Still a beacon of internationalism
Charlie van Gelderen
THIS MONTH we will be commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. It is a good time to take stock of what it was all about.
This is especially important because, since the post-Stalin collapse of the Soviet Union, the legitimacy of the revolution is being questioned, not only by pro-capitalist historians but by many who call themselves Marxists.
The old myth that the Bolshevik seizure of power was some sort of conspiratorial coup has been resurrected. This is easily disposed of by calling on the testimony of opponents of the Bolsheviks.
A despatch from the Russian correspondent of the Manchester Guardian, Philip Price (December 1917), under the heading "How the Maximalists have come to gain control", read "The Maximalist fanatics who still dream of a social revolution throughout Europe have, according to my observations in the provinces, recently acquired an immense if amorphous following."
The historian N N Sukhanov, at one time a member of the Provisional Government after the February Revolution, wrote ... "they (the Bolsheviks) had become the sole hope, if only because they were one with the masses ... the mass lived and breathed together with the Bolsheviks. It was in the hands of the party of Lenin and Trotsky.
"To talk about military conspiracy instead of national insurrection, when the party was followed by the overwhelming majority of the people... was clearly an absurdity"
A second myth was that the aim of the Bolsheviks was immediately to achieve socialism in Russia. But socialism involves the elimination of inequalities and shortages: Russia was a backward economy lacking some of the most basic material resources. The revisionist theory that it was possible to achieve "socialism in one country" did not figure in the Bolshevik canon until Bukharin and Stalin formulated it in 1924.
For Lenin, the historical role of winning power in Russia was to encourage the international revolution, and particularly the German revolution. That the Bolsheviks were able to win power in Russia first was because the relationship of forces to the workers there was more favourable, and the revolutionary leadership more developed than in any other country.
The uncompromising internationalism of Lenin, Trotsky and the Bolsheviks was reinforced in the first Soviet constitution, that of 1918. Distinction between "national citizens" and "foreigners" was eliminated.
Anybody living in the Soviet Union and ready to work enjoyed all the political rights, including the right to vote. The Scottish socialist, John MacLean, then in prison for leading a strike, was appointed Consul General for the RSFSR. This gave him diplomatic immunity — and he was immediately released.
The Russian Revolution did ignite the spark of revolution in Europe. In February 1918, the Austro-Hungarian fleet mutinied. In Britain, in December 1918, at a Daily Herald rally in the Albert Hall, Robert Williams, general secretary of the Transport Workers Federation, urged "preparedness for revolution".
There were real revolutions in Finland, Austria and Hungary, soviet power in Bavaria, a revolutionary crisis in Italy. Even that citadel of capitalism, the USA, was not immune. There was a general strike in Seattle. Lenin’s prognosis appeared to be confirmed.
These events struck terror into the hearts of the bourgeoisie and their spokespersons.
In a confidential memorandum to the delegates to the Versailles Peace Conference on March 13,
1919, Lloyd George warned: "If Germany ever goes to the Spartakists, it is inevitable that she would throw in her lot with the Russian Bolsheviks .... all Eastern Europe will be swept into the orbit of the Bolshevik Revolution ... nearly 300 million people organised in a vast Red Army under German instructors."
The October Revolution also gave a powerful impulse to the developing national liberation movements in India, China and Indonesia, and to anti-imperialist movements such as that led by Kemal Ataturk in Turkey.
It is well to remember the inter-nationalism which inspired the leaders of the Russian Revolution before it was crushed by the reactionary forces of Stalinism, and that pursuit of "socialism in one country" has meant, as Trotsky predicted, socialism nowhere.
It is this type of internationalism, a genuine commitment to widening the revolution on a global scale, which later inspired Che Guevara.
Today, it is the Fourth International which carries aloft the banner of internationalism which was so central to the thinking of Lenin, Trotsky and the Bolsheviks in 1917, and this is what we will be commemorating on November 7th.