivestia'
announced that over 500 hostages had been shot by the Petrograd Cheka,
not because they had committed a crime but because they were unlucky
enough to come from the wrong background.
Some will argue that this terror was legitimised by the White Terror.
But by April of 1918 the terror was to be used against political groups
that supported the revolution but opposed Bolshevik rule. Over two days
in April 1918, 40 anarchists were killed or wounded and around 500 put
in prison in a series of attacks in Moscow and Petrograd.
All the major anarchist publications were banned in May 1918. This
despite the fact that anarchists had fought for the revolution in
October, four anarchists being on the Military Revolutionary Committee
which co- ordinated the rising. Over the next four years, hundreds then
thousands of anarchists were to be arrested, jailed, tortured, exiled
and executed. Other pro-revolution left parties suffered a similar fate
and by 1919 so did workers who acted independently against the regime.
Bolshevik modes of organisation have particular outcomes, the
centralisation of power. This sort of organisation means that 'Stalin
didn't fall from the moon' but was the inheritor of this undemocratic
organisation. This is in opposition to 'Socialism from Below' and the
motto of the First International, "the emancipation of the toilers must
be the work of the toilers themselves" and not the work of some
'vanguard' party.