The congress also failed to accept this proposal of the Bolsheviks. Probably, that was because it too vividly expressed the leading role of the proletariat in the present struggle; for the congress, as we have seen above, regarded the hegemony of the proletariat with distrust -- the peasantry, it said in effect, must rally around the Duma, and not around the proletariat!
That is why the bourgeois newspaper Nasha Zhizn[78] praises the resolution of the congress; that is why the Cadets of
Nasha Zhizn began to shout in one voice: At last the Social-Democrats have come to their senses and have abandoned Blanquism (see
Nasha Zhizn, No. 432).
Obviously, it is not for nothing that the enemies of the people -- the Cadets -- are praising the resolution of the congress. And it was not for nothing that Bebel said: What pleases our enemies is harmful to us!
IV
Let us pass to the question of an armed uprising.
It is no longer a secret to anybody today that action by the people is inevitable. Since the crisis and famine are growing in town and country, since unrest among the proletariat and the peasantry is increasing day by day, since the tsarist government is decaying, and since, therefore, the revolution is on the upgrade -- it is self-evident that life is preparing another action by the people, wider and more powerful than the October and December actions. It is quite useless to discuss today whether this
new action is desirable or undesirable, good or bad: it is not a matter of what we desire; the fact is that action by the people is maturing of its own accord, and that it is inevitable.
But there is action and action. Needless to say, the January general strike in St. Petersburg (1905) was an action by the people. So also was the October general political strike an action by the people, as also was the "December clash" in Moscow, and the clash in Latvia. It is clear that there were also differences between these actions. Whereas in January (1905), the chief role was played by the strike, in December the strike served only as a beginning and then grew into an armed uprising, which assumed the principal role. The actions in January, October and December showed that however "peacefully" you may start a general strike, however "delicately" you may behave in presenting your demands, and even if you come on to the battle-field unarmed, it must all end in a clash (recall January 9 in St. Petersburg, when the people marched with crosses and portraits of the tsar); the government will, nevertheless, resort to guns and rifles; the people will, nevertheless, take to arms, and thus, the general strike will, nevertheless, grow into an armed uprising. What does that prove? Only that the impending action of the people will not be simply a demonstration, but must necessarily assume an
armed character; thus, the decisive role will be played by armed insurrection. It is useless discussing whether bloodshed is desirable or undesirable, good or bad: we repeat -- it is not a matter of what we desire; the fact is that
armed insurrection will undoubtedly take place, and it will be impossible to avert it.
Our task today is to achieve the sovereignty of the people. We want the reins of government to be transferred to the hands of the proletariat and the peasantry. Can this object be achieved by means of a general strike? The facts say that it cannot (recall what we said above). Or perhaps the Duma with its grandiloquent Cadets will help us, perhaps the sovereignty of the people will be established with its aid? The facts tell us that this, too, is impossible; for the Cadet Duma wants the autocracy of the big bourgeoisie and not the sovereignty of the people (recall what we said above).
Clearly, the only sure path is an armed uprising of the proletariat and the peasantry. Only by means of an armed uprising can the rule of the tsar be overthrown and the rule of the people be established, if, of course, this uprising ends in victory. That being the case, since the victory of the people is impossible today without the victory of the uprising, and since, on the other hand, life itself is preparing the ground for armed action by the people and, since this action is inevitable -- it is self-evident that the task of Social-Democracy is consciously to prepare for this action, consciously to prepare the ground for its victory. One of two things: either we must reject the sovereignty of the people (a democratic republic) and rest content with a constitutional monarchy -- and in that case we shall be right in saying that it is not our business to organise an armed uprising; or we must continue to have as our present aim the sovereignty of the people (a democratic republic) and emphatically reject a constitutional monarchy -- and in that case we shall be wrong in saying that it is not our business consciously to organise the spontaneously growing action.
2
But how should we prepare for an armed uprising? How can we facilitate its victory?
The December action showed that, in addition to all our other sins, we Social-Democrats are guilty of another great sin against the proletariat. This sin is that we failed to take the trouble, or took too little trouble, to arm the workers and to organise Red detachments. Recall December. Who does not remember the excited people who rose to the struggle in Tiflis, in the west Caucasus, in the south of Russia, in Siberia, in Moscow, in St. Petersburg and in Baku? Why did the autocracy succeed in dispersing these infuriated people so easily? Was it because the people were not yet convinced that the tsarist government was no good? Of course not! Why was it, then?
First of all because the people had no arms, or too few of them. However great your consciousness may be, you cannot stand up against bullets with bare hands! Yes, they were quite right when they cursed us and said: You take our money, but where are the arms?
Secondly, because we had no trained Red detachments capable of leading the rest, of procuring arms by force of arms and of arming the people. The people are heroes in street fighting, but if they are not led by their armed brothers and are not set an example, they can turn into a mob.
Thirdly, because the uprising was sporadic and unorganised. While Moscow was fighting at the barricades, St. Petersburg was silent. Tiflis and Kutais were preparing for an assault when Moscow was already "subdued." Siberia took to arms when the South and the Letts were already "vanquished." That shows that
the fighting proletariat entered the uprising split up into groups, as a consequence of which the government was able to inflict "defeat" upon it with comparative ease.
Fourthly, because our uprising adhered to the policy of the defensive and not of the offensive. The government itself provoked the December uprising. The government attacked us; it had a plan, whereas we met the government's attack unprepared; we had no thought-out plan, we were obliged to adhere to the policy of self-defence and thus dragged at the tail of events. Had the people of Moscow, from the very outset, chosen the policy of attack, they would have immediately captured the Nikolayevsky Railway Station, the government would have been unable to transport troops from St. Petersburg to Moscow, and thus, the Moscow uprising would have lasted longer. That would have exerted corresponding influence upon other towns. The same must be said about the Letts; had they taken the path of attack at the very outset, they would first of all have captured artillery and would thus have sapped the forces of the government.
It was not for nothing that Marx said:
". . . The insurrectionary career once entered upon, act with the greatest determination, and
on the offensive. The defensive is the death of every armed rising. . . . Surprise your antagonists while their forces are scattering, prepare new successes, however small, but daily; keep up the moral ascendant which the first successful rising has given to you; rally thus those vacillating elements to your side which always follow the strongest impulse and which always look out for the safer side;
force your enemies to a retreat before they can collect their strength against you; in the words of Danton, the greatest master of revolutionary policy yet known:
de l'audace, de l'audace, encore de l'audace! " (See K. Marx,
Historical Sketches, p. 95.)
It was precisely this "audacity" and the policy of an offensive that the December uprising lacked.
We shall be told: these are not the only reasons for the December "defeat"; you have forgotten that in December the peasantry failed to unite with the proletariat, and that, too, was one of the main reasons for the December retreat. This is the downright truth, and we do not intend to forget it. But why did the peasantry fail to unite with the proletariat? What was the reason? We shall be told: lack of political consciousness. Granting that, how should we make the peasants politically conscious? By distributing pamphlets? This is not enough, of course! Then how? By fighting, by drawing them into the struggle, and by leading them during the struggle. Today it is the mission of the town to lead the countryside, it is the mission of the workers to lead the peasants; and if an uprising is not organised in the towns, the peasantry will never march with the advanced proletariat in this action.
Such are the facts.
Hence, the attitude the congress should have adopted lowards the armed uprising and the slogans it should have issued to the Party comrades are self-evident.
The Party was weak in the matter of arming, and arming was a neglected matter in the Party -- consequently, the congress should have said to the Party:
arm, give concentrated attention to the matter of
arming, so as to meet the impending action at least to some extent prepared.
Further. The Party was weak in the matter of organising armed detachments; it did not pay due attention to the task of augmenting the number of Red detachments. Consequently, the congress should have said to the Party:
form Red detachments, disseminate military knowledge among the people, give concentrated attention to the task of organising Red detachments, so as to be able later on to procure arms by force of arms and extend the uprising.
Further. The December uprising found the proletariat disunited; nobody thought seriously of organising the uprising -- consequently, it was the duty of the congress to issue a slogan to the Party urging it energetically to proceed to unite the militant elements, to bring them into action according to a single plan, and actively to organise the armed uprising.
Further. The proletariat, adhered to a defensive policy in the armed uprising; it never took the path of the offensive; that is what prevented the victory of the uprising. Consequently, it was the duty of the congress to point out to the Party comrades that the moment of victory of the uprising was approaching and that it was
necessary to pass to the policy of offensive.
How did the congress act, and what slogans did it issue to the Party?
The congress said that ". . . the Party's main task at the present moment is to develop the revolution by expanding and intensifying agitation activities among broad sections of the proletariat, the peasantry, the urban petty bourgeoisie and among the armed forces,
and by drawing them. into the active struggle against the government through the constant intervention of Social-Democracy, and of the proletariat which it leads, in all manifestations of political life in the country. . . ." The Party "cannot undertake the obligation of arming the people, which can only rouse false hopes, and must restrict its tasks to facilitating the self-arming of the population and the organisation and arming of fighting squads. . . ." "It is the Party's duty to counteract all attempts to draw the proletariat into an armed collision under unfavourable circumstances. . ." etc., etc. (see resolution of the congress).
It appears, then, that today, at the present moment, when we are on the threshold of another action by the people, the
main thing for achieving the victory of the uprising is agitation, while the arming and organising of Red detachments is something unimportant, something which we must not get enthusiastic about, and in relation to which we must "restrict" our activities to "facilitating." As regards the necessity of organising the uprising, of not carrying it out with scattered forces, and the necessity of adopting an offensive policy (recall the words of Marx) -- the congress said not a word. Clearly, it did not regard these questions as important.
The facts say: Arm and do everything to strengthen the Red detachments. The congress, however, answers: Do not get too enthusiastic about arming and organising Red detachments, "restrict" your activities in this matter, because the most important thing is agitation.
One would think that until now we have been busy arming, that we have armed a vast number of comrades
and have organised a large number of detachments, but have neglected agitation -- and so the congress admonishes us: Enough of arming, you have paid quite enough attention to that; the main thing is agitation!
It goes without saying that agitation is always and everywhere one of the Party's main weapons; but will agitation decide the question of victory in the forthcoming uprising? Had the congress said this four years ago, when the question of an uprising was not yet on the order of the day, it would have been understandable; but today, when we are on the threshold of an armed uprising, when the question of an uprising is on the order of the day, when it may start independently and in spite of us -- what can "mainly" agitation do? What can be achieved by means of this "agitation"?
Or consider this. Let us assume that we have expand ed our agitation; let us assume that the people have risen. What then? How can they fight without arms? Has not enough blood of unarmed people been shed? And besides, of what use are arms to the people if they are unable to wield them, if they have not a sufficient number of Red detachments? We shall be told: But we do not reject arming and Red detachments. Very well, but if you fail to devote due attention to the task of arming, if you neglect it -- it shows that actually you do reject it.
We shall not go into the point that the congress did not even hint at the necessity of
organising the uprising and of adhering to an offensive policy. It could not have been otherwise, because the resolution of the congress lags four or five years behind life, and because, to the congress, an uprising was still a theoretical question.
What did the Bolsheviks say on this question at the congress?
They said that ". . . in the Party's propaganda and agitation activities concentrated attention must be given to studying the practical experience of the December uprising, to criticising it from the military point of view, and to drawing direct lessons from it for the future," that "still more energetic activity must be developed in augmenting the number of fighting squads, in improving their organisation and supplying them with weapons of all kinds and, in conformity with the lessons of experience, not only should Party fighting squads be organised, but also squads of sympathisers with the Party, and even of non-Party people. . ." that "in view of the growing peasant movement, which may flare up into a whole uprising in the very near future, it is desirable to exert efforts to
unite the activities of the workers and peasants for the purpose of organising,
as far as possible, joint and simultaneous military operations . . . " that, consequently, ". . . in view of the growth and intensification of another political crisis, the prospect is opening for the
transition from defensive to offensive forms of armed struggle. . ." that it is necessary, jointly with the soldiers, to launch ". . .
most determined offen sive operations against the government . . . " etc. (see the resolution of the Bolsheviks).
That is what the Bolsheviks said.
But the congress rejected the stand taken by the Bolsheviks.
After this, it is not difficult to understand why the resolutions of the congress were welcomed with such enthusiasm by the liberal-Cadets (see
Nasha Zhizn,
No. 432): they realised that these resolutions lag several years behind the present revolution, that these resolutions totally fail to express the class tasks of the proletariat, that
these resolutions, if applied, would make the proletariat an appendage of the liberals rather than an independent force -- they realised all this, and that is why they were so loud in their praise of them.
It is the duty of the Party comrades to adopt a critical attitude towards the resolutions of the congress and, at the proper time, introduce the necessary amendments.
It is precisely this duty that we had in mind when we sat down to write this pamphlet.
True, we have here touched upon only two resolutions: "On the Attitude To Be Taken Towards the State Duma, " and "On Armed Insurrection," but these two resolutions are, undoubtedly, the main resolutions, which most distinctly express the congress's position on tactics.
Thus, we have arrived at the main conclusion, viz., that the question that confronts the Party is: should the class-conscious proletariat be the leader in the present revolution, or should it drag at the tail of the bourgeois democrats?
We have seen that the settlement of this question one way or another will determine the settlement of all the other questions.
All the more carefully, therefore, should the comrades weigh the essence of these two positions.