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Saturday April 15, 1905
From the International Socialist Review: I. Ladoff on the Revolutionary Russia
, Professor Ladoff offers his views on the Revolutionary Movements in Russia. Remembering the terrible massacre in St. Petersburg this past January, Ladoff begins his article:
Ladoff goes on to describe the three main opposition parties of the Russian people: the Social-Democrats, the Socialist Revolutionists, and the party of the middle-class liberals. As can be expected from the author of
his support lies with the Social-Democrats. Of that party, he states:
The Revolutionary Movement in Russia.
The eyes of the civilized world are turned toward Russia.
In Russia we witness at present the throbbing of the pulse of history. Russia occupies now the position of France at the inception of the Great Revolution.
For centuries the best sons and daughters of Russia had to look upon freedom and civilization as unattainable dreams.
The iron grip of despotism deadened the soul of the people. Supported by millions of slaves, soiled by the blood of subjugated nations the government of the Czars attained hegemony among nations.
The government of the Czars used its tremendous influence in the interests of Darkness and Strife, Reaction and Militarism.
The press was muzzled by a strict and stupid censorship.
Science was chained by barbaric police regulations.
The ancient liberties of Poland, the Baltic provinces and Finland were trampled down with ruthless barbarity and bestial cruelty.
The non-Slavonic, non-orthodox-Greek elements of the population were persecuted with unparalleled severity.
The cries of agony and despair of the victims of the massacre of Kishineff are still fresh in our memory.
The atrocities and crimes perpetrated by the Russian government reached their climax in the now historical massacre on the 9th (22d) of January, 1905 on the streets of St. Petersburg. The long suffering Russian people finally lost their stoic patience and revolted, provoked by the stupid and cruel action of the Czar and his minions.
A peaceful deputation of working men decided to present their grievances directly to their "little father."
They assured the Czar of their peaceful intentions and prepared four hundred able bodied men to protect his personal safety.
The "little father" heroically retired behind the thick walls of his palace and has sent his Hessians and Janissars to assassinate his "little children" on the streets of the capital. The cowards, who run at the very sight of Japanese soldiers, reddened the snow of St. Petersburg with blood of defenseless citizens, women and children.
The civilized world shuddered when it heard of this unprecedented crime.
The blood of the martyrs of the 22d of January sealed the doom of Russian absolutism.
The plain Russian people in its touching naivete believed in the personal benevolence of the Czar.
The massacre of the 22d of January rudely crushed this belief.
The excommunication of the leader of the peaceful deputation, of Father Gapon, by the Holy Synod, convinced the people that the State church of Russia is but a handmaid of despotism. Events moved rapidly since then.
The vacillating, headless policy of the Czar, made him and his government contemptible and ridiculous.
The conduct of the revolutionary masses gained the admiration of the world.
Who is responsible for the internal and external policy of the Czar?
Who represents the power behind the throne ?
Who represents the opposition forces in Russia?
Where does this opposition come from?
These are the questions that naturally force themselves upon us.
The popular conception is that the Czar of Russia is the sole ruler of the Empire, that his personal will is law. A moment of reflection will convince us that this popular conception is an absurdity.
Indeed, no single man, even if he be a giant, can possibly rule one hundred and seventy millions of people, living under various climatic, economic and cultural conditions, scattered over a vast area of land and belonging to different ethnic groups.
And Nicholas the Second is a physical, mental and moral dwarf.
The actual power behind the throne, the real ruler of Russia, is not the Czar, but the "Chinovniks," the class of officials, the bureaucracy.
When Peter I, to use Johannes Scherrs' apt expression, "knouted Russia into Europe" he needed assistants in his tremendous undertaking.
He picked out a few young men of the nobility and has had to send them to Europe to learn how to run the affairs of the State.
After their return, these young men were entrusted with the execution of the plans of the Czar.
According to the tendency of each and every ruling class the bureaucrats increased in numbers and acquired more and more power and influence in the State.
The dense ignorance of the masses, the indifference of the classes and the incapacity of the Czars were rather favorable to the numerical growth of the ruling class and increase of its power.
Despotism and bureaucracy always supplement each other. This way an irresponsible and corrupt ruling class was formed behind the shaky throne of the Czars and the worm-eaten altar of the State-Church.
This class at the same time dictated and executed the internal policy of the empire in the interests of this class.
It was in the interests of that class to inaugurate a policy of adventurous expansion and force a disastrous war in the Far East.
It was in the interests of this class to keep the people in the darkness of ignorance and superstition.
It was in the interests of this class to forcibly Russianise Poland, the Baltic provinces and Finland.
It was in the interests of this class to persecute Poles, Germans, Finns and Jews.
New territories and provinces open new fields of pernicious activity for the ever increasing numbers of hungry and greedy officials.
The same applies to "Russianised" provinces.
A war with Japan was necessary to the bureaucracy of Russia in order to divert the attention of the people from internal affairs. Beside this a war always offers too many chances for building railroads and bridges on paper, furnishing supplies on paper, constructing fleets on paper and other exploits of similar patriotic nature.
The bureaucrats are not afraid of the peasant with medieval ideas.
But the growing middle and working classes consisting of Germans, Poles, Finns and Jews appear to the ruling class as a constant, menace, a memento mori. Hence their persecution by the government.
Let us now analyze the revolutionary elements in Russia.
The disastrous Crimean War convinced the Russian government, that it is necessary to modernize Russia, i. e. build railroads, start factories, etc.
However, in order to build railroads, start and run factories, free labor was a condition sine qua non.
As long as serfdom existed there was no room for the growth and development of a city proletariat.
Serfdom was therefore abolished almost at the same time and for similar reasons as slavery was abolished in the United States of America.
The abolition of Serfdom in Russia was as far reaching in its results in Russia as the abolition of Slavery in the United States.
The quality and quantity of the allotments of land to the liberated serfs were of just such a nature as to be too little to live upon and too much to die of starvation.
A nucleus of a city-proletariat was formed. Railroads could be built, factories operated.
Another far reaching result of the emancipation of the peasant was the creation of a class of intellectual proletarians.
In Western Europe and the United States of America the capitalists and merchants employ the intellectual proletarians in their factories and offices as clerks, business managers, salesmen, draftsmen, captains of industry, etc., etc.
This explains the fact, that the intellectual proletariat of Western Europe and America is rather conservative if not reactionary in his tendencies. He is as yet not conscious of his class-interests as the upper crust of the proletarian masses.
In Russia there were no industrial enterprises worth speaking of, no commerce of any importance.
The Russian intellectual proletariat was not provided even with the crumbs falling from the overladen table of the capitalists, as were their more fortunate brothers in the West.
The Russian intellectual proletariat had nothing to lose in the old regime but its chains and a world to gain in a Free Russia.
Hence the intellectual Russian proletariat was revolutionary by its very nature from its inception.
The antiquated state institutions of Russia were beyond any reform, hence the radical tendencies of the intellectuals prevailed. The ideas and ideals of the Russian intellectual proletariat were those of contemporary Utopian Socialism of Western Europe. The intellectuals felt their own weakness as a class and decided to win the broad masses, of the people, i. e. peasants.
The intellectuals started a "movement into the people," in order to preach the gospel of brotherly love and cooperation.
It was a strictly non-political, but rather educational movement similar to, although not identical with, the university settlement movement in the United States.
Young men and women of the higher ability went "into the people" to lead a simple, laborious life full of privations, dangers and disappointments in order to do missionary work among the peasants.
The movement "into the people" was one of the most arduous and generous ever recorded on the pages of history.
But, alas, it was the most hopeless, the most barren of results.
The patriarchal village commune, serfdom and czardom closed the mind of the peasant to the ideals of Utopian socialism developed in industrial countries with more or less free political institutions. Serfdom created an abyss between the peasants and other classes in Russia. In their touching simplicity of mind, they looked upon each and every non-peasant as upon an enemy.
The generous crusade of the early propagandists of the new gospel was met with suspicion on the part of the peasants, who turned a deaf ear to the noble missionaries.
There are many cases on record when peasants turned over these noble missionaries to the police.
The movement "into the people" would probably run its own course and end in bitter disenchantment for the propagandists if left to its own fate.
However, the stupid and cowardly government was scared out of its wits by the educational activity of high minded Utopian enthusiasts. The Russian government felt alarmed and started an era of cruel persecution. The peaceful propagandists were treated more severely than common criminals. The propagandists were imprisoned for life, banished to Siberia, executed on the gallows.
The "white" terror of the White Czar called forth the "red" terror of the revolutionists.
Secret societies with terroristic proclivities sprang up like mushrooms all over the country and an uneven, heroic struggle between intellectual proletarians and the government of the Czar, a struggle between David and Goliath was started.
The most typical secret terroristic society was represented by the so-called "Party of the Peoples Will," ruled by the famous "Executive Committee."
The "Executive Committee" was more dreaded by the Czars, than the day of judgment. Since the appearance of white and red terrorism—the Russian government deserved the title of a "Despotism tempered by assassination."
The activity of the "Executive Committee" culminated in the execution of Alexander II.
With this unfortunate prince, red terrorism expired.
Terrorism was discredited. It removed personalities, but left the conditions producing them unchanged. It produced reaction.
The reign of Alexander III, this poor imitator of Nicholas I, and Nicholas II, the degenerate scion of the dynasty of Romanoff's, was reactionary in the extreme.
Meanwhile the disintegration of the village-commune and proletarianisation of the people were progressing rapidly. Industries developed and the working class counts at present about five million of men and women.
Russia was modernized economically.
The process of political modernization must follow as day must follow night.
Although comparatively small in numbers, the city-proletariat formed the dynamic element of the Russian population. A party that would be shrewd enough to see it and gain the control of the working-class must by the very nature of things possess the key to the political situation in Russia.
The party is the party of the working class, the Social-Democratic party.
The Russian Social-Democratic party possesses the full confidence of the working class and dictates its policy.
The Russian Social-Democratic Party stands on the broad principles of International Socialism.
It believes, that the emancipation of the broad masses of the Russian people has to be effected by its advanced guard, the working class.
It believes that the mission of intellectuals must be limited to guidance and direction of the revolutionized but not sufficiently class conscious masses of the people.
It knows that the soil of Freedom was always fertilized by the blood of martyrs and tyrants and believes therefore in the terrorism of the masses.
Social-Democrats know that the Nemesis of history will produce a Brutus to every Caesar.
Social-Democrats know that if Von Plehve or Sergius would possess each of them thousands of lives, their execution would not expiate even a particle of their crimes.
At the same time Social-Democrats do not believe that the execution of single members of the Russian Government by single intellectuals ought to be raised to the dignity of a system adopted by a political party as such. Such terroristic acts are probably unavoidable but entail a deplorable waste of energy.
Young as the Russian Social-Democratic party is, (it started about 1896) it attained marvelous success.
The propaganda among the working class worked like magic.
There are two other parties to be considered as opposition forces.
One of them is the so-called Socialist-Revolutionist party. That party claims to represent the interests of all the toiling masses of the Russian people. But actually they ignore the working class and concentrate their attention upon the peasants.
The Revolutionists believe that the archaic village commune, the "mir," can and has to be preserved in order to allow Russia to avoid the evils of Capitalism and proletarianisation of the masses.
The Revolutionists do not believe in the most essential part of economic determinism—in the law of development of social economic institutions.
The "Revolutionists" want to stop the evolutionary march of the sun of the proletariat at the Gibeon of common tenure of land, to arrest the movement of the moon of capitalism in the Avalon valley of dwarfed manufacture.
The "Revolutionists" are nationalists and Utopians in their theories and Jacobins in their tactics.
The interests of the Russian proletariat in general and of its liberation demand its organization into an independent political force.
However, the "Socialist Revolutionists" are—theoretically and by their tactics—opposing the endeavors of the Social Democrats to cement the working class into one political party.
The "Revolutionists" bend all their energies toward keeping the workingmen in an amorphous mass, that may be used as a tool only by the liberal middle class.
The "Revolutionists" represent therefore but a branch of the middle-class-democratic faction in Russia.
The middle-class tendencies of the "Revolutionists" are the more pernicious, because they are masked by the banner of Socialism.
The "Revolutionists" believe in manufacturing history by assassinations.
The third party is the party of the liberals.
This outspokenly middle-class party is composed of professionalists of all kinds, manufacturers, merchants and a motley crowd of intellectuals of rather indefinite occupation.
The liberals, too, would like to enjoy political freedom.
They would certainly condescend to graciously accept a liberal constitution presented to them on a silver tray.
But they want the "common people" (the "dear" common people) to win it for them by the sacrifice of life and limb.
The liberals represent an opposition party, but by no means a revolutionary force.
It is rather an anti-revolutionist and anti-proletarian movement.
The Social-Democrats are supported by the working class.
The "Revolutionists" back up their demands from the autocracy by terroristic acts.
The liberals talk and fill the waste-basket of the government with humble petitions.
Divergent as these three parties may be in their theoretical conceptions and tactics they are united on one vital point, namely, in their negative attitude toward the autocracy of the Czar.
The struggle against the autocracy of the Czar is a struggle against wild barbarity and eternal strife, it is a struggle for civilization and peace.
A wave of reaction would encircle the globe in case the Russian government would succeed in drowning the revolutionary movement in the blood of the people.
The victory of the revolutionary elements in Russia will be the victory of all liberty-loving men and women of the world.
The Russian people are now struggling for the liberties we enjoy here in the United States, the liberties the fathers of the Republic conquered a hundred years ago.
The Russian revolution has probably passed its most dramatic, spectacular stage.
Russia now entered into an era of chronic revolution.
The revolutionization of all the classes and masses of Russia is spreading and deepening, the revolutionary flames are working their way toward the shaky throne of the Czar and worm eaten altar of the State Church and cannot be extinguished till Absolutism and Parasitism will be no more.
The time has passed when the people of Russia could be pacified by political charity in the shape of an advisory board composed of representatives of various classes without power or-authority to legislate or control the budget of the State, as proposed by the Czar under the stress of a disastrous war.
The Russian people is now determined to get rid of the double yoke of political and economic oppression.
The Russian struggle is the world's struggle.
The Chinese walls that used to divide countries and nations have crumbled into dust and ashes.
There is at present only one nation—the human race. There is at present only one world-struggle, the struggle of the vast majority of the human race, of the toiling masses against a small minority of political and social-economic parasites.
Perish Russian autocracy! Long live the Russian Revolution!
Perish Parasitism! Long live the proletariat of all nations!
I. Ladoff.
New York. March, 1905.
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Internationale-from "Reds"
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