Only Communism Can Defeat Fascism
Armed workers defending the October Revolution
The last article described the “July Days” of the Russian Revolution. In the countryside, peasants (rural workers) were defying the government and distributing land. Urban workers went on strike – sometimes around political demands. Masses of soldiers and sailors were deserting. Many were influenced by communists (Bolsheviks) in the barracks. They marched on Petrograd, the capital, demanding the overthrow of the Provisional Government. Even the communist leaders weren’t ready for this uprising. The government squashed the rebellion with mass terror and anti-communist propaganda.
Immediately after the July Days, even some factory workers turned on their Bolshevik comrades. They believed the lie that Bolshevik leaders were agents of German imperialism.
The provisional government, led by Kerensky, seized the moment to launch a military offensive in the war against Germany. It was a disaster that cost the lives of 200,000 workers and peasants in uniform.
German imperialism’s counter-offensive took the city of Riga and threatened Petrograd. Discontent, desertion and rebellion soared among troops at the front, as well as those in the urban garrisons. Landlords, generals, and capitalists in the Provisional Government panicked. The socialist Kerensky put a famously right-wing General, Kornilov, in charge to restore harsh discipline in the rebellious military. Kornilov, thinking he had Kerensky’s support, began a march on the capital.
Now the socialists and liberal democrats panicked. They were caught between the radical right (today we would call it fascism) and the communist masses. Neither of the “dual-power” organs (the Petrograd Soviet and the Provisional Government) had forces that could stop Kornilov’s military coup against their fragile democracy.
Many top Bolshevik leaders were again in jail or in exile. But the Bolsheviks, and only the Bolsheviks, had a mass base among workers and soldiers. Many comrades were leaders on the factory floor and in the barracks.
The factory workers of Petrograd, organized mainly on the shop floor, led the resistance to Kornilov. Railway workers controlled or tore up the tracks that Kornilov’s troop trains planned to use. Metal workers went out to meet those troops and win them to the workers’ side. Printers refused to publish newspapers supporting Kornilov. Inside the city, male and female workers filled the streets, ready to resist.
But there was no fight. Kornilov’s troops deserted. His commander-in-chief Krymov surrendered and then killed himself. Kornilov was arrested. His successor resigned, stating that “we have no army.”
Petrograd workers saw more clearly that they alone, armed and organized, could defend the revolution. Their respect grew for the Bolsheviks, the only political party not entangled in the Provisional Government. The Bolshevik program of an armed uprising for workers’ power was increasingly their goal. The Red Guard units they had formed remained active.
After the Kornilov Affair, the Bolshevik Party won a majority in the Petrograd and Moscow Soviets. Now Party leaders faced a crucial choice. Should they stick to the electoral path, hoping for a peaceful transition to Soviet power after the second Congress of Soviets in late October? Or should they organize for armed insurrection and prepare to rule?
We’ll write more in another article about the storm of debate that erupted in the Bolshevik Party and its press when Lenin (in hiding) called for armed insurrection. Now we’ll make a different point.
The Bolsheviks, Lenin included, were still not popularizing the idea of communism itself. Workers were increasingly ready to fight for power. But power to do what? For peace. For land. For bread. For better working conditions and more of a say in their workplaces. In short, for the reforms that were impossible to get from the capitalist-led Provisional Government.
And their victory consolidated a mistaken strategy that would cripple the world communist movement for a century. That strategy said that fighting for reforms was a necessary stage in the fight for revolution. That communists should therefore agitate, organize and fight for reforms.
The problem with the Bolshevik strategy only became clear after they took power. As Lenin would admit, classes – and therefore class struggle – inevitably remained. Why? Because their “dictatorship of the proletariat” (later socialism) kept core elements of capitalism, including money, wages, and therefore exploitation. Their socialism, won by revolution, was a reformed version of capitalism. It would inevitably evolve in accordance with the laws of capitalism.
Revolution for reform did not and could not create the communist society actually needed by workers then and now. We have learned this great lesson from the Bolshevik Revolution: our program now and always must be to mobilize the masses directly for communism.
What Does It Mean To Take Power?
Today our group discussed the Bolshevik Revolution and its upcoming 100th anniversary. We talked a little about what actually happened, including the key role of soldiers and sailors. We talked about the mass base built and mobilized by rank-and-file Bolshevik leaders.
We realized that there is a lot more we need to know. That includes a “who’s who” of important parties and individuals, a chronology, and a map. We’ll work on putting some of this information together.
We would like more discussion about what it means to “take power.” Someone asked what they did about money after the revolution. Another wanted to know more about what workers’ power meant in the workplace. And we agreed that it’s important to make the connections between the communist-led revolution a century ago and the work of the International Communist Workers’ Party today.
We talked about looking through first-hand accounts of the revolution and using excerpts to create a dramatic reading for the anniversary event in Los Angeles. Everyone took a different book home to read so that we can continue the discussion at our next meeting.
“This was a very enlightening day,” concluded a friend.
—Los Angeles comrades
Learn from the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia!
This Fall marks the 100th anniversary of the 1917 communist-led revolution in Russia (October 25 Old Style/November 7 New Style). This was a monumental event in the history of our class and our movement. We have so much to learn from its successes, its shortcomings, and its fatal errors.
We call on all collectives of the International Communist Workers’ Party, and all Red Flag readers, to organize study groups, dinners, public forums, rallies and other events to promote the broadest and deepest possible understanding of the Bolshevik Revolution.
Let’s inspire masses to join and strengthen our communist work among workers, youth, and especially among soldiers and sailors! Let’s use this history to grasp more firmly the meaning and power of our slogan “Mobilize the Masses for Communism.”
