TWENTY YEARS OF COMMUNISM

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 73, 18 December 1937, Page 15

TWENTY YEARS OF COMMUNISM

The Ruling Group in Russia Justifies All Harsh Measures by Assertions that it is Building a New and Superior Civilisation

yWENTY YEAES AGO on November 7, the Bolshevik (Communist) Party seized power in Bussia. Celebrations on an unprecedented scale were arranged for this year's anniversary, which the Bolsheviks claim marks the completion in their country of socialism, or the "first phase of co'mmunism," writes Demaree Bess in the Christian Science Monitor. Their system, they assert, has already proved itself so superior to other forms of human organisation that all countries will eventually be compelled to copy it. The Bolsheviks thus challenge comparison of their system, not with Tsarism, but with the most advanced western democracies. They offer their system to the world as a "new civilisation," infinitely superior to any which has preceded it. This challenge can be accepted only by analysing the Soviet system, as it exists today, and setting down its merits and defects. Defined in the simplest possible ternis, Bolshevism is a system of State ownership. The State is organised as "one vast syndicate," to use Lenin's words, which controls, in oneform or another, the country 's entire human and natural resources; and which operates, directly or indirectly, all productive enterprise. All working citizens liave become, directly or indirectly, employees of this ' ' one vast syndicate, ' ' whether they work in State-owned factories, mines, forests or shops, or in so-called cooperatives or collective farms. The State controls tlie latter almost as closely as it does the former. The State also keeps completely in its hands social organisation of the people. All schools are State schools. Trade unions are in practice a government department. The State retains control, through one or another of its 'departments, of ull newspapers, periodicals, publishing houses, radio broadcasting stations, motion picture production, and theatres. It is thus in a position completely to shape the education and outlook of all the people. Obviously, the Soviet State is more powerful than any other. The all-important question then arises: Who controls the State? The Bolsheviks reply: The workers and peasants. But this reply is not convincing, because it is all too apparent that this highly centralised organisation, in order to function at all, must be controlled from the top, not from the bottom. The Bolsheviks have solved this problem by forming what they describe as the "dictatorhip of the proletariat, " but which has become, in practice, the dictatorship of the Bolshevik Party.

One in every 54 adult citizens is a member of the Party, which is a political monopoly. The Party assumes the right ta suppresses by force any other parties or opposition groups, or even any minority dissenting factions or individuals within the Party. To ensure its monopoly, the Party has formed a political police force of about 250,000 men, to detect and suppress dissentqrs; and has formed and kept firmly under its control a standing army of 1,300,000 men, ) Bolshevik leaders claim that the Bolshevik Party is a "casfe of leadership." But the Party, as many observers have pointed out, is operated as a political machine which can be manipulated by a few shrewd leaders; and once these leaders are entrenched in control of the

Party machine, it becomes almost impossible to dislodge them. In what respects do the Bolsheviks claim that this system is superior to all others? They assert that it assures continuous maximum production and eventual universal prosperity. They claim that it can and does solve the problem of unemployment, because the State can and does find sonio kind of work for every adult citizen. They claim, also, that it provides the widest possible economic democracy, because the State can apportion remuneration according to ability. They assert that their system alone is capable of the nation-wido planning which tliey deem

essential to the widest development of natural and human resources. These claims have.nyet to be proved. Eussia is a vast country with abundant natural resources, but has not yet been able to provide a standard of living equivalent to that of many other countries. The Bolsheviks explain that prosperity will come after they have developed a backward country and trained an illiterate and unskilled population. Thus far, in order to make their system function,. the Bolsheviks have been compelled to pay men and women of ability as much as 60 times the remuneration .of ordinary workers; and on the other hand to imprison, even execute, managing staffs for inefficiency or carelessness, • labelled "sabotage." It is true that the Soviet State has found some kind of work for all adult citizens who desire to work; but in the cases of great numbers, the work has been forced labour in prison camps. Judging by results to date, the Soviet system requires unprecedented compulsion for the individual. The ruling powers assume the right to shoot, imprison or exile all dissenters; to set dissenters at forced labour in liscriminately with ordinary criminals. The "one vast syndicate," directed from the centre, has thus far proved so cumbersome that it causes inestimable wasto and! inefficiency. There is no evidence, as yet, that this structure can prove more efficient than capitalistic democracy. The theoretical advantages of State planning have been cancelled by the dead weight of bureaucracy. It may be considered unfair to compare Soviet Eussia with advanced western democracies. But Bolshevik leaders invite, even demand, such compariso:i3. Under Bolshevik rule, Soviet Eussia has passed at a forced paea through an industrial rovolution. Agriculture has been collectivised and mechanised? and an • almost self-sufficient industry has been formed. During the past 20 years Eussia has become a highly organised modern industrial natijn, with a material base which suggests eventual modeat prosperity for its people. To-day, Bolshevik insistence upon conformity, their use of forcible suppression of every kind of dissenter, is as rigorous as it has ever been. Bolshevik leaders justify all their actions by their claims that they are building a "new civilisation," not only for their own people but for the world. For this "new civilisation," which still lies in the future, Soviet peoples have made heavy sacrifices for 20 years, some voluntarily, more involuntarily. And it still Temains to be seen how far their sacrifices will be rewarded.