By 1920, the Red Army started decisively repulsing the invading foreign and white armies. The capitalist powers were ultimately forced to withdraw their forces from Russia partly on account of the intensified class struggles in their own countries. By 1921, the white armies were decisively defeated, and the war was won by the Bolsheviks but at a very high cost. Russia which at the time of the revolution was much more backward than the advanced capitalist countries had been thrown to the very brink of barbarism. Its national income was only 33% of that of 1913, industry produced 20% of the preÔÇôwar level (I. Deutscher ÔÇô The Prophet, the life of Leon Trotsky p521). The collapse of industry coincided with one of the worst famines in Russian History which wiped out millions.
Thousands of workers were compelled by the fearful economic collapse and famine to flee from the cities to the countryside to forage for food. Lenin whose honesty and integrity as a revolutionary working class leader inclined him not to deceive the masses by concealing the truth from them or exaggerating successes, had sounded the alarm in August 1919 “The industrial proletariat…..owing to the war and the desperate poverty and ruin has become d├®class├®, that is dislodged from its class groove and ceased to exist as the proletariat.” (V.I Lenin collected works vol 33 p65). The Soviet state could have been rescued from this desperate situation by an extension of the socialist revolution to more developed European capitalist countries and the consequent material assistance from more advanced socialist states ÔÇô Bolshevik leaders had regarded their revolution as a precursor of the European revolution and had initiated the formation of the communist international to plan, coordinate and guide such a world revolution. Indeed the spectre of the European revolution was recognised by even the leading bourgeois statesmen of that period.
Thus the British Prime Minister Lloyd George in a confidential memorandum to the French President Clemenceau at the Versailles Peace conference said “the whole of European is filled with the spirit of revolution, there is a deep sense not only of discontent but of anger and revolt amongst workmen against pre-war conditions.
The whole existing order in this political, social and economic aspects is questioned by the masses of the population from one end of Europe to the other (quoted in E.H.Carr ÔÇô The Bolshevik Revolution 1917 ÔÇô 1923, vol 3, p135-6). While the deep social and economic crisis and the revolutionary ferment which afflicted the leading European countries constituted a basis for that initial revolutionary optimism on the part of Lenin and other Bolshevik leaders by, 1921 it was clear that the European revolution had reached an ebb tide. The German revolution had suffered successive defeats in 1919, 1920 and 1921, the Hungarian soviet republic had collapsed under the impact of internal dissension and foreign military aggression, the Austrian revolution had also failed mainly on account of the betrayal of the social democratic leaders. The movement of the Italian working class which had its high point in the factory occupations in September, 1920 had also suffered defeat (Leon Trotsky ÔÇô Report on the world Economic crisis and the tasks of the communist international in the first five years of the communist international vol. I p136).
The young soviet state bleeding and reeling from economic devastation and ruin from the triple effects of world war, civil war and imperialist economic blockade, isolated and encircled by hostile capitalist powers was forced to rely on its own resources. It was in response to this situation that at the 10th party congress in 1921, a new economic policy was adopted entailing some concessions to peasants and private traders to revive agricultural sector and private trade. On the socio ÔÇô political plane the situation was no better; the Russian working class had exerted prodigious energy and effort and made super human sacrifices during two revolutions and the civil war. The best working class militants had laid down their lives during the civil war. At the end of it all those who survived were faced with unprecedented economic collapse and epidemics diseases which subjected them to a living hell.
Under these circumstances, exhaustion, weariness, demoralisation and apathy set in. Working class organisations- trade unions, educational clubs and soviets which had been seething with vibrant political activity and lively debates during 1917 and early 1918, were emptied of their democratic content and almost fell into disuse. The party remained the only organ which had the organic unity, discipline and compact organisation to take charge of the affairs of the state, but the party could not remain immune from the processes taking place within the society. The process of bureaucratic degeneration which afflicted the state also gradually corroded the party. Party tasks were increasingly centralised around a smaller group. As party leaders were overwhelmed by the work of state administration, under conditions of acute shortage of manpower and increasingly complex socio ÔÇô economic and political problems, the central committee increasingly delegated tasks to the smaller political Bureau.
The political Bureau in turn delegated tasks to the party secretariat which in turn was dominated by the organisation Bureau under the charge of party Secretary General Joseph Stalin. The organisation Bureau which was initially responsible for nominating candidates for appointment to various party positions was imperceptibly transformed into an appointment Bureau. In pointing out the objective historical conditions which led to the degeneration of the Soviet state it is by no means meant to suggest that the ultimate political outcome was predetermined or inevitable.
Firstly, it was mediated by the specific political choices and decisions made by the Bolshevik party leadership. Secondly, the particular manner in which the degenerate tendencies ultimately unfolded and assumed concrete actuality depended on the struggle of living social forces. From its inception, the Bolshevik party had been founded on very strong democratic traditions. Even after the opposition parties were banned, the Bolshevik party maintained a thoroughly democratic internal party regime. At the time of the Brest Litovsk peace negotiations between the German and Soviet Governments the left communists led by Bukharin and Preobrazhensky published their own paper which waged a vociferous attack against the party leadership and Soviet Government for what it considered to be their unprincipled capitulation to German Imperialism. During the most difficult period of the civil war, vigorous debates raged within the party on questions of party and state policy, such as the relationship between the workers state and trade Unions which pitted Lenin against Trotsky.
The workers opposition led by Shlyapnikov and Kollontai severely criticised Lenin and Trotsky for “betraying” the revolution. However a volte ÔÇôface occurred at the 10thcommunist party congress in 1921, where a resolution sponsored by Lenin, was passed banning all party factions. This action was considered as a temporary measure which would be abandoned once the socio ÔÇô political situation changed for the better and the Soviet regime stabilised. Nevertheless under the given historical circumstances, whatever emergency measures were adopted which tended to circumscribe the democratic rights of party members accentuated the unhealthy bureaucratic tendencies within the party.
The party was gradually transformed into a formidable bureaucratic machine in which leaders were not democratically elected but appointed from above. Those party members considered disloyal or too critical were either dismissed from their posts or transferred to distant outlying areas. At the same time the party and state apparatuses merged into one bureaucratic labyrinth.
From 1922, the Soviet leader, Lenin was increasingly critical of these developments and came up with some measures to correct them. He first suggested the establishment of the workers and peasants inspectorate to supervise the work of the party. This organ became under the party Secretary General, Stalin an instrument for controlling the party. Lenin then conceived the formation of control commission composed of mainly of workers to exercise some measure of control and supervision over the work of the central committee. Illness and death removed Lenin from the political scene before some of the measures he had suggested had been adopted and implemented. *Otsweletse is a well-known socialist scholar. He is a former leader of opposition and also the Botswana National Front
