The Dictatorship of the Communists
One baleful result of the late European war has been to weaken faith
in political democracy amongst those people whom it most seriously
concerns. And the most pitiful part of the tragedy is that the wounds
of democracy have been delivered in the house of its friends. That is
a big story which will one day be written in full. The important fact
remains, that Parliamentary political machinery is in danger of being
thrown upon the scrap-heap by those who see in it something antiquated
and rusty and so incapable of serving their needs. With this in mind,
we sought to discover if Russia had truly anything better to offer.
The vocational franchise upon which the Soviet is based has something
to be said for it; but does the Soviet work? Is it what it is claimed
to be, a more democratic form of government, and one more accurately
reflecting the people’s will? To this question it was difficult
to get an answer. But whatever it might be capable of doing in a
highly educated, industrially efficient country like England or the
United States, _it does not work in Russia_. There is not an ounce
of democratic control in the politics of Russia. The theory is that
everybody is entitled to vote. But the peasants have only one vote to
the townspeople’s five, or, to put it the other way, each townsman
votes--if he works--but five peasants together cast one vote. All who
do no work or who employ labour for profit, or who follow the priestly
vocation are disfranchised. Women stand on the same footing as men in
theory. But in the villages we explored we discovered a difference
in eligibility to the Soviets. An illiterate man may be eligible, an
illiterate woman is definitely not so.
The elections are not free. If free, in my judgment there would not
be a majority for the Communists. Voting is by show of hands, so that
those who vote against the candidates chosen for them by the Executive
of the Communist party or sent down from the People’s Commissars become
marked men and women. In spite of this, the Mensheviki have secured
majorities in certain districts where their candidates were well-known
and needed no electioneering to carry them in; for, had they needed
that their case would have been hopeless. As all the halls belong
to the Government it is the simplest device in the world to engage
them for the sole use of Communist or approved candidates during an
election. And as all the printing-presses likewise are the property and
under the control of the Government, its opponents find it well-nigh
impossible to have their case presented to the electors.
The Mensheviki have secured a little more than a quarter of the
seats on the Moscow Soviet, in spite of all difficulties, which fact
speaks volumes for their probable real strength. One story was told
us of a factory which voted for an opposition candidate to Lenin by a
proportional vote of something like seventy to eight, and when ordered
to conduct a new election for the purpose of reversing the decision
had the courage to stick to their guns and record seventy and eight
the second time; but such instances are not numerous, for the fear of
authority is very great.
Theoretically “All Power to the Soviet,” a favourite piece of rhetoric,
is a true saying, or was so. For I discover in reading carefully the
Thesis of the Executive Committee of the Communist International
recently published to the world, that a new line is being taken.
The pretence of democracy is vanishing. Every species of tyranny by
the Communist party over the rest of the proletariat and people is
justified, as it always has been in the writings of the principal men
of the Communist Movement, until Communism becomes the accepted creed
of mankind and the Communist system is firmly established all over the
earth.
The Soviet elects an Executive Committee. In Moscow this numbers forty
persons. This Committee elects a Presidium. In Moscow this numbers
nine. The power which may still linger in the Soviet to a small degree
resides in this Presidium. But on this body and over the election
of both the Presidium and the Executive Committee, the Government
exercises great pressure, and naturally the Government nominees, who
are all Communists, are elected to the Presidium, which sits daily.
Great play is made in defending this undemocratic arrangement and
these terrific powers, of the “recall,” which they allege, operates
frequently and is a check on conduct. If recalls are as frequent as
is claimed, the efficiency of business must be seriously jeopardised.
But the recall is frequently exercised because some elected persons
are obliged to go to the front and it is thought wise to put others
in their places. Drinking, which is another reason for recall, should
not be possible in a prohibition country. Personal spite and jealousy
frequently come into the business. And an eloquent speaker, working
upon an ignorant and changeable mass can so change their political
point of view as to bring their representative easily within the
criticism of his constituents unless he changes with them. I have
frequently observed in Russia the same person applauding the exactly
opposite sentiments, a characteristic by no means confined to Russian
men and women!
Seldom does the All-Russian Soviet meet, and then only to do formal
business, such as recording the decrees issued by the People’s
Commissars or to ratify the decisions of the Communist party. The
People’s Commissars, of whom there are seventeen, have the power to
issue decrees without consulting the Soviets at all. More than that,
each Commissar can issue decrees relative to the work of his own
department; or two Commissars can do this in their joint names on a
matter jointly affecting their two departments. These decrees have all
the force of law, and must be obeyed under heavy penalties.
To the slaves of theory, the abstractionists and dogmatists, the
decrees which consent to the modifications in committee management of
industry must be considered wholly bad. But when I record the fact that
the power of workmen to interfere through those committees in highly
important productive and reconstructive work, either through delays,
or ignorance, or in the name of a democratic principle run to seed,
has given place all over Russia to control by experts, and management
on lines of personal responsibility, I am placing on record what I
consider to be a good and wise thing.
In Russia Trade Unionism is of very recent birth. In February, 1917,
there were three Trade Unions in Russia with a membership of less than
one thousand five hundred persons. When the revolution broke out, some
of the workmen thought it part of the plan to smash the machinery in
the workshops, so ignorant were they of the source of their woes and
of the remedy for these. The want of Trade Union training, the lack
of discipline, the absence of co-ordination, both in industry and in
their organisations, helped still further to increase the sufferings of
the people, by delaying the work of rebuilding. The fear of bourgeois
technical and scientific experts, who were accused freely of sabotage,
caused their necessary skill and labour for a long period to be
refused; this still further aggravated the situation. And it appears
to be entirely creditable that, in those matters where the special
training and specialised mind are essential, the Communist rulers have
seen proper to change their method.
But it is too dangerous a step on the road to complete centralisation
of power to have made of the Trade Unions, as is practically the case,
a Government department working under the control of the Supreme
Economic Council.
The Supreme Economic Council, when its structure is complete, will have
fifty productive departments under its control, a department of finance
and a department for the co-ordination and supervision of the local
Economic Councils which are spread all over the country. A Collegium
of three or five members is in charge of each department, whilst the
greater body, the Supreme Economic Council itself is controlled by a
Presidium of eleven members, nominated by the Executive Committee of
the Trade Unions and confirmed by the Council of People’s Commissars.
We had speech with Miluitin, assistant to Rekoff, the People’s
Commissar for this department, who told us that, of the five thousand
nationalised enterprises, seventy per cent were working more or
less satisfactorily; but that whilst war and the blockade continued
they could not hope to do more than maintain their industries in
the condition of their comparative efficiency. They hoped, however,
to develop and extend later on. All large industries such as coal,
gold, iron, platinum, petroleum and their products, machinery,
railway engines, etc., are nationalised; textiles, railways and large
shipping; retail shops and banking. Banking has become the book-keeping
department of the State. Money is still in use, but it is hoped to
establish a system of exchange which will remove the necessity of
money altogether.
Russia has complete conscription of labour. All men and women of from
eighteen years to fifty are obliged to work. The forms of Labour
organisation are being militarised. A worker must go where he is sent
and do what he is told under very heavy penalties. Late-coming and
dilatory behaviour are punished heavily. Nobody is allowed to be idle,
except, of course, the very old and the infirm.
This cannot be wholly condemned in Russia’s present terrible condition.
Those who would wish to stand idle in such circumstances ought to be
constrained by hunger if public opinion is not sufficient, and if the
discipline is at times over-severe, the breakdown of Russia’s economic
life is a very substantial excuse, if not a complete justification.
Those soldiers of the Red Army drafted into the Labour Army and the
many civilian corps added to their numbers are doing good work in
reconstruction in the mines, on the railways, at the oilfields and in
the workshops. They are a mobile force, and are drafted in tens of
thousands from one place to another as the need requires.
I was told that every effort was made not to disturb industries that
are running satisfactorily by taking their workpeople for the Labour
Army. As far as possible the least usefully employed are diverted to
the Labour Army. There have been administrative difficulties of a minor
sort, and occasional revolts against the conscription of their labour
by men who objected to leaving their homes and families, but on the
whole the plan has worked well and has been of great benefit in the
restoration of the railways and the oil supplies. It is not proposed to
demobilise the Labour Army until the economic life of the country is
re-established.
The Co-operative Societies have also become a great Government
department, and it is hoped to hand over to them completely the work of
the Food Commissariat. When their new organisation on these lines is
completed the Co-operative Society, or “Centrosoyu” as it is called,
will work under the authority of the Supreme Economic Council for the
distribution of all articles of monopoly, such things as wheat, bread,
coal, sugar, fur, textiles, clothing and timber. In distributing goods
which are not monopolised by the Government at present the _Centrosoyu_
will be guided by its method in respect of the other things. The
Co-operative Societies are represented on the Supreme Economic Council,
and the chairman has the right to attend the meetings of the People’s
Commissars, but he may not vote. Citizens are informed that there is
no compulsion on them to join the Co-operative Society, and there
is no longer the attraction of the dividend; but as theirs is the
monopoly of bread, and the only other source of supply is the outlawed
“speculator,” whose charges are prohibitive--four hundred roubles for a
pound of black bread--it is obvious that the freedom is illusory.
Similarly with the Trade Unions. Technically, I suppose, there is no
compulsion to join a Trade Union; but as it is impossible to live
unless one does, since the more important part of the pay is in the
food given to a worker and his family, and since such privileges as
tickets for supplies of boots and clothing and other necessaries and
free passes for the theatres and the concert-halls are supplied through
the Trade Unions, or the Soviets, which are largely Trade Union in
character, the wise man does not care to remain outside. These facts
may account for the phenomenal increase in Trade Union membership,
which is said to have leapt to nearly five million during the last
three years. Five millions out of a population made up of eighty-five
per cent peasants is a very considerable proportion of the industrial
population, and constitutes a miraculous conversion of the multitude on
any other supposition than the one I suggest.
And by all these signs we learn what the “dictatorship of the
proletariat” really means. Let there be no mistake whatever about this.
I am wholly hostile to the artificial dictatorship of any class in
those matters which are the serious concern of all. I believe in the
dictatorship of the idea, that is in the power of the idea to conquer
without force, and the right of the majority to decide all those
matters of high policy which cannot be settled amicably without a vote;
but I consider that the sources of information should be available
for all, the right of propaganda be universal and unrestricted, and
the liberties and rights of the minorities safeguarded in all those
things where the well-being of the community is not manifestly to all
threatened by too great concessions. I believe that the Parliamentary
machine needs very considerable overhauling; that something of the
nature of proportional representation should be devised; that a
chamber elected upon a vocational basis might very usefully replace
the hereditary House of Lords. I believe in the devolution of power in
national and local affairs, and would give not only to Ireland, but
to Scotland and Wales and England their separate national one-chamber
Parliaments. I would extend the vote to all adult women, as in Russia,
and encourage the work of committees; all this to better secure the
expression in politics of the real will of the people.
But the Russian dictatorship does not do this. It is, at the best,
an attempt by a few men to compel the people of Russia to have what
in their opinion is good for them. It may very well be that what they
seek to impose and the methods by which they seek to impose it will in
some ways benefit a lethargic race, unused to the ways of freedom. I
express no opinion on the point, beyond saying this: That the argument
of unfitness to manage one’s own affairs has a very familiar ring about
it to women. It was the favourite argument against granting the vote to
women of a certain class of English opponent. Our good was sought, not
our freedom.
But though the freedom was denied for so long, the good lingered
also; and the Russian people might reasonably protest, and in many
cases do protest, that there the good is lingering also. The great
and fundamental question for all who are thinking seriously about
these things is this: Has a handful of brilliant and thoughtful men,
however good and sincere they may be, the moral right to enforce upon
a whole community the system they believe in but the community as a
whole rejects, with all the tyranny and cruelty such dictatorship must
inevitably mean? Had the men of Russia the moral right to break up
their own National Assembly, however inadequate and faulty, thereby
bringing upon their country civil war and alien aggression, for the
sake of a theory however magnificent?
It might be suggested that the majority in Russia does not reject
the idea of Communism, because the whole population is behind the
Government; which is perfectly true. But the population is behind
the Government because it is a patriotic population, and it is
threatened once more by the horror of foreign invasion. This is why
the experiment in Russia has been spoiled. The really big things
which are being attempted cannot be judged on their merits. Their
success or their failure are inextricably mixed up with the various
wars which Russia has suffered since the Revolution and with the
blockade so cruelly drawn around her. When the history of these times
comes to be faithfully written, it will not be the Russian Communists
whose records will blacken the pages of history most. It will be the
records of certain Allied statesmen, hitherto believed to be gentlemen
and Christians, which will throw into bright relief the courage and
resourcefulness of the present rulers of Russia.
No words can be too strong with which to condemn the action of those
who first intervened to destroy Revolutionary Russia; and no loss to
the world is more to be regretted than that loss of a valuable social
experiment which would have shown the rest of the world what to imitate
and what to avoid in its march towards a happier lot for all mankind.
It is the old, old story of force breeding force, and evil producing
evil. The inhabitants of Russia lived so long with the evil system of
the Czar’s bureaucracy, with its Cossacks, and knouts, its prisons and
scaffolds, that the thing has entered into their very blood, and under
the necessity of maintaining their power, the Communist rulers slip
easily and naturally into the same institutions and methods, adopting
even the old machinery and the ancient servitors. But the cruelties and
suppressions, said by them and their supporters to be necessary and
inevitable in all the circumstances, will breed a resistance amongst
themselves which will bring the structure tottering to the ground,
unless the madness of their foes continues until the grip upon the
people becomes too strong. Even so, such a thing will come to an end in
time.
In the interests of Russia herself it is for those who care, to stop
all alien wars against her, and so give her people a chance of shaking
themselves free of tyranny, both within and without.
And for ourselves, we shall be wise to move as quickly as may be along
the sure and peaceful paths of political and industrial democracy,
seeking by education and by constant endeavour and sacrifice to
convince the minds of men and women that the world has something better
to give them of culture as well as comfort than the best of them have
ever dreamed.