*A Snapshot View Of The Leaders Of The 1917 Bolshevik Revolution-Georgy Pyatakov

Click on title to link to Wikipedia's entry for the 1917 Bolshevik secondary revolutionary leader Georgy Pyatakov. No revolution can succeed without men and women of Pyatakov's caliber. As Trotsky noted, on more than one occasion, the West, for lots of reason, in his day had not produced such cadre. I believe that observation, for the most part, still holds today.

*A Snapshot View Of The Leaders Of The 1917 Bolshevik Revolution-Soviet Culture Commissar Anatol Lunacharsky

Click on title to link to "Wikipedia"'s entry for the 1917 Bolshevik revolutionary leader and agitator and later early Soviet Culture and Education commissar, Anatol Lunacharsky. No added comment is needed in this space for the work, life and deeds of this man as his "Revolutionary Silhouettes" posted here today speak for that work.

*A Snapshot View Of The Leaders Of The 1917 Bolshevik Revolution-Adolph Joffe

Click on title to link to Wikipedia's entry for the 1917 Bolshevik revolutionary leader and early Soviet diplomat Adoph Joffe. He, later, was a central figure in the Russian Left Opposition led by Leon Trotsky that tried to save the gains of the Bolshevik revolution. His suicide was a political act and a spur to Trotsky's later greater opposition to Stalin's rule. His suicide note, the political parts, is must reading and posted below.


Adolph Joffe, suicide letter sent to Leon Trotsky (16th November, 1927)

I have never doubted the rightness of the road you pointed out, and as you know, I have gone with you for more than twenty years, since the days of 'permanent revolution'. But I have always believed that you lacked Lenin unbending will, his unwillingness to yield, his readiness even to remain alone on the path that he thought right in the anticipation of a future majority, of a future recognition by everyone of the rightness of his path.

Politically, you were always right, beginning with 1905, and I told you repeatedly that with my own ears I had heard Lenin admit that even in 1905, you, and not he, were right. One does not lie before his death, and now I repeat this again to you. But you have often abandoned your rightness for the sake of an overvalued agreement or compromise. This is a mistake. I repeat: politically you have always been right, and now more right than ever. Some day the party will realize it, and history will not fail to accord recognition. Then don't lose your courage if someone leaves you know, or if not as many come to you, and not as soon, as we all would like.

You are right, but the guarantee of the victory of your rightness lies in nothing but the extreme unwillingness to yield, the strictest straightforwardness, the absolute rejection of all compromise; in this very thing lay the secret of Lenin's victories. Many a time I have wanted to tell you this, but only now have I brought myself to do so, as a last farewell.

*A Snapshot View Of The Leaders Of The 1917 Bolshevik Revolution-Lev Kamenev

Click on title to link to Wikipedia's entry for the 1917 Bolshevik revolutionary leader Lev Kamenev.

Markin comment:

Before everyone starts yelling and screaming I know that Kamenev's, like Zinoviev's, role in the 1917 Bolshevik seizure of power was ugly ("strikebreaker" being the kindest way to express his position). I also know that he, again like Zinoviev his political bloc partner, was less, far less than brave in his opposition to Stalin and was wobbly at the end. But remember this- he was Lenin's man in Russia while he was in exile and in the key period before 1917 when World War I was going full blast and when revolutionary internationalists were scarce as hen's teeth he stood his ground. It is for that and his agitation during the months before the revolution that he gets a nod here.

*A Snapshot View Of The Leaders Of The 1917 Bolshevik Revolution- Joseph Stalin

Click on title to link to Wikipedia's entry for the 1917 Bolshevik revolutionary leader Joseph Stalin.

Markin comment:

Once again, before everyone starts yelling, Stalin, although not the puffed up 1917 revolutionary leader that he had his Communist Party political apparatus make him out to be, was a central leader (including being on the Bolshevik Central Committee that decided to seize power on behalf of the Soviets)of the 1917 revolution. We will leave the falsification of our precious common Communist history, in this case by an unforthright omission where acknowledgement is necessary, to the Stalinist remnant and others who still get weak at the knees on hearing his name.

*From The Pen Of Early Soviet Culture Commissar Anatol Lunacharsky- Early Soviet Writer Pavel Bessalko

Click on title to link to early Bolshevik Culture and Education Commissar Anatol Lunacharsky's profile of early Soviet writer Pavel Bessalko from his 1923"Revolutionary Silhouettes". Lunarcharsky may have been a "soft" Bolshevik but he had insights into the early Soviet "cultural wars" that are always interesting and thoughtful.

*From The Pen Of Early Soviet Culture Commissar Anatol Lunacharsky- Early Soviet Writer Fyodor Kalinin

Click on title to link to early Bolshevik Culture and Education Commissar Anatol Lunacharsky's profile of early Soviet writer Fyodor Kalinin from his 1923"Revolutionary Silhouettes". Lunarcharsky may have been a "soft" Bolshevik but he had insights into the early Soviet "cultural wars" that are always interesting and thoughtful.

*From The Pen Of Early Soviet Culture Commissar Anatol Lunacharsky- Yakov Sverdlov

Click on title to link to early Bolshevik Culture and Education Commissar Anatol Lunacharsky's profile of Yakov Sverdlov from his 1923 "Revolutionary Silhouettes". Lunarcharsky may have been a "soft" Bolshevik but he had insights into the Bolshevik leadership that helped explain the successes (and some of the subsequent political problems) of that leadership.

*A Snapshot View Of The Leaders Of The 1917 Bolshevik Revolution- Grigorii Zinoviev

Click on title to link to Wikipedia's entry for the 1917 Bolshevik revolutionary leader Grigorii Zinoviev.

Markin comment:

Before everyone starts yelling and screaming I know that Zinoviev's role in the 1917 Bolshevik seizure of power was ugly ("strikebreaker" being the kindest way to express his position). I know that he ran rough shot over the Communist International (although he also did some good work there). I also know that he was less, far less than brave in his opposition to Stalin and was wobbly at the end. But remember this- he was Lenin's right hand man in exile and in the key period before 1917 when World War I was going full blast and when revolutionary internationalists were scarce as hen's teeth he stood his ground. It is for that and his agitation during the months before the revolution that he gets a nod here. Hell, call me an unreconstructed Cannonite but that is the way the deal went down.

*From The Pen Of Early Soviet Culture Commissar Anatol Lunacharsky- Grigorii Zinoviev

Click on title to link to early Bolshevik Culture and Education Commissar Anatol Lunacharsky's profile of Grigorii Zinoviev from his 1923 "Revolutionary Silhouettes". Lunarcharsky may have been a "soft" Bolshevik but he had insights into the Bolshevik leadership that helped explain the successes (and some of the subsequent political problems) of that leadership.

*A Snapshot View Of The Leaders Of The 1917 Bolshevik Revolution-V.I. Lenin

Click on title to link to Wikipedia's entry for the great 1917 Bolshevik revolutionary leader V. I. Lenin. No added comment is needed in this space for the work, life and deeds of this man.

*From The Pen Of Early Soviet Culture Commissar Anatol Lunacharsky- A 1923 Profile Of V.I. Lenin

Click on title to link to early Bolshevik Culture and Education Commissar Anatol Lunacharsky's profile of V.I. Lenin from his 1923 "Revolutionary Silhouettes". Lunarcharsky may have been a "soft" Bolshevik but he had insights into the Bolshevik leadership that helped explain the successes (and some of the subsequent political problems)of that leadership.

*Honor The 92nd Anniversary Of The Russian Revolution of 1917 In Song- "The Internationale"

Click on title to link to YouTube's film clip of the international working class song "The Internationale".


As is always appropriate on international working class holidays and days of remembrance here is the song most closely associated with that movement “The Internationale” in English, French and German. I will not vouch for the closeness of the translations but certainly of the spirit. Workers Of The World Unite!


The Internationale [variant words in square brackets]

Arise ye workers [starvelings] from your slumbers
Arise ye prisoners of want
For reason in revolt now thunders
And at last ends the age of cant.
Away with all your superstitions
Servile masses arise, arise
We'll change henceforth [forthwith] the old tradition [conditions]
And spurn the dust to win the prize.

So comrades, come rally
And the last fight let us face
The Internationale unites the human race.
So comrades, come rally
And the last fight let us face
The Internationale unites the human race.

No more deluded by reaction
On tyrants only we'll make war
The soldiers too will take strike action
They'll break ranks and fight no more
And if those cannibals keep trying
To sacrifice us to their pride
They soon shall hear the bullets flying
We'll shoot the generals on our own side.

No saviour from on high delivers
No faith have we in prince or peer
Our own right hand the chains must shiver
Chains of hatred, greed and fear
E'er the thieves will out with their booty [give up their booty]
And give to all a happier lot.
Each [those] at the forge must do their duty
And we'll strike while the iron is hot.




________________________________________

L'Internationale

Debout les damnés de la terre
Debout les forçats de la faim
La raison tonne en son cratère
C'est l'éruption de la fin
Du passe faisons table rase
Foules, esclaves, debout, debout
Le monde va changer de base
Nous ne sommes rien, soyons tout

C'est la lutte finale
Groupons-nous, et demain (bis)
L'Internationale
Sera le genre humain

Il n'est pas de sauveurs suprêmes
Ni Dieu, ni César, ni tribun
Producteurs, sauvons-nous nous-mêmes
Décrétons le salut commun
Pour que le voleur rende gorge
Pour tirer l'esprit du cachot
Soufflons nous-mêmes notre forge
Battons le fer quand il est chaud

L'état comprime et la loi triche
L'impôt saigne le malheureux
Nul devoir ne s'impose au riche
Le droit du pauvre est un mot creux
C'est assez, languir en tutelle
L'égalité veut d'autres lois
Pas de droits sans devoirs dit-elle
Egaux, pas de devoirs sans droits

Hideux dans leur apothéose
Les rois de la mine et du rail
Ont-ils jamais fait autre chose
Que dévaliser le travail
Dans les coffres-forts de la bande
Ce qu'il a crée s'est fondu
En décrétant qu'on le lui rende
Le peuple ne veut que son dû.

Les rois nous saoulaient de fumées
Paix entre nous, guerre aux tyrans
Appliquons la grève aux armées
Crosse en l'air, et rompons les rangs
S'ils s'obstinent, ces cannibales
A faire de nous des héros
Ils sauront bientôt que nos balles
Sont pour nos propres généraux

Ouvriers, paysans, nous sommes
Le grand parti des travailleurs
La terre n'appartient qu'aux hommes
L'oisif ira loger ailleurs
Combien, de nos chairs se repaissent
Mais si les corbeaux, les vautours
Un de ces matins disparaissent
Le soleil brillera toujours.


________________________________________

Die Internationale

Wacht auf, Verdammte dieser Erde,
die stets man noch zum Hungern zwingt!
Das Recht wie Glut im Kraterherde
nun mit Macht zum Durchbruch dringt.
Reinen Tisch macht mit dem Bedranger!
Heer der Sklaven, wache auf!
Ein nichts zu sein, tragt es nicht langer
Alles zu werden, stromt zuhauf!

Volker, hort die Signale!
Auf, zum letzten Gefecht!
Die Internationale
Erkampft das Menschenrecht

Es rettet uns kein hoh'res Wesen
kein Gott, kein Kaiser, noch Tribun
Uns aus dem Elend zu erlosen
konnen wir nur selber tun!
Leeres Wort: des armen Rechte,
Leeres Wort: des Reichen Pflicht!
Unmundigt nennt man uns Knechte,
duldet die Schmach langer nicht!

In Stadt und Land, ihr Arbeitsleute,
wir sind die starkste Partei'n
Die Mussigganger schiebt beiseite!
Diese Welt muss unser sein;
Unser Blut sei nicht mehr der Raben
und der machtigen Geier Frass!
Erst wenn wir sie vertrieben haben
dann scheint die Sonn' ohn' Unterlass!

*Honor The 92nd Anniversary Of The Russian Revolution- From Leon Trotsky's "The History Of The Russian Revolution"-"The October Insurrection"

Click on title to link to the Leon Trotsky Internet Archives version of Bolshevik chief insurrection organizer Leon Trotsky's Volume Three, Chapter 46, "The October Insurrection", from his seminal "The History Of The Russian Revolution"

*From The Pen Of Early Soviet Culture Commissar Anatol Lunacharsky- A 1923 Profile Of Leon Trotsky- In Honor Of His 130th Birthday Anniversary

Click on title to link to early Bolshevik Culture and Education Commissar Anatol Lunacharsky's profile of Leon Trotsky from his 1923 "Revolutionary Silhouettes". As fate, or something more, would have it Leon Trotsky's birthday and the Bolshevik revolution that he helped lead share the same anniversary date. Happy Birthday, Comrade Trotsky-wherever you are keeping revolutionary time.

*A Red Partisan- John Reed's Bird's Eye View Of The Russian Revolution of 1917

Click on title to link to the third part of a four-part series by John Reed, up close and personal on the Russian revolution of 1917, originally published in "The Liberator" in 1918.

*A Red Partisan- John Reed's Bird's Eye View Of The Russian Revolution of 1917

Click on title to link to the second part of a four-part series by John Reed, up close and personal on the Russian revolution of 1917, originally published in "The Liberator" in 1918.

*A Red Partisan- John Reed's Bird's Eye View Of The Russian Revolution of 1917

Click on title to link to one part of a four-part series by John Reed, up close and personal on the Russian revolution of 1917, originally published in "The Liberator" in 1918.

*Political Journalist's Corner-John Reed's 1918 "Liberator" Article- "The Soviets In Action"

Click on title to link to then radical American journalist, later early American Communist Party leader John Reed's 1918 "Liberator" article, "The Soviets In Action"

*A Thoughtful Academic Look At The Bolshevik Revolution- The Masterful Work Of Historian Edward Hallet Carr

Click on title to link to Wikipedia's entry for the Bolshevik's post-Russian Civil War turn (retreat?) from "war communism" to the "New Economic Policy" (NEP). As is noted in that entry, and as I have noted previously in this space, there are disputes over the wisdom of pursuing this policy and its implementation, including the question of timing by Trotsky. In any case although this link will give a basic outline of what the arguments were all about it is not provided as a substitute for reading Carr's informative, and painstaking, analysis. The points that he makes in his book is where we should start to argue about this policy.

Book Review

The Bolshevik Revolution 1917-1923, Volume Two, Edward Hallet Carr, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1951

The first couple of paragraphs have been used in other reviews of E.H. Carr’s fourteen volume master work on the consolidation, isolation, stabilization and subsequent Stalinization of the Soviet Union in the early days.

“In early reviews of books on the Russian Revolution, including Leon Trotsky’s seminal study of the revolutionary seizure of power itself, “The History Of The Russian Revolution”, I used the following paragraph to introduce the reviews. I am reposting it here because it is appropriate to place the work of the British master bourgeois historian of the whole early period of that revolution, Edward Hallet Carr:

“This year is the 90th Anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution (2007, Markin). I have endlessly pointed out that the October Revolution in Russia was the definitive political event of the 20th century. The resulting change in the balance of world power with the demise of the Soviet Union in the 1990’s is beginning to look like a definitive political event for the 21st century, as well. I have urged those interested in the fight for socialism to read, yes to read, about the Russian Revolution in order to learn some lessons from that experience. Leon Trotsky’s three volume “History of the Russian Revolution” is obviously a good place to start for a pro-Bolshevik overview. If you are looking for a general history of the revolution or want an analysis of what the revolution meant for the fate of various nations after World War I or its affect on world geopolitics look elsewhere. E.H. Carr’s “History Of The Bolshevik Revolution” offers an excellent multi-volume set that tells that story through the 1920’s. Or if you want to know what the various parliamentary leaders, both bourgeois and Soviet, were thinking and doing in 1917 from a moderately leftist viewpoint read Sukhanov’s “Notes on the Russian Revolution”. For a more journalistic account John Reed’s classic “Ten Days That Shook the World” is invaluable. Forward to new October Revolutions.”

Needless to say E.H. Carr, as noted above, is in some pretty good company and properly belongs there as well. I noted that his work entails a several volume effort. The present review is of Volume One of his three volume “History Of The Bolshevik Revolution 1917-1923”. A review of the other two volumes will follow as will other volumes on the Stalin-Trotsky struggle for the direction of the revolution and the eventual Stalinization of the Bolshevik Party, the Communist International and the Soviet state.

Naturally, Carr in his first volume gave a quick historical narrative of the pre-revolutionary struggles among the socialist and democratic factions and the immediate post- Bolshevik seizure of power period but from there spend most of that volume dealing with the questions of soviet constitutionality and the socialist implementation of the right to national self-determination for the previously subject nations (or wannabe nations) of the former Tsarist Empire. In Volume Two, under review here, he goes into great detail about the various strategies that the Bolsheviks used in order to consolidate the economic foundations of the Soviet state. As this is the first workers state to, at least by the end of the period under discussion, to retain power (unlike the previous but nevertheless still revered experience of the Paris Commune in 1871) this is an important period to learn about.

It would seem needless to say that much of Bolshevik economic policy (and this includes financial policy as well that Carr spends some time on) in the process of taking over a broken, war-ravaged bourgeois/semi-feudal overwhelmingly agrarian state was “by the seat of the pants”. Partly this was by design, as previously Marxist experience had concentrated on the struggle for power and left the outlines of the future socialist and then communist society to the actual conditions at the time of the seizure of power. And part this was due to the expectation that many economic problems would be solved by the successes of revolutions in the more industrially advanced West, especially Germany. This concept, along with some serious idealistic communist-derived notions abut running a broken state (made worst, shortly after the seizure of power, by all manner of civil strife and civil war), colored more than its fair share in the workings of the upper councils of the Soviet financial and economic apparatus.

The central value of this volume is in Carr’s breakdown of the three phases of the early days of the revolution: the immediate post-seizure period when the agrarian question- “land to the tiller”- drove much of economic policy in order to feed the cities, keep industry alive and satisfy that great land hunger of the peasants/soldiers that the Bolsheviks were able to retain the support of against the other political parties contending for poor and middle peasant support; the period of “war communism” driven by the necessities of keeping state power against white counter-revolution and to feed the armies: and, the rudiments of the New Economic Policy (NEP) which followed in the aftermath of victory and was recognized as a necessary “retreat” back to some capitalist activity in order to jump start the economy. Carr fully addresses the various controversies over policy both within the increasingly isolated but still politically robust Bolshevik Party and the various classes and part of classes in society. His strongest presentation is the period of the “retreat” to the NEP where he very carefully puts forth the compelling case for that policy.

Along the way we are also treated to other important controversies like the question of workers control of individual factories; the necessary use of bourgeois economic specialists in those factories in the transition period; the role of the state in the distribution process; the role of trade unions in a workers state; the contrast between the necessity of giving land to the tiller and the socialist perspective of the collectivization of land; the role of money, concessions and the state monopoly on foreign trade; and, many other questions that not only concerned the besieged Bolshevik then but will confront a future workers state. I would only add here what I have written in previous reviews. Carr, more than most historians has attempted to understand what the Bolsheviks were trying to do without letting his own British foreign service background (a plus here for analytical purposes) color his narrative too much. That should be considered high praise coming from this quarter. In any case I have not done justice to Carr’s extensive gathering of materials, his copious use of sources, his plentiful footnotes and bibliography so you are just going to have to read this book (and the other volumes as well).