Chapter XII: Jurisdiction of the Local Organs of the Soviets (10)

It is a significant fact that from the middle of the nineteenth century right down to the present day the extreme radical left wing of the Socialist movement in every country has been bitter in its denunciation of those Socialists who assumed the continued existence of the state, rivaling the most extreme individualists in abuse of “the tyranny of the state.” Without a single noteworthy exception the leaders of the radical left wing of the movement have been identified with those revolts against “statism” which have manifested themselves in the agitations for decentralized autonomy. They have been anti-parliamentarians and direct-actionists almost to a man.

By a strange irony of history it has remained for the self-styled Marxian Socialists of Russia, the Bolsheviki, who are so much more Marxist than Marx himself, to give to the criticism we are discussing the authority of history. They have lifted it from the shadowy regions of fantastic speculation to the almost impregnable and unassailable ground of established law and practice. The Code of Labor Laws of Soviet Russia, recently published in this country by the official bureau of the Russian Soviet Government, can henceforth be pointed to by the enemies of social democracy as evidence of the truth of the charge that Socialism aims to reduce mankind to a position of hopeless servitude. Certainly no freedom-loving man or woman would want to exchange life under capitalism, with all its drawbacks and disadvantages, for the despotic, bureaucratic régime clearly indicated in this most remarkable collection of laws.

As we have seen, Lenin and his followers were anti-statists. Once in the saddle they set up a powerful state machine and began to apotheosize the state. Not only did the term “Soviet State” come into quite general use in place of “Soviet Power”; what is still more significant is the special sanctity with which they endowed the state. In this they go as far as Hegel, though they do not use his spiritual terminology. The German philosopher saw the state as “the Divine Will embodied in the human will,” as “Reason manifested,” and as “the Eternal personified.” Upon that conception the Prussian-German ideal of the state was based. That the state must be absolute, its authority unquestioned, is equally the basic conception upon which the Bolshevist régime rests. In no modern nation, not even the Germany of Bismarck and Wilhelm II, has the authority of the state been so comprehensive, so wholly dependent upon force or more completely independent of the popular will. Notwithstanding the revolutionary ferment of the time, so arrogantly confident have the self-constituted rulers become that we find Zinoviev boasting, “Were we to publish a decree ordering the entire population of Petrograd, under fifty years of age, to present themselves on the field of Mars to receive twenty-five birch rods, we are certain that 75 per cent. would obediently form a queue, and the remaining 25 per cent. would bring medical certificates exempting them from the flogging.”

It is interesting to note in the writings of Lenin the Machiavellian manner in which, even before the _coup d’état_ of November, 1917, he began to prepare the minds of his followers for the abandonment of anti-statism. Shortly before that event he published a leaflet entitled, “Shall the Bolsheviki Remain in Power?” In this leaflet he pointed out that the Bolsheviki had preached the destruction of the state _only because, and so long as, the state was in the possession of the master class_. He asked why they should continue to do this after they themselves had taken the helm. The state, he argued, is the organized rule of a privileged minority class, and the Bolsheviki must use the enemy’s machinery and substitute their minority. Here we have revealed the same vicious and unscrupulous duplicity, the same systematic, studied deception, as in such matters as freedom of speech and press, equal suffrage, and the convocation of the Constituent Assembly--a fundamental principle so long as the party was in revolt, anti-statism was to be abandoned the moment the power to give it effect was secured. Other Socialists had been derided and bitterly denounced by the Bolsheviki for preaching the “bourgeois doctrine” of controlling and using the machinery of the state; nothing but the complete destruction of the state and its machinery would satisfy their revolutionary minds. But with their first approach to power the tune is changed and possession and use of the machinery of the state are held to be desirable and even essential.

For what is this possession of the power and machinery of the state desired? For no constructive purpose of any sort or kind whatever, if we may believe Lenin, but only for destruction and oppression. In his little book, _The State and the Revolution_, written in September, 1917, he says: “As the state is only a transitional institution which we must use in the revolutionary struggle _in order forcibly to crush our opponents_, it is a pure absurdity to speak of a Free People’s State. While the proletariat still needs the state, _it does not require it in the interests of freedom, but in the interests of crushing its antagonists_.” Here, then, is the brutal doctrine of the state as an instrument of coercion and repression which the arch Bolshevist acknowledges; a doctrine differing from that of Treitschke and other Prussians only in its greater brutality. The much-discussed Code of Labor Laws of the Soviet Government, with its elaborate provisions for a permanent conscription of labor upon an essentially military basis, is the logical outcome of the Bolshevist conception of the state.

The statement has been made by many of the apologists of the Bolsheviki that the conscription of labor, which has been so unfavorably commented upon in the western nations, is a temporary measure only, introduced because of the extraordinary conditions prevailing. It has been stated, by Mr. Lincoln Eyre among others, that it was adopted on the suggestion of Mr. Royal C. Keely, an American engineer who was employed by Lenin to make an expert report upon Russia’s economic position and outlook, and whose report, made in January of this year, is known to have been very unfavorable. A brief summary of the essential facts will show (1) that the Bolsheviki had this system in mind from the very first, and (2) that quite early they began to make tentative efforts to introduce it.

When the Bolsheviki appeared at the convocation of the Constituent Assembly and demanded that that body adopt a document which would virtually amount to a complete abdication of its functions, that document contained a clause--Article II, Paragraph 4--which read as follows: “To enforce general compulsory labor, in order to destroy the class of parasites, and to reorganize the economic life.” In April, 1918, Lenin wrote:

The delay in introducing obligatory labor service is another
proof that the most urgent problem is precisely the preparatory
organization work which, on one hand, should definitely
secure our gains, and which, on the other hand, is necessary
to prepare the campaign to “surround capital” and to “compel
its surrender.” _The introduction of obligatory labor service
should be started immediately, but it should be introduced
gradually and with great caution, testing every step by
practical experience, and, of course, introducing first of all
obligatory labor service for the rich._ The introduction of
a labor record-book and a consumption-budget record-book for
every bourgeois, including the village bourgeois, would be a
long step forward toward a complete “siege” of the enemy and
toward the creation of a really _universal_ accounting and
control over production and distribution.[67]

[67] _The Soviets at Work_, p. 19

Some idea of the extent to which the principle of compulsory labor was applied to the bourgeoisie, as suggested by Lenin, can be gathered from the numerous references to the subject in the official Bolshevist press, especially in the late summer and early autumn of 1918. The extracts here cited are entirely typical: as early as April 17, 1918, _Izvestia_ published a report by Larine, one of the People’s Commissaries, on the government of Moscow, in which he said: “A redistribution of manual labor must be made by an organized autonomous government composed of workers; compulsory labor for workmen must be prohibited; it would subject the proletariat to the peasants and on the whole could be of no use, seeing the general stoppage of all labor. Compulsion can be used only for those who have no need to work for their living--members of heretofore ruling classes.” _Bednota_, an official organ of the Communist Party, on September 20, 1918, published an interesting item from the Government of Smolensk, saying: “We shall soon have a very interesting community: we are bringing together all the landed proprietors of the district, are assigning them one property, supplying them with the necessary inventory, and making them work. Come and see this miracle! It is evident that this community is strictly guarded. The affair seems to promise well.”

Here are seven typical news items from four issues of _Bednota_, the date of the paper being given after each item:

_The mobilization of the bourgeoisie._--In the Government of
Aaratov the bourgeoisie is mobilized. The women mend the sacks,
the men clear the ruins from a big fire. In the Government of
Samara the bourgeois from 18 to 50 years of age, not living
from the results of their labor, are also called up. (September
19, 1918.)

VIATKA, _24th September_.--The mobilization of the idlers
(bourgeois) has been decided. (September 26, 1918.)

NEVEL, _26th September_.--The executive committee has decreed
the mobilization of the bourgeoisie in town and country. All
the bourgeois in fit state to work are obliged to do forced
labor without remuneration. (September 27, 1918.)

KOSTROMA, _26th September_.--The mobilized bourgeoisie is
working at the paving of the streets. (September 27, 1918.)

The executive committee of the Soviet of the Government of
Moscow has decided to introduce in all the districts the use
of forced labor for all persons from 18 to 50 years of age,
belonging to the non-working class. (September 27, 1918.)

VORONEGE, _28th September_.--The poverty committee has
decided to call up all the wealthy class for communal work
(ditch-making, draining the marshes, etc.). (September 29,
1918.)

SVOTSCHEVKA, _28th September_.--The concentration of the
bourgeoisie is being proceeded with and the transfer of the
poor into commodious and healthy dwellings. The bourgeois is
cleaning the streets. (September 29, 1918.)

From other Bolshevist journals a mass of similar information might be cited. Thus _Goloss Krestianstva_, October 1, 1918, said: “_Mobilization of the parasites._--Odoeff, 28th September.--The Soviet of the district has mobilized the bourgeoisie, the priests, and other parasites for public works: repairing the pavements, cleaning the pools, and so on.” On October 6, 1918, _Pravda_ reported: “Chembar.--The bourgeoisie put to compulsory work is repairing the pavements and the roads.” On October 11th the same paper reported Zinoviev as saying, in a speech: “If you come to Petrograd you will see scores of bourgeoisie laying the pavement in the courtyard of the Smolny.... I wish you could see how well they unload coal on the Neva and clean the barracks.” _Izvestia_, October 19, 1918, published this: “Orel.--To-day the Orel bourgeoisie commenced compulsory work to which it was made liable. Parties of the bourgeoisie, thus made to work, are cleaning the streets and squares from rubbish and dirt.” The _Krasnaya Gazeta_, October 16, 1918, said, “Large forces of mobilized bourgeoisie have been sent to the front to do trench work.” Finally, the last-named journal on November 6, 1918, said: “The District Extraordinary Commission (Saransk) has organized a camp of concentration for the local bourgeoisie and _kulaki_.[68] The duties of the confined shall consist in keeping clean the town of Saransk. The existence of the camp will be maintained at the expense of the same bourgeoisie.”

[68] _i.e._, “close-fists.”

That a great and far-reaching social revolution should deny to the class overthrown the right to live in idleness is neither surprising nor wrong. A Socialist revolution could not do other than insist that no person able to work be entitled to eat without rendering some useful service to society. No Socialist will criticize the Bolsheviki for requiring work from the bourgeoisie. What is open to criticism and condemnation is the fact that compulsory labor for the bourgeoisie was not a measure of socialization, but of stupid vengeance. The bourgeois members of society were not placed upon an equality with other citizens and told that they must share the common lot and give service for bread. Instead of that, they were made a class apart and set to the performance of tasks selected only to degrade and humiliate them. In almost every reference to the subject appearing in the official Bolshevist press we observe that the bourgeoisie--the class comprising the organizers of industry and business and almost all the technical experts in the country--was set to menial tasks which the most illiterate and ignorant peasants could better do. Just as high military officers were set to digging trenches and cleaning latrines, so the civilian bourgeoisie were set to cleaning streets, removing night soil, and draining ditches, and not even given a chance to render the vastly greater services they were capable of, in many instances; services, moreover, of which the country was in dire need. A notable example of this stupidity was when the advocates of Saratov asked the local Soviet authorities to permit them to open up an idle soap-factory to make soap, of which there was a great scarcity. The reply given was that “_the bourgeoisie could not be suffered to be in competition with the working-class_.” Not only was this a brutal policy, in view of the fact that the greater part of the bourgeoisie had been loyal to the March Revolution; it was as stupid and short-sighted as it was brutal, for it did not, and could not, secure the maximum services of which these elements were capable. It is quite clear that, instead of being dominated by the generous idealism of Socialism, they were mastered by hatred and a passion for revenge.

Of course the policy pursued toward the bourgeoisie paved the way, as Lenin intended it to do, for the introduction of the principle of compulsory labor in general. By pandering to the lowest instincts and motives of the unenlightened masses, causing them to rejoice at the enslavement of the formerly rich and powerful, as well as those only moderately well-to-do, Lenin and his satellites knew well that they were surely undermining the moral force of those who rejoiced, so that later they would be incapable of strong resistance against the application of the same tyranny to themselves. The publication of the Code of Labor Laws, in 1919, was the next step. This code contains 193 regulations with numerous explanatory notes, with all of which the ordinary workman, who is a conscript in the fullest sense of the word, is presumed to be familiar. Only a few of its outstanding features can be noted here. The principle of compulsion and the extent of its application are stated in the first article of the Code:

ARTICLE I

_On Compulsory Labor_

1. All citizens of the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet
Republic, with the exceptions stated in Section 2 and 3, shall
be subject to compulsory labor.

2. The following persons shall be exempt from compulsory labor:

(_a_) Persons under 16 years of age;

(_b_) All persons over 50 years;

(_c_) Persons who have become incapacitated by injury or
illness.

3. Temporarily exempt from compulsory labor are:

(_a_) Persons who are temporarily incapacitated owing to
illness or injury, for a period necessary for their recovery.

(_b_) Women, for a period of 8 weeks before and 8 weeks after
confinement.

4. All students shall be subject to compulsory labor at the
schools.

5. The fact of permanent or temporary disability shall be
certified after a medical examination by the Bureau of Medical
Survey in the city, district or province, by accident insurance
office or agencies representing the former, according to the
place of residence of the person whose disability is to be
certified.

_Note I._ The rules on the method of examination of disabled
workmen are appended hereto.

_Note II._ Persons who are subject to compulsory labor and
are not engaged in useful public work may be summoned by the
local Soviets for the execution of public work, on conditions
determined by the Department of Labor in agreement with the
local Soviets of trades-unions.

6. Labor may be performed in the form of:

(_a_) Organized co-operation;

(_b_) Individual personal service;

(_c_) Individual special jobs.

7. Labor conditions in government (Soviet) establishments shall
be regulated by tariff rules approved by the Central Soviet
authorities through the People’s Commissariat of Labor.

8. Labor conditions in all establishments (Soviet,
nationalized, public, and private) shall be regulated by
tariff rules drafted by the trades-unions, in agreement with
the directors or owners of establishments and enterprises, and
approved by the People’s Commissariat of Labor.

_Note._ In cases where it is impossible to arrive at an
understanding with the directors or owners of establishments
or enterprises, the tariff rules shall be drawn up by the
trades-unions and submitted for approval to the People’s
Commissariat of Labor.

9. Labor in the form of individual personal service or in the
form of individual special jobs shall be regulated by tariff
rules drafted by the respective trades-unions and approved by
the People’s Commissariat of Labor.

It will be observed that this subjection to labor conscription applies to “all citizens” except for certain exempted classes. Women, therefore, are equally liable with men, except for a stated period before and after childbirth. It will also be observed that apparently a great deal of control is exercised by the trades-unions. We must bear in mind, however, at every point, that the trades-unions in Soviet Russia are not free and autonomous organs of the working-class. A free trades-union--that is, a trades-union wholly autonomous and independent of government control, _does not exist in Russia_. The actual status of Russian trades-unions is set forth in the resolution adopted at the ninth Congress of the Russian Communist Party, in March, 1920, which provides, that “All decisions of the All-Russian Central Soviet of Trades-Unions concerning the conditions and organization of labor are obligatory for all trades-unions and the members of the Communist Party who are employed in them, and _can be canceled only by the Central Committee of the Party_.” The hierarchy of the Communist Party is supreme, the trades-unions, the co-operatives, and the Soviet Government itself being subordinate to it.

Article II deals with the manner in which the compulsion to labor is to be enforced. Paragraph 16 of this article provides that “the assignment of wage-earners to work shall be carried out through the Departments of Labor Distribution.” Paragraph 24 reads as follows: “_An unemployed person has no right to refuse an offer of work at his vocation_, provided the working conditions conform with the standards fixed by the respective tariff regulations, or in the absence of the same by the trades-unions.” Paragraphs 27 to 30, inclusive, show the extraordinary power of the Departments of Labor Distribution over the workers:

27. Whenever workers are required for work outside of their
district, a roll-call of the unemployed registered in the
Department of Labor Distribution shall take place, to ascertain
who are willing to go; if a sufficient number of such should
not be found, _the Department of Labor Distribution shall
assign the lacking number from among the unemployed in the
order of their registration_, provided that those who have
dependents must not be given preference before single persons.

28. If in the Departments of Labor Distribution, within the
limits of the district, there be no workmen meeting the
requirements, the District Exchange Bureau has the right, upon
agreement with the respective trades-union, to send unemployed
of another class approaching as nearly as possible the trade
required.

29. An unemployed person who is offered work outside his
vocation shall be obliged to accept it, on the understanding,
if he so wishes, that this be only temporary, until he receives
work at his vocation.

30. A wage-earner who is working outside his specialty, and
who has stated his wish that this be only temporary, shall
retain his place on the register on the Department of Labor
Distribution until he gets work at his vocation.

It is quite clear from the foregoing that the Department of Labor Distribution can arbitrarily compel a worker to leave a job satisfying to him or her and to accept another job and remain at it until given permission to leave. The worker may be compelled by this power to leave a desirable job and take up a different line of work, or even to move to some other locality. It is hardly possible to imagine a device more effective in liquidating personal grudges or effecting political pressure. One has only to face the facts of life squarely in order to recognize the potentiality for evil embodied in this system. What is there to prevent the Soviet official removing the “agitator,” the political opponent, for “the good of the party”? What man wants his sister or daughter to be subject to the menace of such power in the hands of unscrupulous officials? There is not the slightest evidence in the record of Bolshevism so far as it has been tried in Russia to warrant the assumption that only saints will ever hold office in the Departments of Labor Distribution.

Article V governs the withdrawal of wage-earners from jobs which do not satisfy them. Paragraph 51 of this article clearly provides that a worker can only be permitted to resign if his reasons are approved by what is described as the “respective organ of workmen’s self-government.” Paragraph 52 provides that if the resignation is not approved by this authority “the wage-earner must remain at work, but may appeal from the decision of the committee to the respective professional unions.” Provision is made for fixing the remuneration of labor by governmental authority. Article VI, Paragraph 55, provides that “the remuneration of wage-earners for work in enterprises, establishments, and institutions employing paid labor ... shall be fixed by tariffs worked out for each kind of labor.” Paragraph 57 provides that “in working out the tariff rates and determining the standard remuneration rates, all the wage-earners of a trade shall be divided into groups and categories and a definite standard of remuneration shall be fixed for each of them.” Paragraph 58 provides that “the standard of remuneration fixed by the tariff rates must be at least sufficient to cover the minimum living expenses _as determined by the People’s Commissariat of Labor_ for each district of the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic.” Paragraph 60 provides that “the remuneration of each wage-earner shall be determined by his classification in a definite group and category.” Paragraph 61, with an additional note, explains the method of thus classifying wage-earners. “Valuation commissions” are established by the “professional organizations” and their procedure is absolutely determined by the local Soviet official called the Commissariat of Labor. If a worker receives more than the standard remuneration fixed, “irrespective of the pretext and form under which it might be offered and whether it be paid in only one or in several places of employment”--Paragraph 65--the excess amount so received may be deducted from his next wages, according to Paragraph 68.

The amount of work to be performed each day is arbitrarily assigned. Thus, Article VIII, Paragraph 114, provides that “every wage-earner must during a normal working-day and under normal working conditions perform the standard amount of work fixed for the category and group in which he is enrolled.” According to Paragraph 118 of the same article, “a wage-earner systematically producing less than the fixed standard may be transferred by decision of the proper valuation commission to other work in the same group and category, or to a lower group or category, with a corresponding reduction of wages.” If it is judged that his failure to maintain the normal output is due to lack of good faith and to negligence, he may be discharged without notice.

An appendix to Section 80 provides that every wage-earner must carry a labor booklet. The following description of this booklet shows how thoroughly registered and controlled labor is in Sovdepia:

1. Every citizen of the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet
Republic, upon assignment to a definite group and category
(Section 62 of the present Code), shall receive, free of
charge, a labor booklet.

_Note._ The form of the labor booklets shall be worked out by
the People’s Commissariat of Labor.

2. Each wage-earner, on entering the employment of an
enterprise, establishment, or institution employing paid labor,
shall present his labor booklet to the management thereof, and
on entering the employment of a private individual--to the
latter.

_Note._ A copy of the labor booklet shall be kept by the
management of the enterprise, establishment, institution, or
private individual by whom the wage-earner is employed.

3. All work performed by a wage-earner during the normal
working-day as well as piece-work or overtime work, and all
payments received by him as a wage-earner (remuneration in
money or in kind, subsidies from the unemployment and hospital
funds), must be entered in his labor booklet.

_Note._ In the labor booklet must also be entered the leaves of
absence and sick-leave of the wage-earner, as well as the fines
imposed on him during and on account of his work.

4. Each entry in the labor booklet must be dated and signed by
the person making the entry, and also by the wage-earner (if
the latter is literate), who thereby certifies the correctness
of the entry.

5. The labor booklet shall contain:

(_a_) The name, surname, and date of birth of the wage-earner;

(_b_) The name and address of the trades-union of which the
wage-earner is a member;

(_c_) The group and category to which the wage-earner has been
assigned by the valuation commission.

6. Upon the discharge of a wage-earner, his labor booklet shall
under no circumstances be withheld from him. Whenever an old
booklet is replaced by a new one, the former shall be left in
possession of the wage-earner.

7. In case a wage-earner loses his labor booklet, he shall be
provided with a new one into which shall be copied all the
entries of the lost booklet; in such a case a fee determined
by the rules of internal management may be charged to the
wage-earner for the new booklet.

8. A wage-earner must present his labor booklet upon the
request:

(_a_) Of the managers of the enterprise, establishment, or
institution where he is employed;

(_b_) Of the Department of Labor Distribution;

(_c_) Of the trades union;

(_d_) Of the officials of workmen’s control and of labor
protection;

(_e_) Of the insurance offices or institutions acting as such.

A wireless message from Moscow, dated February 11, 1920, referring to the actual introduction of these labor booklets, says:

The decree on the establishment of work-books is in course of
realization at Moscow and Petrograd. The book has 32 pages in
it, containing, besides particulars as to the holder’s civil
status, information on the following points:

Persons dependent on the holder, degree of capacity for work,
place where employed, pay allowanced or pension, food-cards
received, and so forth. One of these books should be handed
over to all citizens not less than 16 years old. It constitutes
the proof that the holder is doing his share of productive
work. The introduction of the work-book will make it possible
for us to ascertain whether the law as to work is being
observed by citizens. This being the object, it will only be
handed to workmen and employees in accordance with the lists of
the business concerns in which they are working, to artisans
who can produce a regular certificate of their registration as
being sick or a certificate from the branches of the Public
Welfare Administration, and to women who are engaged in keeping
house, and who produce a certificate by the House Committee.
When the distribution has been completed, all sick persons, not
possessed of work-books, will be sent to their work by the
branch of the Labor Distribution Administration.

We have summarized, in the exact language of the official English translation published by the Soviet Government Bureau in this country, the characteristic and noteworthy features of this remarkable scheme. Surely this is the ultimate madness of bureaucratism, the most complete subjection of the individual citizen to an all-powerful state since the days of Lycurgus. At the time of Edward III, by the Statute of Laborers of 1349, not only was labor enforced on the lower classes, but men were not free to work where they liked, nor were their employers permitted to pay them more than certain fixed rates of wages. In short, the laborer was a serf; and that is the condition to which this Bolshevist scheme would reduce all the people of Russia except the privileged bureaucracy. It is a rigid and ruthless rule that is here set up, making no allowance for individual likes or dislikes, leaving no opportunity for honest personal initiative. The only variations and modifications possible are those resulting from favoritism, political influence, and circumvention of the laws by corruption of official and other illicit methods.

We must bear in mind that what we are considering is not a body of facts relating to practical work under pressure of circumstance, but a carefully formulated plan giving concrete form to certain aims and intentions. It is not a record of which the Bolsheviki can say, “This we were compelled to do,” but a prospectus of what they propose to do. As such the Bolsheviki have caused the wide-spread distribution of this remarkable Code of Labor Laws in this country and in England, believing, apparently, that the workers of the two countries must be attracted by this Communist Utopia. They have relied upon the potency of slogans and principles long held in honor by the militant and progressive portion of the working-class in every modern nation, such as the right to work and the right to assured living income and leisure, to win approval and support. But they have linked these things which enlightened workers believe in to a system of despotism abhorrent to them. After two full years of terrible experience the Bolsheviki propose, in the name of Socialism and freedom, a tyranny which goes far beyond anything which any modern nation has known.

It was obvious from the time when this scheme was first promulgated that it could only be established by strong military measures. No one who knew anything of Russia could believe that the great mass of the peasantry would willingly acquiesce in a scheme of government so much worse than the old serfdom. Nor was it possible to believe that the organized and enlightened workers of the cities would, as a whole, willingly and freely place themselves in such bondage. It was not at all surprising, therefore, to learn that it had been decided to take advantage of the military situation, and the existence of a vast organization of armed forces, to introduce compulsory labor as part of the military system. On December 11, 1919, _The Red Baltic Fleet_, a Bolshevist paper published for the sailors of the Baltic fleet, printed an abstract of Trotsky’s report to the Seventh Congress of Soviets, from which the following significant paragraphs are quoted:

If one speaks of the conclusion of peace within the next
months, such a peace cannot be called a permanent peace. So
long as class states remain, as powerful centers of Imperialism
in the Far East and in America, it is not impossible that the
peace which we shall perhaps conclude in the near future will
again be for us only a long and prolonged respite. So long as
this possibility is not excluded, it is possible that it will
be a matter _not of disarming, but of altering the form of the
armed forces of the state_.

We must get the workmen back to the factories, and the
peasants to the villages, re-establish industries and develop
agriculture. Therefore, the troops must be brought nearer to
the workers, and the regiments to the factories, villages, and
cantons. We must pass to the introduction of the militia system
of armed forces.

There is a scarcely veiled threat to the rest of the world in Trotsky’s intimation that the peace they hope to conclude will perhaps be only a prolonged respite. As an isolated utterance, it might perhaps be disregarded, but it must be considered in the light of, and in connection with, a number of other utterances upon the same subject. In the instructions from the People’s Commissar for Labor to the propagandists sent to create sympathy and support for the Labor Army scheme among the soldiers we find this striking passage: “The country must continue to remain armed for many years to come. _Until Socialist revolution triumphs throughout the world we must continue to be armed and prepared for eventualities._” A Bolshevist message, dated Moscow, March 11, 1920, explains that: “The utilization of whole Labor Armies, retaining the army system of organization, may only be justified from the point of view of keeping the army intact for military purposes. As soon as the necessity for this ceases to exist the need to retain large staffs and administrations will also cease to exist.” There is not the slightest doubt that the Bolsheviki contemplate the maintenance of a great army to be used as a labor force until the time arrives when it shall seem desirable to hurl it against the nations of central and western Europe in the interests of “world revolution.”

On January 15, 1920, Lenin and Brichkina, president and secretary, respectively, of the Council of Defense, signed and issued the first decree for the formation of a Labor Army. The text of the decree follows:

DECREE OF THE WORKERS’ AND PEASANTS’ COUNCIL OF DEFENSE ON THE FIRST REVOLUTIONARY LABOR ARMY

1. The Third Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army is to be utilized
for labor purposes. This army is to be considered as a complete
organization; its apparatus is neither to be disorganized nor
split up, and it is to be known under the name of the First
Revolutionary Labor Army.

2. The utilization of the Third Red Army for labor purposes
is a temporary measure. The period is to be determined by a
special regulation of the Council of Defense in accordance
with the military situation as well as with the character of
the work which the army will be able to carry out, and will
especially depend on the practical productivity of the labor
army.

3. The following are the principal tasks to which the forces
and means of the third army are to be applied:

_First_:

(_a_) The preparation of food and forage in accordance with
the regulation of the People’s Commissariat for Food, and the
concentration of these in certain depots:

(_b_) The preparation of wood and its delivery to factories and
railway stations;

(_c_) The organization for this purpose of land transport as
well as water transport;

(_d_) The mobilization of necessary labor power for work on a
national scale;

(_e_) Constructive work within the above limits as well as on a
wider scale, for the purpose of introducing, gradually, further
works.

_Second_:

(_f_) For repair of agricultural implements;

(_g_) Agricultural work, etc.

4. The first duty of the Labor Army is to secure provisions, not below the Red Army ration, for the local workers in those regions where the army is stationed; this is to be brought about by means of the army organs of supply in all those cases where the President of the Food Commissariat of the Labor Army Council (No. 7) will find that no other means of securing the necessary provisions for the above-mentioned workers are to be had.

5. The utilization of the labor of the third army in a certain locality must take place in the locality in which the principal part of the army is stationed; this is to be determined exactly by the leading organs of the army (No. 6) with a subsequent confirmation by the Council of Defense.

6. The Revolutionary Council of the Labor Army is the organ in charge of work appointed, with the provision that the locality where the services of the Labor Army are to be applied is to be the same locality where the services of the Revolutionary Council of the Labor Army enjoys economic authority.

7. The Revolutionary Council of the Labor Army is to be composed of members of the Revolutionary War Council and of authorized representatives of the People’s Commissariat for Food, the Supreme Council for Public Economy, the People’s Commissariat for Agriculture, the People’s Commissariat for Communication, and the People’s Commissariat for Labor.

An especially authorized Council of Defense which is to enjoy the rights of presidency of the Council of the Labor Army is to be put at the head of the above Council.

8. All the questions concerning internal military organizations and defined by regulations of internal military service and other military regulations are to be finally settled upon by the Revolutionary War Council which introduces in the internal life of the army all the necessary changes arising in consequence of the demands of the economic application of the army.

9. In every sphere of work (food, fuel, railway, etc.) the final decision in the matter of organizing this work is to be left with the representative of the corresponding sphere of the Labor Army Council.

10. In the event of radical disagreement the case is to be transferred to the Council of Defense.

11. All the local institutions, Councils of Public Economy, Food Committees, land departments, etc., are to carry out the special orders and instructions of the Labor Army Council through the latter’s corresponding members either in its entirety or in that sphere of the work which is demanded by the application of the mass labor power.

12. All local institutions (councils of public economy, food committees, etc.) are to remain in their particular localities and carry out, through their ordinary apparatus, the work which falls to their share in the execution of the economic plans of the Labor Army Council; local institutions can be changed, either in structure or in their functions, on no other condition except with the consent of the corresponding departmental representatives who are members of the Labor Army Council, or, in the case of radical changes, with the consent of the corresponding central department.

13. In the case of work for which individual parts of the army can be utilized in a casual manner, as well as in the case of those parts of the army which are stationed outside the chief army, or which can be transferred beyond the limits of this locality, the Army Council must in each instance enter into an agreement with the permanent local institutions carrying out the corresponding work, and as far as that is practical and meets with no obstacles, the separate military detachments are to be transferred to their temporary economic disposal.

14. Skilled workers, in so far as they are not indispensable for the support of the life of the army itself, must be transferred by the army to the local factories and to the economic institutions generally under direction of the corresponding representatives of the Labor Army Council.

_Note_: Skilled labor can be sent to factories under no other condition except with the consent of those economic organs to which the factory in question is subject. Members of trades-unions are liable to be withdrawn from local enterprises for the economic needs in connection with the problems of the army only with the consent of the local organs.

15. The Labor Army Council must, through its corresponding members, take all the necessary measures toward inducing the local institutions of a given department to control, in the localities, the army detachments and their institutions in the carrying out of the latter’s share of work without infringing upon the respective by-laws, regulations, and instructions of the Soviet Republic.

_Note_: It is particularly necessary to take care that the general state rate of pay is to be observed in the remuneration of peasants for the delivery of food, for the preparation of wood or other fuel.

16. The Central Statistical Department in agreement with the Supreme Council for Public Economy and the War Department is instructed to draw up an estimate defining the forms and period of registration.

17. The present regulation comes into force with the moment of its publication by telegraph.

_President of the Council of Defense_,

V. ULIANOV (LENIN).
S. BRICHKINA, _Secretary_.

Moscow, _January 15, 1920_.

On January 18, 1920, the _Krasnaya Gazeta_ published the following order by Trotsky to the First Labor Army:

ORDER TO THE FIRST REVOLUTIONARY LABOR ARMY

1. The First Army has finished its war task, but the enemy is
not completely dispersed. The rapacious imperialists are still
menacing Siberia in the extreme Orient. To the East the armies
paid by the Entente are still menacing Soviet Russia. The bands
of the White Guards are still at Archangel. The Caucasus is
not yet liberated. For this reason the First Russian Army has
not as yet been diverted, but retains its internal unity and
its warlike ardor, in order that it may be ready in case the
Socialist Fatherland should once more call it to new tasks.

2. The First Russian Army, which is, however, desirous of doing
its duty, does not wish to lose any time. During the coming
weeks and months of respite it will have to apply its strength
and all its means to ameliorate the agricultural situation in
this country.

3. The Revolutionary War Council of the First Army will come to
an agreement with the Labor Council. The representatives of the
agricultural institutions of the Red Republic of the Soviets
will work side by side with the members of the Revolutionary
Council.

4. Food-supplies are indispensable to the famished workmen of
the commercial centers. The First Labor Army should make it its
essential task to gather systematically in the region occupied
by it such food-supplies as are there, as well as also to make
an exact listing of what has been obtained, to rapidly and
energetically forward them to the various factories and railway
stations, and load them upon the freight-cars.

5. Wood is needed by commerce. It is the important task of
the Revolutionary Labor Army to cut and saw the wood, and to
transport it to the factories and to the railway stations.

6. Spring is coming; this is the season of agricultural work.
As the productive force of our factories has lessened, the
number of new farm implements which can be delivered has become
insufficient. The peasants have, however, a tolerably large
number of old implements which are in need of repair. The
Revolutionary Labor Army will employ its workshops as well as
its workmen in order to repair such tools and machinery as are
needed. When the season arrives for work in the fields, the Red
cavalry and infantry will prove that they know how to plow the
earth.

7. All members of the army should enter into fraternal
relations with the professional societies[69] of the local
Soviets, remembering that such organizations are those of the
laboring people. All work should be done after having come to
an understanding with them.

[69] _i.e._, trades-unions.

8. Indefatigable energy should be shown during the work, as
much as if it were a combat or a fight.

9. The necessary efforts, as well as the results to be
obtained, should be carefully calculated. Every pound of Soviet
bread, and every log of national wood should be tabulated.
Everything should contribute to the foundation of the Socialist
activities.

10. The Commandants and Commissars should be responsible for
the work of their men while work is going on, as much as if it
were a combat. Discipline should not be relaxed. The Communist
Societies should during the work be models of perseverance and
patience.

11. The Revolutionary Tribunals should punish the lazy and
parasites and the thieves of national property.

12. Conscientious soldiers, workmen, and revolutionary peasants
should be in the first rank. Their bravery and devotion should
serve as an example to others and inspire them to act similarly.

13. The front should be contracted as much as possible. Those
who are useless should be sent to the first ranks of the
workers.

14. Start and finish your work, if the locality permits it,
to the sound of revolutionary hymns and songs. Your task is
not the work of a laborer, but a great service rendered the
Socialist Fatherland.

15. Soldiers of the Third Army, called the First Revolutionary
Army of Labor. Let your example prove a great one. All Russia
will rise to your call. The Radio has already spread throughout
the universe all that the Third Army intends in being
transposed into the First Army of Labor. Soldier Workmen! Do
not lower the red standard!

_The President of the War Council of the
Revolutionary Republic_,

[Signed] TROTSKY.

There is not the slightest doubt where Lenin and Trotsky found the model for the foregoing orders and the inspiration of the entire scheme. Almost exactly a century earlier, that is to say in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, Count Arakcheev, a favorite of Alexander I, introduced into Russia the militarization of agricultural labor. Peasant conscripts were sent to the “military settlements,” formed into battalions under command of army officers, marched in proper military formation to their tasks, which they performed to martial music. The arable lands were divided among the owner-settlers according to the size of their families. Tasks were arbitrarily set for the workers by the officers; resignation or withdrawal was, of course, impossible; desertion was punished with great severity. Elaborate provisions were made by this monarchist autocrat for the housing of the conscript-settlers, for medical supervision, and for the education of the children. Everything seems to have been provided for the conscripts in these settlements except freedom.

Travelers gave most glowing accounts of Arakcheev’s Utopia, just as later travelers did of the Russia of Nicholas II, and as the Ransomes, Goodes, Lansburys, and other travelers of to-day are giving of Bolshevist Russia. But the people themselves were discontented and unhappy, a fact evidenced by the many serious uprisings. Robbed of freedom, all initiative taken from them, so that they became abject and cowed and almost devoid of will power, like dumb beasts yet under the influence of desperate and daring leaders, they rose in revolt again and again with brutal fury. Arakcheev’s Utopia was not intended to be oppressive or unjust, we may well believe. There are evidences that it was conceived in a noble and even generous spirit. It inevitably became cruel and oppressive, however, as every such scheme that attempts to disregard the variations in human beings, and to compel them to conform to a single pattern or plan, must do. At a meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Petrograd Trotsky protested that only the “petty bourgeois intellectuals” could liken his system of militarized labor to Arakcheev’s, but the facts speak for themselves. And in all Russia’s tragic history there are no blacker pages than those which record her great experiments with militarized labor.

Addressing the joint meeting of the third Russian Congress of Soviets of National Economy, the Moscow Soviet of Deputies and the Administrative Boards of the Trades-Unions, on January 25, 1920, Trotsky made a report which required more than two hours for its delivery. Defining labor conscription, he said:

We shall succeed if qualified and trained workers take part
in productive labor. They must all be registered and provided
with work registration books. Trades-unions must register
qualified workmen in the villages. Only in those localities
where trades-union methods are inadequate other methods must
be introduced, in particular that of compulsion, because labor
conscription gives the state the right to tell the qualified
workman who is employed on some unimportant work in his
villages, “You are obliged to leave your present employment and
go to Sormova or Kolomna, because there your work is required.”

Labor conscription means that qualified workmen who leave
the army must take their work registration books and proceed
to places where they are required, where their presence
is necessary to the economic system of the country. Labor
conscription gives the Labor State the right to order a workman
to leave the village industry in which he is engaged and to
work in state enterprises which require his services. We
must feed these workmen and guarantee them the minimum food
ration. A short time ago we were confronted by the problem of
defending the frontiers of the Soviet Republic, now our aim is
to collect, load, and transport a sufficient quantity of bread,
meat, fats, and fish to feed the working-class. We are not only
confronted by the question of the industrial proletariat, but
also by the question of utilizing unskilled labor.

* * * * *

There is still one way to the reorganization of national
economy--the way of uniting the army and labor and changing the
military detachments of the army into labor detachments of a
labor army. Many in the army have already accomplished their
military task, but they cannot be demobilized as yet. Now that
they have been released from their military duties, they must
fight against economic ruin and against hunger; they must work
to obtain fuel, peat, and inflammable slate; they must take
part in building, in clearing the lines of snow, in repairing
roads, building sheds, grinding flour, and so on. We have
already got several of these armies. These armies have already
been allotted their tasks. One must obtain foodstuffs for the
workmen of the district in which it was formerly stationed, and
there also it will cut down wood, cart it to the railways, and
repair engines. Another will help in the laying down of railway
lines for the transport of crude oil. A third will be used for
repairing agricultural implements and machines, and in the
spring for taking part in working the land. At the present time
among the working masses there must be the greatest exactitude
and conscientiousness, together with responsibility to the end;
there must be utter strictness and severity, both in small
matters and in great. If the most advanced workmen in the
country will devote all their thoughts, all their will, and all
their revolutionary duty to the cause of regulating economic
affairs, then I have no doubt that we shall lead Russia on a
new free road, to the confounding of our enemies and the joy of
our friends.

Going into further details concerning the scheme, Trotsky said, according to _Izvestia_, January 29, 1920:

Wherein lies the meaning of this transformation? We possess
armies which have accomplished their military tasks. _Can
we demobilize them? In no case whatever. If we have learned
anything in the civil war it is certainly circumspection._
While keeping the army under arms, we may use it for economic
purposes, with the _possibility of sending it to the front in
case of need_.

Such is the present condition of the Third Soviet Army at
Ekaterinburg, some units of which are quartered in the
direction of Omsk. It numbers no less than _150,000 men, of
whom 7,000 are Communists and 9,000 are sympathizers_. Such
an army is class-conscious to a high degree. No wonder it
has offered itself for employment for labor purposes. The
labor army must perform definite and simple tasks requiring
the application of mass force, such as lumbering operations,
peat-cutting, collecting grain, etc. Trades-unions, political
and Soviet organizations must, of course, establish the closest
contact with the Labor Army. An experienced and competent
workman is appointed as chief of staff of this army, and
a former chief of staff, an officer of the general staff,
is his assistant. The Operative Department is renamed the
Labor-Operative Department, and controls requisitions and the
execution of the labor-operative orders and the labor bulletins.

A great number of labor artels, with a well-ordered telegraph
and telephone system, is thus at our disposal. They receive
orders and report on their execution the same day. This is
but the beginning of our work. There will be many drawbacks
at first, much will have to be altered, but the basis itself
cannot be unsound, as it is the same on which our entire Soviet
structure is founded.

In this case we possess several thousand Ural workmen, who
are placed at the head of the army, and a mass of men under
the guidance of these advanced workmen. What is it? It is but
a reflection on a small scale of Soviet Russia, founded upon
millions upon millions of peasants, and the guiding apparatus
is formed of more conscious peasants and an overwhelming
majority of industrial workers. This first experiment is being
made by the other armies likewise. It is intended to utilize
the Seventh Army, quartered at the Esthonian frontier, for
peat-cutting and slate-quarrying. If these labor armies are
capable of extracting raw materials, of giving new life to our
transport, of providing corn, fuel, etc., to our main economic
centers, then our economic organism will revive.