Paul Le Blanc: The Russian Revolutions of 1917

Paul Le Blanc writes about The Russian Revolutions of 1917.

Lenin proved utterly unsuccessful in his efforts, during the last years of his life, to push back bureaucratic developments and to end the influence of Joseph Stalin, the most authoritarian of the Communist leaders. Similar efforts by other Communist leaders throughout the 1920s, most notably by Leon Trotsky and his Left Opposition, were defeated. Stalin became the USSR’s unquestioned dictator. Even his onetime ally, Nikolay Bukharin, proved unable to curb the tyrant’s increasingly brutal excesses. Millions, including many Communists, suffered and died after Stalin and his supporters consolidated their dictatorship in the early 1930s.

As the USSR was experiencing significant economic development and becoming a major world power, the bureaucratic and authoritarian nature of the Stalin regime gave Communism the profoundly undemocratic connotation that it has for many people today. For many, socialism came to mean not economic democracy but merely state ownership and control of the economy. Even the word soviet became associated simply with the USSR’s dictatorial regime. Stalin’s successors in subsequent Communist governments of that country later denounced his crimes, but they were never successful in overcoming the dictatorial legacy. That legacy ultimately undermined the country’s future development, contributing in significant ways to the collapse of the USSR in 1991.

Many analysts argue that such a dictatorship was inherent in the nature of Lenin’s ideas, Marxism, socialism, and even revolution as such. Others explain its development by pointing to different factors: deep-rooted aspects of Russian culture from tsarist times, the failure of working-class revolutions in more industrialized countries, and the impact of hostile foreign pressures. Some continue to see the Russian revolutions of 1917 as a positive example for workers and oppressed groups.

Emphasis Mine

I think the immature development of the Russian proletariat is the main cause of the trajectory of Soviet Communism. The Russian proletariat were a minority in 1917 and concentrated in two (2) cities: Moscow and Petrograd. Russian industrialisation was still in the early stages of development, and was driven through the nobility using foreign capital (mainly French). This meant the working class was very isolated in a sea of peasantry.

The concentration of workers in the two (2) capitals of the Russian Empire, Moscow and Petrograd, meant that they were easier to organise and had easier access to power. These cities were more open to the rest of the world thereby allowing ideas and news to reach people more readily. And as these cities were the main ones, they had universities which incubated radicalism. The closeness of radicalism and workers proved to be a potent mix for the development of socialism in the Russian empire.

This concentration of workers came about because the nobility wanted to modernise the Russian economy. The lack of indigenous capital meant that foreign investment was critical for industrialisation. The French became major investors because Russia could prevent the eastward expansion of German Capital and influence. Foreign investment prefers large projects and this concentrates the workers. Because the investment was foreign, Capitalists were unable to hide behind nationalism in defending their interests. This made the distinction between the Bourgeiose and the Proletariat easier to see.

However, the concentration of workers and the lack of indigenous capital isolated the workers from the peasants. But the newness of industrialisation had not completely severed the family ties of the workers to the peasants. The experiences of the workers and the peasants were different: a peasant can survive in isolation; a worker needs a functioning economy to survive. This difference made political alliances difficult. The peasant had the option of withdrawing from society. The worker does not.

The immaturity of the Russian proletariat came about from its isolation and concentration. The development of Socialism needed to force peasants to become workers. This external conversion inhibited the growth of workers' consciousness that was needed for a successful implementation of Socialism.