Page Four THE COMMUNIST December 13th, 1919 Communist Party and Soviet Institutions a By Vladimir Sorin separate individuals, or upon the idiosynTstandstill the further development of crasy of the Russian Revolution: such a (Oi the Leit Communist Group. danger threatens every revolution, because our revolution and forced it, without a the capitalist class has taken all measures to battle, to commence a gradual recessio: Translation by Morris Gordin.
sap in the bud the independent action of the from the already attained positions, are masses and to habituate them to the though universally acknowledged to be: the intriand specialists, have emerged into society. that the management of the government cacy oi the international situation, the tardi they are on the whole (we do not speak of must be carried on apart from them and be ness in the rise of the West European revo isolated idealistic individuals or groups)
lution, the petty bourgeois routine and maninterested in conserving their privileged leſt to the care oi especially traines men, At any rate, we must see to it that the ner of living of the majority of the popula position; and this position is really a privition, the colossal economic breakdown, etc. leged one; a certain weight and respect November Revolution shall not be utilized for the aggrandizement of a comparatively This summary, however, lacks one factor in the eyes of people of their circle. a fair small group, and for that there is but one which is exerting a negative influence upon salary, greater security in regard to victuals, means: the participation of the broad the development of the Russian Revolution: a multiplicity of minor privileges all these This is the conservatism of the Soviet or advantages combined induce the average masses in the political work, the facilitation and the strengthening of the control by the ganizations themselves, a conservatism Soviet employee to hold on to his job and which is conditioned by the material (social) by 110 means dispose him toward revoluworkers over the personnel which is called upon to attend to their needs. the polition status oi the numerous army of the Soviet tionary daring of the privileges enjoyed by the tical employes as well as by the distinct psychology which is beginning to crystallize in The army of Soviet enployes comprises workers.
consequence oi their material position.
also that politically indifferent public inally, the Party itself, being corsvierwhich is ready to serve anybody under To clarity this question let is approach it any regime, and has now vormed its way ably better safeguarded against disinegration, must extend its control over the Soviet in a manner similar to that of a sociologist into the Soviet institutions. Finally, we factions and must make all the political who undertakes to analyze the genesis and shall mention the mass of every kind of workers accountable and responsible or the structure of one or another social group and technicians and specialists who undoubtedly Party.
to investigate its group interests and aspir do not sympathize with the Soviets for It was more than once pointed out that ations.
which they consented to work only on the the power of the Soviet of Workers and The November Revolution having se highest salaries, so great is the need of the Peasants Delegates is the highest achievestroyed the old governmental apparatus and new republic in trained men.
ment of our revolution. This is, of course, having removed the officials connected with This group is evidently the most reit, confronted the working class with the actionary; only the spur of an income (and correct, but we should not forget that the Communist Party is always and everynecessity of creating a new governmental not seldom the dollar hunting impulse) im where superior to the Soviets. And this is machinc adapted to the transformed social pels the members of this group to give their entirely comprehensible: only the Party order. wide field was opened for men of knowledge and experience to the working functions as the defender of the interests of organizing capacity, and tens of thousands class. The mere existence of the Soviets of people acquired the possibility of utilizing irightens them, and they are only willing to working class; while the Soviets are the repthe world proletariat, of the internasionar their talents and abilities in the Soviet input up with them, provided the Soviet will resentatives of the labor democrin stit dus. Of what elements was recruited be rebuilt and adapted to the middlemen and general, and its interests partice the vast army of Soviet employes who become acceptable for the broad sections of swarmed into various commissariats and interests of the petty bourgeois peasestry, commissions, departments and branches, dominant power attributes importance to the bourgeois democracy. Because the do not always coincide with the interans of bureaus and committees?
the proletariat.
this group appreciates it, therefore this Of course, first of all there is the category group is able to exert a pressure from within The left Communists are the most deterof the old much tried party men; but if. upon the policy of the Soviets, tending in it mined adherents of the Soviet power but however, we desire to be sober realists, we conservative and even reactionary direction.
of course only to the extent to which the must recognize that only an insignificant Soviet power follows a strictly proletarian number oi them are so active and untiring as Such is the composition of that new social line of action and does not permit icself to to think of the subsequent development of group which is designated as the personnel or be diverted, under the influence of condithe revolution, of its extensions; the the Soviet employes. In view of the limited tions referred to in the begiming of the majority of the old party men, exhausted culture and backwardness of Russia and article, in the direction of petty bouncois lack of intellectual elements, the personnel politics.
by the many years of emigrant wandering, the nerve wrecking underground work could not be other: the general background and the life of the revolutionary fraught is made up of partly tired and partly altoOur comrades are apt to charge that we introduce disorganization into the wellwith dangers, now after the triumph oi the gether unreliable groups, while small knots proletariat cling to their quiet and peaceful and nuclei of active and tireless workers rep ordered work of the Soviets, that we are work for the Socialist reconstruction. This resent the exception.
enemies of the Soviets irom the left. Such a view is indicative of a lack of understandgroup is inclined to consider its place in the From our analysis it follows that the perSoviet organization as a natural consuming. real thoroughgoing dictatorship of sonnel of the Soviet employes, being largely the proletariat, a no compromise policy, a mation and culmination of their hard pre interested in the preservation of its privi renunciation or all opportunistic measures liminary work, and they involuntarily be leged position and its purely professional such are the demands of the left Cemgin to regard with hostility and concealed interests, is prone to assert itscli as it con ists.
fear every determined measure which en servative social group: hence the distrustdangers the tranquillity attained by them fulness towards the working classes, the We do not deny that the pursuance of through such hard labor.
desire to isolate itself irom them, to barri strictly proletarian course in the foreign and Still another element was anxious to work cade itself, the disposition to get away from internal policy is fraught with terrific dangfor the Soviet organizations, a certain party control. against which the provincial fall, but we presume that in the interests of ers, involving perhaps il temporar: downlsemi intellectual stratum possessing party papers vehemently protest. its fear limited education, which under the old re of perturbations, the insufficient attention to the world proletarian movement it is prefergime had not much of a chance; but now, the wants of the workers, the disposition to able to fall under the onslaught of esternal due the sabotage of the highly trained teen compromise, the desire to adapt the terrify: enemies, but to fall as a truly proletarian nical personnel, anybody with a smattering ing Soviet power to the middle class, the oipower, rather than to Sve our CE of scientific training and an elementary ficial red tape, etc.
through bargaining with conditions, by grasp of arithmetic and grammar suddenly means of a repudiation of the principles of became a valuable and necessary man.
We are far from the assertion that the Communism and the rebirth of the Soviet Soviet personnel has already been converted These semi intellectuals (clerks, scribes, into a new style bureaucracy, as hopelessly empty shell, a form of proletarian Soviets power which will be converted into an petty officials, etc. who under the old detached from the masses as happened, for with an entirely unproletarian contene. This regime could not even think of a career. instance, with the higher up elements of the at the present time, as a result of the No German trade unions, but doubtless there decay of the Soviet power, the disappointsecond course spells the disintegration, the vember Revolution which created, a tremendous demand for all sorts of technicians this does not depend upon the evil will of Western Europe.
is such a tendency in evidence. Certainly, ment of the working masses of Russia and