Is it too early to judge the Russian Revolution?
- By Heiko Khoo
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E-mail China.org.cn, November 8, 2012
Zhou Enlai once said it is "too early"to judge the French Revolution. However, it is disputed whether he was referring to the 1789 or 1968 revolutions. By this logic, is it also too early to judge the Russian Revolution, which took place 95 years ago this week?
The Russian Revolution heralded the birth of global socialism. It was the first revolution in which a mass party of the working class overthrew capitalism. The revolution was produced by the anger of the masses at the miseries inflicted on the people of Europe during the First World War.
The old forms of rule by kings, emperors and tsars lost all credibility as millions were slaughtered in barbaric and senseless trench warfare. War between nations – to rob and plunder other nations – gave way to mutinies and revolutions against the ruling classes. In 1917, a small handful of Russian revolutionaries initiated the creation of a new world by connecting the theory of Marxism with the experience of millions of soldiers, peasants and workers.
The First World War was fought out between the workers and peasants of different nations who were sent to fight one another by their "own"national ruling classes. Marxists believed that war would be ended by a worldwide revolution that would liberate humanity from enslavement to capitalism. Unrest in Russian trenches, hunger riots in cities, and peasant revolts in the countryside united the forces that would overthrow the Russian Tsar in February 1917. However, the new provisional government sought to pacify the masses and continued the much-hated war. A new uprising led by Lenin's Bolshevik section of the Russian Social Democracy party swept away the vestiges of the old order – convincing soldiers to join an insurrection under the slogan "Land, Bread and Peace". Revolutionary committees called "Soviets"represented the unrest of the urban and rural masses and would replace the old system of state power. On the morning of November 8, 1917, a new socialist world was born in Petrograd (St Petersburg).
The war's carnage, brutality and misery gave way to a vision of a collectivist future of peace, freedom and plenty. But Russia's backward capitalism was destroyed by the war, and the nation was soon engulfed in a civil war that would last until 1922, further undermining the economic foundations for socialism. So when the Bolsheviks were finally victorious, they ruled over a wilderness.
The soviet revolution knew no national boundaries. On November 9, 1918, revolution swept away the German Emperor and red flags flew above the royal palace in Berlin. However, the German Social-Democrats saved capitalism and helped crush the revolution. The leaders of the German Communist Party, Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, were murdered in January 1919. The attempt to storm heaven by means of global revolution was tempered; by the weakness of revolutionary forces; by counter-revolutionary actions by the ruling classes; and by the incorporation of social democratic parties into the framework of capitalism.
The foundation of the Communist Party of China in 1921 was part of this birth of Marxist internationalism, which embraced the entire planet as a terrain of revolutionary struggle. By 1987, 37 percent of the world lived under Governments claiming to be Marxist and based on the ideals of the Russian Revolution.
However, the birth of the new socialist society proved far more complex and difficult than was envisaged by Lenin. The primary problems were rooted in the backwardness of the economic foundation. This meant that Communists were compelled to take measures to rapidly develop productive forces.
There were three main methods available: the first was the seizure of resources by nationalization, the second was gaining support through revolutionary internationalism, and the third was the exploitation of pre-socialist economic forms.
The first method, universal nationalization, produced excessive centralization and bureaucratic distortions that eventually stifled development and undermined the benefits of public ownership.
The second: revolutionary internationalism depended on the ability to promote socialist revolutions around the world. The frantic attempts to foster such revolutions after 1917 often led to unnecessary clashes between the leadership of the International Communist movement and the nascent Communist Parties. For example, in 1927 Moscow's advice to the Chinese party led to the unnecessary defeat of China's urban Communist movement.
The final method, the exploitation of pre-socialist economic forms through special economic zones, joint ventures, petty capitalism, etc., used in Russia's New Economic Policy in the 1920s, and more comprehensively in China since 1978, has proven to be a powerful means to strengthen the position of public ownership in the economy and maintain its dominant position. But such policies inevitably bring danger with them in the form of corruption and the emergence of pro-capitalist forces.
China's Vice President Xi Jinping recently emphasized the central role that Marxism must play in providing ideological clarity and political awareness. He explained the need for Communists to stamp out corruption, galvanize creativity, strengthen democracy in the party, and serve the masses, not themselves.
The global economic crisis has reawakened a debate about alternatives to capitalism. The success of state planning and public ownership in China provides powerful material evidence that socialism can conquer the world.
The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:
http://www.keyanhelp.cn/opinion/heikokhoo.htm
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