THE USSR ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
THE INSTITUTE OFTHE INTERNATJONALWORKINQ-CLASS
MOVEMENT
The International Working-Class Movement
PROBLEMS
OF HISTORY
AND THEORY
In seven volumes
__TITLE__ The International Working-Class MovementTHE BUILDER
OF SOCIALISM AND FIGHTER AGAINST FASCISM
Introduction by Academician B.N.PONOMAREV
PROGRESS PUBLISHERS
PROGRESS PUBLISHERS MOSCOW
Translated from the Russian Designed by Vladimir Yeryomln
THE INTERNATIONAL WORKING-CLASS MOVEMENT
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PROBLEMS OF HISTOftf ANDTHEOPY
VOLUME 5 The Editorial Board:
|S. S. Salychevl, Editor-in-Chief
A. S. Chernyaev
B. I. Marushkin Yu. A. Polyakov G. K. Shirokov
I A. I. Sobolev |
A. B. Veber
The General Editorial Committee:
B. N. Ponomarev, Chairman, T. T. Timofeyev, Deputy Chairman, | A. A. Sobolev |, Deputy Chairman, O. T. Bogomolov, A. S. Chernyaev, G. G. Diligensky, P. N. Fedoseyev, A. A. Galkin, Y. M. Garushyants, S. S. Khromov, G. F. Kim, A. L. Narochnitsky, |S. S. Salychevj, A. N. Shlepakov, Y. B. Smeral, M. I. Sladkovsky, V. M. Vodolagin, V. V. Volsky, V. V. Zagladin, | Y. M. Zhukov |
<£) HB^aTejibCTBo «MucJib», 1981 English translation <g) Progress Publishers 1985 Printed in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
0302030102---650 M 014(01)---85
19-85
Chairman of the team of authors:
CONTENTS
Contributors:
A. S. Chernyaev, Cand. Sc. (Hist.)
S. S. Salychev | , D. Sc. (Hist.)
A. L. Semyonov, Cand. Sc. (Hist.) K. K. Shirinya, D. Sc. (Hist.) G. K. Shirokov, D. Sc. (Hist.) A. N. Shlepakov, Corresponding Member, Ukrainian Academy of Sciences V. B. Telpukhovsky, Cand. Sc.
I. S. Yazhborovskaya, D. Sc. (Hist.) :rs were written by:
INTRODUCTION 11
Part One
BUILDERS OF THE FIRST SOCIALIST SOCIETY
19Chapter 1 The Victory of Socialism in the USSR
21 The Struggle against the Aggressive Intentions of the Imperialists
23 Socialist Construction
34The New Appearance of Soviet Society 64
Chapter 2 The March to Socialism
75The Socialist Revolutions of 1940 in the Baltic Region
75The Path to Socialism By-Passing Capitalism 90
Part Two
CLASS BATTLES OF THE WORKING CLASS
95Chapter 3
Socio-Political Features of the Working Class in the Capitalist Countries
97 The Swelling Ranks of the Working Class
98 The Position of the Working Class
106 Levels of Struggle and Organisation
118Chapter 4
The Labour Movement During the Period of Temporary, Partial Stabilisation of Capitalism
136Contradictions of Capitalist Stabilisation 136
Communist Policy for a New Stage of Development 143
V. Z. Drobizhev, N. P. Kalmykcv, N. P. Komolova, V. L. Malkov, D. Yu. A. Polyakov,
Member, USSR
D. Sc. (Hist.) Cand. Sc. (Hist.) D. Sc. (Hist.) Sc. (Hist.) Corresponding Academy of Scien-
ces Yu. N. Popov, D
. Sc. (Econ.)
Individual chapte
A. G. Budanov, Cand. Sc. (Hist.)
[A. B. Reznikov |, D. Sc. (Hist.)
Yu. N. Rozaliyev, D. Sc. (Econ.) T. A. Salycheva, Cand. Sc. (Hist.) B. G. Sapozhnikov, D. Sc. (Hist.)
B. G. Seyranyan, Cand. Sc. (Hist.)
K. A. Shemenkov
S. V. Smirnov
N. D. Smirnova, D. Sc. (Hist.)
A. I. Sobolev , D. Sc. (Philos.)
~. S. Soroko-Tsyupa, D. Sc. (Hist.) G. D. Sukharchuk, D. Sc. (Hist.) P. P. Topekha, D. Sc. (Hist.) V. A. Trofimov, D. Sc. (Hist.) G. V. Tsypkin, Cand. Sc. (Hist.) L. B. Valev | , D. Sc. (Hist.)
F. I. Firsov, D. Sc. (Hist.)
V. V. Gerbach, Cand. Sc. (Hist.)
V. I. Glunin, D. Sc. (Hist.)
A. M. Goldobin] , Cand. Sc. (Hist.)
V. P. Gorodnov, Cand. Sc. (Hist.)
V. M. Ivanov, D. Sc. (Hist.)
N. S.Ivanov
R. M. Kaplanov, Cand. Sc. (Hist.)
L. B. Khvostoya
M. B. Korchagina
R. G. Landa, D. Sc. (Hist.)
Yu. 0. Levtonova, Cand. Sc. (Hist.)
Yu. A. Lvunin, D. Sc. (Hist.)
B. I. Marushkin, D. Sc. (Hist.)
V. P. Mikheyenkov, Cand. Sc. (Hist.)
L. M. Minayev, D. Sc. (Hist.)
I. V. Mozheyko, D. Sc. (Hist.)
M. M. Narinsky, Cand. Sc. (Hist.)
L. N. Nezhinsky, D. Sc. (Hist.)
M. Ye. Orlova, Cand. Sc. (Hist.)
V. G. Ovchinnikov, Cand. Sc. (Hist.)
S. P. Pozharskaya, D. Sc. (Hist.)
I Vdovin, Cand. Sc. (Hist.) G' S. Yaskina, Cand. Sc. (Hist.) A. A. Yazkova, D. Sc. (Hist.) N. A. Yegorova, Cand. Sc. (Hist.) M. D. Yereshchenko, Cand. Sc. (Hist.) Ye P. Zakaznikova, Cand. Sc. (Hist.)
The book analyses the problems of the international labour and communist movement in 1924-1925. Attention is given chiefly to the constructive activity of the Soviet working class which has built the world's first socialist state, to the revolutionary struggle of the working class in the capitalist states and to the national liberation movement in the colonies and dependent countries. The book shows the role played by the international proletariat as a leader of all forces of democracy and social progress in the liberation struggle against fascism.
CONTENTS
CONTENTS
The Class Battles of the West-European Proletariat 165
The Mass Struggle in the Countries of Central and South-Eastern
Europe 193
Difficulties in Organising Opposition to Fascism and the Reactionaries 225
Problems Facing the Working-Class Movement in Northern Europe
237The Working Class in the USA, Canada, Japan and Australia
244Proletarian Solidarity 255
Chapter 5 The Struggle against Fascism and the Threat of War
^ol
The 1929-1933 World Economic Crisis and Its Socio-Political
Consequences 261
Strategy and Tactics of Fighting Fascism and the Threat of War
273The German Proletariat's Anti-Fascist Struggle 306
The 1934 Anti-Fascist Uprising in Austria 319
The Popular Front in France 324
National Revolutionary War in Spain 339
Anti-Fascist Movement in Italy
350Fighting Reaction and Fascist Onslaught in Central and South-Eastern Europe 354
Worker Actions in Western and Northern Europe
404Social Conflicts in the USA, Canada, Japan and Australia
421For Unity in the Struggle against Fascism and War
433Chapter 6 Ideological-Political Evolution of Social Democracy
441Mounting Opportunist Trends 442
Facing Crisis and Fascist Danger 454
Foreign Policy Issues 474
Part Three
THE WORKING CLASS IN THE NATIONAL LIBERATION MOVEMENT
485Chapter 7
The Role of the Working Class in the National Liberation Movement in Asia and Africa
487Specific Features of Working-Class Formation in Asia and Africa
488Strategy and Tactics of the National Liberation Struggle
497The Working-Class Movement 506
Chapter 8 The Working-Class Movement in Latin America
543The Working-Class Movement in the 1920s 546
Class Struggle during the World Economic Crisis 555
The Struggle for a Popular Front 560
Part Four
IN THE VANGUARD OF THE ANTI-FASCIST WAR OF LIBERATION
573Chapter 9
In Defence of Socialism and World Civilisation
575Socialist Construction in the Soviet Union on the Eve of the Great Patriotic War 578
On the Field of Battle 583
Heroic Work for Victory 594
Leader of the People's Anti-Fascist Coalition
606A Policy of Friendship and Cooperation 609
The International Importance of the Soviet Victory 611
10CONTENTS
Chapter 10 The Leading Force in the Anti-Fascist Liberation Struggle
How Mass Resistance to the Fascist Aggressors Was Organised 616
The Anti-Fascist & National Liberation Struggle in the Countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe 624
Working-Class Resistance in Northern and Western Europe
654The Working Class of the USA, Britain, Canada and Australia in the War Against Fascist Bloc 679
The Liberation Struggle in Asia and Africa
The Workers' Movement in Latin America 704
Chapter 11 (Conclusion) The Leading Force of the New Epoch
713Laying the Path to the Future 714
The Leader of Forces of Revolution and Social Progress
728The Vanguard of the Anti-Fascist Liberation War 736
Name Index 745
INTRODUCTION
After the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution the struggle for socialism became an essential part of the active struggle of the international labour movement. The proletariat of Russia, which had asserted and upheld its political power, was successfully building the first socialist society the world had ever known. The revolutionary vanguard of the working class---the international communist movement---taking its inspiration from the principles of Leninism, was growing from strength to strength: a theoretical analysis of the new conditions for the struggle between the two worlds of capitalism and socialism was being put forward and the activities of the movement were being reorganised, in view of the inevitability of a long struggle against capitalism that lay ahead.
The authors of this fifth volume have done their best to provide a thorough and far-reaching analysis of the nature and implications of the victory scored by the working class in their historic revolutionary mission to transform the world at that particular stage in their march forward. Naturally, attention has been focused on its major historical achievements in the two decades under consideration. First, the working class of the USSR in this period, as it led the whole Soviet people forward, built the world's first socialist society, thereby demonstrating the feasibility and viability of the constructive task of the socialist revolution. Second, the working class, as represented first and foremost by the state which the victory of socialism had brought into being, made a crucial contribution to saving civilisation from the most monstrous phenomenon to emerge from the old world---fascism.
The place and role of the working class in world social development are examined in relation to these two historic achievements.
The first part of the volume treats the role of the working class in
12INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
13socialist construction in the USSR (1924-1937) and its great feat in charting the path for this new stage of historical development.
The unique achievements of. the USSR during the period of the first five-year plans made a great impact on men's minds. The new relations of production became firmly established in the course of socialist industrialisation and the transformation of the country's agriculture. The productive forces ceased to be a means of oppressing people. A political system took shape in which the committed effort of the working people provided the source and basis for an unprecedented phenomenon---a planned economy. State coercion receded, with state functions of a creative, "organisational and educational nature being moved in the foreground. The material basis for genuine equality and freedom with regard to the economy, politics, cultural activities and relations between different nations and nationalities and between social groups was growing apace.
As a result of the cultural revolution the many millions of- the working masses became actively involved in the process of mankind's historical development. The elimination of illiteracy, the striking rise in the educational level of the whole people at an unprecedented speed, the flowering of scientific research, literature and art, impressive technological advance---these were the main fruits of new, socialist culture. A radical reshaping of men's consciousness was achieved, men and women equipped to carry forward a new, higher civilisation were emerging onto the historical arena.
The whole way of life in the Land of Soviets was transformed at an amazing speed. Class antagonism and enmity between peoples disappeared, socialist nations and nationalities emerged, new relationships between individuals and groups began to rise. Voluntary cooperation and unselfish mutual assistance became the distinguishing characteristics of social relations right across the territory of the enormous state.
All these factors, in particular the elimination oi exploitation, unemployment and economic crises, the introduction of new social legislation, the management of the economy in the interests of the whole of society, the enthusiasm and the ideological purposefulness of those building that society, enhanced the attractive power of socialism and created a completely new atmosphere for the class confrontation in the non-socialist world.
Turning socialism from an ideal to reality was at that period the most significant achievement of the world revolutionary process, and this step provided the crucial guarantee that this process would not be turned back and ensured that this process would continue to make advances.
This meant that the class battles of the working class, discussed in the second part of this volume, took place in a 'radically changed
situation under the impact of the fundamental contradiction of the age---that between the world of capitalism and that of socialism--- which had now assumed a clearly defined shape.
The bourgeoisie after beating back the revolutionary onslaught of the proletariat achieved temporary stabilisation of its supremacy. Shifting its main efforts from an all-out attack against all workers' parties to the tactics of splitting the labour movement, the bourgeoisie directed its main attack against the communist movement. At the same time more energy was devoted to collaboration with the social democratic leaders so as to use their movement to hold back the revolutionary processes.
The Communists' all-important and most pressing task was to consolidate their parties by all the means at their disposal, to extend their influence among the masses in the course of the struggle for the unification of the working class and to win over other democratic forces to its side.
Some advances were made towards the achievement of this goal. However, when the world economy was shaken by a crisis and there was a very real threat of fascism just round the corner, the crucial minimum of working-class influence on the course of events in the capitalist world was not achieved. This was also a period which saw some mistakes and incorrect or misdirected political guidelines.
It was the working class and none other that bore the main brunt of the sacrifice involved in the defence of the human race against a new, unprecedented threat. Against the background of the profound crisis affecting the bourgeois-democratic institutions the line adopted by the Communists calling for the setting-up of a mass-scale antifascist movement represented the only path promising success in efforts to withstand the onslaught of the fascist aggressors.
For the most part the Communists succeeded in involving the progressive sections of the working people in the active anti-fascist struggle within the framework of the Popular Front. But social democratic parties and also leflfbourgeois political forces were seen to be irresolute and inconsistent with regard to major issues. This held back the advance of the mass anti-fascist movement, undermined the Popular Fronts and was to prove one of the reasons behind their defeat. Nevertheless it was precisely these Popular Fronts which dealt the first blows against fascism and charted the main course for anti-fascist policies used to unite all democratic forces subsequently.
The third part of this volume analyses the rise of the national liberation movement in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The working class in the countries concerned had, on the one hand, to emerge from the petty-bourgeois masses as an independent political force, and on the other, to cooperate with the national bourgeoisie in the struggle against colonialism. The most important achievement of
14INTRODUCTION
IXTRODUCTIO.V
15the working class in Asia and Africa in those years was its organisational formation, reflected in the emergence and development of communist parties. This factor obliged the national bourgeoisie to adopt a more resolute stand against imperialism. It was precisely at this period that the demands for partial concessions from the imperialists were replaced by slogans calling for complete national liberation.
The involvement of the working class as a more or less organised force in the national liberation movement began to affect the social content of that movement's programme. In the latter there now appeared demands for agrarian reforms, for the curtailment or elimination of feudal privileges, for shorter working hours, etc. Workers' organisations also introduced to the movement proletarian methods of struggle.
The demand for economic independence was the crucial preoccupation of the liberation movement in Latin America. In view of the higher level of class struggle already achieved in that continent, in comparison with that found in Asia and Africa, the bourgeoisie was even more prone to waver in its struggle against imperialist domination. The proletariat, on the other hand, "was greater in strength and better organised, and the communist parties in Latin America emerged, as a rule, in the first half of the 1920s. The working class had already a certain amount of experience and authority in antiimperialist, democratic campaigning, although it did not succeed in assuming the role of leader for all patriotic and democratic forces.
Part four is devoted to the international labour movement in the years of the Second World War. The aggressive imperialist plans of the fascists went hand in hand with their class goal, that of routing communism, above all its Soviet bastion. The short-sighted, conniving approach adopted by the ruling circles in other capitalist countries and the class-based egoism of the latter made it possible for the aggressor to unleash a world war.
In contrast, however, to all that took place in the years 1914- 1918 the imperialist reactionaries now found themselves up against infinitely more powerful resistance on the part of the forces striving for democracy and peace. In the first place a powerful, peace-loving socialist state was opposing their plans. Secondly, thanks to the efforts of the Communists, the imperialists failed to disrupt international proletarian and democratic solidarity or to prevent the emergence of an organised liberation movement against the occupying troops and aggressors, against fascism. Thirdly, the bourgeoisie in the United States, Britain, France and other non-fascist countries, while defending its economic and political interests, was obliged to take part in the war against the Axis powers: indeed, patriotic sections of the bourgeoisie in certain countries made their contribu-
tion to the Resistance. As a result of this, during the Second World War the anti-fascist line calling for liberation became a dominant trend and the first proletarian state that had been nurtured by the international labour movement came to be the main, decisive force in the rout of the fascist clique within the imperialist camp.
In the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet people the world's first socialist state showed its all-round superiority, and the driving force behind that state, which gave it its lead, was the working class. There were many examples of heroism in the name of justice in past ages, yet the unprecedented scale of heroism showed by Soviet men and women lent a new note to this heroism: it pointed to the fact that in a socialist environment a new man had emerged, embodying all the finest features of the working class---devotion to lofty humanist ideals, readiness for self-sacrifice in the name of those ideals, socialist patriotism and internationalism. Men of this new type were not rare, they did not constitute a thin stratum of society, they could be counted in dozens of millions.
The decisive role of the Soviet Union in the war against fascism contributed to an enormous extent to the increased authority enjoyed by socialism, the working class and its vanguard---the communist movement.
In the capitalist world, the emergence of the working class as the leading force among all anti-fascists took place against a backcloth of tense political struggle, defeatism and collaborationist tactics from certain sections of the ruling classes. The bewilderment, disorder and differences of opinion during the period when the Hitlerite war machine was celebrating stunning victories affected not only bourgeois opponents of nazism but also a good number of social democratic leaders.
At this critical time it was precisely the Communists who led the struggle for the creation of a united anti-fascist front. Without hesitation they attached prime importance to organising militant, armed resistance; they took upon themselves the role of the main cohesive force mobilising the anti-fascists into action. As a result of this, working-class leadership in the anti-fascist liberation struggle was recognised by the broad masses, and also in many cases by antifascists from the bourgeois camp. The mass-scale anti-fascist struggle which in most countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe, in Italy and France had culminated in uprisings and struck serious blows against fascism, thus creating the prerequisites for such an upsurge among the proletarian and democratic masses that the bourgeoisie's schemes to re-establish pre-war orders were thwarted in many countries. In France and Italy, although the bourgeoisie maintained its sway, it was, however, only at the price of substantial concessions to the working people. In the countries of Europe liberat-
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
17ed by the Soviet Army the moral and political authority of the working class and of its revolutionary vanguard was so great, and the bourgeoisie so widely discredited that this led a number of these countries to embark upon a socialist path of development.
The influence of communist parties that had proved themselves mos1?H;onsistent opponents of the fascist aggressors also gained a good deal of ground in countries that had been party to the anti-fascist coalition and in neutral countries.
In the colonial and dependent countries the policy pursued by the metropolitan countries that had entered the anti-Hitler and anti-Japanese coalition, pushed the national liberation movement in the direction of their imperialist rivals, the states of the fascist bloc. In these particularly complex conditions the communist parties made every effort to ensure that the upsurge of national sentiment should not screen the main danger stemming from Germany and Japan and that the national liberation movement should retain its anti-fascist character. The Communists' consistent opposition to fascism provided a guideline for all true fighters for national liberation, and the communist parties which had played an active part in the Resistance had come to represent a larger force in the countries of Asia and Africa.
During the years of the Second World War proletarian internationalism had to undergo a severe test. Not only did this principle play a major part in ensuring the cohesion and united stand of the working class itself in the grim conditions of the world war, but it can also be said to have extended beyond strictly proletarian limits and to have brought together the broad democratic masses in a very large number of countries. Thanks to this internationalism the proletariat could demonstrate in practice its capacity to act as a class expressing the progressive interests of the whole of society.
The importance of the experience gleaned in the anti-fascist and liberation struggle cannot be overestimated for the educational and political rise of the working class as the leading class in the new historical era. The masses of the working people, many millions strong, who hid come to appreciate the proletariat's determination, ability and moral right to assume the role of a progressive driving force behind society free from selfish class interests had made considerable strides forward in their understanding of the proletariat's historic mission.
It can be seen now that the qualities of the working class as the leading class of the new historical era formed and developed both in socialist construction and the revolutionary struggle. The building of socialism in the Soviet Union, the class and anti-fascist struggle in the early stages of the general crisis of capitalism served to shape the crucial contribution made by the working class to the world revolu-
tionary process over those twenty years to which this volume is devoted. In this connection the policies of the Soviet Union and the communist movement reflected the main trend for the further advance of the international working class towards its lofty goals, to its provision of ideological leadership in the progress of mankind and finally in more concrete terms, at the end of the period under discussion, to a new period of history in which socialism, spreading beyond the bounds of one country, was transformed into a world system. The authors who took part in the preparation of this volume represent the following institutes of the USSR Academy of Sciences: World History Institute, USSR History Institute, the-International Working-Class Movement Institute, the Institute for Oriental Studies, the Institute for Slavonic and Balkan Studies, the Institute of the Economy of the World Socialist System and also the Institute of Marxism-Leninism under the CPSU Central Committee.
Part One
BUILDERS OF THE FIRST SOCIALIST SOCIETY
Chapter 1 THE VICTORY OF SOCIALISM IN THE USSR
As soon as the national economy had been rehabilitated following the foreign intervention and Civil War the Soviet working class, led by the Communist Party, directed its main efforts at solving the central problem facing the proletarian revolution---how to build a socialist society. A new stage had now begun in the struggle to build socialism. Socialism which had previously been a theory or a dream of the working people for a better future now had to be put into practice, to become economic and social reality, the tangible inspiration for millions of men and women spread over one sixth of the world's surface.
Lenin stressed that the road to socialism would "never be straight, it will be incredibly involved...''^^1^^. It goes without saying that the hardest problems---concerning the theory, practice and psychological implications of socialism---were those shouldered by the Soviet working class, which first blazed this trail leading into the future.
The working class was called upon to carry out tasks of an unprecedented scale and difficulty. The progressive classes that came to power as a result of bourgeois revolutions had only to adapt the political superstructure to meet the requirements of the new economic basis that had spontaneously taken shape within the framework of the old society. When the proletarian revolution took place there were no ready-made forms for the socialist mode of production. This meant that for the first time in history the working class was embarking upon the creation of the material and technical base for socialism and guiding the process for the shaping of new, socialist production relations. After once putting an end to the exploitation of man by man, while strengthening its commanding heights, won in the
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, "Extraordinary Seventh Congress of the R.C.P.(B.)", Collected Works, Vol. 27, 1965, p. 130 (here and hereafter Progress Publishers, Moscow).
22CHAPTER 1
THE VICTORY OF SOCIALISM IN THE USSR
23years immediately after October 1917, the working class now had to set up a fundamentally new basis for economic and social development.
The task of socialist construction in the USSR was made particuarly complicated in view of a number of historical conditions. The level of development of pre-revolutionary Russia's productive forces had been relatively low and the country's economy had been disrupted by the destruction that ensued from the First World War and the Civil War, the war of intervention and the economic blockade organised by the international bourgeoisie. Russia's encirclement by capitalist countries had intensified the resistance of the deposed classes and the vacillation of the petty-bourgeois strata, and fanned the flames of counter-revolution. The world's first proletarian state was being subjected to serious pressure from without. Imperialist circles were not hiding their anti-Soviet, aggressive intentions. The working class and the other working people of the USSR were faced by the choice of either building up a powerful economy within a very short period by almost superhuman effort and thus strengthening their defence potential, or of being destroyed by the international forces of imperialism.
The working class led by the Communist Party was not daunted by this great historic task. Taking as their guide Lenin's programme for the building of socialism that charted out the development of productive forces, the transformation of social relations and the reshaping of men's outlook and aspirations, the working people of the country carried out their work for which there was no historical precedent anywhere in the world.
The power of socialist ideas, the advantages of socialist production relations, the cohesion and organisation of the working class and their vanguard---the Communist Party, the creative enthusiasm of the popular masses were so great that even in unfavourable conditions the world's first socialist society was built in what by historical standards was an extremely short time. This represented a vast step forward in the execution by the proletariat of their world-wide historic mission.
The success achieved in socialist construction which demonstrated in practice the feasibility of socialist ideals and the superiority of the new social order furthered the world revolutionary process. The victory of socialism in the USSR demonstrated for all to see the advantages of a new social order for resolving the fundamental problems inherent in a new historical age and thus enhanced the authority of the working class as the driving force behind social advance, providing inspiration for the struggle of the progressive, democratic forces in the world as a whole. "Socialist transformations in Russia paved the way for the revolutionary change of the social
aspect of our planet, creating a solid base in one state for the international liberation movement.''^^1^^
As it worked to build socialism the working class also found solutions to the main problems of the age, opened up new horizons for mankind's social progress and led the way towards the liberation of the working people of the whole world.
THE STRUGGLE AGAINST THE AGGRESSIVE INTENTIONS OF THE IMPERIALISTS
After routing the armies of intervention sent against it by the forces of international imperialism the Soviet working class, led by the Communist Party, upheld the gains of the Great October Revolution and secured peace that was such an essential prerequisite for socialist construction. However, the position of the Soviet state in relation to the countries outside remained complex and fraught with tension. After experiencing a setback in their attempts to "nip communism in the bud", the leaders of the capitalist world were unwilling even to contemplate any long-term coexistence with a country that had dared to try and undermine the entrenched principles of their society based upon exploitation.
In the late 1920s, the imperialist powers stepped up their activity directed against the Soviet state. In 1927, provocative attacks were instigated against Soviet missions in China and Britain. In June 1927, the Soviet plenipotentiary in Warsaw, P.L. Voikov, was killed. The Conservative British Government of the time broke off diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union. The imperialist powers incited the states sharing borders with the Soviet Union to embark upon acts of armed provocation. In 1929, Chinese militarists made an armed attack on Soviet territory. A number of capitalist countries introduced restrictions designed to obstruct trade with the" USSR. All this served to demonstrate ,that the old world had not given up its plans to wipe out the state of the workers and peasants. The working people of the USSR were forced at one and the' same time to proceed with the building of socialism, while making an all-out effort to defend their country.
The main task before the working class and its Communist Party in the sphere of foreign policy was to ensure the most possible favourable conditions in the international arena for the building of the new society. While resolutely condemning and warding off the antiSoviet, military, political and economic actions of the imperialists, the USSR actively pursued the Leninist policy of peaceful coexistence
~^^1^^ On the Centenary of the Birth of V. I. Lenin. Theses of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Moscow, 1970, p. 18 (in Russian).
24CHAPTER 1
THE VICTORY OF SOCIALISM IN THE USSR
with the capitalist countries and of normal political and economic relations with the latter.
The creation of the most favourable conditions for the implementation of socialist transformations within the country, which provided the crucial foundation for the world revolutionary process, helped the Soviet working class to carry out its vital international task of supporting and helping in all possible ways the revolutionary struggle of the working people.
Inherent in the foreign policy of the victorious proletariat was tremendous moral and political potential. From the moment it had come into being the Republic of the Soviets had constituted the main bastion of peace in the world. Its policy of peace and friendship expressed the fundamental law of the socialist order, which has no vested interest iir aggressive wars or in the enslavement of peoples outside its own borders. Unlike the bourgeoisie in the imperialist countries which planned and acted in accordance with military considerations and designs for the domination of one group of countries over others, the working class, when it came to power, put forward principles of foreign policy and international relations that were quite new. The humanist essence of socialism found expression in the Soviet Union's struggle for peace, as also did the fact that the working class upholds not only its values and ideals determined by class interests but also by those of mankind as a whole.
The working class of the USSR upheld the cause of peace against the imperialists and their most aggressive progeny, the fascists: it condemned all aggression in principle, as indeed colonialism, the seizure of foreign lands and the enslavement of their peoples, the interference in internal affairs of other states, and campaigned for the right of every people to self-determination, i.e., to have the right to determine its own destiny and to wage a revolutionary struggle for national and social liberation. The foreign policy of the working people's republic reflected Karl Marx's vision of "a new Society... whose International rule will be Peace, because its national ruler will be everywhere the same---Labourl"^^1^^
Relying on the growing power of the socialist state and the increasing support from the working class throughout the world, the Land of Soviets not only repulsed sallies by the imperialists but also consolidated its international position.
Attempts by aggressive circles in the capitalist countries to ensure the diplomatic isolation of the Soviet Union failed. In 1924, the diplomatic blockade was breached to which the Land of Soviets had been subjected since 1918. By January 1925 the Soviet Union had established diplomatic relations with twenty-one states. In the
late 1920s and early 1930s the Soviet Union concluded non-aggression treaties and neutrality agreements with Turkey, Germany, Afghanistan, Iran, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland and France.
Bourgeois propaganda did not succeed in denigrating the socialist state in the eyes of the rest of the world. Moreover, the capitalist countries were obliged more and more to come to terms with the USSR's greater influence in the international arena and in the popularity of Soviet foreign policy among the masses. In the early 1930s the United States, Spain, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Belgium and a number of other countries established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.
A pointer to the growing international importance of the USSR and to the authority of its peaceful policies was provided by the invitation extended by 30 countries to the Soviet Union to join the League of Nations. In September 1934, this invitation was accepted by the Soviet Government. The Soviet Union could not, of course, ignore the balance of forces that had emerged within the League of Nations and the reluctance of the imperialist states represented there constructively to resolve international issues, above all those relating to the maintenance of peace and to disarmament. Being well aware that the nature of the League of Nations was unlikely to change, the Soviet Union set out to support those states anxious to oppose fascist aggression and make use of the platform and machinery of the League of Nations to this end.
The anti-Soviet policies of the imperialist powers were pursued against the background of a mounting threat of a new war, exacerbated by the world economic crisis of 1929-1932. The imperialists sought a way out' of this crisis, and out of the antagonisms and contradictions that were tearing capitalist society apart, through the establishment of fascist dictatorships, the militarisation of the economy and the unleashing of aggressive wars.
At the beginning of the 1930s, the states with totalitarian, fascist regimes openly embarked on a path of aggression. In 1931, Japanese militarists invaded North-Eastern China and occupied Manchuria, thus opening up a seat of war in the Far East. After Hitler came to power in 1933, Germany set in motion feverish war preparations. This was how the main arena for world war began to emerge. In 1935, fascist Italy unleashed an aggressive war against Ethiopia. In the summer of 1936, there followed the invasion of republican Spain by Germany and Italy. War was to encroach still further across European territory when military-cum-political treaties were concluded between Germany and Italy (the Berlin-Rome axis) and also between Germany and Japan (the Anti-Comintern pact): this signalled the creation of an aggressive bloc set on unleashing a world war.
~^^1^^ K. Marx and F. Engels, On the Paris Commune, Moscow, 1976, p. 39.
CHAPTER 1
THE VICTORY OF SOCIALISM IN THE USSR
27The fascist states made no secret of their anti-communism and their plans for a crusade against the USSR. Meanwhile the governments in the countries of bourgeois democracy---Britain, France and the United States---for all intents and purposes were pandering to the fascist regimes by supporting the aggressive trends in their foreign policies, counting on being able to use the fascists as the main strike force in the struggle against the USSR.
An historic service of the Soviet working class, of the revolutionary proletariat, is that they were the first to point out the enormously dangerous implications of fascism not only for one or more particular countries but for mankind as a whole. It was inevitable from the historical point of view that the first socialist country should head the struggle to check the fascist aggressors, to defend the social and democratic achievements of the peoples and protect world culture and civilisation.
The fact that peace was the prime goal of socialist foreign policy made the Land of the Soviets the natural ally of the forces striving to combat the military threat of fascism. The People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Maxim Litvinov made it clear at the Extraordinary 8th Congress of Soviets in November 1936 that the Soviet Union sought "peace for itself and the other peoples and was therefore offering them its collaboration. It expects from others not words about peace, but active organisational effort to ensure the same.''^^1^^
In its struggle to avert war, the Soviet Government took into account the differences between the imperialist states, the pacifist inclinations and the realistic attitude towards the threat of fascist aggression for all states adopted by certain representatives of the ruling class in Europe. It attached overriding importance to the task of coordinating the peace-orientated foreign policy of the USSR, with the revolutionary struggle of the working class in the capitalist countries, the national liberation struggle of the oppressed peoples and the broad-based, democratic anti-war movement with its noble aim of preserving peace. Soviet foreign policy initiatives promoted the growth of the international movement against the impending war.
Discussions on the subject of general disarmament initiated by the Soviet Union at that time were of crucial importance. Between 1928 and 1932 Soviet proposals were discussed in the Preparatory Commission for the Disarmament Conference, and alsa.at the Geneva Disarmament Conference (1932). Although these proposals were not adopted, they played an important role in activising the mass struggle against war.
In 1933, the Soviet Union put forward a proposal for concluding a joint agreement on mutual assistance in the case of aggression with
France, Finland, Czechoslovakia and the Baltic states. Such an agreement could have provided the basis for a system of collective security in Europe. In 1935, successful efforts were made to conclude a Soviet-French and a Soviet-Czechoslovak treaty of mutual assistance. In 1936, a protocol was signed providing for mutual assistance between the Soviet Union and the Mongolian People's Republic, which played an important part in frustrating the aggressive plans of the Japanese imperialists directed against Mongolia and the USSR.
In the League of Nations, Soviet representatives called for the establishment of a system of collective security, for the adoption of effective measures against the war-mongers. In August 1936, the Soviet delegation to the League of Nations announced a proposal for measures designed to consolidate collective security. The USSR proposed that regional pacts providing for mutual assistance should be concluded between the states of specific geographic regions.
The Soviet Union campaigned tirelessly for the adoption of effective measures to stop the Italian aggression in Ethiopia. The Soviet Government went all out to persuade the governments of bourgeois democracies resolutely to oppose German and Italian intervention in Spain.
While in the diplomatic sphere these steps made by the USSR met with opposition from the governments of-the capitalist countries, it was impossible to exaggerate the moral and political impact they had on the international public. The anti-war movement in capitalist countries, the international congresses organised by fighters for peace, the movements of solidarity with the peoples of Ethiopia and republican Spain, and other acts undertaken by peace-loving forces stirred the imagination of wide sectors of society, whose struggle was to play a far from insignificant role in the international isolation of the fascist aggressors and in undermining the plans of imperialist reactionaries to set up a united anti-Soviet front.
Loyalty to proletarian internationalism remained the invariable foundation for the foreign policy of the Soviet working class. The main inspiration encouraging proletarian solidarity came at that time from the world's first socialist country. The activity of the Soviet working class in the international arena had nothing whatsoever in common with so-called "Soviet intervention" in the internal affairs of other countries, as bourgeois and reformist historians allege. The Communist Party (Bolsheviks) rejected out of hand Trotskyite theories of ``pushing'' revolutions in the West. The USSR consistently pursued a Leninist foreign policy aimed at furthering the coexistence of countries with different social systems.
The active involvement of the Soviet working class in the international movement for proletarian solidarity was a natural outcome of the common interests shared by the working people of the whole
Pravda, November 29, 1936.
28CHAPTER 1
THE VICTORY OF SOCIALISM IN THE USSR
29world, not the result of geopolitical calculations, as bourgeois ideologues proclaimed.
In the 1920s and4930s, the Soviet Union afforded tremendous help to the Chinese people. The Soviet working class was behind all the large-scale international campaigns for solidarity with the Chinese revolution. On September 5, 1924, when it was made known that the British imperialists were making ready for armed intervention against revolutionary China, the presidium of the Ail-Union Central Council of Trade Unions turned to the Soviet working people and the workers of all countries with an appeal for them to oppose the intervention in China. Four days later the Hands Off China Society numbered over a million members.^^1^^
Demonstrations in support of the Chinese revolution were striking because of their enormous scale. The newspaper of the Chinese Communists Gunen Zhiwu said on July 7, 1926 that "the whole Russian people is participating in this movement to help China". With reference to the support shown by the working people of the USSR for the national liberation struggle of the Chinese people, Sun Yatsen wrote: "We must not forget that free Russia came forward with the slogan 'Hands off China!'... When it comes to the slogans that ring out from Moscow distance does not exist. They flash forth through the world like lightning, and stir the heart of every working man.... We know that the Soviets will never support an unjust cause. If they are supporting us, this means that truth is on our side too, and truth cannot fail to conquer, the cause of justice is bound to triumph
over violence.''^^2^^
After Japan's attack on China in 1937 the Soviet Union was the only country which announced its readiness to help China in the war against the invaders. After failing to secure the support of the Western powers, the Kuomintang government was forced to sign in 1937 a non-aggression-treaty with the Soviet Union, a treaty which made provision for wide-scale Soviet aid to China.
The support given by the Soviet people to the heroic war of national liberation waged by the people of Spain forms a shining page in the annals of the international working class. The Soviet Government undertook energetic diplomatic efforts to put an end to German and Italian intervention in Spain. The Soviet Union subscribed to the non-intervention agreement, hoping to localise the civil war in Spain and stop it growing into world conflict and also to prevent Germany and Italy from interfering in the internal affairs of that country. When it became obvious that this policy of "non-interven-
~^^1^^ The Leninist Policy of the USSR towards China, Moscow, 1968, p. 59 (in
Russian).
~^^2^^ Quoted from Ping Min, A History of Chinese-Soviet Friendship, Moscow,
1959, p. 146 (in Russian).
tion" merely provided a facade for German and Italian intervention, the Soviet Government announced that it regarded any obligations stemming from the non-intervention agreement as no longer binding.^^1^^
The Soviet Union gave wide-scale economic and military assistance to republican Spain. During the war 648 planes, 347 tanks, 60 armoured trucks, 1,186 guns, 20,486 machine-guns, and 497,813 bayonets were delivered to republican Spain from the Soviet Union and also large shipments of ammunition and military equipment.^^2^^
In response to a request from the Spanish Government the Soviet Union sent a large group of military advisors to Spain, chief among them being Y.K. Berzin,G.M. Stern, K.M. Kachanov, K.A. Meretskov, B.I. Simonov. Soviet engineers, technicians and workers afforded Spain considerable help by setting up and organising its arms industry. Of the 42,000 anti-fascist volunteers .from 54 countries who fought in Spain in the International Brigades, close on 3,000 were from the Soviet Union. Soviet volunteers showed outstanding heroism and courage in the struggle of the Spanish people, 59 of them were awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union; 19 of these awards were posthumous.
The Soviet people was at the forefront of the movement for international solidarity with, republican Spain. Rallies calling for solidarity with the heroic Spanish people were held throughout the country. At Soviet factories orders for Spain were regarded as assignments of great responsibility that it was an honour to receive. They were entrusted to the finest production workers.
In 1936, those present at a 120,000-strong meeting of Muscovites issued an appeal for the organisation of a fund to assist the Spanish patriots. Between August 1936 and 1939 the Soviet working people collected a total of 274 million roubles that was duly sent to Spain.3 Since March 1937 the children of Spanish fighters against fascism began to arrive in the Soviet Union. They received their schooling and vocational training in the Soviet Union, which was to become for them a second home.^^4^^
The position adopted in these matters by the Soviet Union in a spirit of proletarian internationalism was in complete accord with the fight against fascism in the name of peace and independence for the peoples of ,the world.
~^^1^^ The History of Soviet Foreign Policy, 1917-1945, Vol. 1, Moscow, 1980, p. 323 (in Russian).
~^^2^^ M. T. Meshcheryakov, The Spanish Republic and the Comintern, Moscow, 1981, p. 51 (in Russian).
~^^3^^ Ibid., p. 48.
~^^4^^ V. A. Talashova, The Soviet Komsomol Is an Active Participant in the Movement for Solidarity with Republican Spain during the National-Revolutionary War (1936-1939), Leningrad, 1972, p. 14 (in Russian).
30CHAPTER 1
THE VICTORY OF SOCIALISM IN THE USSR
31Soviet foreign policy provided a model for combining efforts of Party, Government and people in order to resolve problems of international relations. In all societies based on exploitation questions of foreign policy are carefully kept away from the masses. In this new, socialist society, on the other hand, the Party'and Government made special efforts to educate the widest possible sectors of the population on questions of foreign policy and actively involve them in foreignpolicy, activity.
The working class and its organisations played a prominent role in the shaping of the Soviet Union's international ties. The activity of Soviet mass organisations was particularly great in such international bodies as the Red International of Labour Unions, the Communist Youth International, International Red Aid, the AntiImperialist League, the Red Sport International, the International Society of War Vetorans, the International Association of FreeThinking Proletarians, the International Union of Friends of the USSR. Soviet mass organisations took an active part in the international anti-war movement, in the work of the International Committee for the Fight against War and Fascism, whose members included A.M. Gorky, N.M. Shvernik and E.D. Stasova. A national Anti-War Committee was set up in the Soviet Union.
The years of all-out socialist construction in the USSR were characterised by rapid development of the international ties established by the Soviet working class. Delegations of Soviet workers began visiting foreign countries.^^1^^
New forms of international contacts also began to appear. In August 1929, the railway-workers of Hamburg appealed to Soviet railway-workers to engage in international competition in revolutionary activity. This appeal met with a large-scale response. Hundreds of agreements for international revolutionary competition of this type were drawn up between workers' collectives in the USSR and workers in Germany, France, Britain, the United States, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Soviet workers pledged to fulfil plans for socialist construction ahead of schedule. Workers from other countries promised to intensify their anti-war, anti-fascist struggle, to intensify their union activities, propagate Soviet achievements in socialist construction and expose the anti-Soviet schemes of the imperialists and much else besides.
No significant class battle or demonstration by an oppressed people took place anywhere that did not produce a keen response and active support from the Soviet working people. When in 1926 the General Strike began in Britain, large demonstrations and rallies were held
in support of the British workers. Of the total 18,800,000 roubles received by the British miners during the strike 11,400,000 were from Soviet workers. In the greeting sent by the Miners' Federation of Great Britain to the 7th Congress of the Trade Unions of the USSR it was pointed out: "Many have extended to us valuable support, but the spontaneous and magnanimous help sent by our Russian comrades with no strings attached whatsoever is particularly appreciated and will always be remembered gratefully by the mining population of Britain.''^^11^^
The working class of the USSR gave both moral and material support to the striking workers of Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Italy, France, Belgium, India, Japan, Syria, Canada and a number of other countries.
Soviet workers took part in the international campaign in defence of worker activists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti who were condemned to death in the United States for a crime they had not committed. In the USSR, hundreds of meetings were held, funds were collected at many factories, which were sent to the International Red Aid organisation for the solidarity campaign in support of the legal defence of the American workers.
In the summer of 1927, the Soviet working class gave help to those taking part in the revolutionary battles of the Viennese proletariat. The Soviet working people protested strongly against the firing at the Mayday demonstration in Berlin in 1929. A campaign to help the families of the German workers killed and wounded was started in Moscow on the initiative of the city's metal-workers. In the summer and autumn of 1929, a number of groups of German workers came to the Soviet Union at the invitation of the Central Committee of International Red Aid in the USSR. They were allocated places in Soviet sanatoria where they could recuperate.^^2^^
The working class of the USSR took an active part in international campaigns of solidarity with victims of bourgeois terror and repression, including campaigns to save nine unjustly condemned Black youths from Scottsboro, to free Tom Mooney and to grant asylum to political emigres, and against repressive treatment of progressive forces in Austria and Spain.^^3^^
~^^1^^ 7th Congress of the Trade Unions of the USSR (December 6-18, 1926). Pleniry Sessions and Section Meetings. Verbatim Report, Moscow, 1927, p. 835 (in Russian).
~^^2^^ Pravda, June 7, 1929; the journal Path of International Red Aid, Issue 21_ 1929, p. 16.
~^^3^^ Results of the Activity of International Red Aid (1922-1947). Report drawn, up by the Presidium of Soviet IRA's Central Committee, Moscow, 1948, p. 34 (ia Russian).
~^^1^^ L. S. Ozerov, Socialist Construction in the USSR and International Proletarian Solidarity (1921-1937), Moscow, 1972, pp. 195-96 (in Russian).
32CHAPTER 1
THE VICTORY OF SOCIALISM IN THE USSR
33The Soviet working people were the first to respond to the appeal for help for the victims of fascist terror in Germany. A vivid demonstration of this support was found in the struggle to free Georgi Dimitrov, Ernst Thalmann and thousands of German anti-fascists. Georgi Dimitrov wrote: "We know to whom we owe our rescue. If it were not for the Comintern and international proletarian efforts, our press, Pravda, if it were not for the formidable strength of the Soviet working class, we would not be alive here now.''^^1^^
Soviet men and -women protested angrily at the repressive measures instigated by the Austrian authorities against those who had taken part in the uprising in Vienna ia February 1934: funds were collected to help the families of those workers who had been killed. In their message to the Austrian workers at that time the working people of Leningrad declared: "Comrades, in your brave armed struggle against the fascist regime, a regime of hunger and poverty, exploitation and white terror, you have written one of the most magnificent chapters in the history of the revolutionary movement.''^^2^^In response to a proposal from the Red Putilovets factory a fund was set up under the auspices of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions to support the Austrian defenders of the workers' cause. As a result of the repression instigated against those taking part in the uprising, the Soviet Union offered political asylum to a large group of armed workers' detachments, men from the Schutzbund. In 1934 aiid!935 close on 800 men who had taken part in the February battles in Austria arrived in the USSR with their families. In addition, some 120 children of Schutzbund fighters who had fallen in the fighting or been arrested werp cared for and educated in a Moscow children's home.^^3^^ In February 1935, Schutzbund men who had been working in Leningrad sent a letter to the Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, Mikhail Kalinin, in which they wrote: "...what the workers and peasants of the Soviet Union have done for us bears witness to the sincerity of international proletarian solidarity that has become tangible reality. The country where the dictatorship of the proletariat holds sway provides us every day with ample evidence of the fact that it "is our socialist Fatherland in the true sense of the word."'*
In its turn, the Soviet working class received more and more help from the proletariat of other countries^^1^^. Delegations of workers from the capitalist countries began to visit the Soviet Union: in the decade from 1924 to 1934 around 120 delegations of foreign workers came to the Soviet Union^^2^^. These visits by workers' delegations to the Soviet Union added greatly to the-momentum of the movement in support of the Land of Soviets. First-hand experience of Soviet reality made a great impact on the working people from abroad: the •words spoken by Ernst Thalmann, leader of the German Communists, were borne out tim.e and time again: "Graphic examples of the dictatorship of the proletariat make more convincing arguments for socialism than the seventy years of patient propaganda work prior to November 1917.''^^3^^ It was by no means a coincidence that precisely such workers' delegations that had visited the USSR were to emerge as the initiators behind the setting up of societies for friendship with the USSR in their own cbuntries in the years that followed.
The working people of the capitalist countries gave concrete help to the USSR through the collection of funds for the five-year plans, by collecting and dispatching technical equipment to the USSR and by passing on information regarding production techniques and technological advances, through working on the new projects for the five-year plans on> a contractual basis. Given the enormous scale of socialist construction, this help may not appear very significant, viewed in terms of pure figures, yet its ideological and political impact was inestimabe. Fraternal support from the proletariat of other countries fanned the creative energy of Soviet men and women and inspired them to ever new labour exploits.
The involvement of large sections of the working people in other countries in the fostering of international ties with the Soviet Union, in the movement to support the world's first socialist country was a tremendously enlightening experience for all concerned. The international proletariat, as noted by K'alinin at a celebration meeting of Moscow City Soviet to mark the twelfth anniversary of the October Revolution, "is coming more and more with each passing year to see the Soviet Union as its true Fatherland and the cause of the Soviet Union, the cause of the working class and the peasantry in the USSR as a cause that closely concerns them, apd to see us, the workers and peasants, as their vanguard".^^4^^ International solidarity was the reflec-
~^^1^^ See Chapter 4 of this volume.
~^^2^^ Trade Unions in the USSR: Documents and Materials, Vol. 2, Moscow, 1963, p. 680 (in Russian); Trud, May 9, 1932; November 11, 1932; May 1, November 10 and 14, 1933.
~^^3^^ Ernst Thalmann, Reden und Aufsdtze zur Geschichte der deutschen Arbeiterbewegung, Vol. 1, Berlin, 1955, p. 271.
~^^4^^ M. I. Kalinin, Selected Works, Vol. 2, 1926-1932, Moscow, 1960, p. 361 (in Russian).
3-01614
~^^1^^ Pravda, February 28, 1934.
~^^2^^ R. S. Mnukhina. "The International Solidarity of the Working People with the Austrian Proletariat in February 1934", Leningrad University Transactions. Questions of Modern History (Historical Sciences Series), No. 194, Issue 23, 1955,
p. 193 (in Russian).
~^^3^^ International Beacon, No. 19, 1934, p. 11; No. 3, 1935, p. 11 (in Russian).
~^^4^^ The Cause of the Working People of the World. Materials, Documents and Sketches Relating to fraternal Assistance and Solidarity of the Working People of Foreign Countries with the Peoples of the USSR, Moscow, 1957, p. 314 (in Russia n).
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34CHAPTER 1
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3.r>
tion of the enormous step forward in the awareness of the workers of all countries of the fact that they belonged to the world army of the proletariat welded together by common class interests and a common cause---the fight for socialism.
SOCIALIST CONSTRUCTION
By the mid-1920s the socialist structure had taken firm root in the country's economy: in 1925, the socialist sector of large-scale industry accounted for 96.1 per cent of total output, and that within industry as a whole for 81 per cent.^^1^^ The Lenin-guided plan of the State Commission for the Electrification of Russia was being successfully implemented. The progress of industrial planning and that of the regulation of agriculture made it possible to compile centrally planned accounts covering all spheres of the economy. By this time large-scale industrial production had been made operational once more and its output in 1925 had reached three quarters of the pre-war figure. The area of land under cultivation had now almost reached the pre-war level and the gross yield in agriculture had exceeded that level by 12 percent.^^2^^ The number of factory workers had now almost reached the pre-war level and their levels of productivity and political consciousness were considerably higher than before. There had also been a considerable improvement in the material position of the industrial workers, the working peasants and the office workers. The undeniably essential prerequisites for the creation of the material and technical base of a socialist society had been provided. Realising the country's potentialities now required the mobilisation of all the forces the Party and the working masses could muster.
The shift to the execution of new tasks took place against a complex background. On January 21, 1924 the Party, the Soviet people and the international labour movement suffered a grievous loss: the death of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, "a giant among scientific thinkers and a true popular leader, an ardent revolutionary and the creator of the Communist Party and the world's first socialist state".^^3^^
The next day the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) drew up an appeal entitled: "To the Party, to All Working People". It read: "Never since Marx has the history of the great liberation movement of the proletariat brought forth such a giant as our deceased leader, teacher and friend. All that is
~^^1^^ A Short History of the USSR, Part II, Moscow, 1972, p. 183 (in Russian).
~^^2^^ History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Vol. 4, Book 1, Moscow, 1970, p. 371 (in Russian).
~^^3^^ To Mark the 110th A'nniversary of the Birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU, December 13, 1979, Moscow, 1980, p. 3 (in Russian).
great and heroic in the proletariat was magnificently embodied in Lenin whose name has become the symbol of the new world in every corner of the globe---a fearless mind, an unswerving, resolute, iron will that would overcome all obstacles, a profound hatred of slavery and oppression that was a hatred unto death, revolutionary ardour that could move mountains, a boundless faith in the creative power of the masses and a tremendous gift for leadership.''^^1^^ Rallies and meetings to mourn Lenin's death were held all over the-eeuntry. On January 27, the coffin containing Lenin's body was placed in the Mausoleum on Red Square. Factories and offices throughout the land observed a five minutes' silence.
In Berlin, Paris, London, Prague, Warsaw, Havana, Copenhagen, Peking and other cities of the world rallies and demonstrations were held to mark Lenin's death. Workers from Chicago wrote in their telegram to the Executive Committee of the Comintern: "Together with workers throughout the world we mourn at this great loss suffered by the international working class. Lenin is dead but his ideals shall live on in us.''^^2^^ The Central Committee of the Communist Party of France wrote: "With the name of Lenin on their lips and the image of him in their hearts the workers will carry on the stru'ggle, never turning aside from the path charted by Lenin.''^^3^^
In a special appeal to mark the occasion the Executive Committee of the Communist International we read: "Follow Lenin's behests which are still the driving force behind his Party and everything that his life's work brought into being.''^^4^^
For the Soviet working class and its vanguard, the Communist Party, to follow Lenin's behests meant above all implementing Lenin's plan for the building of socialism, which presupposed socialist industrialisation, the socialist transformation of agriculture and the completion of a cultural revolution.
After Lenin's death those opposed to Lenin(s teaching on the feasibility of the victory of socialism first of all in one individual country once again became active. This undoubtedly held back the work of the Communist Party aimed at putting into practice Lenin's plan for the building of socialism. However, thanks to the ideological and political maturity of the Party's leading cadres and also of its rank and file, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union proved equal to the great, historic tasks confronting it. The 14th Party Conference, which was held in April 1925, summed
~^^1^^ The CPSU in the Resolutions and Decisions of Congresses, Conferences and Plenary Meetings of the Central Committee, Vol. 2, Moscow, 1970, p. 534 (in Russian).
~^^2^^ Pravda, January 30, 1924.
~^^3^^ L'Humanite, January 23, 1924.
~^^4^^ Pravda, January 24, 1924.
3»
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37up the results of the discussion on the feasibility of the victory of socialism in one country. In December 1925, the 14th Congress of the CPSU (Bolsheviks) denned the path of socialist development to be followed, stating that: "We should channel economic development, bearing in mind that we aim to transform the USSR from a country that imports machinery and equipment into one that produces machinery and equipment, to ensure that the USSR in its present situation of capitalist encirclement should not under any circumstances be turned into an economic appendage of the world capitalist economy....''^^1^^ This proclamation of a course aimed at socialist industrialisation marked for the USSB the beginning of a period of reconstruction of its whole economy on a new technical and social basis. In a resolution passed at the 14th Congress it was pointed out that socialism was becoming more and more a living reality and that men could now see "the economic offensive of the proletariat on the basis of a new economic policy and the advance of the USSR's economy in the direction of socialism".^^2^^
In modern bourgeois historical writing it is widely maintained that socialist industrialisation is merely one of the ways to put an end to technical and economic backwardness, which differs in no major respects from capitalist industrialisation.
In practice the Soviet people was to perform all the tasks that the Russian capitalists had neglected: to overcome the country's technical and economic backwardness, set up heavy industry and put an end to the country's dependence upon foreign capital. Yet in its social goals and methods socialist industrialisation was fundamentally different from its capitalist counterpart. Capitalist industrialisation strengthened the system of exploitation and bourgeois domination. Socialist industrialisation which had brought in its wake the complete elimination of exploitation of man by man, was designed to elevate the working class in all possible ways to its new role as the ruling class in society.
The intensification of the exploitation of the working people, the impoverishment of small-scale producers and the shameless plundering of colonies and dependent nations, even traffic in slaves, such were the sources of capital accumulation indispensable for capitalist industrialisation. At the same time agricultural over-population, unemployment in the towns and the poverty of the popular masses gave rise to extremely cruel economic pressure on the working people, compelling them to accept bad working conditions and submit to merciless capitalist discipline. However, the world-wide historic mission of the proletariat was precisely to put an end to all forms of
exploitation and to replace discipline based on economic compulsion b'v conscious discipline among the members of a work-force, all enjoying equal rights as creators and masters of their own destiny The new order in the Soviet Union put an end to exploitation, agrarian over-population and unemployment, and the backward borderlands, where the nationalities had formerly been exploited as subject peoples, were now afforded economic assistance. As a result of these radical changes the traditional methods used for the accumulation of capital became a thing of the past and far less recourse was made to economic compulsion as a means of strengthening labour discipline.
The Party and the working class had to find out totally different methods of industrialisation.
Pointing to the absence of appropriate conditions in the Soviet Union for implementing industrialisation by using capitalist methods, bourgeois theoreticians in those days concluded that the Soviet plans were unfeasible, since they declined to accept the plausibility of any other methods of industrialisation apart from the capitalist ones. This dogmatic insistence on capitalist methods of industrialisation as the only possible ones was taken up by the opposition within the Party. It declared the tasks set the country by the Party were unrealistic. In the opinion of this opposition, the fact that the Party could not use capitalist sources of accumulation or capitalist methods to stimulate economic development meant that industrialisation would have to proceed more slowly than originally scheduled. Using arguments of this type N. Bukharin and his supporters came out in favour of preserving the private capitalist sector in the economy for a long period, while the Trotskyites in their turn advocated a policy involving direct exploitation of the peasantry.
The Soviet people was faced' with the task of carrying out a totally new type of industrialisation which was to provide a firm foundation for the dictatorship of the proletariat and ensure the victory of socialist forms of the economy in town and country.^^1^^
Within Soviet society there emerged fundamentally new sources of the accumulation of money and fundamentally new stimuli capable of giving an immeasurably greater momentum to economic development than all the economic levers familiar to the capitalists. The elimination of private ownership of the main means of production put an end to the bourgeoisie's parasitic consumption. According to the calculations of Academician Stanislav Strumilin, the annual rate of net profit in Russian industry during the period 1885-1913 was 16.2 per cent and the rate for the annual growth of
i The CPSU in the Resolutions..., Vol. 3, Moscow, 1970, p. 245. "- Ibid, p. 246.
~^^1^^ From Capitalism to Socialism: Problems Central to the History of the Transition Period in the USSR. 1917-1937, Vol. II, Moscow, 1981, p. 61 (in Russian).
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38CHAPTER 1
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39fixed capital was only 7.2 per cent.^^1^^ The difference between these two figures indicates that the enormous sums of surplus value were used by the propertied classes for their personal consumption.
As a result of land nationalisation and the elimination of the land-owning class the colossal payments formerly made by the peasants in the shape of feudal and capitalist rents that had bled the agrarian economy of enormous resources had become a thing of the past. The taxes on the peasantry were drastically cut down, which meant tha't the peasants now had considerable means at their disposal to improve their conditions of life and develop their
holdings.
The nationalisation of the enterprises owned by foreign capitalists, the cancellation of debts which at the end of 1917 totalled the enormous sum of 64,000 million gold roubles^^2^^ made it possible to amass considerable resources indispensable for the industrialisation drive. The socialist sector of the economy was now to become a more reliable source for the accumulation of money and later indeed it was to be the all-important one. From 1929 onwards social production developed mainly thanks to this accumulation achieved within the socialist sector of the economy.
However the main qualitative advantages of socialist production came to the fore while industrial accumulated means were actually being utilised. Under capitalism the policy of capital investment is shaped by the race for profits and only furthers overall economic progress in a haphazard, random way bound to cause enormous cost to society. The concentration of all society's material resources in the hands of the proletarian state made it possible directly and deliberately to channel the sum total of the means accumulated throughout the country towards achieving the objectives of prime importance for society as a waole.
The utilisation of the accumulated means to achieve the objectives that further the interests of the whole of society not only proved to be enormously effective from the economic point of view, but also proved to be compatible with the interests of both the individual and society. This put an end to the mentality of the wage worker and brought forth new responses, those of masters of production for whom labour ceases to be forced and becomes an essential, primary need of the individual that is clearly understood. As the experience of building socialism demonstrated, a conscientious, socialist approach to work provided the key to a successful solution of the second requirement of the industrialisation drive---the creation of an essen-
tial incentive to work that gives rise to production enthusiasm that is unthinkable in a society based on exploitation.
Thus, the seeds for unprecedented potential for development had been sown in the Soviet economy. However this potential could not be realised in Soviet society in a haphazard way, as had been the case under all previous societies, but only as a result of deliberate efforts on the part of all members of that society, efforts which in their turn gave rise to new ideological and political problems that the Party and the working class had to come to terms with. In this connection Lenin pointed out: "Of all the socialists who have written about this, I cannot recall the work of a single socialist or the opinion of a single prominent socialist on future socialist society, which pointed to this concrete, practical difficulty that would confront the working class when it took power, when it set itself the task of turning the sum total of the very rich, historically inevitable and necessary for us store of culture and knowledge and technique accumulated by capitalism from an instrument of capitalism into an instrument of socialism.''^^1^^
Socialist industrialisation was being implemented for the first time in history. This meant that the Party and the working class were advancing along an uncharted path. The experience of revolutionary struggle and constructive activity gleaned by the Soviet working class demonstrated for all to see that the victory of consciousness over spontaneous activity engendered an irresistible tide of both revolutionary and creative energy, the like of which had never been seen before. Capitalist organisation of social labour holds back the transformation of conscious commitment into creative energy, if for no other reason than that the capitalist is undeniably interested in concealing the true goals of production designed to further the pursuit of profit, and in keeping the working people quite separate from the management of production, thus preserving the wage workers' alienated attitude to their work, and still maintaining economic coercion as the main incentive. The socialist state, on the other hand, is interested in ensuring that each worker is clearly aware of the true aims behind production and his role in their achievement, because under socialism keen interest in the overall results of production becomes a powerful incentive for labour activity. The socialist state not only dismantles the division between economics and politics but indeed regards economic development as its paramount ideological and political objective.
This approach made it possible to find concrete means for carrying out the constructive functions of the state of proletarian dictatorship.
~^^1^^ Basic Trends Underlying the Construction of a Socialist Economy, Moscow, 1967, pp. 237-38 (in Russian).
~^^2^^ Ibid., p. 238.
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, "Speech at the First Congress of Economic Councils. May 26, 1918", Collected Works, Vol. 27, 1977, p. 412.
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41When pinpointing the raising of productivity as the main task in socialist construction, Lenin wrote: "...Socialism calls for a conscious mass advance to greater productivity of labour compared with capitalism, and on the basis achieved by capitalism. Socialism must achieve this advance in its own way, by its own methods---or, to put it more concretely, by Soviet methods.''^^1^^
This historic task meant that the Party had to assume the role o£ organising society's creative activity, of leading this mass-scale advance to higher productivity. The Party leadership now tackled a wide range of questions: denning economic policy, its strategy and tactics, dovetailing political and economic activities, implementing systematic control over economic and administrative bodies to ensure that Party decisions were duly carried out.
The Party had to surmount bitter opposition from anti-Leninist elements in its ranks. Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev and their supporters made every effort to turn the Party from its Leninist path. The Trotskyites who had been defeated in 1923-1924, and the Zinoviev-Kamenev "new opposition", that had been routed in December 1925, joined forces to form a capitulationist Trotskyite-Zinovievite bloc. In the hard struggle that ensued the opposition groups who had tried to split the Party were completely routed. The 15th Party Congress (December 1927) excluded from its ranks leaders and active members of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite bloc.
The Party upheld and developed the Leninist plan for building socialism. The elaboration of the First Five-Year Plan for economic development and its final adoption in 1929 constituted a milestone of world-wide significance.
The First Five-Year Plan was a particularly important factor in the implementation of the Leninist programme for building socialism in the Soviet Union. In economic history it was the first comprehensive plan providing scientific substantiation for the rates and scale of a country's economic and social development. Since then the planned economic system began to reflect the fundamental advantages of socialism as a new social order. The epoch-making importance of the First Five-Year Plan can also be traced to the fact that "it laid the foundation for the adoption of five-year targets as the basic framework for planning the economy, and made these targets an important driving force behid communist creative achievement, demonstrating in practice the superiority of socialist methods for running the economy over the capitalist ones".^^2^^'
The planned system of the economy made it possible to concentrate in the hands of the socialist state the greater part of the national income and use it in order to carry out the most vital and urgent tasks, and to pay heed in economic practice to the most progressive trends in world science and technology so that the achievements of scientific and technical progress might be utilised and industrialisation implemented at a stable high speed.
The Party guided the creative activity of millions of working people over the whole country, at every plant, every construction site and spurred on these men and women to involve themselves in the selfless struggle to accelerate the rate of socialist construction and to fulfil the norms laid down in the five-year plans ahead of schedule. A mighty tide of working people moved out to the construction sites for the country's major new industrial projects in response to the Party's appeal. At the time the Soviet writer Boris Gorbatov described the scene in the following words: "An incessant whir of wheels filled our ears in those years. Everything was in transit, on the move, nothing stood still: everyone was going somewhere by road, rail, water or even trudging on foot. A railway carriage in a wilderness made do for a station, a tent for a home, a cluster of dug-outs for a town.... These were days of great upheavals, sometimes painful, sometimes joyful, and days of great exploits.''^^1^^
From this industrialisation drive there stemmed a dramatic increase in the social and political power of the working class, progressive changes in its structure and composition, the swelling of its ranks, a significant improvement in the cultural and technical grounding of the workers' skills, in their creative activity and in their standard of living.
A logical result of this increased influence of the working class was its involvement in the running of the state. With each successive election the active involvement of the electors increased and the proportion of workers in the Soviets grew. In 1927, there were 52,100 worker deputies to the 986 town Soviets (comprising 47.9 per cent of the total), of whom 41,500 (or 38.1 per cent) were workers from the shop-floor, whereas by 1931 78,800 (or 56.5 per cent) of the total were worker deputies to the 963 town Soviets, of whom 58,600 (or 42 per cent) were workers from the shop-floor. The proportion of delegates to provincial, regional, territory, republican and allUnion congresses of Soviets from the ranks of the working class was also growing: for example, of the 1,576 voting delegates to the 6th All-Union Congress of Soviets (1931) workers accounted for 858, or 54.4 per cent.^^2^^
~^^1^^ Boris Gorbatov, Collected Works, Vol. 3, Moscow, 1955, p. 13 (in Russian)
~^^2^^ The Working Class in the Running of the State (1926-1937), Moscow, 1968, pp. 75-76 (in Russian).
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, "The Immediate Tasks of the Soviet Government", Collected Works, Vol. 27, p. 248.
~^^2^^ The Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU "On the Fiftieth Anniversary for the First Five-Year Plan for Economic Development", published in Pravda, March 18, 1979.
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43Steps were also underway to consolidate the workers' nucleus in the upper echelons of state power. In the early 1930s wide use was made of the system of holding two or more offices, i.e., the direct involvement of men and women sent by their work teams to participate in the activities of the People's Commissariats and other bodies within the central state apparatus. The trade unions, the most massive organisation of the working people, also played an active part in the industrialisation drive. They were restructured in order to enhance their role in improving the workers' material living standards, in raising labour productivity and in developing the creative activity of the working class. The 16th Congress of the CPSU (1930) adopted a resolution which clearly outlined the tasks of the trade unions in the reconstruction of the economy, the improvement of workers' living standards and conditions, the general and political education of the masses, and the consolidation of solidarity between the Soviet working class and the working class in the capitalist and colonial countries.
In order to strengthen the Central Council of Trade Unions, the Central Committee of the CPSU (Bolsheviks) sent a group of experienced party workers to join the Council's administrative staff. Over one and a half million industrial workers were drawn into the work of leading trade union bodies.
In 1933, the functions of the disbanded People's Commissariat for Labour were handed over to the trade unions: this meant that they were now responsible for all the funds of social insurance and their use, for labour protection and also for the network of sanatoria and holiday homes of ail-Union importance. From now on the trade unions exercised all the rights of the grass-roots bodies of the workers' and peasants' inspection in factories, including the right of control over the supply of workers with foodstuffs and consumer goods, the regulation of wages and the provision of housing and medical treatment for workers and the right of combating embezzlement and misappropriation.^^1^^ As a result of the changes the trade unions were to exert an influence on the development of the economy not only through state bodies but also through the direct exercise of a number of administrative functions.
The direct involvement of the working class in the running of production was growing apace. One of the forms in which this involvement found expression was the production conferences which emerged as far back as the early 1920s. With reference to their role it was pointed out at the 14th Party Congress: "The best way of involving the broad mass of workers in the practical tasks of building the
Soviet economy, enabling them to appreciate the close links between the interests of the working people and the extent of economic successes achieved by the socialist state, and of bringing forward and training new economic executives and managers from the ranks of the workers, is the production conferences held in factories, plants and other major industrial enterprises.''^^1^^
Production conferences discussed and resolved questions relating to the organisation of production and labour, the material supply of factories, etc. Factory-based displays of efficiency proposals were held to increase industrial effectiveness, boost production and to keep down costs, while improving the quality of output and also the working conditions and living standards of the work-force.
The number of workers involved in production conferences grew steadily. While at the end of 1925 approximately 10 per cent of workers attended them, in the second half of 1928 this figure rose to 26.7 per cent and at the end of the first five-year plan period 70 per cent of the workers were taking part in production conferences.2 Production conferences made a major contribution^towards the raising of productivity levels.
Involved as they were now in the resolution of a wide range of problems connected with the organisation of production, the workers gained experience in the management of industrial enterprises. This development in its turn enabled the most talented among them to be promoted for posts in economic management. The production conferences in the Urals, for example, nominated 1,780 workers in 1928 for posts in industrial management, 2,716 in 1929, and 4,220 in 1930 from among their members.^^3^^
The development of the democratic foundations of economic management went hand in hand with the consolidation of the principle of one-man management^^4^^ in production. The resolution adopted by the Central Committee of the Ail-Union Communist Party ( Bolsheviks) on September 5, 1929 and entitled "Measures Designed to Regulate the Management of Production and to Establish One-man Management" played an important part in work to this end. It stated: "The implementation of Party directives relating to the one-man management principle in factories at a time when the growing
~^^1^^ The CPSU in the Resolutions..., Vol. 3, p. 270.
'- I.E. Vorozheikin, S. L. Senyavsky, The Working Class as the Leading Force if Soviet Society, Moscow, 1977, p. 195 (in Russian).
~^^3^^ M. Voskresenskaya, L. Novosyolov, Production Conferences: a School -of Management (1921-1965), Moscow, 1965. p. 51 (in Russian).
~^^1^^ One-man management: the principle on which all state enterprises, institutions and government departments are organised. It requires that a single person be responsible for management and at the same time should administer the organisation in a democratic way by consulting his colleagues before taking important decisions.---Ed.
~^^1^^ History of the Communist Party of.the Soviet Union, Vol. 4, Book 2, Moscow, 1971, pp. 289-90 (in Russian).
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involvement of workers in the management of production assumed organised forms must be linked as closely as possible to the further development of creative activity and initiative of -the masses in the context of the organisation and management of production.''^^1^^
The management was duty-bound to develop the creative activity and initiative of the workers and involve them in running factories. This meant the practical realisation of the task outlined by Lenin as follows: "We must learn to combine the 'public meeting' democracy of the working people---turbulent, surging, overflowing its banks like a spring flood---with iron discipline while at work, with unquestioning obedience to the will of a single person, the Soviet leader, while at work.''^^2^^
The work of the Party, which combined leadership in economic construction with the encouragement of a committed socialist labour discipline, the planning of production in the interests of society as a whole and the extension of socialist democracy---these were practical methods for economic management, for raising the working masses' consciousness and for making the latter a powerful social force.
A convincing demonstration of the successful resolution of the tasks involved in the socialist organisation of social labour was the development of socialist emulation -among working people, which gave rise to unprecedented labour heroism on a truly mass scale.
The founders of scientific communism had associated this kind of competition with collective work and cooperation in production. Karl Marx wrote: "...Mere social contact begets in most industries an emulation and a stimulation of the animal spirits that heighten the efficiency of each individual workman"^^3^^.
However the capitalist order based on exploitation and private appropriation stifles competition. Under capitalism competition becomes rivalry, which as Lenin wrote: "... means the incredibly brutal suppression of the enterprise, energy and bold initiative of the mass of the population, of its overwhelming majority, of ninetynine out of every hundred toilers__^^4^^
Fundamentally different relations take shape in socialist society. "Far from extinguishing competition, socialism, on the contrary, for the first time creates the opportunity for employing it on a really wide and on a really mass scale, for actually drawing the majority of working people into a field of labour in which they can display their abilities, develop the capacities, and reveal those talents, so abun-
among the people, whom capitalism crushed, suppressed and strangled in thousands and millions.''^^1^^
After the October Revolution the first shoots of socialist emulation began to emerge in a variety of forms: through selfless labour in the production of weapons essential for the defence of the revolution; through the establishment -of revolutionary order and discipline in industrial plants and factories; through communist subbotniks,2 termed by Lenin as "a great beginning''.
As the industrialisation drive began the most widespread form of emulation was the shock workers' movement. The first shock brigades appeared in Soviet factories in 1926 thanks to an initiative of the Young Communist League (YCL). By 1929 brigades of shock workers had appeared in almost all large enterprises in Moscow, Leningrad and the Urals, in the Donets Basin and other industrial centres. The shock workers endeavoured to streamline the organisation of their working day, to raise productivity and tighten labour discipline. Whole workshops manned jy shock workers appeared in many parts of /the country.
On May 9, 1929 the Central Committee of the All-U^ion Communist Party (Bolsheviks) adopted a resolution entitled "On Socialist Emulation in Factories and Plants". It elaborated in concrete terms the principles for the organisation of emulation, as applicable to the conditions obtaining at the time of the socialist reconstruction of the Soviet economy, originally drawn up by Lenin. This resolution oriented those taking part in socialist emulation, Party branches, trade unions and the YCL on the execution of specific tasks: the fulfilment and overfulfilment of plans, the reduction of production costs, raising labour productivity, the consolidation of labour discipline, the encouragement of inventions by workers. The document pointed out the particular, importance of initiative shown by workers themselves in the organisation of socialist emulation, and the subsequent development and consolidation of the achievements resulting from it, so as to avoid the risk of turning it into a superficial slogan. All manner of support was made available for workers' initiatives, and also for the propagation of the advanced experience of organising socialist emulation. It was suggested that new incentives of both a material kind (from a special fund for bonuses) and non-material kind (inclusion in red lists, the conferment of Diplomas of Honour and Red Challenge Banners, etc.) be introduced for the best enterprises and shops, collectives and individual workers.^^3^^
~^^1^^ The CPSU in the Resolutions..., Vol. 4, Moscow, 1970, p. 311.
Collected
~^^2^^ Subbotnik: a day's work done by workers on a voluntary basis as part ol a drive to boost the economy. The subbotnik movement arose during the Civil War and the name derives from the date Saturday, April 12, 1919, when voluntary work was carried out by communist workers at a railway depot on the MoscowKazan line.---Ed.
~^^3^^ The CPSU in the Resolutions..., Vol. 4, pp. 264-66.
~^^2^^ V. I. Lenin, "The Immediate Tasks of the Soviet Government",
Works, Vol. 27, p. 271.
~^^3^^ Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. I, Moscow, 1974, p. 309.
~^^4^^ V. I. Lenin, "How to Organise Competition?", Collected Works, Vol. 26, 1977, p. 404.
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At the end of 1929 the first All-Union Congress of Shock Brigades was held in Moscow, at which an appeal was made to the working class to fulfil the First Five-Year Plan in four years. In May 1930, organisations of comradely help were set up. They won wide support as a form of assistance rendered by foremost workers' collectives to those lagging. To mark the sixth anniversary of Lenin's death a Leninist appeal to the shock workers was announced. In July J930, the workers from the Karl Marx plant in Leningrad, came'forward with a proposal to draw up counter plans for industrial and financial development.
All these important steps made up the enormous contribution of the working class to the common cause, namely to the development of state industry and to the accumulation of money. "Counter-- planning" was to prove one of the most effective methods in the drive by the working class to fulfil and over-fulfil the Five-Year Plans, to utilise production reserves and economics. By the end of 1930 shock workers had constituted 56.3 per cent of the entire work-force, and by the beginning of 1932 the figure had risen to 64.2 per cent.^^1^^
Socialist industrialisation began in difficult conditions. It was impeded by the stubborn resistance of class enemies both within the country and abroad. There was a shortage of modern technology, raw materials and food. Other legacies of the past that had not yet been eradicated at the time were unemployment, rural over-- population, low levels of literacy affecting among others a large section of the industrial labour force. The activities of members of the opposition, many of whom occupied important posts in the Party and the state apparatus, also represented a major obstacle.
The enormous expansion of the industrial work-force mainly due to the exodus from the villages could not but result in a slackening of discipline in industry and a drop in the overall level of industrial skills, since the'former peasants were not accustomed to the labour discipline of industry and had had no training in industrial skills. Certain miscalculations in the running of production also had a negative effect. For example, the switch to a shorter seven-hour working day in industry in a seven-day working week without proper preliminary organisation led to a drop in the personal responsibility of individual workers to use fixed assets and to wage-levelling, to a reduction in the workers' interest in the fruits of their labour and to the fluctuation of manpower. Bad housing and living conditions and irregular food supplies also gave rise to major difficulties. In order to put an end to these deficiencies the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) planned measures
designed to streamline recruitment of the work-force and accelerate the mechanisation of production; to put a stop to the fluctuation of manpower; to ensure that work was properly organised and that workers' living conditions were improved; to eradicate wage-levelling and to ensure that it was in the interests of the individual worker to increase his output.
The effectiveness of these measures introduced by the Party was to a large extent determined by the fact that they were rooted in the creative enthusiasm of free workers. In those difficult conditions the feats of the shock workers appeared still more heroic. These were men who for the sake of the victory of socialism were prepared to strain themselves physically and mentally and this is why the shock workers' movement can with every justification be viewed as a heroic chapter in the history of socialist emulation.
Bourgeois economists, historians and philosophers went out of their way to denigrate socialist organisation of labour and to distort the essence of socialist emulation. They deliberately exaggerated the difficulties and shortcomings involved in the utilisation of manpower, presented the shock workers movement as a result of state intervention aimed at the intensification of labour by means of political and economic coercion. The favourite device employed by bourgeois ideologists and mass media was to laud capitalist competition and the notorious theory of man's unavoidably negative attitude to work in general. Reasoning of this kind encouraged the activities of underground anti-Soviet groups within the country.
Socialist emulation developed against the background of intense class struggle. In the late summer and autumn of 1929, statements were made by hostile elements at certain factories and plants in an attempt to make the backward workers reject socialist emulation. The working class gave a worthy rebuff to its class enemies. The workers from the Tula armouries wrote in a letter to the plenary session of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions: "In response to the ranting from the bourgeoisie and its vile attacks against the socialist emulation drive set in motion by the workers themselves we declare: we see this emulation not as a temporary drive but as a systematic framework for our labour. You may rest assured, gentlemen writers from the White Guard, that this emulation will not disappear from the pages of our newspapers, just as it will not disappear from our plants and factories.''^^1^^
Bourgeois theoreticians were unable and indeed unwilling to understand the wave of creative inspiration which gripped millions of working people and gave rise to "heroism in plain, everyday work",^^2^^
~^^1^^ The USSR for Fifteen Years. Economic Statistics, Moscow, 1932, p. 2*43 (in Russian).
~^^1^^ Pravda, May 29, 1929.
~^^2^^ V. I. Lenin, "A Great Beginning", Collected Works, Vol. 29, 1977, p. 423.
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49which was to prove a most important factor in the building of socialism. The mass-scale involvement of workers in this socialist emulation drive and its rapid spread bore witness to the ever deeper socialist commitment among the working people. In the report drawn np by the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) to the Ifith Party Congress it was pointed out: "The most remarkable aspect of this emulation is that it makes a complete turnabout in men's attitude to work, since it transfbrms work from a humiliating, heavy burden, as it was viewed previously, into a matter of honour, glory, valour and heroism.''^^1^^ The labour exploits of the working class led by the Communist Party underpinned the successful fulfilment of the First Five-Year Plan.
The completion of the First Five-Year Plan meant that a firm material foundation for the building of a socialist society had been provided. The schemes of imperialist reactionaries to bring the Land of Soviets to its knees through their economic stranglehold had been thwarted. The impressive achievements of the First FiveYear Plan appeared all the more outstanding in view of the fact that at exactly the same period the capitalist countries were in the throes of an economic crisis on an unprecedented scale that was to have catastrophic consequences. It was revealing to note that even the bourgeois press no longer had the temerity as before to refer to the Soviet Five-Year Plan as ``phantasy'' or ``utopia''. In August 1931, an International Congress on Economic Planning was held in Amsterdam. One of the main points on its agenda was the experience of economic planning in the USSR.
Having built the foundation of the socialist economy, the Soviet working class began to tackle new objectives. In the Second FiveYear Plan, the main targets for the development of the country's productive forces were as follows: the completion of the technological reconstruction of the economy, a further raising of productivity of social labour, a lowering of production costs, improvement in the range and quality of output. The fulfilment of the Second Five-Year Plan depended to a decisive degree on the ability of the working class to master the new technology and this in its turn made the task of raising the technical skills and educational level of the working class a top priority.
The Izotov movement was one of the first forms of socialist emulation which responded to this new need. A face-worker from a Donets mine Nikita Izotov who had taken charge of an unproductive section manned mainly by young workers who had come from villages, succeeded within a few months in fulfilling production quotas almost
twice over, after his pupils had mastered the new technology. This initiative by the Donets miner was quickly taken up elsewhere and the Izotov movement soon became a nation-wide phenomenon.
The mass involvement of workers in the movement of inventors and rationalisers^^1^^ also played an important part towards helping the work-force master the new technology. The acquisition of creative technical skills by working people brought a good number of problems in its wake. The new movement was breaking new grounds in the struggle to combat the lack of faith shown by certain sections of the old intelligentsia with regard to the creative capacity of "ordinary workers". Bureaucratism and red-tape and at times even direct sabotage fpom counter-revolutionary elements also held back the development of the workers' creative initiative.
The Party, the state and the trade unions went to considerable lengths to propagate the importance of workers' inventions and also to put into practice Lenin's decree entitled the Statute of the Council of People's Commissars on Inventions (1919).
Since 1927 the large factories set up special bureaus for the review of rationalisers' proposals, for the provision of expert opinion on such proposals and of technical assistance for worker-inventors. Large organisatibns 'thus came to replace scattered, purely local associations of inventors. In 1932, the Ail-Union Society of Inventors was set up to consolidate the nation-wide character of this movement of innovators.^^2^^ In 1937, the society numbered 300,000 members, the bulk of whom were workers.^^3^^
Questions connected with the rational utilisation of the new technology and with the technical training of workers were widely discussed at special party conferences, and by the activists of town and factory meetings. When recalling the enthusiasm with which the workers approached their studies Academician Ivan Bardin, a leading Soviet metallurgist, wrote: "Tens of thousands of people reached out hungrily for knowledge, seeing it as wisdom, as a revelation that was suddenly opening their eyes to the world; they devoured books, studied formulae and problems as if they were a source of strength, showing them the way to victory, leading them to a happy, joyful life, full of meaning, interest and purposeful struggle.''^^4^^
All earlier stages of the socialist emulation drive had helped pave the way for this new momentum. In the autumn of 1935, the Stakha-
~^^1^^ G. M. Alexeyev, The Movement of Inventors and Rationalisers in the USSR. 1917-1977, Moscow, 1977 (in Russian):
~^^2^^ I. E. Vorozheikin, S. L. Senyavsky, The Working Class as the Leading Force of Soviet Society, p. 212.
~^^3^^ From Capitalism to Socialism: Problems Central to the History of the Transi-
J The 16th Congress of the CPSU (Bolsheviks). Verbatim Report, MoscowLeningrad, 1931, p. 39 (in Russian).
tion Period in the USSR. 1917-1937, Vol. II, p. 173.
~^^4^^ I. P. Bardin, The Life of an Engineer, Moscow,
1938, p. 193 in (Russian).
4-01614
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51novite movement began. This new stage in the socialist emulation drive was set in motion by a team of workers and a Party organisation at the Central Irmino mine in the Donets region of the Ukraine. On the niglit of August 30, 1935 the face-worker Alexei Stakhanov, supported by timberers, managed after reorganising his work routine to mine 102 tons in the course of a single shift, which amounted to fourteen times the normal quota. The party committee at the mine, the press, the Donetsk regional party committee and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Ukraine ( Bolsheviks) assessed this newly established record as politically most valuable and gave their active support to the innovator, calling upon other miners to emulate his example.
Within a short period the initiative of this advanced worker was taken up as a challenge by Party and trade union organisations, by the workers of many other mines and pits, factories and plants, railway depots and construction sites in all the republics of the Soviet Union. During the two months of 1935 (September and October) proposals for new methods for raising productivity were put forward in many branches of industry: by metal-smiths in the motor industry from the Gorky Motor Works, A. Busygin, S. Faustov and F. Velikzhanin; by machine-tool operators, represented by millingmachine operator I. Gudov from the Orjonikidze Plant in Moscow; by a turner N. Kuryanov from the carburettor plant in Kuibyshev. Other early pioneers in the Stakhanovite movement were the pullingand-lasting machine operator N. Smetanin from the Leningrad shoe factory Skorokhod, weavers from the Nogin mill in Vichug, Ivanovo Region, Y. Vinogradova and M. Vinogradova. A train driver from the Slavyansk depot of the Donetsk railway, P. Krivonos was to initiate the Stakhanovite movement in the transport industry. *
In November 1935, the First All-Union Conference for Stakhanovites was held, attended by 3,000 people.~^^2^^ It summed up the initial results of this movement of innovators, made public its great importance for accelerating the technical reconstruction of the Soviet economy, for the building of socialism.
This movement of innovators from the production line quickly spread throughout the country. In less than a year, between November 1935, and August 1936, the proportion of Stakhanovites within the work-force in the main branches of industry multiplied four-fold and in September 1936 the ranks of the Stakhanovites in Soviet industry as a whole had risen to 22 per cent of the whole work-force. In the next few years after that this movement of innovators from
~^^1^^ A History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Vol. 4, Book 2,
p. 377.
~^^1^^ First All-Union Conference of Stakhanovite Workers and Women Workers. November 14-17, 1935. Verbatim Report, Moscow, 1935 (in Russian).
the production line continued to grow. In 1938, the Stakhanovites accounted for 29.1 per cent of the industrial work-force and in 1940 for an incredible 33.7 per cent. *
The Stakhanovite movement was a direct result of the victory of socialism. It marked "organisation of labour according to new principles, the rationalisation of technological processes, the correct distribution of labour in production, the freeing of skilled workers from auxiliary operations, better organisation of work benches, rapid growth of labour productivity and a significant increase in the wages of factory and office workers".~^^2^^ Socialist emulation played a tremendously important role in creating an atmosphere of inspired enthusiasm for labour and was transforming the attitudes and consciousness of working people.
The combination of the Party's efforts with the labour heroism of millions of working men and women provided the basis for the unprecedented successes in the achievement of the enormous objectives laid down in the early Five-Year Plans.
The most important achievement of the working class and its Party in the building of the economy was the creation of the material and technical base for socialism. Under the leadership of the Communist Party the Soviet people had carried out Lenin's great behest: in an incredibly short period the Russia of the period of New Economic Policy had been transformed into a socialist Russia. This historic task had been resolved thanks to the heroic labour of the Soviet people and above all of the working class and thanks to the correct policy of the Communist Party.
The building of Magnitogorsk, the Kuznetsk coalfield, the Uralmash Plant, the Dnieper Hydro-Electric Power Station, the Turkestan-Siberian Railway, the Stalingrad Tractor Plant and the Gorky Motor Works and thousands of other enterprises and the mastering of new technology were all unforgettable landmarks on the path of socialist creation, bearing witness .to the enthusiasm and real courage of Soviet men and women. In the Programme of the CPSU it was duly noted: "The industrialisation of the U.S.S.R. was a great exploit performed by the working class and the people as a whole, for they spared no effort or means, and consciously made sacrifices to lift the country out of its backward state.''~^^3^^
During the years of the industrialisation drive the Soviet Union achieved such high rates of economic growth, the like of which no capitalist country had ever reached. The high speed at which socialist industrialisation was imple-
~^^1^^ Basic Trends Underlying the Construction of a Socialist Economy, p. 159.
~^^2^^ Directives on Economic Matters Issued by the CPSU and the Soviet Government, Vol. 2, Moscow, 1957, p. 483 (in Russian).
~^^3^^ The Road to Communism, Moscow, 1961, p. 458.
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THE VICTORY OF SOCIALISM IN THE USSR
53advanced capitalist countries of Europe. The USSR became first industrial power in Europe and second in the world.
The borderlands of the country populated by national minorities that had in the past been backward were now being developed so as to bridge the gulf between them and central Russia. A decisive factor making possible the accelerated industrialisation of Kazakhstan and the republics of Central Asia and Transcaucasia was the aid---- political, material and organisational---provided by central Russia and the industrial parts of the Ukraine. Despite major economic problems on the way, the working people from the central regions of the RSFSR and the Ukraine did not neglect their international duty and gave their disinterested help to the fraternal non-Russian peoples.
Thanks to the planned reallocation of economic resources to serve the interests of the backward territories a rapid advance of their economies was made possible. The direct result of the enormous investment in the industry of these lands was the extension of the technological basis for their industry. In the period 1927-1939, the fixed assets in the country's large-scale industry rose overall by 680 per cent, while the parallel figures for Central Asia was 1,850 per cent and for Kazakhstan 2,190 per cent.^^1^^ In 1940, the output of large-scale industry in the Georgian and Armenian republics and in Kazakhstan exceeded the 1913 figure dozens of times over, and several hundred times in the case of Tajikistan and Kirghizia. Thus the policy of boosting the economies of the backward territories to bring them to the level of the industrially advanced parts of the country can be seen to have been implemented in practice. This experience of developing fraternal cooperation and mutual assistance between the Soviet republics clearly brings out the advantages of socialism, which does away with all forms of exploitation and national oppression and makes it possible to surmount economic backwardness with epoch-making speed.
In the course of industrialisation the working class was constantly bringing an ever greater influence to bear on the whole course of socialist construction, especially on the implementation of the hardest of the historic tasks involved, namely the socialist restructuring of agriculture. The need to collectivise peasant holdings stemmed from the very nature of socialist construction. The task of eliminating once and for all the exploiting classes as such could not be carried out without eliminating the kulaks as a class, the class which constituted the largest group of exploiters. Putting an end to the existence of this class also served to consolidate and broaden public support for the dictatorship of the proletariat.
mented could be explained by the advantages of socialism as the most progressive economic system. One of the main advantages of this system was the creation in the Soviet Union of the world's first planned economy. With the victory of socialist relations of production in the USSR the law of planned, proportional economic development took full effect. Certain bourgeois economists were obliged to acknowledge this. The British economist Alexander Baykov wrote: "The undisputably huge quantitative achievements of the U.S.S.R. in industry afford striking proof of the advantages of planned utilization of the country's existing material and labour resources and of planning its productive activities. Potentially, Russia possessed the same productive possibilities as the U.S.S.R.; the U.S.S.R., however, thanks to a planned utilization of existing potential productive resources in 12 years (1928-40), achieved results in the development of the national economy many times surpassing the results achieved by private enterprise.''^^1^^
During this period of socialist industrialisation the Soviet Union wiped out its technological and economic backwardness inherited from old Russia and completed in the main the technical reconstruction of the economy. In 1937, 80 per cent of industrial output was produced at factories that had been built or reconstructed in the course of the First and Second Five-Year Plan periods.^^2^^
As a result of socialist industrialisation the economy received a progressive structure. In 1937, industry, construction and transport accounted for 62 per cent of the national income as opposed to 43.3 per cent in 1913. Production of the means of production accounted for 61 per cent of industrial output in 1940.^^3^^ Engineering became a major branch of the economy. Several new industries also appeared on the scene: motor-car and aviation works, motor and turbine construction plants, machine-tool factories, almost all branches of the chemical industry, etc. Now that the technical reconstruction of the economy had been completed, the Armed Forces could also be rearmed and reorganised, a step which was to play a decisive role in consolidating the defence capacity of the world's first socialist state.
The rapid growth of the country's productive forces changed radically the balance between industry and agriculture. In 1937, industry accounted for close on 79 per cent of total production as opposed to a mere 42 per cent in 1913.^^4^^
An industry was created which from the technological point of view was on a par with those of the technologically and economically
~^^1^^ Alexander Baykov, The Development of the Soviet Economic System, Cambridge, 1946, p. 303,
~^^2^^ Basic Trends Underlying the Construction of a Socialist Economy, p. 259.
» Ibid., p. 260. * Ibid., p. 261.
~^^1^^ Ibid., pp. 316-17.
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THE VICTORY OF SOCIALISM IN THE USSR
55On the other hand, the predominance of the private sector in agriculture could not fail to give rise to an imbalance in the economy now run on socialist lines. By the middle of the 1920s an enormous gulf had emerged between the rates of industrial and agricultural development. In 1925/26, growth in agricultural output came to 19.2 per cent, while the respective figure for industry was 42.2 per cent, and the following year the figure for growth in agricultural output was 4.1 per cent and that for industrial growth was 18.2 per
cent.^^1^^
In agriculture, critical problems multiplied. The continued fragmentation of peasant holdings was making them less profitable. The fact that small individual holdings could not, in view of their very nature, be developed on a new technological basis meant that the peasant was condemned to a life of heavy manual labour of a kind that was far from productive. Not only general socio-political objectives but also the specific demands of the economy made it imperative for the Party and the working class to carry out Lenin's cooperative plan.
Lenin had pointed out that under the dictatorship of the proletariat cooperative farms would make compatible the interests of the individual peasants and those of society and that therefore cooperative agriculture represented for them the simplest, easiest and most straightforward form for the transition to socialism. Lenin stressed that the introduction of agricultural cooperatives would provide a school of practical experience that would serve to develop the skills of collective farming among the broad masses of the peasantry and would help to promote the close links between socialist industry and agriculture and to enable the urban population to chart the way ahead for the villagers. The cooperative farms were a crucial factor in the socialist reshaping of the rural areas, providing as it did a powerful instrument with which the working class was able to reorganise the economic, political and cultural life of the villages.^^2^^
Subsequent experience bore out fully Lenin's conclusion to the effect that mass-scale involvement of the working peasantry in socialist construction would take place with the gradual introduction of the basic principles of collectivisation by way of voluntary cooperation of peasant holdings. The Party and the Soviet Government devoted a good deal of attention to the development of the massscale cooperative movement. In 1927, at the beginning of the period of reconstruction, the simplest form of cooperation (consumer cooperatives), called upon to bridge the gap between the small peasant farms and the socialist industry numbered 9,800,000 shareholders,
~^^1^^ S. P. Trapeznikov, Historical Experience of the CPSU in Carrying Out Lenin's Co-operative Plan, Vol. II, Moscow, 1981, p. 47.
~^^2^^ V. I. Lenin, "On Co-operation", Collected Works, Vol. 33, 1976, p. 468.
or 39 per cent of the peasant holdings.J Rural consumer societies squeezed out the capitalist elements in the retail trading network. The agricultural cooperatives played the crucial role in the transition of the peasants from cooperative trading to cooperative production. In 1927, over eight million holdings, or almost a third of the total, united into agricultural cooperatives.~^^2^^
The speed at which the cooperative movement spread across the country gave grounds for hope that it would be possible to involve the bulk of the peasantry in organising socialist cooperatives. The socialist restructuring of rural areas had become practice rather than theory. The 15th Congress of the CPSU (Bolsheviks) held in December 1927, elaborated guidelines for extending the collectivisation of agriculture, starting out from Lenin's cooperative plan. The resolution on the subject adopted by the 15th Congress of the CPSU (Bolsheviks) read as- follows: "In the present period the task of uniting and reorganising small individual peasant holdings into large collectives should be the main task of the (Party in the rural areas."3 The class-orientated policy of the Party at that particular stage was to rally around the working class the bulk of the working peasantry, to isolate the kulaks and subsequently to eliminate them as a class, relying on the poor peasants and also drawing the middle peasants into the collective-farm movement in the course of the struggle to restructure the rural areas along socialist lines.
This policy for the collectivisation of agriculutre met with bitter opposition from the kulaks---the largest of the exploiter classes---and this seriously exacerbated the class struggle in village communities. The opposition group led by Bukharin, Rykov and Tomsky came out against the decisions adopted at the 15th Party Congress. While advocating the theory of "letting things drift" in social relations in the country, Bukharin denied the need for any massive effort aimed at restructuring agriculture along socialist lines. He main-
f tained that the rural areas would follow spontaneously in the footsteps of the socialist towns and ``merge'' with socialism without any struggle against the kulaks or without any revolutionary transfor-
. mations, simply thanks to the example provided by purchasing and marketing cooperatives. The joint Plenary Meeting of the Party's Central Committee and Central Control Commission, held in April
I 1929, rejected these ideas.~^^4^^
i -----
IF
' G. V. Sharapov, The International Importance of the Experience Gleaned
t by the CPSU in the Socialist Reorganisation of Rural Areas, Moscow, 1976, p. 66 (in Russian).
~^^2^^ The Soviet Peasantry. An Outline History (1917-1970), Moscow, 1973, pp. 220, 222 (in Russian).
~^^3^^ The CPSU in the Resolutions..., Vol. 4, p. 57.
^^4^^ Ibid., pp. 185-87.
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THE VICTORY OF SOCIALISM IN THE USSR
57of the original tractor columns, became a considerable factor in the socialisation of agricultural production, in the revolutionary restructuring of the whole system of socio-economic relations in rural areas. The patronage exercised by the industrial towns in relation to the rural communities concentrated on the production sphere rather than on cultural and educational work. The growing participation by workers in sowing and harvesting drives, in the work of repair teams and other schemes served to strengthen the influence of the working class in the villages.
* The Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) that was held in November 1929 adopted a decision to send twenty five thousand workers with experience of organisational and political work to work in rural areas on a permanent basis. This undertaking by the leading class in Soviet society developed into a mass movement, into a nation-wide campaign aimed at helping the collective farms with trained proletarian
personnel.^^1^^
Experienced workers trained in foremost industrial skills predominated among those sent out to the villages. These were men possessed of advanced production skills, disciplined and well-organised, of whom,the vast majority (over 70 per cent) were members of the Communist Party.^^2^^ In the spring of 1930, workers from the twenty five thousand detachment were to be found on one of every five collective farms in the country.^^3^^
Another significant initiative of the industrial workers was the movement of volunteers to set off for areas of solid collectivisation in order to consolidate the rural Soviets. In view of the broad scale of this movement the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR decided on February 16, 1930, to send 7,200 of the most qualified and experienced members of town Soviets to occupy senior posts in the rural Soviets and district executive committees.*
All in all, approximately 25,000 people were sent from the towns to villages during the two and a half years of the collectivisation drive to carry out various types of economic and political tasks.5 Hand in hand with the Party and government organisations in the villages these envoys of the working class fostered in every way possible the organisational and economic initiative of the peasants who supported collectivisation, from whose ranks they nominated
~^^1^^ V. M. Selunskaya, Twenty Five Thousand Workers in Rural Areas, Moscow,. 1964 (in Russian).
~^^2^^ Ibid., p. 59. ~^^8^^ Ibid., p. 81.
~^^4^^ Yu. S. Kukushkin, Rural Soviets and the Class Struggle in the Villages: (1921-193S), Moscow, 1968, pp. 239-40 (in Russian).
~^^6^^ S. P. Trapeznikov, Historical Experience of the CPSU in Carrying Out Lenin's Co-operative Plan, Vol. II, p. 223.
Party, government, cooperative and Komsomol organisations launched wide-scale propaganda and organisational work, concerned as they were that collectivisation should be undertaken by the peasant masses themselves. Never before, as in the late 1920s and early 1930s, there were so many rallies, gatherings, meetings and talks
in the villages.
At the end of 1929, the nation-wide collectivisation of agriculture began. In October-December of 1929, 2,400,000 peasant holdings and in January-February 1930, almost 10,000,000 holdings joined collective farms.^^1^^ Despite widespread anti-Soviet agitation the kulaks did not succeed in persuading any sizeable group of the population to go over to their side: their counter-revolutionary activities were of a sporadic, localised nature and were quickly checked with the assistance of local activists who gave energetic support to the Soviet authorities. The resistance of the kulaks was broken by the joint efforts of the working class and the rural poor in close cooperation with the middle peasants.
Of crucial importance in the socialist restructuring of agriculture was the rapidly growing influence the working class exerted on the rural population through the work of the Communist Party, the Soviets and various mass organisations, through the state apparatus and also directly through representatives of these bodies in the villages.
Measures which served to raise the level of organisational and political work in the villages included the switching of rural Party organisations from a structure based on the territorial principle to the one based on the production principle, the broad involvement of collective-farm activists in the Party who constituted by the middle of 1931 60 per cent of the members of rural party branches,^^2^^ and the development of party education on a mass scale. Peasant activists were now rallying to the party branches and affording them increasingly strong support. By the middle of 1930, in the RSFSR alone peasant Communists numbered close on 4,500,OOO.^^3^^
The rapid organisation of such branches of industry as tractor building and agricultural engineering made it possible to restructure the technological foundation for production on the collective and state farms. The wide network of machine and tractor stations (MTS) which had been growing since 1929 and developing on the basis
~^^1^^ N. A. Ivnitsky, The Class Struggle In the Villages and the Elimination of the Kulaks as a Class (1929-1932), Moscow, 1972, pp. 247-60, 271-79; I. Y. Trifonov, The Elimination of the Exploiter Classes In the USSR, Moscow, 1975, pp. 296-310 (both in Russian).
~^^2^^ The Soviet Peasantry. An Outline History (1917-1970). p, 294.
~^^3^^ S. P. Trapeznikov, Historical Experience of the CPSU in Carrying Out Lenin's Co-operative Plan, Vol. II, p. 216,
f
58CHAPTER 1
THB VICTORY OF SOCIALISM IN THE USSR
59and trained the peasants' leaders, helping them to calculate, plan and organise the work in their collectives and improve all aspects of agricultural production. The workers endeavoured to adapt the experience of socialist organisation of industrial labour to the needs of agriculture. As a result socialist emulation and the shock-workers' movement began to develop in the villages as well: help was given to those who lagged behind, while the finest teams as well as shockworkers in agricultural production were awarded special bonuses.
The experience of the Twenty-Five-Thousanders was taken into account when the Central Committee of the Ail-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) organised political sections in the machine and tractor stations and on the state farms. The staff of the political sections carried out an enormous amount of work to extend and consolidate the network of Party and Komsomol organisations in the villages and to secure mass-scale support from non-Party members, to mobilise agricultural workers to join the struggle against hostile anti-social elements and finally to ensure that planned production targets were met.
Newly consolidated socialist industry was in a position to send to the villages men, well-trained in political and organisational work, and this to a large degree ensured the restructuring of Soviet agriculture.
By the end of the Second Five-Year Plan, over 99 per cent of peasant holdings had been incorporated into collective farms.1 A new class had come into being---that of the collectivised peasantry. The largest and previously backward branch of the economy had now become forward-looking, and together with industry now constituted a homogeneous socio-economic foundation for a socialist society based on planned development.
After the completion of the collectivisation of agriculture, socialism had become a single, all-embracing system that underpinned the country's economy. Socialist ownership of the means of production in its two forms---public (state) ownership, on the one hand, and collective-farm-and-cooperative ownership, on the other---now provided the virtually ubiquitous economic foundation for Soviet society. In 1937, the socialist forms of economy in the USSR accounted for 99.6 per cent of the fixed production assets (not counting livestock) as opposed to 65.7 per cent in 1928, for 99.1 per cent of the national income (44 per cent in 1928), for 99.8 per cent of industrial output (82.4 per cent in 1928), for 98.5 per cent of gross agricultural output (including that from the individual plots of the collective farmers, factory and office workers) as against 3.3 per cent in 1928,
and for a 100 per cent of the retail turnover in shops and other outlets (76.4 per cent in 1928).^^1^^
A crucially important stage in the history of the Land of Soviets and in that of the whole international labour movement had now been completed. After twenty years of the Soviet people's creative activity and with the vigorous support of the international working class a socialist society had in all its essentials been built in the Soviet Union. The period of the transition from capitalism to socialism that had been ushered in by the Great October Socialist Revolution had culminated in the victory of the new order.
During the building of socialism there had also been a transformation in the ideas and attitudes of the working man, the creator of the new society. The socialist relations of production which had now taken root, changing as they did the living standards for the population, provided conditions ripe for the radical reshaping of people's outlook on life, attitudes and moral principles, for the transformation of the masses formerly exploited by capitalism and downtrodden by poverty into free, properly educated and committed makers of history.
Yet tremendous effort on the part of the Communist Party and the working class it led .were required in order to make the most of these undeniably favourable conditions for the implementation of the cultural revolution.
The cultural revolution began immediately after power had been assumed by the proletariat of Russia. Lenin wrote at the time: "After we had solved the problem of the greatest political revolution in history, other problems confronted us, cultural problems..."2 When defining the tasks of the cultural revolution, Lenin stressed that it was essential to make use of all that was finest that had been achieved in material production and the country's cultural heritage so as to transform the legacy of culture, knowledge and technology, accumulated under capitalism, "from an instrument of capitalism into an instrument of socialism"^^3^^ and to ensure that the fruits of man's mind, of human genius formerly used as a means of oppression and violence should become a powerful force behind the revolutionary transformation of the world.^^4^^
The problems impeding the implementation of these grandiose plans lay primarily in the fact that for the first time in history power
~^^1^^ Sixty Years of the Soviet Economy: Jubilee Statistical Yearbook, Moscow, 1977, p. 9 (in Russian).
~^^2^^ V. I. Lenin, "The New Economic Policy and the Tasks of the Political Education Departments", Collected Works, Vol. 33, p. 72.
~^^3^^ V. I. Lenin, "Speech at the First Congress of Economic Councils. May 26, 1918", Collected Works, Vol. 27, p. 412.
~^^4^^ V. I. Lenin, "Third All-Russia Congress of Soviets ofWorkers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies", Collected Works, Vol. 26, p. 481.
~^^1^^ M. A. Vyltsan, The Final Stage in the Creation of a Collective-Farm System (1935-1937), Moscow, 1978, p. 66 (in Russian).
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60CHAPTER 1
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61had been taken by a class whjch was less educated than the class overthrown. It was pointed out in the Comintern Programme adopted in 1928: "The bourgeois revolution against feudalism presupposes that a new class has arisen in the bosom of feudal society that is culturally more advanced than the ruling class and is already a dominant factor in economic life. The proletarian revolution, however, develops under different conditions. Being economically exploited, politically oppressed and culturally downtrodden under capitalism, the working class transforms its own nature only in the course of the transition period, only after it has won state power, only by destroying the bourgeois monopoly of education and mastering all the sciences, and only after it has gained experience in the great work of construction.''^^1^^
After losing its political and later economic power in Russia, the society of the past continued to exert a considerable influence on social consciousness, on various aspects of the production, distribution and consumption of cultural values: this influence made itself felt particularly keenly in such spheres as science, education, literature, art and morals, thus impeding the liberation of all these spheres from the shackles of bourgeois ideology and holding back society's overall progress. These difficulties were complicated by the fact that the working class had had to begin building a socialist society with a level of development lower than that in the leading capitalist countries which already had developed industry and in which compulsory elementary education had already been introduced.
Now that the national economy had been rehabilitated and the transition to socialist industrialisation completed, the vital material foundation for the implementation of Lenin's plan for cultural advance had been provided. The 15th Party Congress listed as one of the priority objectives in the First Five-Year Plan a substantial improvement in the cultural level for the urban and rural masses and the advancement of the national cultures of the peoples of the USSR.
Success in the work on the cultural front had been made possible thanks to the leading role of the Party, armed with Marxist-Leninist theory, which had made its own all that was most valuable and progressive which had been, accomplished in,the course of men's cultural activities in the .past and also thanks to the enthusiasm of the popular masses who had now been set in motion after they had been given the chance to realise their creative potential.
The main efforts of the Party and state were directed towards the elimination of illiteracy and partial literacy. A programme for the
introduction of elementary education nation-wide was elaborated and subsequently implemented. In 1928/1929, twice as much money was allocated to education than in the previous year. In the first place schooling was given to children of workers, agricultural labourers and poor peasants.
Party and state bodies both at the centre and in the provinces relied on active support from the general public, drawing on the workers' cultural patronage over the villages,, encouraging and developing all manner of forms of emulation between factories, machine and tractor stations, state farms, groups of teachers, anxious to make the campaign for literacy a cause of the whole people.
As the First Five-Year Plan period began, provision of extramural education for adults was substantially increased, this being a service of which tens of millions of people were to avail themselves in the years of all-out socialist construction. The compilation and massscale publication of teaching aids in the minority languages of the USSR was a step of importance for the spread of literacy among the non-Russian peoples. Many of these peoples were equipped with a written language for the first time ever. Dozens of different peoples were thus given the chance to learn in their own language.
By 1934 a system of nation-wide elementary education had been provided and a wide network of schools for partial or complete secondary education established. In the years 1933-1937, compulsory seven-year schooling was introduced in the towns and industrial settlements. Existing institutes, technical schools and courses were extended and new ones organised in order to train more teachers. In the early and middle of 1930s the Central Committee of the Party and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a number of resolutions that served to consolidate the organisational and academic foundations for Soviet schools. By 1939 illiteracy had for all intents and purposes been eliminated, since over 81 per cent of the population was now literate.
Thanks to the tireless effort of the Party which had made the universal education drive a cause supported by the whole people, genuinely democratic schooling had been provided. For the first time in history the working people had been guaranteed access to knowledge and culture thanks to their new position as masters of their country, and to the socio-economic and political development of their society.
Achievements in the sphere of public education facilitated the attainment of such goals as the moulding of the new socialist man, the training of a qualified work-force for the economy, scientific research, literature and art and eliminating the antithesis between manual and brain work, which had been inherited from the previous social order based on exploitation.
~^^1^^ Programme of the Communist International, New York, s.a., pp. 51-52.
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63During the cultural reyolution a new, Soviet intelligentsia came into being. The Communist Party made painstaking effort to draw those sections of the bourgeois intelligentsia still beset by vacillation into the ranks of those engaged in building the new society. An important role in the work to this end was played by the All-Union Association of Scientists and Technicians to Help Build Socialism, founded by a group of prominent members of the intelligentsia. In 1929, it numbered 546 members but by the end of 1932 its membership had risen to as many as 11,000.*
An important source for the new intelligentsia, particularly in industry, was the mass-scale promotion of advanced workers and peasants who had manifested organisational talent. In 1926-1927, more than half those in charge of superior units in industry and three quarters of factory managers had been working recently on the production line.^^2^^ As the years went by, the cultural revolution gained ground and tne education system took firm root, the need for this kind of promotion of worker candidates for such posts ceased to be so strong, since specialists were now being trained in both specialised secondary and higher educational establishments.
The November 1929 Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee of the Party drew attention to the need to extend the network of special establishments (workers' faculties, schools and courses) designed to prepare workers and peasants for higher education or specialised courses in technical schools. In 1928-1932, young soldiers from the Red Army, young factory workers and collective farmers were mobilised on a mass scale and given special leave for study purposes.
These measures made an important contribution to the democratisation of the student body. In the academic year 1924/25 only 17.8 per cent of all students came from workers' families, while the corresponding figure for 1930/31 was 46.6 per cent.^^3^^ By this time the proportion of students in technical institutes from worker or peasant families was approaching 70 per cent, and in some cases had even reached 80-90 per cent.^^4^^ Technical higher and secondary education was reformed so as to bring technical higher and secondary schools closer to production.
The Party sepit out considerable detachments of Communists to work as teachers and intensified the political education of teachers
~^^1^^ P. I. Kabanov, The History of the Cultural Revolution in the USSR, Moscow, 1971, p. 97 (in Russian).
* The Soviet Intelligentsia. A Short Outline of History (1917-1975)."'Moscow, 1977, p. 57 (in Russian).
~^^3^^ The Economy of the USSR. A Statistical Handbook, Moscow-Leningrad, 1932, p. 535 (in Russian).
« The Cultural Revolution in the USSR. 1917-1965, Moscow, 1967, p. 147 (in Russian).
and students. In the autumn of 1930, Party branches and trade union bodies in higher educational establishments were reorganised, which }ed to closer links being forged between students, teachers, and technical personnel. The introduction of new social disciplines at the tjme---historical and dialectical materialism, political economy, and the fundamentals of Leninism---represented an important step forward.
During the first two Five-Year Plan periods over 500,000 specialists graduated from higher educational establishments, and of these the vast majority, between 80 and 90 per cent were the children of workers and peasants.^^1^^ These establishments had thus become the main source from which the ranks of the Soviet intelligentsia were replenished. Fundamental changes were also being effected in scientific establishments. In the second half of the 1920s, the Academy of Sciences---the country's leading scientific establishment---was also reorganised. On the -basis of Lenin's Draft Plan of Scientific and Technical Work the Academy was set new tasks so that its activities could be brought into conformity with the practical work of building socialism.^^2^^
In 1929, the Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences was founded in Moscow, and during the 1930s further academic centres affiliated to this central Academy were set up in the national republics and in the country's main industrial centres, as were alsoresearch institutes covering particular fields in agricultural science.
There was also a marked increase in the network of establishments carrying out research projects in the field of Marxist social science.
The heroic labour of the working class, and of all working people in the USSR found expression in many works of Soviet literature and art. Many of these were recognised later as treasures of socialist culture.
By the end of the 1930s a socialist culture ha4 been basically established, rooted in the firm foundation provided by the socialist economy. A new type of social consciousness had become dominant. It was characterised by such traits as collectivism, internationalism, patriotism, revolutionary humanism and historical optimism.
The elitism and class limitations of bourgeois culture, which directly or indirectly provides justification for the system of oppression and exploitation, was challenged by socialism, which highlighted the truly popular approach in literature and art and communist
~^^1^^ N. M. Katuntseva, Soviet Experience in Training the Intelligentsia from among the Workers and Peasants, Moscow, 1977, p. 69 (in Russian).
~^^2^^ V. I. Lenin, "Draft Plan of Scientific and Technical Work", Collected Works, Vol. 22, 1977, pp. 320, 321; Statutes of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 1975, pp. 120-40 (in Russian).
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65partisanship in socialist culture, its commitment to the great goal of liberating and ennobling men's minds.
One of the major achievements of socialism was the creation in the Soviet Union of a culture that was national in form and socialist in content. For the first time in history the nations and nationalities, linked together in the Soviet fraternal family of peoples, were given the chance freely to develop their own cultures and to enrich each •other's within the framework of a single socialist state. All working people, all nations and nationalities in the Land of Soviets adopted the ideology of scientific communism and became directly involved in the process of cultural and 'historical advancement.
The creation of a new society in the USSR had demonstrated in practice that the conscious activity of the working people inspired by the lofty ideals of socialism was an inalienable feature of the new system, a form of its existence and advance.
Socialist culture emerged on to the international arena not merely as an heir to the finest traditions of world culture, but also as a continuer of its great work in the future. Its historic importance with universal implications was recognised by people throughout the world. The well-known communist historian and writer from France, Jean Freville, pointed out that Soviet men and women, after breaking the chains of capitalism, "are fulfilling the great historic mission of saving world culture".^^1^^ The progressive American scientist Pat Sloan wrote while assessing the role of Soviet culture: "We find an art for the first time striving to embrace the whole of working humanity.''^^2^^
The cultural revolution in the Soviet Union which had transformed the attitudes and aspirations of the people gave it new strength for further great exploits and provided a firm guarantee of its future successes and victories.
THE NEW APPEARANCE OF SOVIET SOCIETY
With the completion of the transition period the main aim of socialism was achieved---the exploitation of man by man was eliminated once and for all and all members of society became working people. The Soviet people underwent a profound transformation.
The ruling working class now looked very different. During the period of the first two Five-Year Plan periods there had been an abrupt rise in its numbers. While in 1928 the Soviet economy counted 6,800,000 workers, in 1937 this figure rose to 17,200,000, which
meant that in nine years the size of the working class had grown by over 150 per cent.^^1^^
The concentration of workers in large factories also increased. At the end of the same ten-year period, almost 63 per cent of those employed in industry were working in plants with, a work-force of a thousand or more, and 25.9 per cent of Soviet workers were working in giant outfits employing between 5,001 and 10,000 or more.^^2^^ Now that the country had been transformed from "the home of calico" into "the home of metal" the metal workers became the largest detachment within the Soviet working class. In 1937, they constituted 28.3 per cent of the country's industrial workers as against 14 per cent in 1928.^^3^^
The geographical distribution of the labour force changed thanks to the rapid growth of the working class in the formerly backward borderlands inhabited by national minorities. An idea of the number of workers in large-scale industry per thousand of the population in the USSR as a whole and in the Union republics individually is provided in the following table:
Table 1
Republics
Number of workers per 1, 000 of the population
Increase between 1926 and 1939
Republics
Number of workers per 1,000 of the population
Increase between 1926 and 1939
1926 1933 1939(times)
1926 1933 1939(times)
USSR
16.1
28.0
64.5
4.0
Uzbekistan and
Ukraine
18.5
33.3
65.2
3.5
Tajikistan
2.4
7.1
22.2
9.3
Byelorussia
5.5
15.5
50.0
9.1
Turkmenia
2.4
8.2
30.6
12.8
Transcaucasian
Kirghizia
0.8
*
21.6
27.0
Republics
10.5
15.7
32.2
3.1'
Kazakhstan
1.7
*
31.3
18.4
Source: Yu. V. Vorobyov, Closing the Cap in Levels of Economic Development in the
Union Republics, Moscow, 1965, p. 139 (in Russian). * No figures available.
Although in the first post-revolutionary years some of the peoples inhabiting the former national borderlands had been living at a feudal stage of development and in some areas society had been run according to patriarchal or clan patterns, by the end of the Second Five Year Plan period the variety of socio-economic structures had been
~^^1^^ The Economy of the USSR. Statistical Returns, Moscow, 1956, pp. 189-90 (in Russian).
~^^2^^ Labour in the USSR. A Statistical Handbook, Moscow, 1933, p. 73 (in Russian).
~^^3^^ Industry in the USSR. Statistical Returns, Moscow, 1957, p. 24 (in Russian).
5-01614
~^^1^^ Quoted from The Cultural Revolution in the USSR and the Intellectual Advance of Soviet Society, Sverdlovsk, 1974, p. 77 (in Russian).
~^^2^^ New World Review, April 1946, p. 32.
66CHAPTER 1
THE VICTORY OF SOCIALISM IN THE USSR
eliminated in all Soviet republics, and socialist relations of production had come to dominate. The national republics had been transformed into economically advanced areas of the country with a modern industry and large-scale socialist farms. Particularly important for the development of these new, socialist nations had been the shaping of a working class from the ranks of the indigenous population.
The educational level and technical skills of the working class had also changed beyond recognition. The Soviet'state had inherited from pre-revolutionary Russia a work-force with a very low level of education. According to the official census for 1918, 36 per cent of all the workers were illiterate. By the end of the transition period illiteracy among the workers had been almost a thing of the past. The level of general education received by the working class had also improved dramatically. The scale of vocational training was being steadily increased.
The organisation and socialist consciousness of the working class improved beyond recognition, as did its level of political activity and productivity. In 1936, more than 83 per cent of factory, office and professional workers were members of trade unions. The progressive sectors of the working class were united into the Communist Party, the highest form of working-class organisation. In the mid1930s one worker in ten was already a member of the Communist Party.^^1^^
It took many years of effort by the Party, state and social organisations to transform the proletariat into a socialist working class. With reference to the tasks involved in the ideological and political education of the working class, Lenin pointed out in 1919 that the working class still "has preserved a good deal of the traditional mentality of capitalist society. The workers are building a new society without themselves having become new people, or cleansed of the filth of the old world; they are still standing up to their knees in that filth. We can only dream of clearing the filth away. It would be utterly Utopian to think this could be done all at once.''^^2^^ The struggle to overcome all vestiges of capitalism in the attitudes of the working class, above all its more backward strata, required the whole of the transition period.
While setting itself free from outdated attitudes incompatible with the position of the working class in a new, socialist society, the working class retained, developed and fostered such traits of pro-
letarian consciousness as revolutionary spirit, hatred for all forms of exploitation and injustice, unswerving resolution and steadfastness, a high level of organisation and discipline and dedication to the goal of reshaping the world along socialist lines.
These new features of the Soviet working class came most clearly of all to the fore in attitudes to work and public property, in the manifestation of conscientious labour discipline, in the elaboration of new moral standards that shaped the obligations of the individual as a member of socialist society. Progressive workers became active and dedicated builders of socialist society, who proved themselves to be politically mature, possessed of adequate education and technical skills and anxious to combine work in production with wideranging socio-political activities.
Occupying as it did the key positions in the sphere of material production and throughout the system of society's political organisation, the Soviet working class during the period of socialist construction went out of its way more and more to bring its influence to bear upon the socio-political and labour activity of the other classes and social groups, upon their ideological and moral outlook. By force of example and the traits and qualities that it had been seeking to develop within itself during the course of socialist construction under the leadership of the Communist Party---its vanguard---which organised and channelled its activities, the working class helped to foster in other working people a sense of responsibility for the situation in each work collective and in society as a whole. This served radically to change the attitudes and moral principles of the working people.
The affirmation of proletarian internationalism as the fundamental principle underlying the behaviour of the Soviet working class enabled it to a large extent to consolidate its position as a forward detachment of the international labour movement, as indeed also of the forces of democracy and social progress.
Under the impact of the socio-political and economic factors of socialism the social nature and attitudes of the peasantry also changed. The class stratification in rural areas had been eliminated and a socially homogeneous collective-farm peasantry had emerged, which was working large agricultural units. With the completion of collectivisation a single economic foundation in the form of public (state) and cooperative-and-collective-farm property was laid for the political alliance »f workers and peasants.
During the years of socialist construction a new, Soviet intelligentsia came on to the scene. In the period 1928-1937, there graduated from Soviet higher educational establishments a total of 568,600 specialists ready to take up their place in the national economy. The number of men engaged at that time in scientific research came to
~^^1^^ V. E. Poletaev, S. L. Senyavsky, The Working Class---the Leading Force
9 in the Building of Socialism and Communism, Moscow, 1972, p. 30 (in Russian).
|
~^^2^^ V. I. Lenin, "Report at the Second All-Russia Trade Union Congress
1 January 20, 1919", Collected Works, Vol. 28, 1977, pp. 424-25.
|
f
68CHAPTER 1
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6980,000 as against a mere 11,600 in pre-revolutionary Russia.^^1^^ The vast majority of the Soviet intelligentsia came from families of the working people. Their socialist consciousness and commitment to the new state were unshakeable. Grigori Orjonikidze wrote on this subject: "In our country an engineer is a great creator, who works for the workers in his country, who is himself a worker, and who works for the collectivised peasantry of his country being a collective farmer himself.''^^2^^
The working class played the leading part in effecting this radical change in the class structure of society. After assuming state power it had used this to eliminate the exploiting classes and tho'se factors which had given rise to the exploitation of man by man, and to transform, in keeping with a spirit of socialism, the working peasantry and all other non-proletarian strata of the working people.
The thorough-going transformation of class relations in the transition period put an end to the disunity of people which had been inevitable under capitalism. It also made it possible to create a true community of the fundamental interests of the whole people.
Closer ties between Soviet nations and nationalities also proceeded apace thanks to the surmounting of their economic and cultural inequalities. The peoples of the former borderlands were also involved in the general process of socialist transformations.
While Marxism-Leninism was taking root as a dominant ideology a socialist culture shared by airwas taking shape. Marxist-Leninist ideology that gave expression to the socialist interests and communist ideals of the working class, provided the core of rapprochement between all classes and social groups, nations and nationalities.
A new community of men, unlike any known to history before, had virtually taken shape: the feature which distinguished the relationships within this community was the socio-political unity of all the members of the society, a unity which was growing ever more profound.
On December 5, 1936 the 8th All-Union Congress of Soviets adopted a new Constitution of the USSR, which provided legislative consolidation for the victory of socialism. In accordance with the level of social de'velopment now achieved the Constitution proclaimed that a socialist economy and socialist property in the instruments and means of production formed the economic basis of the USSR. The Constitution also recorded the unchallenged sway of the social ownership of the means of production, the elimination of exploitation and the exploiting classes, and the implementation of the crucial principle of socialism: "From each according to his ability to each according to his work.''
~^^1^^ Sixty Years of the Soviet Economy, p. 141.
~^^2^^ G. K. Orjonikidze, Articles and Speeches, Vol. 2, Moscow, 1957, p. 659 (in Russian).
It was also laid down in the Constitution that the political basis for the Soviet Union was provided by the Soviets of Working People's Deputies, which had grown in stature and strength as a result of the overthrow of the power of the landowners and capitalists and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The Constitution of 1936 can thus be seen to have made clear that Soviet society had achieved social unity as the result of the successful building of socialism. It was also stressed in this Constitution that the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state of workers and peasants.
The 1936 Constitution proclaimed that the supreme representative organ of state power was the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. The victory of socialism had done away with the need for curtailed civil rights, such as had existed for some non-working elements in the transition period. After lifting the last traces of these restrictions with regard to elections to the Soviets, the 1936 Constitution replaced multistage elections by universal, direct and equal suffrage with secret ballot for the elections to all the Soviets of Working People's Deputies.
The fruitful results stemming from the implementation of Lenin's nationalities policy were also reflected in the 1936 Constitution: the essential principles underlying this policy were socialist internationalism, equal rights for all regardless of race or nationality, fraternal friendship and cooperation between all the peoples of the Soviet Union.
The 1936 Constitution guaranteed citizens the freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of conscience, freedom of association in various mass organisations, personal inviolability and privacy of correspondence. At the same time the Constitution of the USSR started out from the principle that rights and duties should be viewed as a single whole, based on the compatibility 'of personal and social interests under socialism. While guaranteeing Soviet citizens their rights, the Constitution at the same time demanded that they abide by the laws and other duties designed to defend and uphold the socialist system. Soviet society had been built up as a society in which there were no rights without duties, and no duties without rights.
The recording in the Constitution of the working people's socioeconomic rights was crucially important: the right to work, to rest and leisure, to education, to material security in old age, equal rights for women and men in all spheres of the economy, state affairs, culture and socio-political life.
Many of the rights and freedoms written into the Soviet Constitution are also to be found in bourgeois constitutions. However, in the socialist state these rights and freedoms have a different class and political content. The 1936 Constitution was distinguished by
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its very democratic implications, for after doing away with all political restrictions it laid down for the first time in the history of the state's legal practice completely equal rights for all citizens regardless of the class, nationality or creed to which they belonged. Themost important feature of theConstitution, however, lay in the fact that the power of the working people and the elimination of exploitation which had put an end to the formal and limited character of the equalities found in bourgeois democracies paved the way for the development of the highest form of democracy---socialist democracy. It should also be pointed out that the victory of socialism considerably enriched the rights and freedoms that had been won through the October Revolution.
Although universal and equal suffrage is proclaimed in the constitutions of many bourgeois-democratic states, the majority of the population consisting of working men and women is held aside from participation in managing the affairs of state, since political power is in the hands of the bourgeois minority. Only in the Soviet Union democracy did not boil down to the granting of electoral rights to its citizens: instead democracy culminated in the establishment of the rule of the people. This meant that the universal suffrage laid down in the Constitution of 1936 was immeasurably more valuable to the people, for it simultaneously meant their participation in running the affairs of state.
The victory of socialism had created the essential material security for the socio-economic rights of the working people. Thus, after the elimination of unemployment in 1930, the Soviet Union became the first country in the world where man's basic right---the right to work---was ensured without any reservations. After the exploiting classes had been made a thing of the past by the end of the transition period, the complete elimination of exploitation had become re'ality. The surmounting of economic and cultural backwardness affecting the previously oppressed peoples lent a new quality to the equality of peoples, making of it plausible reality. Last but not least, the elimination of illiteracy and the cultural revolution had made it possible for every member of Soviet society to exercise his right to education.
The socio-political achievements of socialism, reflected in the Constitution, represented an important precondition for the consolidation of the leading role of the working class and its Party in the • new society. Drawing on the recognition by the whole people of the role played by the Communist Party in the building of socialism, :f and on the increasing importance of the Party as a leading force ''' in the new society, the 1936 Constitution recorded the leading role I of the Communist Party in the Soviet state, pointing out that the most active and committed citizens from the ranks of the working
class and other strata of the working people, were uniting in the Communist Party, "...which is the vanguard of the working people in their struggle to consolidate and develop the socialist system and is constituting the leading nucleus of all organisations of the working people, both government and non-government organisations".^^1^^
The first election to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR held on December 12, 1937 reflected the Soviet people's full support for the new order: 96.8 per cent of the electorate voted and of these 98 per cent voted for candidates nominated by the bloc of Communists and nonparty members. Of those elected to the Soviet of the Union 45.3 per cent were workers, 23.7 per cent peasants and 31 per cent office workers and intellectuals. Of those elected to the Soviet of Nationalities 38 per cent were workers, 34 per cent peasants and 28 per cent office workers and members of the intelligentsia. Iii other words, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR represented the alliance of the working class and the peasantry, and the moral and political unity of the Soviet people.
Former members of the working class headed major branches of state administration. In the first Supreme Soviet of the USSR elected after the introduction of the new Constitution, 42 per cent of the deputies were workers. Half the deputies to the town Soviets were workers, as were over half those in charge of top administrative bodies in industry and three quarters of all factory and plant directors.^^2^^
A good number of problems had to be overcome in the course of the development of Soviet society. Stalin's cult of personality was detrimental to the cause of socialist construction, as was the resulting infringement of the Leninist standards of public life and socialist democracy. At a time when socialism had already emerged victorious in the Soviet Union, the exploiting classes and their economic foundation had been eliminated, when the socio-political unity of the whole Soviet people had been achieved, Stalin'put forward the erroneous tenet to the effect that during the further advance of the USSR along the socialist path the class struggle would intensify. In practice this mistaken tenet was used to justify the violations of socialist legality and mass repressions.^^3^^
However, these violations of the Leninist standards of party and state life, despite their grim consequences, could not change the very nature of socialist society or that of the ideological, political
~^^1^^ Congresses of the Soviets of the USSR, of the Union and Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics. Selected Documents, Vol. Ill (1922-1936], Moscow, I960, p. 243 (in Russian).
- From Capitalism to Socialism. Problems Central to the History, of the Transition Period in the USSR. 1917-1937, Vol. II, p. 174.
~^^3^^ Overcoming the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences: A Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Moscow, 1956, p. 16 (in Russian).
72CHAPTER 1
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73and organisational principles of the work of the Communist Party. Basically the Communist Party and the working class resolutely and unswervingly followed the course laid down by Lenin, who had stressed that Soviet power "gives those who were formerly oppressed the chance to straighten their backs and to an ever-increasing degree to take the whole government of the country, the whole administration of the economy, the whole management of production, into their own hands".^^1^^ Only in a genuinely free society was it possible to achieve the unprecedented labour heroism shown by millions'of men and women and without which it would have been unthinkable to put into practice the grandiose plans for socialist construction in such a brief historical period. All that time each victory in the building of socialism made its contribution to the advance of socialist democracy.
The building of socialism in the USSR was of world-wide historic importance. For the first time in history socialism had come into its own as a real system of social relations. It is stated in the CPSU Programme: "As a result of the devoted labour of the Soviet people and the theoretical and practical activities of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, there exists in the world a socialist society that is a reality and a science of socialist construction that has been tested in practice. The highroad to socialism has been paved.''^^2^^
In the course of socialist construction the theory formulated by the founders of Marxism in relation to socialism as a new type of the social system that represented the first, lower phase of the communist formation, was developed and taken further. On the basis of the experience- of socialist construction important aspects of the theory of socialism were elaborated: these covered the building of socialism in one country, methods for providing the material and technical base for socialism and the collectivisation of agriculture, the cultural revolution, the solution of the national questidn, and the transition of the backward borderlands to socialism, bypassing capitalism.
The creation of the socialist society in the USSR bore out the profound correctness of the Marxist-Leninist tenet to the effect that the leading role of the working class and its revolutionary vanguard---the Marxist-Leninist party---and the firm alliance of the working class with the non-proletarian working masses are essential for the victory of socialism.
Within what was historically speaking a short period of time the Soviet working class was able to train and educate itself to become the universally recognised leader of the new, socialist society. The experience of the Soviet Union demonstrated beyond doubt that
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, "Speeches on Gramophone Records", Collected Works, Vol. 29r p. 249.
~^^2^^ The Road to Communism, p. 463.
the working class was capable not only of destroying what was old and obsolete, but also of successfully creating something new and progressive, of administering society without the bourgeoisie.
The Soviet Five-Year Plans were not only plans for economic development, but sweep programmes for social progress. They enabled the socialist system of production to achieve its highest aim---that of satisfying as far as possible men's material and spiritual needs.
After the peoples from the former national borderlands, who at the time of the October Revolution had been living at a pre-capitalist stage of development, were drawn into the work of building socialism, the world revolutionary movement received a scientific theory of the transition to socialism and a real experience of it. Lenin's anticipation of the possibility for a number of peoples to make the transition to socialism, bypassing capitalism, was borne out completely by subsequent developments.
The political, social and economic achievements of the world's first state of the working people became a shining banner for the workers of the world in their struggle. In an appeal made by the Executive Committee of the Communist International "To Mark the Twentieth Anniversary of the Great October Revolution" it was proclaimed: "And now, workers of all countries, living Socialism stands before your eyes, clothed in flesh and blood! Living Socialism means the abolition of the exploitation of man by man. Living Socialism means the abolition of unemployment and poverty, means an uninterrupted rise in the material and cultural standards of the working masses... Living Socialism means the right to work, the right to leisure, the right to education---rights guaranteed to every citizen.''^^1^^
The impact of the achievements of the land of victorious socialism on world development was impossible to exaggerate, for it opened up new horizons for social progress. In this connection Dolores Ibarruri wrote: "Just as the ideas of the French Revolution of 1789 permeated all the bourgeois revolutions of the 19th century, although they were not identical in form to the French Revolution, so the spirit of revolutionary October 1917 lives in the political and social gains that the workers of all lands wrest from the bourgeoisie: it manifests itself in the instability, which today besets the world of imperialism and the monopolies.''^^2^^ The enormous moral and political authority enjoyed by the Soviet Union, its economic and defence capacity, were used as an effective means in the fight for peace, against imperialist policies of aggression, for the establishment
~^^1^^ The Communist International, Nos. 10-11-12, 1937, p. 1166.
~^^2^^ D. Ibarruri, "The October Revolution and the Struggle for Democracy and Socialism", Great October and the World Revolutionary Process, Moscow,1967. pp. 76-77 (in Russian).
r
74CHAPTER 1
Chapter 2 THE MARCH TO SOCIALISM
of equal rights in the relations between large and small peoples, as a mighty source of support for revolutionary and national liberation movements throughout the world.
The power of the example of creative change achieved by the Soviet socialist state that had set free the positive potential of the working class and all the working people provided revolutionary momentum that was to affect the whole course of world history. Socialism in one country never was and never remained socialism for one country. It went down in history as the most important achievement of the international labour movement, of all progressive forces. The victory of socialism in the USSR marked the beginning of the emergence of socialism as a world system destined to replace capitalism.
The creation of a socialist society in the Soviet Union paved the way to socialism for the working people of the whole world, and no amount of effort on the part of the bourgeoisie could cancel out the enormous impact of socialist ideas on the class struggle in the capitalist world. The revolutionary inspiration of the first proletarian state made itself particularly keenly felt in the Baltic region which as a result of the anti-Soviet intervention had been cut off from Soviet Russia. The working class in the Baltic countries, who had taken part side by side with the Russian proletariat in establishing Soviet power, possessed tremendous revolutionary potential at a time when the bourgeoisie was pursuing reactionary policies, which demonstrated its inability to solve the urgent problems of social development. The exacerbation of all socio-political contradictions in the Baltic countries, the influence of the victory of socialism in the USSR, the impressive fighting efficiency of the working class, the decline in the bourgeoisie's moral and political authority all helped pave the way for socialist revolutions in this region.
The Soviet Union's neighbour in the southeast---the Mongolian People's Republic---orienting its policy on the experience of socialist construction in the USSR and with the support of the Soviet working class, embarked on a path of profound democratic change aimed at preparing the country for building socialism, bypassing the capitalist stage of development in the process.
Thus, the historic accomplishments of the Soviet working class helped the peoples of other countries to adopt the policy of building socialism.
THE SOCIALIST REVOLUTIONS OF 1940 IN THE BALTIC REGION
The republics in the Eastern Baltic -region---Lithuania, Latvia
and Estonia---were the weakest links in the world capitalist system.
The bourgeoisie in the Baltic states had come to power after a grim
f
76CHAPTER 2
THE MARCH TO SOCIALISM
struggle against the new social order as represented by the Soviets of revolutionary workers and peasants. After the Soviet republics in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia had been abolished in 1919 with the help of foreign interventionist troops, the bourgeoisie in those countries at once showed itself to, be an openly reactionary force working againjst the true interests of the people.
The severing qf economic ties with Soviet Russia and the restructuring of the country's trade and economic relations turned the Baltic region virtually into an agrarian appendage of the imperialist powers, more dependent than ever on their aggressive, anti-Soviet policies.^^1^^
The most advanced branches of production such as shipbuilding, mechanical engineering and the chemical industry, gradually fell into decline. It took bourgeois Latvia, the most industrially developed of the three Baltic countries, almost twenty years to regain the overall volume of industrial production that had been achieved in 1913.^^2^^ The average workers' level of productivity in the Baltic region was several times lower than that in the major capitalist countries. Unemployment was still a major factor in that region even in the years when partial stabilisation of capitalism was achieved.
The bourgeoisie made extensive use of the threat of unemployment in order to keep down the working people's living standards and to curtail their rights: production quotas were increased while wages were frozen or reduced, provision for social insurance was cut and so on. On the other hand, the ruling elite, fearful lest social discontent should break out gave every support to mass-scale emigration, which enabled the government to hold down the level of unemployment and at the same time to get rid of revolutionaryminded workers. During the period of bourgeois rule from Lithuania alone close on a 100,000 people emigrated.^^3^^
The reorientation of the Baltic states' economies to meet the demands of Western markets affected the population distribution in those countries as well. Latvia and Estonia which had formerly been industrial rather than agrarian countries, were reverting to predominantly agrarian economies. The vast majority of the popula-
(around 70 per cent in Latvia and Estonia and 80 per cent in Lithuania) were again being employed in agriculture. The largest class was the petty bourgeoisie consisting of middle peasants, artisans and small traders.^^1^^
Despite the major losses it had incurred the working class continued to alarm the local bourgeoisie. It had behind it rich experience of class battles gleaned side by side with workers from all over Russia in the course of three revolutions and the struggle to consolidate Soviet power in the years 1917-1919. The vanguard of the working class countered the bourgeois policy of fanning private ownership mentality and national strife with the Marxist-Leninist ideas of the social liberation of the working people and the self-determination of nations. The communist parties, though driven underground, continued to pursue their activities. The broad mass of the people still had vivid memories of the social transformations effected by the Soviets in the Baltic Region during the period 1917-1919. The mere fact of the proximity of the world's first state of workers and peasants lent a specific character to the class struggle in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, inspiring the oppressed people and frightening the local bourgeoisie always fearful lest the popular masses should follow the example of the working people of the USSR.
The enormous army of the rural proletariat that numbered 150,000 in Estonia, 300,000 in Latvia and close on 200,OOO^^2^^ in Lithuania had also amassed by this time considerable experience in class struggle.
In an effort to reduce the social tension in rural areas the ruling classes of these countries, under pressure from the popular masses, decided to implement agrarian reforms, however their implementation took a whole ten years. Large landed estates were divided, limits for quotas of inalienable holdings were laid down and a considerable section of the landless peasantry was granted land. For a time the bourgeoisie was then able to make social conflicts in the village less acute. However, while the reforms were still being implemented, their limited nature was already coming to the fore. Land was granted first and foremost to officers and soldiers in the bourgeois armies, to leaders of the nationalist organisations, to those who had taken part in the war against the Soviet Republic and only at the end of the line to the rural poor and to agricultural labourers. Only a few of those newly granted land were able to consolidate their position and join the ranks of the middle peasants. The majority of those granted land, however, swelled the ranks of the semi-proletariat
~^^1^^ "Germany and the Baltic Region", The Fifth Interdepartmental Research Collection, Riga, 1978; A. Varslavan, British Capital in Bourgeois Latvia. 1920- 1929, Riga, 1972; V. Sipols, Secret Diplomacy. Bourgeois Latvia in the Anti-- Soviet Plans of the Imperialist Powers in 1919-1940, Riga, 1968; 0. Sepre, The Dependence of Bourgeois Estonia on Imperialist Countries, Tallinn, 1960 (all in Russian).
~^^2^^ History of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic, Riga, 1971, p. 538 (in Russian).
i
~^^3^^ The Socialist Revolutions of 1940 in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. The i Re-establishment of Soviet Power, Moscow, 1978, p. 78 (in Russian); Lietuvos i TSR istorija, Vol. 3, Nuo 1917 iki 1940 metu, Vilnius, 1965, p. 143.
I
~^^1^^ Yu. Kirsh, The Status of the Peasantry in the Baltic States and Their Struggle, Moscow. 1933, p. 4; The Socialist Revolutions of 1940 in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, pp. 64-65 (both in Russian).
~^^2^^ Yu. Kirsh, op. cit., p. 5.
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79or had to abandon their holdings altogether after once again becoming the victims of harsh exploitation.^^1^^ The illusions which some of the peasants with very small holdings and the agricultural labourers had entertained at the beginning of the reform period were shattered once and for all, giving way instead to disillusionment and a profound hatred for the bourgeoisie.
The policy of social manoeuvring and nationalist demagogy enabled the bourgeoisie to remain in power, but it could not do away with the class struggle which had assumed the form of acute political confrontation. The frequent changes of government testified to the weak economic and social support for the bourgeoisie, and to the instability of its political power. In these conditions it was not long before the ruling class showed authoritarian tendencies. In 1926, a fascist dictatorship was set up in Lithuania. Bourgeois-democratic regimes were still holding sway in Estonia and Latvia, but the working class and all democratic forces had to wage a tense struggle against subversive activities of the reactionary circles. After the onset of the world economic crisis the ruling circles in Estonia and Latvia also turned to fascism as a last resort for upholding bourgeois : rule. On March 12, 1934 a fascist coup was effected in Estonia and on the night of May 15, 1934 the parliamentary regime was also abolished in Latvia.
The fascist'regimes in Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia proclaimed that their main aim was to "revitalise the economy" by means of state intervention in all its branches. In actual fact what this "re- j vitalisation" really meant was a reactionary course of home policy, greater role of monopoly capital in the country's economy and open - suppression of the masses' revolutionary movement.
The fascist dictatorships in the Baltic region which relied for their support on the upper strata of the "urban and rural bourgeoisie, were unable to forge for themselves an indispensable social base either in the towns or in the rural areas in which the bulk of the working people was concentrated. This stood out most of all in Lithuania where by the mid-1930s class contradictions in the villages had become very tense. The peasant movement which began here with purely economic goals soon developed into a powerful anti-- government and anti-fascist protest.^^2^^
The discontent rife among the widest circles in society at the abolition of bourgeois-democratic freedoms and the intensified endea-
vour by workers and other working people to achieve unity of action in defence of their political and socio-economic rights led to major changes in the alignment of social and political forces in the Baltic states. The communist parties of Lithuania, • Latvia and Estonia which took an active part in the preparation and implementation Of the decisions adopted at the 7th Comintern Congress achieved considerable success in the setting up of a united workers' and antifascist Popular Front.^^1^^
In the autumn of 1934, an agreement was signed in Latvia between the Communist and Socialist Worker and Peasant parties to set up a common workers' front and to wage a joint struggle against fascism. In many factories, unity committees were- set up, their activities being coordinated by their Central Committee, regional and district committees. Similar committees appeared in the trade unions and also to direct the fight waged by the rural proletariat. In the summer of 1936, the Communist and Socialist Youth Organisations amalgamated to form the Union of Working Youth in Latvia. This coordinated effort of the working class and other working people contributed to the growth of the strike movement. The strikers were more and more on the offensive to defend political rights as well as economic ones.^^2^^
Despite the resistance from the right-wing leadership of the Social Democratic Party, committees for a united workers' .front were set up in Lithuania at the end of 1935: these consisted of Communists, Social Democrats and members of Christian workers associations in a number of branches of industry. In May, June and July of 1936 the strike movement found a new lease of life. In 1936, 24,000 workers took part in economic and political strikes in Lithuania.^^3^^
In January 1937, the programme of the anti-fascist Popular Front of Lithuania was made public, which had been_ duly approved by the Communist Party, the Komsomol and also by left-bourgeois public figures and Populists, the youth organisation that united Populists and Socialists, and by the anti-fascist groups of politically non-committed members of the intelligentsia. On March 23, 1939, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of'Lithuania appealed to the people to set up a broad-based front, capable of mobilising the country's patriotic forces to implement democratic reforms.
~^^1^^ A. K. Pankseyev, A. B. Libman, "Georgi Dimitrov and Certain Aspects of the Revolutionary Movement in the Baltic Region", Georgi Dimitrov, An Outstanding Leninist Revolutionary, Moscow, 1974 (in Russian).
~^^2^^ An Outline History of the Communist Party of Latvia, Part 2, Riga, 1966, pp. 389-92; A. A. Drizul, Latvia under the Yoke of Fascism, Riga, 1960, pp. 176- 85; A. A. Drizul, An Outline History o'f the Labour Movement in Latvia (1920- 1940), Moscow, 1959, pp. 135-50 (all in Russian).
~^^8^^ Kommunist, (Vilnius), No. 1, 1977, p. 98.
~^^1^^ Forty Years of the Baltic Republics in the USSR. Summaries of Reports and
\ Communications at the All-Union Scientific Conference devoted to the Revolutions of 1940 and to the Re-establishment of Soviet Power in the Baltic Repu-
i blics of the USSR (July 1-2, 1980), Vilnius, 1980, p. 20 (in Russian).
f
~^^2^^ S. Atamukas, The Communist Party of Lithuania in the Struggle for Soviet
I Power (1935-1940), Moscow, 1961, pp. 104-19 (in Russian).
I
F
80CHAPTER 2
THE MARCH TO SOCIALISM
81Many of the strikes organised by the workers of Estonia called for a united front. These strikes were led on a joint basis by Communists, Left Socialists and non-party activists. In July 1935, Communists and representatives of the left wing of the former Estonian Socialist Workers' Party signed an agreement on joint action. This success in coordinating the activities of party and trade union organisations of the working class facilitated the strike movement. In 1935, there were twenty-five demonstrations by the working people demanding higher wages, in which 10,000 Estonian workers took part.^^1^^
In October 1935, a Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee of the Estonian Communist Party was held in Moscow to discuss problems connected with the establishment of an anti-fascist popular front. As noted in the decision issued at the end of the plenary meeting, the core of the popular front should consist of the Communist Party and Left Socialists, but it was essential that it should also involve other workers' organisations and also embrace new immigrants, the national centre and the organisations of the Russian ethnic minority.^^2^^ The plenary meeting called on all these organisa- , t ions to campaign for agrarian reform .in accordance with which tens of thousands of poor peasants and farm labourers would be provided with plots as a result of the division of large landed estates and also of the state land reserve.
In 1936-1937, cooperation between the Tallinn Communists, Left Socialists and the left wing of the cultural association Licht (Light), which brought together progressive Jewish workers and intellectuals, became much closer.
On the whole, the fascist regimes in the Baltic countries made possible the extension of their rule by draining the moral and political resources of the: bourgeoisie. After the Second World War began it became particularly clear that the orientation by the ruling circles in the Baltic countries on nazi Germany became a threat to the very existence of these states and would lead to the enslavement of the Baltic peoples by aggressors. The revolutionary struggle of the working class was merging more and more with the nation-wide protest against this suicidal policy, therefore bringing nearer the time by which a revolutionary situation would have taken shape. The ruling circles were subjected to growing pressure from the working people, who were demanding closer ties with the Soviet Union. * It should be pointed out that the patriotic members of the bourgeoisie ;
had been also convinced by the rapid defeat of Poland and its nazi |
_________
I
~^^1^^ The Central State Archives,of the October Revolution in the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, folio 994, entry 1, file 23, sheets 68-69.
^^2^^ An Outline History of the Communist Party of Estonia, Part 2, Tallinn, 1963, p. 317 (in Russian).
occupation that the Baltic countries on their own were not in a position to defend their freedom and independence in face of fascist aggression.
In the situation that had now developed the governments of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were obliged to accept the proposals of the Soviet Union and to conclude in the autumn of 1939 pacts providing for mutual assistance, according to which the signatories took it upon themselves to afford each other all possible assistance, even military assistance should the need arise. So that, the USSR might ie in a position to provide real and effective help to the Baltic states it was given the right to station a set number of armed contingents on their territory.
The signing of these pacts did not put an end to the unpatriotic activities of the reactionary circles in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. There was a danger that nazi Germany might pull the Baltic countries into a war against the Soviet Union and that their peoples be enslaved by nazi invaders. At the same time the signing of these mutual assistance pacts gave new impetus to the nation-wide struggle against the unpatriotic and anti-Soviet schemes of the reactionaries: it helped further to reduce the social support for the ruling fascist cliques and accelerated their political isolation. Thus, on October 9, 1939, a meeting of workers' elders and trade union representatives from all over the city of Tallinn made an appeal in the name of the Estonian working people, demanding unequivocally that "in the spirit of the mutual assistance pact concluded between Estonia and the Soviet Union the working people of the two countries should in the future draw closer together".^^1^^ In that same month representatives of the legal opposition won victories in the municipal elections in Tallinn, Tartu, Narva and other cities. Further elections to the State Duma in October 1939 and January 1940 produced similar results.^^2^^ By the spring of 1940 the political situation in Estonia was extremely tense. Bourgeois leaders were obliged to concede that there could be felt in the air a "latent mass hostility to everything connected with state power and administration".^^3^^
A similar situation took shape in Latvia and Lithuania. The masses were well aware of the need for radical change and showed their readiness to engage in decisive revolutionary activity.
On May 1, 1940, despite reinforced police guards, red flags were hung up in many parts of Riga and leaflets were distributed calling for the overthrow of the fascist regime. In the large cities of Latvia
~^^1^^ Quoted from 0. Kuuli, The Revolutionary Summer of 1940 in Estonia, Tallinn, 1979, p. 9 (in Russian).
~^^2^^ Ibid., pp. 11-12.
~^^3^^ Riigivolikogu stenograafilised aruanded, I koosseis, V ia VI istungjark. 1939/40, Tallinn, 1940, p. 939.
«-016H
82CHAPTER 2
THE MARCH TO SOCIALISM
83strikes and workers' rallies were organised. In a description of the workers' mood in the spring of 1940, the Latvian secret police noted that "deep discontent is rife among them and they have begun openly to express their contempt for the existing state order in Latvia", that they sympathised with the USSR and were convinced that an imminent revolution was inevitable. At that same time the American envoy to Riga wrote to his government about the drastic increase in anti-government activity on the part of left-wing forces in Latvia.^^1^^ In the spring of 1940 and early June of the same year in Kaunas, Vilnius, Panevezys and other towns in Lithuania, workers organised strikes in the course of which ever more frequent demands were made for the resignation of the government.
While the popular masses were expressing their reluctance to continue living as before in ever more strident terms, signs that the ruling elite was in the throes of crisis came ever more clearly to the fore: internal dissensions, bewilderment and confusion, a feverish search for ways of saving their own power. In Latvia and Lithuania some factions of the bourgeoisie were planning to carry out palace coups in the spring of 1940, hoping in this way to defuse the revolutionary situation. In Estonia where there still remained some opportunities' for legal opposition, as early as the autumn of 1939 the ruling class decided to replace some of the more reprehensible figures in the dictatorial regime by politicians who had previously, albeit in a demagogic way, promised that reforms would be carried out.
By the summer of 1940 the split between the broad popular masses, on the one hand, and the fascist rulers, on the other, amounted to a national crisis. In these conditions the only organised and cohesive force able to put forward a positive solution to the outstanding problems were the communist parties in the countries concerned. In the documents adopted by them at the end of 1939 and in early 1940 were to be found clear precise programmes for the national and social salvation of these countries. The Communists were making it clear to the masses that the way out of this catastrophic situation should be sought not in a return to bourgeois-democratic ways, but in the establishment of people's democratic republics.
The communist parties exposed the fallacy that the then current situation was holding back the introduction of democratic freedoms, demonstrating that it was precisely the pact with the Soviet Union and its wholehearted implementation, which could make possible the democratisation of public life in the Baltic countries. While courageously combatting the wild outbursts of fascist reaction, the Communists led the struggle of the working class and other working
people to achieve economic and political rights, and radically to restructure the whole of society.
Insofar as the ruling circles in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were violating the mutual assistance treaties signed with the USSR, the Soviet Government, in June 1940, brought up the question of the removal from government office in those countries of the persons who had impeded the conscientious observance of the treaties in practice and also the question of increasing the number of Soviet garrisons in the Baltic countries.^^1^^ The proposals put forward by the USSR were accepted.
In Lithuania, the extra units of Soviet troops which arrived on the scene on June 15 were given an enthusiastic reception. Tens of thousands of people from Kaunas and other cities came out to demonstrate in support of them, greeting the fighting men as their defenders and true friends.^^2^^ The dictator Smetona and his stooges fled to Germany. The next day saw mass rallies and demonstrations in response to an appeal from the Communists: those who took part in them demanded an end to the reactionary forces' activities directed against the people, an end to anti-Soviet provocations, a lifting of the ban on the Communists and trade unions, the formation of a new government which would protect the interests of the people. In Kaunas the demonstrators demanded that anti-fascists be immediately released from prison. In Panevezys the prison was taken by storm and the political prisoners freed.
These actions by the working people brought the work of the bourgeois state apparatus to a standstill. The ruling class could not resort to violence. The army had gone over to the side of the people and the presence of the Soviet troops made any foreign intervention impossible. In these conditions a new People's Government was formed directly involving the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Lithuania: it included many prominent public figures and was led by Justas Paleckis.^^3^^
In Latvia the reception of Soviet armed units developed into a mass demonstration by the people of their friendly attitude to the USSR and of their hatred for the fascist regime led by Karlis Ulmanis. In a telegram sent to London by the British envoy it was said that a considerable section of the population had met Soviet troops with shouts of welcome and flowers.^^4^^ The authorities sent out the mounted police and military units against the unarmed demonstrators. In Riga a state of siege was declared. Despite repressive meas-
J History of Soviet Foreign Policy. 1917-1945. Volume 1, Moscow, 1981, p. 390. • The Socialist Revolutions of 1940 in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, p. 278.
~^^3^^ V. 0. Miller. The Victory of Soviet Power in the Baltic Region in 1940, Riga, 1964, pp. 1-8 (in Russian).
~^^4^^ Public Record Office, F.O. 419/34, p. 272.
~^^1^^ The Socialist Revolutions of 1940 in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, p. 276.
CHAPTER 2
THE MARCH TO SOCIALISM
85ures and arrests this tide of revolutionary feeling also swept through other cities of Latvia. In Liepaja demonstrators occupied the most important buildings in the town. De facto power came into the hands of the working people led by the city committee of the Communist Party of Latvia. Decisive action by the popular masses paved the way for the fall of the bourgeois government led by Ulmanis. On June 20, a People's Government under August Kirchenstein was formed. Enormous political demonstrations and rallies took place throughout the country that provided a striking illustration of the people's revolutionary activity and resolution.^^1^^ In response to popular demand political detainees were freed from prison. The revolutionary movement spread to the peasantry and the army. With each day passing ever broader sections of the population joined in the struggle to build a new social order.^^2^^
In Estonia the Soviet diplomatic note sent on June 16, 1940 was the last impetus which led to an outburst of popular indignation against the treacherous, anti-national policies of the fascist-minded bourgeoisie. June 17 and the days that followed saw mass demonstrations demanding that a new government be set up to abide meticulously by the terms of the mutual assistance treaty with the Soviet Union and implement democratic reforms in all spheres of public affairs.^^3^^
The ruling class tried to prevent the popular masses from taking part in deciding the destiny of their country and postponed by every possible means the formation of a new government. Then in response to an appeal by the Communists the working people organised strikes and demonstrations in all Estonia's main cities on June 21. After a signal from factory sirens and hooters tens of thousands of workers downed tools and came out into the streets of Tallinn, Tartu, Narva, Kohtla-Jarve, Parnu and other cities. More and more people came out to join the columns of workers marching with revolutionary banners of 1905 and 1917.
The demand by the workers for the overthrow of the fascist government was soon being insisted upon by the whole of the working people. "Down with the Government of War Provocations!", "We Demand a Government that Will Honestly Abide by the Mutual Assistance Pact with the USSR!", "Work, Bread and Freedom!" such were the main slogans used by the masses. In Tallinn the workers seized the police stations and the arms depots and took over the government headquarters. The first detachments of the People's Self-Defence
~^^1^^ A. A. Drizul, An Outline History of the Labour Movement in Latvia (1920- 1940), pp. 158-59.
~^^2^^ Ibid., pp. 159-60.
~^^3^^ Under the Banner of October (The Working People of Estonia in Their Struggle for Soviet Power. 1917-1940), Moscow, 1959, p. 190 (in Russian).
Force began to be organised. The Estonian proletariat in conjunction with the working peasantry and with all the democratic forces of society made sure the fascist section of the bourgeoisie was robbed of its support. These fascists, no longer able to have counter-- revolutionary help from outside, were forced to give up political power without armed resistance, as had been the case in Lithuania and Latvia. On the evening of June 21, President Konstantin Pats announced that a new government would be set up under the leadership of the well-known political leader Vares (Barbarus).
The creation of these people's governments opened the way for the gradual disbandment of the organs of power of the bourgeois dictatorship, for the revolutionary transformation of all spheres of public life. In declarations published by the new governments of Lithuania (June 17, 1940), Latvia (June 20) and Estonia (June 22) the main thrust of these changes was defined: to secure popular rule, rights and freedoms for the masses, to ensure improved living standards and levels of education for the masses, to set up organs of state power on the basis of truly democratic elections, to dissolve and eliminate all reactionary organisations, and finally to develop neighbourly relations with the Soviet Union.
These declarations were based on the proposals put forward by the communist parties, who were going out of their way to ensure that the work of the new governments should reflect as -faithfully as possible the will of the popular masses. In the first few days of the revolutions the Communists of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia handed mandates to the people's governments that had been adopted by mass political rallies. These contained demands that the banks and industrial production should be placed under state control, that the army should be reorganised on democratic lines, that a workers' militia be set up, large landed estates confiscated and divided up among the landless peasants, that unemployment be brought to an end.^^1^^
The revolutionary activity of the masses, the setting up of people's governments and their first steps to implement these programmes for reform, that had been made known to the population, ensured a rapid transfer of power into the hands of the working people both in the capital cities and elsewhere in the thre,e countries. As early as June 1940 the working class, the driving force behind the revolution, was completely in charge of the situation.
Relying on the revolutionary resolve and active support of the masses, the people's governments that implemented the functions of the dictatorship of the proletariat proceeded forthwith to put into
22.
~^^1^^ The Socialist Revolutions of 1940 in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, pp. 321-
86CHAPTER 2
THE MARCH TO SOCIALISM
87practice the recommendations put forward by the communist parties of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, effecting changes in the political, economic, social, cultural and other spheres. Particularly important for the development and consolidation of the socialist revolutions were the acts passed by the people's governments providing an amnesty for political prisoners and lifting the ban on communist parties; old trade union organisations also could come out into the open and new ones could be formed, as could other organisations of the working people, including those catering to the needs and interests of the younger generation.
Immediately after they had been elected the people's governments began to dismantle the fascist military and state machine, to reorganise certain sections of the state apparatus along democratic lines. The most reactionary elements in the army, police, ministries and other state institutions were dismissed: their places were taken by members of the anti-fascist and revolutionary movements---- Communists, non-party democratic figures, trade union activists. Gradually the key posts in all areas of the state apparatus were assumed by Communists, progressive workers, peasants and intellectuals.^^1^^
In Lithuania and Estonia the parliaments that had existed in the years of fascist rule were dissolved. The disbandment of the chambers, set up on the lines of Italian fascist corporations, was an important event in the political life of the country. Similar steps were taken with regard to the fascist parties and para-military organisations. The laws adopted by the people's governments with regard to the introduction to army units of political instructors played an important role in the democratisation of the armies of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. In response to the demand by the working people the governments set about fundamentally reorganising the police and replacing it by a people's militia.
Changes wrought in the economic sphere were also extremely important. State representatives were appointed to inspect the activities of those managing private enterprises and establishments. State control over the activities of private capital paved the way to> nationalisation of the basic means of production and the banks.
A number of important acts were taken by the masses themselves, acting under the leadership of the Communists, acts which were later to be given the force of law. These included the setting free of all political prisoners, the creation by the workers in Estonia of People's Self-Defence Force to ensure revolutionary order. It was on the initiative of the masses that groups of non-party activists or sympathisers were formed. These groups whose activities were guided by
party bodies or individual Communists were in practice the implementors of party policy in those places where there did not yet exist party branches.
The initiative of the masses also manifested itself in the creation of new organs of power in the localities. In some towns and rural districts of Latvia administrative and revolutionary committees or those of workers' deputies were in charge of the situation from the very first days of the revolution right to the end of July.1 In Ventspils, for example, the administrative committee elected ty the workers' assembly was in complete control of the city.
Workers' committees played an important role in state control over private capital. These committees were set up in factories and consisted of industrial and office workers. Although direct workers' control was maintained only for a short time it was of considerable importance for uninterrupted production, the maintenance of equipment and raw materials and the involvement of the working people in active political life, paving the way for the socialisation of the means of production.^^2^^
The rank and file in the bourgeois armies of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia played a prominent role in their democratisation and in turning them into people's armies. Soldiers' committees acted effectively after they had emerged in Estonia at the beginning of July.
The elections to the supreme representative bodies---the People's Sejms in Lithuania and Latvia and the State Duma in Estonia held on July 14-15, 1940, reflected the enormous political enthusiasm of the masses and their keen desire to carry the revolution further. The bourgeoisie who still retained their right to vote was roundly defeated in these elections. An absolute majority of over 90 per cent of those who cast their votes came out in favour of the candidates from the electoral blocs led by the communist parties in the countries concerned.^^3^^
This victory of candidates nominated by the working people clearly testified to the radical changes that had been effected in less than a month by the people's governments. The working class and its revolutionary vanguard now came to occupy the leading positions in all spheres of public life. This meant that the alliance between the working class and the working peasantry had now been significantly consolidated. The essential conditions for the re-establishment of
~^^1^^ E. Zagars, "Restoration of Soviet Power in Latvia in 1940", Latvijas PSR Ztnatnu Akademijas Vestis, No. 8 (277), Riga, 1970, pp. 3-29.
~^^2^^ Common Regularities of the Great October Revolution and the Revolutions of the 1940s in the Countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe, Summaries of-- Reports and Speeches, Issue 2, Moscow, 1976, p. 42 (in Russian).
~^^3^^ An Outline of the Development of the State Systems in the Soviet Baltic Republics (1940-1965), p. 22.
~^^1^^ An Outline of the Development of the State Systems in the Soviet Baltic Republics (1940-1965), Tallinn, 1965, p. 15 (in Russian).
88CHAPTER 2
THE MARCH TO SOCIALISM
Soviet power in the Baltic countries and for their transition to the building of socialism had now been created.
Even during the lead-up to the elections, voters had been requesting in their mandates to their candidates that they bring up the question of the re-establishment of Soviet power in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and reach a positive decision on the issue, and that a reunification with the fraternal peoples of the Soviet Union be achieved and laws passed for the nationalisation of the land, banks, large trade and industrial enterprises.
At the first sittings of the People's Sejms of Lithuania and Latvia and of the State Duma of Estonia held between July 21 and 23r 1940, legislative acts were passed to proclaim Soviet power in the Baltic states, plenipotentiary commissions were elected to transmit to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR the declarations concerning the accession of the Baltic republics to the USSR. At the beginning of August 1940 Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia became part of the Soviet Union.
The events of July 21-23, 1940, brought to a successful conclusion the establishment of the- dictatorship of the proletariat in the Baltic countries. The declarations made by the supreme organs of state power in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia on the nationalisation of the banks, large-scale industry and the land laid the foundations for the creation of a socialist economy.
-In the constitutions adopted by the Soviet Baltic republics in August 1940 it was proclaimed that their economies should be determined and directed in accordance with state economic plans. The achievement of this objective was made possible above all by the fact that the main means of production---the land, its mineral resources, waters, forests, large factories, banks, transport, etc.---had become by that time the property of the state led by the working class. In addition, when Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia had become part of the USSR they could rely on the all-round help from the other Soviet republics, where socialism had already emerged victorious, and make wider use of the experience of the October Revolution and of the revolutionary transformations introduced in the world's first socialist state. Thanks to all this the transition to socialism in the Baltic region was effected more quickly than had been the case in the Russian Federation or in the Ukraine. As early as March 1941 the public sector in Estonia accounted for 99 per cent of all the republic's industrial output and in June 1941 the figures for Latvia and Lithuania were 93 and over 75 per cent, respectively.^^1^^
The communist parties of the three republics gradually began to pave the way for the socialist transformation of the rural areas,
explaining to the peasants that the creation of collective farms could only proceed on a voluntary basis. The movement to set up collective farms in the Baltic republics was initiated by the working peasants themselves, as they gradually became more and more convinced that Soviet policy was in complete accord with their interests.
The revolutions of 1940 in the Baltic republics were a remarkable landmark in the history of the international labour movement. They continued the process of revolutionary renewal of the world that had started with the victory of the Russian proletariat: they were the first socialist revolutions after the Great October Revolution in Russia. Yet another link in the chain of the world capitalist system fell off and a number of peoples embarked on the path of socialist construction.
The revolutionary events of 1940 in the Baltic republics served to bear out the general principles of Lenin's theory of socialist revolution. Just as in October 1917 these revolutions developed out of a national crisis that had affected not merely the exploited, or lowest stratum of society, but also the exploiters, or the ``top'' stratum.
The communist parties of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia succeeded, on the basis of the anti-fascist, popular front, in blending together in a single broad current the class struggle of the urban and rural proletariat, the action by the working peasantry, the democraticallyminded members of the intelligentsia, and the anti-fascist sections of the urban petty bourgeoisie. With the onset of the Second World War the views of these different classes and social strata coincided on the main issue---in their awareness of the need to overthrow fascist dictatorships and to consolidate security measures in the region.
The distinctive feature of these broad associations was that they were effected under the direct leadership of Communists on the basis of active measures taken first and foremost by the rank-and-file participants in the struggle. The Communists in these associations were virtually the only well-organised and ideologically cohesive force. After the fascist coups the social democratic and bourgeoisliberal parties had ceased to exist. The working class, from the very outset, had not only come to the fore as the leading force behind the socialist revolution but also as its actual leader. The foremost and in many cases only influence brought to bear upon the working class was that of the Communists. Only in Latvia in the early weeks after the socialist revolution was there another party active in this respect besides the Communist Party and that was the left Socialist Workers and Peasants Party, which later adopted a decision to disband itself and advise its members to join the Communist Party of Latvia.
'
During the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), the working people
~^^1^^ V. 0. Miller, op. cit., p. 97.
CHAPTER 2
THE MARCH TO SOCIALISM
91of the Soviet Baltic republics fought heroically in a united family
jf of the Soviet peoples against the German nazi invaders, defending
the freedom and independence of their Motherland.
i
THE PATH TO SOCIALISM BY-PASSING CAPITALISM
I
The Mongolian People's Republic (MPR) was the first state after
| the Soviet Union that declared socialism to be its objective. In 1924, the 3rd Congress of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party •(MPRP) adopted a decision to develop the country along socialist lines, by-passing capitalism. That same vear the first Great People's Khural was convened, which -proclaimed Mongolia a-People's Republic and adopted its first constitution. The latter laid down the state
structure of the MPR, thus consolidating the new popular and demo-
|
cratic type of state with central and local bodies of power in the form
|
of people's khurals. The functions of the khurals of people's represen-
i
tatives were among other things to consolidate the alliance between
i
the arats (livestock breeders) and the working people of the Soviet
|
Union, to ensure the country's political and economic independence,
|
to involve the popular masses in the creation of the economic found-
|
ations for non-capitalist development, namely, state-owned and
|
cooperative industry, and to shape a Mongolian working class and
;,
a new national culture.
«
The 4th Congress of the MPRP (1925) adopted a programme which
laid down the main trends for social development. Up until 1940
|
far-reaching anti-feudal and anti-imperialist changes were being
I
effected so as to do away with the vestiges of feudalism, foreign
|
oppression and the last traces of the old ideology, so as to create the
``;
necessary conditions for the transition to socialist construction.
|
Under the leadership of the MPRP the Mongolian people success-
|
fully carried out tasks of combatting imperialism: a state monopoly
|
of foreign trade was established, numerous capitalist firms were
I
ousted from the country's economy, the anti-feudal reforms were also
f
completed.
I
The following factors brought their influence to bear on economic
|
development. First, the industry in the MPR was set up in the period
|
of transition from the feudal to a socialist system, by-passing capital-
l.
ism, so as to bring into being a socialist sector of the national econ-
|
omy. Second, industrial development was proceeding in a country
I
where there had not been any indigenous working class. Third,
E thanks to the help received from the Soviet Union the MPR set up and was in a position to develop those spheres of industry which were viable in local conditions. Given the low rate of accumulation in the country the importance of foreign aid was paramount.
In 1925, construction work was completed on a number of factories
for processing raw materials of animal origin, the equipment for •which had been provided by the USSR. In 1931, with Soviet help work began on the country's first large-scale industrial enterprise--- the Ulan Bator Industrial Complex.^^1^^ The complex became the foundation for the organisation of large-scale factories and the development of industry as an independent branch of the Mongolian economy.
Cooperative enterprises also developed apace. In 1933, the Union of Handicraft and Industrial Cooperatives which in 1934 united 33 artels in a single organisation grew to embrace 151 in 1940.^^2^^
Industry provided the economic basis for training the national •working class. The distinctive feature of this process consisted in the fact that the working class of Mongolia was "formed not in capitalist conditions, but on the basis of a young national industry in which socialist relations of production dominated".^^3^^ By 1940 there had been over 33,000 factory and office workers employed in industry.^^4^^ The work of Soviet specialists who put their experience at the service of Mongolian workers was most important in the training of the local work-force.
The trade unions also played a major part in shaping the new working class. The first Trade Union Congress took place in 1927. By June 1, 1928 the Mongolian trade unions numbered 5,528 members.^^5^^ They played an active part in the building of people's democratic state: they undertook wide-scale work to raise cultural and educational levels and to mould political awareness among workers so as to turn them into the main force in a society advancing towards socialism.
Certain difficulties did arise in this process of building the national working class. It was a first generation whose members for a long period were drawn in the main from the ranks of farm-hands and middle arats. It took much time and effort before they could cease their adherence to their own private herd. An important political task of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party was to combat religious attitudes that gave rise to passivity, individualism, poor organisation, and to oppose petty-bourgeois views.
~^^1^^ G. S. Matveeva, The Creation of the Material and Technical Basis for Socialism in the Mongolian People's Republic, Moscow, 1978, p. 46 (in Russian).
~^^2^^ D. Zagasbaldan, Problems of Socialist Industrialisation in the Mongolian People's Republic, Moscow, 1973, p. 41 (in Russian).
~^^3^^ Y. Tsedenbal, "From Feudalism to Socialism. What the Experience of Mongolia s Non-Capitalist Development Can Teach Us", World Marxist Review, No. 3, 1961, p. 14.
~^^4^^ The Economy of the MPR in 1962. Statistical Returns, Ulan Bator, 1963, p. 48 (in Russian).
~^^5^^ B. Tudev, The Formation of the Working Class in the MPR, Moscow, 1968, p. 65 (in Russian).
92CHAPTER 2
THE MARCH TO SOCIALISM
93The socialist industry was the economic foundation for the emergence of the working class in the Mongolian People's Republic. This meant that the working class emerged as a class fully free from exploitation. It could devote all its energy and strength to the socialist reorganisation of society by peaceful means, to the mastering of socialist ideology, and to the struggle to win the arats over to its side as its main ally in the building of socialism.
The working class in the MPR took shape and grew, taking as its model Soviet workers, whose experience had to an enormous degree 1 made possible the emergence of the Mongolian working class as the « vanguard of the working people in the socialist restructuring of j society. Following the example of the Soviet workers, their Mongolian | counterparts initiated socialist emulation campaigns and the move- | ment to train workers on their jobs. In the grim days of August and September 1939, the Mongolian workers armed with guns defended their freedom and the independence of their homeland on the Khalkhin Gol River.
The creation of this working class and the growth of its share of the party membership were of decisive importance for the consolidation of the MPRP. The stratum of workers within the party gradually became its core and main source of support in the struggle against unstable elements unable to stand up against pressure from the petty bourgeoisie, and also the most important factor in the propagation of a Marxist-Leninist world outlook both among members of the MPRP and also among the broad masses of the working people.
The general democratic stage of the development of Mongolia had been completed by the beginning of the 1940s, culminating in the establishment of a sovereign, politically and economically independent people's democratic state, and in the elimination of the economic foundations of feudalism and in the emergence of a socialist ^ector in the economy. One of the most far-reaching results of this general democratic stage was the creation of a national industry and working class. The working class occupied a fitting place in state and party apparatus, in the people's khurals, in the mass organisations through which it began to exercise its leadership of Mongolian society. As a result of the consolidation of the alliance between the working class and the arats the Mongolian people's democratic state, which at the general democratic stage represented a variety of the revolutionary-democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry, began gradually to develop into a type of power that was performing the functions of the dictatorship of the working class.^^1^^
The 10th Congress of the MPRP held in 1940 laid down in the new
party programme the main tasks for the immediate construction of socialist society.^^1^^ The Congress pointed out in its report that the necessary preconditions for the above had already taken shape in the country: the socialist sector had occupied dominant positions in the economy, the class structure of society had changed radically and it now consisted of two friendly classes---the working class and the working arats, and the MPRP was assuming a more active role in the guidance of socialist construction.
The 10th Congress of the MPRP admitted it was essential to adopt a new constitution in order to record legislatively the victories scored by the working people of Mongolia in the period 1924-1940. The new constitution was unanimously adopted by the 8th Great People's Khural that took place in June 1940. Art. 1 of the new Constitution stated: "The Mongolian People's Republic is an independent state of working people (arats, workers and intellectuals) who have eliminated imperialist and feudal oppression, and have embarked on a non-capitalist path of development so as to ensure the country's subsequent transition to socialism." This meant that the Course of action adopted had now the force of law.
The working people of Mongolia then turned to the attainment of historically new objectives. Comrade Y. Tsedenbal, the General Secretary of the Central Committee, MPRP, wrote: "After complex and far-reaching anti-feudal, anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist reforms had been introduced, it proved possible by 1940 to complete the first stage of the popular revolution in the MPR, and to start the gradual development of the democratic revolution into a socialist revolution.''^^2^^
Thus the first part of the task to put into practice Lenin's prediction of the possibility of the transition to socialism, by-passing the capitalist stage, had been successfully completed. The experience of revolutionary change amassed by this time bore witness to the fact that, for the countries still at the pre-capitalist stage of development, Marxism-Leninism and the policies of the revolutionary proletariat were profoundly relevant and ensured optimal solutions to the specific problems faced by these countries and created the best possible conditions for social progress. The main internal factor responsible for the success of the non-capitalist development was the leading role of the Marxist-Leninist MPRP and the main external factor responsible for this success was "the class alliance between the victorious proletariat and the peasantry that had risen up to wage
~^^1^^ Documents on the History of the MPRP, Vol. 2 (1940-1960), Ulan Bator 1967, pp. 16-18 (in Mongolian).
~^^2^^ Y. Tsedenbal, "The Glorious Sixtieth Anniversary of the MPRP" Kommunist, No. 4, 1981, p. 94.
~^^1^^ MPRP Programme, 15th Congress of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party, Moscow, 1966, p. 172 (in Russian).
94CHAPTER 2
Part Two
CLASS BATTLES OF THE WORKING CLASS
a struggle for liberation"^^1^^ which had international implications.
The example of the MPR was to enjoy considerable international influence. It demonstrated in practice that the transition to socialism by-passing the capitalist stage of development was possible and revealed the advantages which the orientation on socialism as a longterm perspective can bring to a backward country.
This very fact served to mobilise the popular masses in colonial and dependent countries fighting for national liberation on an unprecedented scale. While the hostile attitude of world imperialism to the national liberation movement, and the inconsistent vacillations of the petty bourgeoisie made it difficult for the peoples of many backward countries to achieve national liberation within the framework of capitalist development, the experience of the Mongolian People's Republic, which opened up new prospects for the national liberation struggle, added greatly to their strength helping to swell the mighty current that was washing away the foundations of th& imperialist system of colonial domination.
~^^1^^ Y. Tsedenbalj "The Glorious Sixtieth Anniversary of the MPRP", Kommunist, No. 4, 1981. p. 93.
Chapter 3
SOCIO-POLITICAL FEATURES OF THE WORKING CLASS IN THE CAPITALIST COUNTRIES
Since October 1917 important changes were taking place in the socio-political make-up of the working class in the capitalist countries.^^1^^ The building of socialism in the Soviet Union was to have a decisive impact on its development, as did the general conditions in which the class struggle was being waged and changes in the organisation of the capitalist economy. In the period 1924-1928 the capitalist countries experienced a period of relative stability and a temporary decline in the struggle of the masses. The working class waged grim struggles against the onslaught of capital and reaction directed at the social and democratic gains of the working people. In the decade between 1929 and 1939 the working class of the capitalist countries was hit by two economic crises: that of 1929-1933 and a second of 1937-1938, and the first of these in its scale and farreaching implications outstripped anything that had ever been seen before in the history of capitalism. Economic upheavals coincided with the onset of fascism and the increased danger of a new world war. Against this background the working class and its vanguard--- the communist parties---were obliged to direct their main effort towards organising the anti-fascist and anti-war movement.
The increasing concentration of production and capital, capitalist rationalisation, growing state intervention in the economy exerted a considerable influence upon the structure and position of the working class.
The internationalisation of productive forces and methods of exploitation, the intensification of the capitalist international division of labour, the spreading of capitalist relations in the colonial and de-
~^^1^^ This chapter treats the working class concentrated in the main centres of the capitalist world: in Europe, North America and Japan. An analysis of the working class in Asia, Africa and Latin America is to be found in chapters 7 and 8 of this volume.
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98CHAPTER 3
SOCIO-POLITICAL FEATURES OF THE WORKING CLASS UNDER CAPITALISM 99
Of the working population than in the more developed capitalist countries.
Important changes were also taking place in the structure of the army of wage workers: the drop in the number of wage workers in agriculture was continuing, while at the same time there was rapid growth in the share of working people employed in trade, the services sector and particularly in that of white-collar workers.
Yet the core of the army of wage workers remained as before those employed in factories, who constituted over half the total.^^1^^
The growth of the proletariat employed in factories proceeded at different rates, varying from one country to another. In Japan, for example, the number of industrial workers came to close on two million in 1928, but by 1938 exceeded three million.^^2^^ The number of industrial workers in the United States and Denmark almost doubled in the same period, while it went up by 50 per cent in Canada, Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden and Austria. The number of industrial workers rose more slowly in Italy, Spain, Greece, and in the majority of the countries in Central and South-Eastern Europe. The industrial proletariat grew only to an insignificant extent in France, Belgium and Switzerland.^^3^^
In the period under discussion, the concentration of the industrial proletariat increased. In the United States, for example, between 1914 and 1937 the proportion of workers in the manufacturing industries employed in factories with a staff of 50 and below fell from 23.7 to 16.8 per cent, while the proportion of the work-force in factories employing over 250 rose from 45.6 to 55.5 per cent.^^4^^ In Canada the proportion of workers in the manufacturing industries employed in factories with a work-force of 50 or less was 25.2 per cent in 1929, whereas in 1944 it sank to a mere 17.4 per cent. During the same period the proportion of blue and white-collar workers employed in factories with a staff of 50 or more grew from 74.8 to 82.6 per cent.5 More and more of the industrial workers were being concentrated in factories employing 500 or more. In Japan factories of this size accounted for 25.5 per cent of the total in 1930 and for 34.4 per cent in 1939; in Germany the corresponding figures for 1925 and 1939 were 35.8 and 43.8 per cent; in Italy the figures for 1927 and 1939 were respectively 17.3 and 22.5 per cent; in France between 1921 and 1936 this section of the work-force rose from 19.2 to 20.7 per cent and in Sweden it rose from 19.7 to 28 per cent between 1920 and 1945.^^6^^
~^^1^^ Ibid., p. 153.
~^^2^^ The Working Class of Japan, Moscow, 1959, pp. 245-49 (in Russian).
~^^3^^ Figures collected on the basis of national statistics. ^^1^^ Census of Manufactures: 1947, Washington, 1950.
~^^5^^ Figures taken from Canada Year Book. 1962.
~^^6^^ Figures collected on the basis of national statistics.
7*
pendent countries via the export of capital, the rising tide of migration, all these'factors provided an undeniably broader base for the development of international contacts between the workers of different countries.
THE SWELLING RANKS OF THE WORKING CLASS
During the 1920s and 1930s the trend towards the proletarianisation of the population continued. While in the early 20th century there were 85 million wage workers in the industrially developed capitalist countries, by the beginning of the Second World War the army of wage workers had risen to 141,200,000, and constituted 65.9 per cent of the working population.^^1^^
The following table provides a general picture of the increase in the share of wage workers in the working population of the main capitalist countries:
Table 2
Ye
ar
Y
^ar
Country
1920 (%)
1940 (%)
Country
1920 (%)
1940 (%)
68 3
77.5
France .........
56. n
59,7
86 8
89 1
Italy .........
45.2
51,9
66 5
68 3
37.8
46.0
Source: "Statistics: The Working Population and the Working Class in the Developed Capitalist Countries", Mirovaya Ekonomiha i Mezhdunarodnye Otnoshenii/a, No. 7, 1970, p. 154.
As these figures show, in the 1920s and 1930s the ranks of wage workers constituted the vast majority of the working population in the developed capitalist countries.
The uneven levels of capitalist development were responsible for the differences in the growth rates of the wage workers and of their share in the working population in various countries. In the United States, Britain, Germany and France the wage workers constituted the absolute majority of the working population. In Italy, Sweden, Belgium, Japan and Canada the wage workers accounted for close on half the working population. In Spain, Portugal and most countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe the numbers of wage workers were also growing, although they accounted for a much smaller share
Mirovaya Ekonomika i Mezhdunarodnye Otnosheniya, No. 7, 1970, pp. 152,
154.