Fighting for Communist Workers’ Power, 1917-1918
LOS ANGELES, February 2— “I think I’m more of an anarchist than a communist,” a Red Flag reader mused. “I don’t think I could trust any government.”
In 1917, Anarchists were working both with the Bolsheviks and against them. “Faced with the dictatorship of landowners or the bourgeoisie,” declared Anarchists, “we temporarily support the dictatorship of the proletariat!” But they demanded that the Bolshevik party should “liquidate itself after victory.”
The contradiction sharpened after the communist-led October Revolution. Did the working masses need centralized, disciplined leadership? Or could they spontaneously create a federation of communes?
Under Kerensky’s Capitalist-Led Provisional Government
Communists and anarchists allied tactically between the Czar’s overthrow in February 1917 and the October Bolshevik revolution.
In May, Anarchists hosted two conferences of Petrograd People’s Militias. These created a Council of People’s Militias that included Bolsheviks. Amid Kerensky’s new war offensive, Bolsheviks called a demonstration for a Soviet government. Anarchists told workers and soldiers to carry arms. The Bolsheviks carried banners.
Anarchists called for a July 3 insurrection. Bolsheviks warned of a fatal lack of preparation. A leading anarchist replied dismissively that “the street will organise us.” It didn’t.
Bolsheviks were among the soldiers, sailors, and industrial workers in armed “July Days” anti-government demonstrations. But they weren’t ready to lead a revolution either.
The government squashed the rebellion. Bolsheviks and anarchists, separately, regrouped among factory workers. Anarchists called for workers to seize their own factories. Bolsheviks organized for “Peace, Land, Bread” and the seizure of power.
On October 25 (November 7 “new style”) the Bolsheviks mobilized tens of thousands of soldiers, sailors, and workers. They overthrew Kerensky’s capitalist government and took charge.
Workers and soldiers flooded the revolutionary headquarters, night and day. The Bolsheviks quickly defeated counter-revolutionary bands. They rebuffed those who wanted to bring capitalist parties into the new workers’ government.
Anarchists spoke openly of a third revolution.
War, Peace, and a Decisive Split
The Bolsheviks appealed vainly to the Allied Powers for a “just peace with no annexations or indemnities.” Crickets. Workers’ revolutions hadn’t yet materialized elsewhere. Russian soldiers were demobilizing themselves.
Only surrender would end the hated war. In March 1918, the new government, after heated debate, signed the humiliating Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The Left Socialist-Revolutionaries (S-Rs) and some Bolsheviks howled that it betrayed “the nation.” Anarchists saw an opportunity for their Third Revolution.
The Anarchist Federal Council decided to form a Black Guard. This federation of armed workers’ militias would have a permanent centralized hierarchy. The S-R general Muraviev offered to bring his troops to support them. The purpose was likely to fight German troops occupying Ukraine. That would threaten the fragile peace.
The Anarchist Federal Council announced an April 14 meeting in Moscow. Bolsheviks feared an uprising against Soviet power. On the night of April 11-12, Bolsheviks disarmed and detained hundreds of Anarchists in a brief, bitter fight. The Moscow Anarchist organization was effectively destroyed.
Choose communism!
Anarchist criticisms of the communist-led government were not all wrong. For example, they objected to excessive pay inequalities. Some Bolsheviks agreed. But neither group denounced the wage system.
Anarchists and communists had celebrated the Paris Commune’s abolition of the standing Army. But they had not anticipated the full-scale civil war, nor the imperialist invasions, that erupted in 1918.
Anarchists rightly objected to a Red Army commanded by professional officers trained to serve the old regime. This rejected past Bolshevik practice of troops electing officers. But factory-based workers’ militias alone couldn’t have defeated counter-revolution.
Anarchists said the road to victory led “From worker-peasant soviets to local free communes [obshchiny]; from the congress of soviets to the federation of communes [kommuny]; from the Soviet Republic to a communist structure [stroi].”
The obshchina was a traditional Russian peasant community with common ownership of land. Marx had thought that it might “pass directly to the higher form of Communist common ownership” during proletarian revolution. But by 1917, 40% of peasants couldn’t survive on the land.
The Anarchist platform ignored the class struggle in the countryside. And how could it implement its call without winning the masses to communism?
Neither Anarchists nor Bolsheviks had fought to win the masses to fundamental communist principles. Workers and poor peasants followed the Bolsheviks’ practical leadership, but few had embraced communism itself.
Anarchists called for, but did not organize, “federation of communes.” They objected on principle to organizing any unifying structure.
In contrast, Bolshevik centralism had built communist relations based on collective struggle, across regions and (somewhat) across the city/country divide.
That’s how they defeated counter-revolution. And created a rich, though deeply flawed, experience of working-class power that we can learn from today.
Next article: Civil war, famine, and a major retreat
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