“The new Soviet Constitution is really not democratic at all, for in the U.S.S.R. there is only one political party.” How often, in speeches and articles in this country, have such phrases been used by those who wished to prove that the new Constitution of the U.S.S.R. was not really democratic! But a vital question in this connection is never asked: Do the people of the U.S.S.R. want more than one political party? Is it by the will of the vast majority, or against their will, that a situation has arisen in which there is only one lawful political party in the Soviet Union? It is on the answer to this question that the reality of Soviet Democracy stands or falls.
How did it come about that in Soviet Russia and in the Soviet Union there is only one political party? That is the first question to be answered. Secondly, what is the relationship between this one political party and the people of the country? That is the second conclusion. Thirdly, what is the part played by this particular party in the running of the Soviet State; the position of its leader Stalin, for example, in relation to the government of the country? And, finally, is there not a danger to democracy in the fact that in the Soviet Union to-day only one political party is allowed by law? This last question will occupy us in the next chapter; the first three we shall examine here.
In the year 1905, when the first Soviets were set up by the workers of Russia, some of the most active members of these Soviets were “Bolsheviks”—that is, members of the section, of the Social Democratic Party of Russia that followed the leadership of Lenin, and that obtained a majority at the Second Congress of the Social Democratic Party in 1903, The Russian word bolshinstvo means majority, and, when the minority at this Congress split off from the majority, the two fractions became known as “Bolshevik” and “Menshevik” respectively, the majority and minority groups. The “Bolsheviks,” led by Lenin, were the majority at this Congress.
The Bolsheviks in Russia based their political activity on the teachings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. They worked for the continual improvement of the conditions of the working class, for the transfer of the landed estates to the peasants, and for the self-determination of all the nations which formed the Russian Empire. Their ultimate aim was the revolutionary overthrow, not only of Tsarism, but of capitalist production, and the social ownership and control of the productive forces of the country.
Writing in 1903, in a book which became the basic statement of Bolshevik policy at that time, Lenin wrote: “It would be a grievous error indeed to build up the party organization in the expectation only of outbreaks of street fighting, or only upon the ‘forward march of the drab, everyday struggle.’ We must always carry on our everyday work, and always be prepared for everything. And the Revolution itself must not by any means be regarded as a single act . . . but as a series of more or less powerful outbreaks rapidly alternating with more or less intense calm. For that reason the principal content of the activity of our party organization . . . should be, to carry on work that is possible and necessary both in the period of the most powerful outbreaks as well as in periods of complete calm; that is to say: work of political agitation linked up over the whole of Russia, that will enlighten all aspects of life and will be carried on among the broadest possible strata of the masses. But this work cannot possibly be carried on in contemporary Russia without an All-Russian newspaper, issued very frequently. An organization that is built up round this newspaper . . . will be ready for everything, from protecting the honor, the prestige, and continuity of the party in our periods of acute revolutionary ‘depression’ to preparing for, commencing, and carrying out the national armed insurrection” (What Is To Be Done? p. 131).
The main feature of such a political party lay in the fact that it was to lead the working people in every one of their activities for improving their conditions of life. It was to be a leader and organizer of the working people and peasants in a fight for improved conditions. Therefore, such a party must demand that every one of its members play an active part in the organization; and, while the leading bodies were elected at congresses of delegates from the branches, between congresses there must be a disciplined carrying out of their decisions, and disciplined obedience to the instructions of the leading bodies in the party. The election of leaders must be accompanied by an “almost military discipline” in the execution of instructions, for the struggle that this party had to lead would be, in certain circumstances, a military struggle.
Towards the end of 1916, when the people of Russia were becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the policy of the Tsarist Government, the Bolsheviks played a prominent part, particularly in the towns and in the army, in leading strikes and demonstrations, and in carrying on propaganda for peace among the soldiers. When, in February 1917, as a result of strikes, mass demonstrations, and the refusal of the ranks in the army to continue to obey the orders of officers whom they did not respect, the Bolsheviks played a leading part in directing this unrest into channels which would force the Tsarist Government to resign. Immediately after the abdication, when the workers set up Soviets in one town after another, the Bolsheviks were among the most active participants in these Soviets, At the end of March, returning to Petrograd from exile in Siberia, Stalin wrote: “The more compact these Soviets, and the more strongly they are organized, the more genuinely do they express the revolutionary power of the revolutionary people, and the more certain is the guarantee provided against counter-revolution.
“Revolutionary Social Democrats must work to strengthen these Soviets, to make them universal, to establish contact between them under a Central Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies as the organ of the revolutionary power of the people.”
And when, in April, Lenin returned from exile in Switzerland, he at once put forward the slogan, “All Power to the Soviets,” and the Party proceeded everywhere to carry on propaganda for the Soviets to seize State power, to put an end to the war, to confiscate the landlords’ estates, and to nationalize the main industrial enterprises. In June 1917 there took place the first Congress of Soviets. The Bolsheviks had 100 delegates out of a total of 781. Their demands were turned down by the Congress. They continued their propaganda among the people; they continued to organize the workers in trade unions and to mobilize the peasants round the village Soviets. They continued their propaganda against the war.
Between April and October 1917 a number of leading Bolsheviks were arrested by the Provisional Government. But, in spite of this, their influence grew by leaps and bounds. When, at the beginning of November, it was clear that at any time the Government might set up a military dictatorship and suppress all organizations of the workers and peasants, the Bolsheviks in Petrograd organized an armed uprising. On the following day the second Congress of Soviets met in Petrograd. A majority of the delegates were Bolsheviks, there being 390 Bolsheviks out of a total of 649 delegates. Now that they were in a majority in the Congress of Soviets the Bolsheviks proceeded to put their policy into practice. At once a manifesto was issued on peace, the land was socialized and the big estates handed over to the peasants’ Soviets, and the workers in the factories were given those powers of control over the employers which have been described earlier in this book.
At this stage there were two other political parties represented in the Soviets. One, the Menshevik Party, had opposed the seizure of power by the Soviets and demanded the calling of a “Constituent Assembly” or All-Russian Parliament. But this demand received but little support from the population, who already had power in their own hands through the Soviets, and found that the Soviet Government was pursuing a policy which was completely in their interests. The other party was that of the Social Revolutionaries, a party of the peasantry, whose main demand had been the socialization of the land. As soon as the Second Congress had declared the transfer of the landed estates to the peasantry, the main item in the Social Revolutionary program was fulfilled, and from then on the Social Revolutionaries had no really important matters of policy on which they could appeal to the mass of the people against the Bolsheviks. As a result, a large section of the Social Revolutionaries joined the Central Executive Committee and worked in co-operation with the Bolsheviks. And, as the prestige of the Bolshevik Party grew, many of the members from the ranks of the other parties came over to them and joined the Party.
Once the new Soviet Government was in existence it was possible to support it and be represented in it, or to work against it and try to overthrow it. The landlords deprived of their estates, the big financiers and employers of labor, and all those who, in principle, were opposed to a workers’ State organized like any other working-class organization, prepared to unite their forces for an armed attack on the Soviet State. It so came about that the Mensheviks lined up with the employers, and proceeded to armed action against the Soviets. And, at a later stage, the core of that part of the Social Revolutionary Party that still preserved its independence, and which was ready to oppose the Bolshevik majority in the Soviets by every means within its power, democratic or otherwise, attempted to organize an armed uprising against the Soviet Government. Recognizing the impossibility of being returned to the Soviets in a majority by the democratic votes of the people, these parties attempted to seize power by armed force. The State, therefore, used armed force against them, and they were deprived of their legality.
It so came about that the party which had a majority of delegates in the Soviets became the only political party. Of the other parties, some of the members joined the Bolsheviks, and others tried to organize an armed uprising against the Soviet State. The former went to increase the membership of the Party, which already was supported by the vast majority of the population, and the others joined the armed counter-revolutionary forces, and were suppressed as a result.
In this way, as a result of the fact that their policy appealed to a majority of the whole people, the Bolsheviks won control of the Soviets between February and October 1917. And, when they already had a majority and their prestige was increasing from day to day, they were still ready to work together with any other party that supported the Soviet State and was ready to work peacefully within it. As, however, the other parties split into those who supported the Soviets and came increasingly close to the Bolsheviks, and those who opposed the Soviets and tried to overthrow them by force, the latter were suppressed by force by the Soviet State, which had the support of the vast majority of the people. The Bolshevik Party, which had caused the Soviets to seize power, was in the end left as the only party faithful to the Soviet State that it had brought into being, but it was now an organization with great prestige throughout the country.
As soon as the Bolshevik Party was left as the only political party in the Soviet State, a danger arose that this organization, because it was in power, might draw to itself careerists, unscrupulous individualists, and individuals who had not the welfare of the people at heart, but merely their own personal advancement. In 1920, in face of this danger, Lenin wrote: “We are afraid of too wide a growth of the Party, as place-seekers and adventurers, who deserve only to be shot, do their utmost to get into the ruling Party. The last time we opened wide the doors of the Party for work-men and peasants only was . . . when the Soviet Republic was in mortal danger, and when the adventurers, place-seekers, charlatans, and unreliable persons generally could in no way rely upon making a profitable career (in fact could sooner expect the gallows and torture) by joining the Communists” (Left-Wing Communism). In fact, the Party, in order effectively to represent the very best elements in the working population, must restrict its membership. Party membership must not become cheap!
And how, it may be asked, was it to be ensured that those who were in the Party should not become divorced from the rest of the population? Were there not dangers that a small political organization, holding great power in its hands, might become isolated from the people whom it professed to represent? It was precisely in order to combat this danger that Lenin took the initiative in organizing what has come to be known as the “Party Cleansing,” which consists of public meetings, in town, village, and the army, where, every few years. Party members must in public justify their membership of this Party which claims to be the “organized vanguard of the working people.”
At such cleansings, which I have personally attended, every Party member must give an account of his or her life, of the part they have played in the struggle for improved conditions of the working people, and of the work they are doing to-day. Any person present may put questions. Any person present may speak. And so the merits of each Party member are fully discussed. If, at such meetings, certain people prove not to command the respect of their fellows, not to be considered worthy of membership of an organization made up of the best elements in the population; they are expelled from the Party. It is thus a fact, in a way which can be said of no other political party in the world, that there is democratic control by the people over the membership of the Bolshevik Party of the Soviet Union. And, with this control actually in force, it may be truly said that this Party will represent the best elements of the working people.
Sir Walter Citrine, in his “Search for Truth in Russia”, describes the process of the Party Cleansing in these words: “A Commission is sent to the factory. The members of the Party are called up before them in front of the workers, both Party and non-Party. He is required to tell his life’s history, especially what he has done and is doing for the Revolution. Anyone can question him regarding both private and public matters, and, after he has been turned inside out, the Commission makes its decision.
“I remarked that this system made a spy of every man on his neighbour, and my companion again admitted that it was the duty of every worker to keep an eye on the actions and words of his fellows, and to report anything which seemed hostile to the interests of the working class ” (p. 255).
Sir Walter called it “spying” if every worker watched his comrade in the Party to see that his words and actions were never hostile to the interests of the working class! And yet what could be more in the interests of the working people, and of democracy for the working people, than that every member of the Party which professed to represent them should be subject to such supervision, and to public criticism if he did not fulfil all the conditions generally considered necessary to a member of the “organized vanguard”?
It is this particular relationship between the Party in the U.S.S.R. and the people which causes the people to look upon the Party members, in general, as their best representatives. For they themselves play a part in seeing that only their best representatives shall be members of the Party! Under such conditions it is not surprising that, more often than not, at elections to the Soviets, to the committees of trade unions, and, to the boards of management of collective farms, members of the Party are elected! It is in this way, and in this way only, that the Bolshevik Party dominates the Soviet Union at the present time. But, since it has the status of the recognized leadership of the whole people, the Bolshevik Party dominates the policy of the country.
In Left-Wing Communism, written as early as 1920, Lenin said: “Not a single important political or organizational question is decided by any State institution in our Republic without the guiding instructions of the Central Committee of the Party.” But this power of the Party, Lenin goes on to show, rests on the will of the working people themselves: “In carrying out its work, the Party rests directly on the trade unions. . . . Without the closest connection with the trade unions, without their hearty support and self-sacrificing work, not only in the economic, but also in military organization, it would have been, of course, impossible to govern the country and to maintain the dictatorship for two and a half years, or even for two and a half months.”
Actually, the formal relationship between the Party and the State in the Soviet Union is not fundamentally different from that of, say, the Conservative Party in Britain to-day and the British State. The policy of the patty which has a majority in the British Parliament becomes the policy of the Government. So, in the U.S.S.R., the decisions of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party, since the Bolsheviks are an absolute majority in the Government, become decisions of the Government.
But under the conditions of Socialism every member of the ruling Party is also usually a worker in some State or other collective organization. Therefore he receives instructions as a Party member from the Central Committee at the same time as he receives State instructions as a State employee. When in the U.S.S.R. to-day the Central Committee of the Party decides that a new decree is necessary, it circulates its decision to its members; and those who are in the Government see that it becomes law; those that are working throughout the U.S.S.R. in every kind of occupation see that, locally, this Party decision and State law is carried out. Purely as a matter of convenience, the informing of Party members of decisions of their Central Committee which are also made law by the Government, and the publication of the law itself, are often telescoped together into one act. It happens that a new decree of the Soviet Government may appear signed by the representative of the Government, and by Stalin, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party. Actually this simply means that a certain decision of the Party, signed by Stalin, has been adopted as a decree of the Government, signed by the representative of the Government. Publication over the two signatures simultaneously, for the two organizations, merely saves time and space. It does not mean that Stalin or the Party have any right to sign Government documents, or vice versa.
It is often asked: What is the position of Stalin in the Soviet State? Constitutionally, the answer is that Stalin’s position in the U.S.S.R. is similar to that of Mr. Baldwin in Britain to-day. He is the recognized and elected leader of the ruling party. On the other hand, there is this difference—that whereas Mr. Baldwin chooses, as is the British convention, to be Prime Minister as well, Stalin prefers, as leader of his party, not to accept an important Government position as well, since he has enough to do already. In actual practice, whereas Mr. Baldwin can only claim to represent a certain section of the population of Britain, Stalin can claim that he and his party have the support of the overwhelming majority of the people of the country. Therefore, in the U.S.S.R., Stalin, as the leader of a very popular ruling party, is acclaimed as the leader of the whole people, a thing which even the most sycophantic Press would hardly try to claim for Mr. Baldwin in Britain to-day!
In connection with the status of Stalin in the U.S.S.R. I feel I must refer to one point of criticism which is raised in common by the Webbs, by Andre Gide, and by Sir Walter Citrine. This is the phenomenon described by the Webbs in their book as “the adulation of Stalin.” Any reader of the Soviet Press, with an eye and ear trained to the English language, is likely to be sometimes shocked by references to “our dearly beloved Stalin,” “our glorious leader,” and so on. This matter has often struck foreign observers, and is cited time and again as evidence of a servile attitude on the part of the population towards Stalin, and thus as symptomatic of a lack of democracy.
Personally, I must frankly admit that for at least three years in the U.S.S.R. I was often unfavourably impressed by the lavish way in which love and praise of Stalin was expressed in public utterances of all types of Soviet citizens. To the English ear such words seemed to be more appropriate to religion than to modern politics, and there is no doubt that I, too, was at first affected in the same way as the Webbs by this. But my feelings on this matter were completely changed when I happened one day to see a letter from a young worker to his brother. It began: “Honoured Beloved Brother!” These were the same words, or words closely similar to, those which had been thoroughly unpleasing to me when addressed to Stalin, because in English they suggested degradation and servility! But the young Russian used them to his brother. And when I suggested that he should simply write “Dear Brother” he was literally shocked. The English have a reputation for being a cold-blooded nation!
When André Gide began a letter to Stalin in the same words which he would have used in French, his guide suggested that a little verbal embroidery was necessary. Gide was shocked. But if I wrote to André Gide in French to-morrow, and finished up “yours sincerely,” Gide would certainly consider that I did not know French, or that I was being rude. The French, you see, happen to conclude their letters with a rigmarole which, to the English, seems artificial and somewhat servile.
When the Webbs discover a “deliberate exploitation by the governing junta of the emotion of hero-worship, of the traditional reverence of the Russian people for a personal autocrat,” they substantiate this view by examples of an apparent extravagance of language such as we have mentioned, which in English appears utterly ridiculous. And, while it is obviously not going to be the policy of the Communist Party of the U.S.S.R. to try to stimulate hatred of its leaders, but the opposite, I feel that the translation of the language used gives an utterly unreal picture of the situation.
When the people of the U.S.S.R. wish to express their loyalty to their recognized leader they can only do it in their own language. Actually, the language of the oriental peoples of the U.S.S.R. is even more flowery than Russian. If the Russian worker writes to his brother as “dearly beloved,” we must not consider these words to be servile when coming from a group of collective farmers and addressed to Stalin. On the contrary, they are fraternal words, brotherly words, and not servile words. When these facts are taken into account I think it is true to say that not one example of the “adulation of Stalin” which the Webbs give contains any example of adulation greater than the words expressed by millions of British workers about Dimitrov at the time of the Leipzig trial.
All people when in foreign countries tend to assume that they understand the language better than they do, and are happy if they can translate sentences phrase by phrase without a dictionary. Both the Webbs and André Gide, cultured people as they are, have not absorbed the idiom of the Russian language. By mechanical translation they have made errors of interpretation which can have serious political repercussions; for the question of whether the Russian workers address Stalin in the way that Lady Houston wrote about the late King or as the Archbishop of Canterbury addresses God, or as one workman addresses his brother, is a question of vital importance in considering the degree of democracy which exists to-day in the U.S.S.R. Actually, as I discovered after three years, the workers of the U.S.S.R. use the same words in writing to Stalin as in writing to a much admired brother.
The relations between the Soviet State and the Communist International have also aroused curiosity. But there should be no mystery about this matter. In Brussels there is located the Labour land Socialist International. If, in Belgium, the people return the Socialist Party to power, a situation would exist in which the ruling party was a member of the Socialist International located on Belgian territory. But that would not make the Belgian Government and the International synonymous organizations. Now it unfortunately happens that only a country where the Communist Party is in power will allow the Communist International the right to be located on its territory. Therefore the Communist International is situated in Moscow, on Soviet territory. But the connection goes no further than this. It is true, of course, that Stalin is a member of the Executive Committee of the Communist International. But so is Harry Pollitt. And, in Belgium, the leader of the Socialist Party is a member of the Executive of the Labour and Socialist International.
There is one final aspect of the status of the Communist Party of the U.S.S.R. which may raise questions in the minds of many readers. We have already mentioned, in dealing with factory management in the U.S.S.R., that on the Triangle, which virtually controls the affairs of a Soviet factory, there sits a representative of the Party organization in the factory. To those who look upon political parties as parliamentary parties, such a state of affairs suggests something abnormal—that a political party should enjoy the same status as the appointed representative of the State, the manager; or the elected representative of the workers, the trade union organizer.
But it should now be clear that the Party in the U.S.S.R. is not a parliamentary party. It is the organized political leadership of the people; the organization of their best political representatives. As such, the Party holds the respect of the people, and they are absolutely willing that this organization of theirs should be represented on such bodies as the Triangle in the factory. The democratic importance of political representation of the working people, as distinct from their mass representation through the State and trade unions, is being clearly demonstrated at the present time in Spain. As soon as the armed struggle began between the Fascist rebels and the elected Government, the parties of the Workers’ Alliance, which together formed the recognized leadership of the people, just as the Communist Party does in the U.S.S.R. to-day, began to undertake all kinds of activities which previously had been activities of the State. They undertook these activities because the people supported such action, and the Workers’ Alliance continued to be, not merely a parliamentary combination of forces, but a leader and organizer of the working people in their fight for democracy. As a result of this, it is reported from Spain that, attached to every regiment, there are “political commissars,” representing the parties of the Workers’ Alliance. So, alongside the organizations of State, such as the army and the organs of administration, there is a political leadership, consisting of “political commissars,” representatives of those parties who form the organized vanguard of the people in their struggle. Such political leadership no doubt also exists to-day in all the factories that have been taken over by the State.
In the Soviet Union, in the course of the transfer of the factories from private hands to the State, this same political leadership became necessary, just as it did in the army during the fight against foreign intervention. The Party began in this way to play a leading part in the administration, together with the appointed official of the State, and the elected representative of the trade unions. While, if a party that did not command the support of the vast majority of the population acted in this way, the people would resent such action and oppose it; when it is done by a party of a new kind, consisting only of the recognized best elements drawn from the ranks of the people themselves, they give it their full support.
The one-party system in the U.S.S.R. has developed as a result of the will of the people. Having once returned to power a party which immediately passed a number of laws, basically changing the relations between worker and employer, peasant and landlord, to the advantage of the working people, they found that this party was their very own in a way in which no political organization had ever previously been. Finding that they were able to exercise control over the membership of this party by cleaning out all elements which they considered hostile to their interests, they found that they could really ensure that this party contained all that was best among them. In this way, at every election, the members of the party tended to be returned in a majority; and the idea of allowing other parties to be organized, trying to oust this party from power, was rejected by the people as being a means by which the enemies of the working people might try to return to power.
In the Soviet State there has developed a one-party system. It arose as a result of the operation of the will of the vast majority of the people. It occurred democratically.
But now, to-day, when the Soviet system is securely on its feet, does not this one-party system prove a limitation to real democracy? This is the question which must now be answered.