THE SOVIETS WIN THROUGH

from

Glimpses of World History

by

JAWAHARLAL NEHRU

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The month of July 1918 saw startling developments in the situation in Russia. The net round the Bolsheviks was gradually closing in upon them. The Germans threatened from the Ukraine in the south, and a large number of old Czechoslovakian prisoners of war in Russia were encouraged by the Allies to march on Moscow. All over the western front in France the Great War was still going on, but in Soviet Russia the strange spectacle was seen of both the Allies and the German Powers working independently in a common enterprise, the crushing of the Bolsheviks. Again we see how much greater is the force of class hatred that that of national hatred, and national hatred is poisonous and bitter enough. War was not officially declared against Russia by these Powers; they found many other ways of harassing the Soviet, notably by encouraging the counter- revolutionary leaders and helping them with arms and money.

Several old Tsarist generals now took the field against the Soviet.

The Tsar and his family were being kept as prisoners in East Russia ,near the Ural mountains, in the charge of the local soviet there. The advance of the Czech troops in this region frightened this local soviet, and they were alarmed at the possibility of the ex-Tsar being rescued and becoming a great center of counter –revolution. So they took the law into their own hands and executed the whole family. It appears that the Central Committee of the Soviet was not responsible for this, and Lenin was opposed to the execution of the ex-Tsar and of his family , on grounds of international policy and humanitarian grounds. The deed having been done, however, the Central Government justified it. Probably this upset the Allied Governments all the more and made them still more aggressive.

August saw a worsening of the situation, and two events brought anger, despair, and terror in their train. One of these was an attempt on Lenin’s life, and the other was the landing of an Allied force at Archangel in North Russia. There was wild excitement in Moscow, and the end of the Soviet’s existence seemed to be very near. Moscow itself was practically surrounded by enemies-Germans, Czechs and the counter-revolutionary forces. Only a few districts round Moscow were under Soviet rule, and the landing of Allied army seemed to make the end certain. The Bolsheviks did not have much an army; it was barely five months since the Brest-Litovsk peace, and most of the old army had melted away to the fields. Moscow itself was full of conspiracies, and the bourgeoisies was openly rejoicing at the approaching fall of the Soviets.

Such was the terrible plight of the none-month-old Soviet Republic. Despair seized the Bolsheviks and fear, and as they were going to die anyhow, they decided to die fighting. As the young French Republic had done a century and a quarter earlier, like a wild animal at bay, they turned on their enemies. There was to be no more tolerance, no mercy. They whole country was put under martial law, and early in September the Central Soviet Committee announced the Red terror. “Death to all traitors, merciless war on the foreign invaders.” They would fight with their backs to the wall both the enemy within and the enemy without. It was the Soviet against the world and against its own reactionaries. A period of what is called “militant communism” also began, and the whole country was turned into a kind of besieged camp. Every effort was made to built up the Red Army, and Trotsky was put in charge of this.

This was about the time, September and October 1918, when the German war-machine in the west was cracking up and there was talk of an armistice. President Wilson had laid down his Fourteen Points, which were supposed to embody the aims of the Allies. One of these points, it is interesting to remember, was that all Russian territory was to be evacuated and Russia was to be given full opportunity for self –development with the aid of the Powers. A singular commentary on this was being provided by the Allied intervention in Russia and their landing of forces there.!

The Bolsheviks Government sent a note to President Wilson pungently criticizing his Fourteen Points. In the course of this note they said: “You demand the independence of Poland, Serbia, Belgium, and freedom for the people of Austro-Hungary….But, strangely, we do not notice in your demands any mention of freedom for Ireland, Egypt, India, or even the Philippine Islands.”

Peace was made between the Allies and the German Powers on November 11, 1918, when the armistice was signed. But in Russia civil war raged throughout 1919 and 1920. Single –handed, the Soviet fought a host of enemies. At one time the Red Army was attacked on seventeen different fronts.

England, America, France, Japan, Italy, Serbia, Czechoslovakia, Rumania, the Baltic states, Poland, and a host of counter- revolutionary Russian generals were all opposing the Soviet, and the fighting extended from eastern Siberia to the Baltic and the Crimea.

Repeatedly, the end of the Soviet seemed near, Moscow itself was threatened, Petrograd was on the point of falling to the enemy, but it surmounted every crisis, and with each success grew its self-confidence and strength.

One of the counter–revolutionary leaders was Admiral Kolchak. He described himself as the ruler of Russia, and the Allies actually recognized him as such and helped him greatly. The way he behaved in Siberia is shown by an ally of his, General Graves, who commanded the United States army supporting Kolchak. This American general says:

“There were horrible murders committed, but they were not committed by the Bolsheviks, as the world believes. I am well on the side of safety when I say that the anti- Bolsheviks killed one hundred people in eastern Siberia to every one killed by the Bolsheviks.”

It will interest you to know on what knowledge eminent statesmen conduct the affairs of great nations and make war and peace. Lloyd George, who was the British Prime Minister at the time, and perhaps the most powerful man in Europe, speaking about Russia in the British House of Commons, referred to Kolchak and other generals there. In the same breath be referred to “General Kharkov.” Kharkov, instead of being a general, happens to be an important city, the capital of Ukraine! This ignorance of elementary geography, however, did not prevent these statesmen from cutting up Europe into bits and making a new map of it.

The Allies also blockaded Russia, and so effective was this that for the whole of 1919 Russia could neither buy nor sell anything abroad.

In spite of all these stupendous difficulties and numerous and powerful enemies, Soviet Russia survived and triumphed. This was one of the most astonishing feats in history. How did they manage it? There is no doubt that if the Allied Powers had been united and bent on crushing the Bolsheviks, they could have done so in the early days.

Having disposed of Germany, they had vast armies to play with. But it was not so easy to use these armies anywhere, and especially against the Soviets. They were all war-weary, and another demand on them for foreign warfare would have met with refusal.

There was also a great deal of sympathy among the workers for the new Russia, and the Allied Governments were afraid having to face trouble at home if they declared open war against the Soviets.

As it was, Europe seemed to be on the verge of revolt.

And thirdly, there was the mutual rivalry of the Allied Powers. With the coming of peace they started bickering and quarrelling among themselves. All this prevented a determined attempted on their part to put an end to the Bolsheviks. They tried to bring this about indirectly as far as possible by getting others to fight for them and supplying them with money, arms, and expert advice. They felt sure that the Soviets could not last.

All this, no doubt, helped the Soviets and gave them time to strengthen themselves. But it would be unfair to them to imagine that their victory was due to outside circumstances. Essentially, it was a victory of the self-confidence, the faith, the self-sacrifice, and the unflinching determination of the Russian people. And the wonder of it is that these people were everywhere supposed, and rightly supposed, to be lazy and ignorant, demoralized and incapable of any great effort. Freedom is a habit, and if we are deprived of it for long, we are apt to forget it. These ignorant Russian peasants and workers had had little enough occasion to practice this habit. Yet the quality of the leadership of Russia in those days was such that it converted this poor human material into a strong, organized body, full of faith in its mission and confidence in itself. The Kolchaks and others of that kind were defeated not only because of the ability and determination of the Bolshevik leaders, but also because the Russian peasant refused to put up with them. For him they were the representatives of the old order come to take away his newly won land and other privileges, and he decided to defend these to the death.

Towering above all others, and exercising an unchallenged supremacy, was Lenin. To the Russian people he became like a demi-god, the symbol of hope and faith, the wise one who knew a way out of every difficulty and whom nothing ruffled or perturbed. Next to him in those days (for he is discredited in Russia now) came Trotsky, a writer and an orator, without any previous military experience, who now set about building up a great army in the midst of civil war and blockade.

Trotsky was recklessly brave and frequently risked his life in fighting.There was no pity in him if others showed lack of courage or want of discipline. At a critical moment in the civil war he issued this order :

“I give warning that if any unit retreats without orders, the first to be shot down will be the commissary of the unit, and next the commander. Brave and gallant soldiers will be appointed in their places. Cowards, dastards and traitors will not escape the bullet. This I solemnly promise in the presence of the entire Red Army.”

And he kept his word.

Another army order issued by Trotsky in October 1919 is interesting as it shows how the Bolsheviks always tried to distinguish between the people and the capitalist governments, and never took up a purely national attitude.

“But even to-day,” the order runs, “when we are engaged in a bitter fight with Yudenich, the hireling of England, I demand that you never forget that there are two Englands. Besides the England of Profits, of violence, bribery and blood-thirstiness, there is the England of labor. Of spiritual power, of high ideals of international solidarity. It is the base and dishonest England of the Stock Exchange manipulators that is fighting us. The England of labor and the people is with us.”

Something of the doggedness with which the Red Army was made to fight can be seen in the decision to defend Petrograd when it was on the point of falling to Yudenich. The decree of the Council of Defence was " To defend Petrograd to the last ounce pf blood, to refuse to yield a foot, and to carry the struggle into the streets of the city.”

Maxim Gorki, the great Russian writer, tells us that Lenin once said of Trotsky:

“Well, show me another man who would be able, within a year, to organize an almost exemplary army and moreover to win the respect of the military specialists.We have such a man. We have everything. And miracles are still going to happen.”

This Red Army grew by leaps and bounds. In December 1917, soon after the Bolsheviks had seized power, the strength of the army was 435,000. After Breast-Litovsk much of this must have melted away and had to be built up afresh. By the middle of 1919 the strength was 1,500,000. A Year later it had risen to the prodigious total of 5,300,000.

By the end of 1919 the Soviets had definitely got the better of their opponents in the civil war. For another year, however, the war continued, and there were many anxious moments. In 1920 the new State of Poland (freshly formed after the German defeat) fell out with Russia, and there was war between them. All these wars were practically over by the end of 1920, and Russia at last had some peace.

Meanwhile internal difficulties had grown. War and blockade and disease and famine had reduced the country to a miserable condition. Production had gone down greatly, for farmers cannot till the fields or workers run the factories when rival armies are constantly marching over them. War-communism had pulled the country through somehow, but everybody had to go on tightening his belt, till this process become very difficult to bear. The farmers were not interested in producing much, because they said that the State would take away, under the militant communism then prevailing, all the extra stuff that they produced, so why should they take the trouble? A very difficult and dangerous situation was arising. There was even a revolt of the sailors at Kronstadt near Petrograd, and strikes in Petrograd (or Leningrad) itself.

Lenin, with his genius for adapting fundamentals to existing conditions, immediately took action. He put an end to war-communism, and introduced a new policy called the New Economic Policy, or NEP for short (from the first letters.) This gave greater freedom to the peasant to produce and sell his stuff, and it also permitted some private trading. It was a break-away to some extent from strict communistic principles, but Lenin justified it as a temporary measure. It certainly brought great relief to the people. But soon Russia had to face another terrible calamity. This was a famine due to a great drought and consequent failure of the crops over vast areas of south-east Russia. It was a dreadful famine, one of the greatest that has been known and millions of people perished in it. Coming as it did after many years of war and civil war and blockade and economic breakdown, and before the Soviet Government had time to settle down to peace activities, it might well have broken down the whole structure of government. However, the Soviet survived it , as it had done its previous calamities. There was a conference of representatives of European governments to consider what help they should give for famine relief. They declared that they would give no help till the Soviet Government promised to pay the old Tsarist debts, which it had repudiated. The money-lender was stronger than the humanitarian, and given a heartrending appeal from Russian mothers for their dying children went unheeded. But the United States of America made no conditions and gave much help.

When England and other European countries refused to help in the Russian famine, they were not otherwise boycotting the Soviet. Early in 1921 an Anglo-Russian trade treaty had been signed, and many other countries had followed this example and signed trade treaties with the Soviet.

With eastern countries like China, Turkey, Persia, and Afghanistan, the Soviet adopted a very generous policy. They gave up old Tsarist privileges and tried to be very friendly. This was in accordance with their principles of freedom for all subject and exploited peoples, but a more important motive for them was to strengthen their own position. The imperialist Powers, like England, were often put in a false position by this generosity of Soviet Russia, and the eastern countries made comparisons which were not to the advantage of England and the other Powers.

One other important event took place in 1919 about which I must tell you. This was the founding of the Third International in Moscow by the Communist Party. I have told you in previous letters of the First International, which Karl Marx had founded. and the Second International , which after many brave words came to grief on the outbreak of the war of 1914. The Bolsheviks considered that the working class had been betrayed by the old workers and socialist parties which formed this Second International.

The Third International was therefore created by them, with a definitely revolutionary outlook, to wage war against capitalism and imperialism, and also against those opportunist socialists who followed a “middle-of-the-road” policy.

This International is often called the Comintern (from Communist International), and it has played a great part in propaganda in many countries. As its name implies, it is an international organization elected by various communist parties in many different countries, but Russia, being the one country where communism has triumphed, naturally dominates the Comintern. The Comintern is of course different from the Soviet Government, though many persons occupy leading positions in both. As the Comintern is avowedly an organization for spreading revolutionary communism, it is bitterly disliked by the imperialist Powers, and they are always trying to suppress its activities in their territories.

The Second International (the “Labor and Socialist International”) was also revived in Western Europe after the war. To a great extent the Second and the Third Internationals have the same objective, in theory at any rate, but their ideology and methods are very different, and there is no love lost between them, They quarrel and fight and attack each other even more than they attack the common enemy, capitalism. The second International is now a very respectable organization and has often provided cabinet ministers to European governments. The Third continues to be revolutionary, and is therefore far from respectable.

Right through the civil war in Russia the Red Terror and the White Terror competed with each other in their harsh cruelty, and probably the latter surpassed the former greatly. So one would conclude from the American general’s account (which I have quoted above) about Kolchak’s atrocities in Siberia, as well as other accounts. But there can be no doubt that the Red Terror was severe, and many innocent people must have suffered. The nerves of the Bolsheviks, attacked as they were on all sides, and surrounded by conspiracies and spies, gave way, and at the slightest suspicion they punished heavily. Their political police, called the Cheka, especially, got a bad name for this terror. It was the equivalent of the C.I.D. in India, but with greater powers.

This letter is getting long. But before I end it, I must tell you something more about Lenin. In spite of the injuries he had received when as attempt to take his life had been made in August 1918, he had not taken much rest. He went on working at tremendous pressure, and in May 1922 came the inevitable collapse. After a little rest he was again at work, but not for long. There was a worse collapse in 1923, from which he never recovered, and on January 21, 1924, he died near Moscow.

For many days his body lay in Moscow-it was winter, and the body was preserved by chemical treatment and from all over Russia and the distant Siberian steppes came representatives of the common folk, peasants and workers, men and women and children, to pay their last homage to that beloved comrade of theirs who had pulled them out of the depths and pointed the way to a fuller life.

They built him a simple and unadorned mausoleum in the beautiful Red Square of Moscow, and there his body still lies in a glass case, and every evening an unending procession passes silently by. It is not many years since he died, and already Lenin has become a mighty tradition, not only in his native Russia, but in the world at large. As time passes he grows greater; he has become one of the chosen company of the world’s immortals. Petrograd has become Leningrad, and almost every house in Russia has a Lenin corner or a Lenin picture. But he lives, not in monuments or pictures, but in the mighty work he did, and in the hearts of hundreds of millions of workers to-day who find inspiration in his example, and the hope of a better day.

Do not imagine that Lenin was an inhuman kind of machine, wrapped up in his work and thinking of nothing else. Absolutely devoted to his work and life mission he certainly was, and at the same time wholly without self-consciousness; he was the very embodiment of an idea. And yet he was very human, with that most human of all traits, the capacity to laugh heartily. The British Agent in Moscow, Lockhart, who was there during the early, perilous days of the Soviet, says that, whatever happened, Lenin was always in good humor. “Of all the public figures I have ever met he possessed the most equable temperament,” says this British diplomat. Simple and straight in his talk and his work, and a hater of big words poses. He loved music, so much so that he was almost afraid that it might affect him too much and make him soft in his work.

A colleague of Lenin’s, Lunacharsky, who was for many years the Bolshevik Commissar for Education, made a curious reference to him once. He compared Lenin’s persecution of the capitalists with Christ’s expulsion of the money-lenders from the temple, and added: “If Christ were alive to-day, he would be a Bolshevik.” A curious comparison for irreligious people.

About women, Lenin once said: “No nation can be free when half the population is enslaved in the kitchen.” Very revealing was the remark he made on day, as he was petting some children. His old friend Maxim Gorky tells us that he said. “These will have happier lives than we had. They will not experience much that we lived through. There will not be so much cruelty in their lives” Let us all hope so.

I shall finish up this letter with the words of a recent Russian composition for a full orchestra and people’s chorus. It is said by people who have heard it that the music of this piece is full of vitality and power, and the song seems to represent the spirit of the revolting masses. Even the English translation of the words, which I give here, has something of this spirit in it. The song is called October, and this means the Bolshevik Revolution of November 1917. The Russian calendar in those days was what is called the unreformed calendar, and it was thirteen days the ordinary western calendar. According to this calendar the revolution of March 1917 took place in February, and it is therefore called the “February Revolution”. And similarly the Bolshevik Revolution, which took place early in November 1917, is called the “October Revolution”. Russia has changed its calendar now and adopted the reformed one, but these old names are still used.

"We went, asking for work and for bread,

Our hearts were oppressed with anguish,

The chimneys of the factories pointed toward the sky,

like tired hands without strength to make a fist.

Louder than the cannon,

the silence was broken by the words

of our grief and our pain.

O Lenin! the desire of calloused hands.

We have understood, Lenin,

we have understood that our lot is

Struggle! Struggle! Struggle!

You led us to the last fight. Struggle!

You gave us the victory of labor.

And no one shall take away from us this victory

over ignorance and oppression.

No one! No one! Never! Never!

Let every one be young and brave in the struggle,

because the name of our victory is October!

October! October!

October is a messenger from the sun.

October is the will of the revolting centuries!

October! It is a labor; it is a joy and a song.

October! It is good fortune for the fields and machines!

Here is the banner name of the young generation and

Lenin."

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11-april,1933