Nikolai Bukharin

“ Whilst we are so familiar with the principles of both the economics and politics of the countries of Western Europe that we even know the leading personalities of the bourgeoisie, of the social-democrats, and of the Communist Parties, we are, on the other hand so little informed on the Eastern countries that we are not even fully acquainted with the fundamental outlines of their economic and political structure. ”

“ There can be no other result, for even if it manages to consolidate its power it can hold on only by naked violence, by the bayonet of dictatorship; and to sit on a bayonet is uncomfortable and unstable. In such a position the Party will not be able to avoid its isolation from the proletariat, nor prevent the circle of the revolutionary forces being narrowed down to its own ranks; and, in spite of its own desires, it must reveal the absurdity and impracticability of its actions and surrender the revolution to the flood and destruction. ”

“ We must admit that we possess comparatively little information about the whole of the East, about the colonial movement, and even about such a mighty movement as the present national revolution in China. This revolution deals a heavy blow at the whole fabric of international capitalist stabilization. It is of historical importance for the whole world, the more that it is taking place in a country in which there exists the proletarian dictatorship. ”

“ If we spread the proletarian revolution over the whole world we shall obtain approximately the same proportion between the proletariat and the peasantry as we have in the Soviet Union. For, when the proletariat takes power in England, it will have to deal with India and the other British colonies; if the proletariat takes power in France it will have to deal with Africa; if the proletariat takes power in all countries it will have to deal with all the other peasant countries. The world proletariat will have to solve the problem of how to live in harmony with the world peasantry. ”

“ There are some American writers who are of the opinion that the recent economic, political and other crises in China have devastated agriculture to the extent of about 40%. It is entirely impossible to test the accuracy of this assertion, but one thing is certain and incontestable: the result of the land poverty of the peasantry, of the enormous burden of taxation, and of the unexampled oppression of the population at the hands of foreigners, who have seized the ports, the duties, and the most important taxes, is that the peasantry is being impoverished at a rapid rate. ”

“ Marx said that not a single economic form ceases to exist until it has utilised all its possibilities and exhausted itself to the very bottom. Take those countries, said Cunow, where capitalism is not yet sufficiently developed; take the markets which are not yet completely capitalist commodity markets; take those countries where capitalism is only at the beginning of its development and it will be perfectly clear that capitalism still has an enormous scope for development. ”

“ In Peking itself the number of these declassed elements is exceedingly great, and though they demand nothing of life but its barest necessities, they are literally condemned to death by starvation. Thus they are readily enlisted by any militarist, and go over from one government to another, without feeling themselves socially bound in any way. This process is a symptom of a certain disintegration of the whole economy of the country, and is the expression of the frightful impoverishment of the Chinese peasantry. ”

“ The Russian Bolsheviks are not building Socialism, but are preparing the ground for the rise of a new capitalist system—this is the summary of the analysis of our revolution made by international Social-Democracy. In Russia capitalist relations are unripe. Russia is a semi-Asiatic country in which class relations find their expression in the overwhelming numerical preponderance of the peasantry: the proletariat floats like a fly in the peasants' milk, and this proletarian fly confronted by the peasant elephant is totally incapable of making a Communist revolution. ”

“ I need only observe that, should the Canton troops continue their victorious advance, and should further progress be made in the alliance of the national revolutionary forces in China, then it is not Utopian to assert that the victorious Chinese revolution will awaken a mighty echo in a great number of neighboring colonial countries—India, Indonesia, the Dutch Indies, where even now actual civil war is going on under exceedingly complicated conditions. ”

“ The culture of a class is the combination of its organisational forms and methods. If that is the case, then what malicious irony or childish nonsense are those schemes for immediately imposing upon the proletariat the most radical, most complex and most difficult organisational world transformation in history! And this at a time when before our very eyes the proletariat's own organisations crumble and fall to pieces, frequently not as a result of blows from without. ”

“ For the accomplishment of this task it is necessary to maintain the national revolutionary united front, which now consists not only of peasants, of workers, of artisans, nor only of the democratic and radical intelligentzia, but at the same time of the commercial and industrial bourgeoisie, of merchants and industrialists. It need not be said that not every merchant and every industrialist is joining in the struggle, but solely those who are not connected directly with foreign capital, those who are not to be counted among the compradores, or intermediaries between foreign capital and China. ”

“ The weight of the peasantry is pulling us down with increasing force; this weight is deciding the question of the character of the Russian Revolution, and no matter what costumes the active men of the Russian Revolution may masquerade in, no matter what slogans they may put forward, in spite of all their inventions, in the end it will all amount to the same thing: the question will be decided by the peasantry. The sole idea of the whole revolution is the strengthening of peasant private property. ”

“ For if we reply in the negative to the question of constructing Socialism on the ground of the internal state of class forces in our country, then the development of the forces of production in our country must inevitably coincide with such a development as will, in a more or less degree, result in the predominance of capitalist elements. This will "guarantee" such a character of development as will inevitably transfer the centre of gravity to the peasantry against the working class. ”

“ It is the State of the technical-organising class, the intelligentsia, which has now assumed the character of a class, Even if the subjective intentions of the Bolsheviks did not include the establishment of such a State, the objective role they are playing is reducing itself to the construction of a peculiar State, at the head of which is a new class, which became finally consolidated in the flames of the revolution. Having undergone a process of bureaucratic degeneration, the men who have come from the proletariat are becoming a component part of the new class. ”

“ It is sufficient to know what is the prevailing type of enterprise in agriculture and in home handicraft industry, which employs the largest number of workers in industry, to come to the conclusion that the workers cannot bring into being the Socialist system until capitalist production creates for it the material conditions. In the first few years the Great Russian Revolution will only split off industry from agriculture, will split it off by means of capitalism and only 'in the more or less remote future' will Socialism again unite them in a harmonious whole. ”

“ It is not here that the line runs which marks off the system of views of our Central Committee from the system of views advocated by the opposition. The argument is: can we construct Socialism and complete the construction apart from the question of international affairs; i.e., the argument is about the character of our revolution. Can we say with Lenin that our centre of gravity would be transferred to cultural development were it not for our international obligations, etc.? Or, will our backwardness inevitably drag us to the ground? That is the question. ”

“ It would be absurd to commence an argument about the question as to whether we have guarantees for the construction of Socialism under any international situation in the event, say, of intervention on the part of the capitalist countries. It is clear that the sole guarantee against dangers from without is international revolution. ”

“ In every country, even in the most developed, even in the United States, the situation will be that a fairly long historical stage will be passed before the organisation of economy will totally embrace the whole of the national-economic complex. However, Lenin held that in the backward economy of Russia there was an island which could serve as a base for Socialist operations. The more so that in the country we had a peculiar combination of "proletarian revolution and peasant wars," a combination which Marx regarded as a most favourable condition for the victory of the proletariat. ”

“ Socialism, of course, has matured; capitalism has already produced within itself the forces of production which make the question of the Socialist revolution practical politics for to-day; but the war has destroyed everything and now we must adopt a new tone, we cannot now speak of the tasks of the Socialist revolution. ”

“ The objective idea of the peasant revolution is nothing more or less than the emancipation of the peasantry from feudalism. This precisely determines the bourgeois character of the Russian Revolution. ”

“ The Socialist system takes the place of capitalism. The distinguishing feature of the capitalist system is that it creates world economy. ... Therefore it is impossible to conceive the introduction of Socialism in a single section of this economy without the whole world economy becoming affected. Socialist revolution is conceivable only as world revolution and consequently it pre-supposes a certain state not only in one, two, three, four or five countries, but in the majority of the industrially developed countries ”

“ Mother Russia is not giving birth to Socialism at all; she is simply being experimented on by Bolshevik scoundrels.
In a word, capitalism in Russia is backward, immature and therefore it is no place to construct Socialism, is the precept contained in one of the works of the Pope of Social Compromise. ”

“ Unless it breaks away from agriculture and petty production, industry can never become transformed technically into social production, for the primitive technique of the handicraftsman cannot be preserved, while the change in technique will break up the semi-agricultural economy. Even the revolution, in spite of the tremendous creative power it commands, cannot create new enterprises on a new technical basis out of nothing. ”

“ One must understand the sense of events, one must tear off the masquerade clothing, one must wash off the paint and judge not by words, but by deeds, not by intentions, but by results. One must understand the objective meaning of the revolution. ”

“ There is an enormous number of peasants in the world who according to Trotsky will "inevitably" come into conflict with the proletariat. As in China alone there are 400,000,000 peasants, then the revolution is "inevitably doomed." Where is the "State aid" from without to come from? This is where the theory of the opposition leads us. ”

“ It could not be otherwise, he argues, because the revolution is taking place in a country, the capitalistic immaturity of which is generally admitted. Marx long ago said, stated this old bookman, that no new society can arise until the old society has exhausted all its productive possibilities. Consequently, Socialism is impossible if the previous stage of social development has not been completed, if the old society has not utterly exhausted itself. ”

“ This honourable gentleman, who has been expiating his Communist sins by preaching a holy crusade against the Russian Revolution, has now also perceived, through the blessing of Kautsky, the bourgeois-peasant character of our revolution and is now announcing that the Russian Bolsheviks are cultivating the off-shoots of a new, American type of capitalism. ”