290 THE CLASS STRUGGLE THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIALISM 291 up to the present time the Russian proletariat has not been able to organize production on a Socialistic basis, they are only mocking themselves without knowing it. Everywhere the bourgeoisie and the bourgeois intelligentsia place the greatest hindrance in the way of the proletariat in its work of organization, and nowhere will the proletariat, even the most highly developed, be in a position, in a short time, to find the abilities in its own ranks, which will be necessary to accomplish the work of Socialist organization. In the muchpraised land of organization, in Germany, the number of workers who would be able today to guide whole branches of production is extraordinarily small, even the number of workers who would be able, as technicians, to administer the production of a factory, is very small. Everyone knows this who has ever been active in the German workers movement. The working class of every country will only be able to educate itself for the task of managing and administering production through thousands of mistakes, and nowhere will it be able to do without the services of bourgeois specialists. They will be forced, just as the Russian working class was forced, to adopt the measures of an iron dictatorship, in order to drive the bourgeois elements into the service of the workers.
No proletariat will be spared the struggle which has forced the Russian working class to take the sharpest measures of a dictatorship: the struggle for bread. Nowhere will the peasants range themselves on the side of the Revolution, less in capitalist countries than they did in Russia, where the Revolution gave them land and soil. As the Revolution develops from a military standpoint, into a struggle between the workers regiments and the regiments of the peasants, so also from the social standpoint, it will be fought out between the workers and peasants for bread; until the conquered peasantry learn that a Socialist society can offer them a life more worthy of a human being than a capitalist society can.
Democracy or the Rule of the Working Class And this in a word indicates clearly enough what mighty obstinacy or what enormous lack of sense one must have in order to accuse the Russian Revolution of harming poor Democracy. Concretely considered, Democracy is the rule of Capital, and it is so strong, so fixed in the minds of the masses that it can allow itself the luxury of permitting the masses the liberty of discussing the affairs of state. There is, in modern history, no Democracy which goes any further than that, for as soon as the masses make the.
slightest attempt to convert their liberty of speech into a right to decide any question of government, Democracy goes flying. Modern Democracy is the camouflage of the autocracy of capital. As the feeble proletariat is interested in free speech, in free voting, in order to collect its forces, we have recognized Democracy as a way to Socialism; that means that it was necessary for us to enjoy, participate freely in the affairs of state, in order to mobilize the masses for Socialism. But abstractly considered, Democracy signifies the rule of the majority of the people. The idea that the proletariat will not begin the revolution until it has proofs that the majority of the people are behind it, is absurd, if only for the fact that capitalist Democracy will never remain unchanged long enough for the proletariat to assure itself that the majority of the people is behind it. Nowhere do the highly exploited young men and women workers enjoy full rights.
If they did, the bourgeoisie would sooner turn out the Parliament, long before the workers reached a point where they could perform the will of the people by peaceful means. But it is really silly to imagine that one could, by peaceful means, through agitation only, without Revolution, overcome the lack of confidence which the masses have in their own powers. Only in the Revolution can the front ranks of the workers carry the masses along with them.
But a Revolution means that one class dictates its will to the other class. The conditions which Kautsky and Co. set for a Revolution, are these: the Revolution, to be sure, has the right to dictate its will to the bourgeoisie, but it is its duty, at the same time, to give the bourgeoisie the possibility, by means of the freedom of the press, and from the vantage of the Constituent Assema bly, of airing its accusations. This intellectual demand of a professional kicker, who is not so much concerned with gaining his point as with registering his kick, could be abstractly complied with without harming the Revolution; but the Revolution is a civil war, and classes, who fight each other with cannon and machine guns, forego the Homeric battle of words. The Revo lution does not argue with its enemies, it crushes them, the Counter revolution does the same, and both of them will know how to bear the reproach of not having followed the order of business of the German Reichstag.
The Soviets the Token By Which the International Prole tariat Will Conquer The harsh face which the Russian Revolution shows to the international proletariat, is the same face which, blackened with a an