THE PROLETARIAN REVOLUTION 33 32 THE CLASS STRUGGLE former, the phrase surpasses the substance; with this one, the substance surpasses the phrase.
It is only in appearance, accordingly, that the Russian Revolution and its stages are comparable with previous revolutions. In one stage alone is this comparison actual, and that is the first stage, when, the proletariat having made the revolution, the tourgeoisie seized power for its own class purposes. as in previous revolutions. But this stage was the initial one: the subse«
quent stages are stages of a proletarian revolution, creating its own modes of action and its own standards. The Russian Revolution marks the entry of a new character upon the stage of history the revolutionary proletariat in action; it means a new revolution, the Proletarian Revolution; it establishes a new reality, the imminence of the Social Revolution, the transformation of the aspiration for the Social Revolution into a fact of immediate, palpitant importance to all the world.
Nor can the proletarian revolution in Russia be compared with the Paris Commune. The Parisian proletariat had neither the numbers, the class consciousness, the organized revolutionary spirit of the Russian proletariat; nor did it break completely with the superstitions and ideology of the past. Industrial development in France at that period had not produced a mass of unskilled workers, mere appendages of the machine, that typical proletariat which constitutes the revolutionary class in Capitalism, and which is the bone and sinew of the revolutionary movement in Russia.
In spite of Russia being still largely a peasant community, its industry is substantial; and, moreover, is large scale, concentrated industry, producing a large mass of typical and potentially revolutionary proletarians. The Parisian proletariat, again, did not act in conjunction with the rest of France; nor did it operate in a generally revolutionary situation such as prevails in Europe to day. The conditions of Imperialism develop a revolutionary epoch: and Russia may act as the signal for the general proletarian revolution.
The moderate Socialist who considers Socialism a process of gradually transforming Capitalism, of growing into Socialism, will not favorably consider the proletarian revolution in Russia, or will consider it simply in the light of the success or failure of its aspirations on peace. But if the European proletariat does not respond to the revolutionary call to action, then the proletarian revolution in Russia becomes a phase in the development of the general revolution; the struggle will break out anew to morrow. The Social Revolution may have to become a series of revolutionary struggles, alternately weakening Capitalism and strengthening the proletariat, ending finally in the overthrow of Capitalism. The Social Revolution is a process, not an ultimate act alone: but it is a revolutionary process. The value of the revolutionary struggle against Capitalism lies in the development of the consciousness and action of the proletariat; in the intensity of its antagonism to capital; in the moral and physical reserves it acquires for action in the days to come. In this sense, the Russian Revolution means the start of the Social Revolution, the emergence of the international proletariat into a new revolutionary era. The bourgeoisie, says Heinrich Lauffenberg, born in the Revolution, maintaining itself in a struggle against the Revolution, can only be overcome by the Revolution.
The overthrow of Capitalism is accomplished, not through the development of institutions but through the development of proletarian consciousness, action and class power.
II.
The entry of Russia into the war in August, 1914, decreed by the government of the Czar, was the signal for a great outburst of patriotic enthusiasm among the bourgeoisie, which allied itself with the Czarism all along the line. Instead of using the war in the struggle against the autocratic regime, the bourgeoisie used it to promote Imperialistic interests. The Russian bourgeoisie was no longer revolutionary: it had become imperialistic; and this circumstance was a determining issue in the course of the revolution.
The Revolution of 1905 supplemented the earlier abolition of serfdom in creating the partial conditions for the development of capitalistic industry. The bourgeoisie acquired new powers and