Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin

“ But we Communists look ahead. We know that the past is dead, having become rotten as was inevitable, and that, failing thus, the workers and poor peasants could never take the Government into their hands: we know that in the place of the old army a new, more enlightened one, the Red Army of Socialism, has arisen.
As long as the bourgeoisie stand at the head of Government, and our country is a fatherland of bankers, traders, speculators, police, kings and presidents, so long will the working class have no personal interests in guarding this filthy profit-producing apparatus. ”

“ When there is a question of the press, we first ask which press—the bourgeois or the workers' press; when there is a question of gatherings, we ask what gatherings—workers' or counter-revolutionary; when a question arises of strikes, the first question for us is whether it is a strike of the workers against the capitalists, or a sabotage instigated by the bourgeoisie or the bourgeois intellectuals against the proletariat. He who makes no distinction between these two things is groping in the dark. The press, meetings, unions, etc., are weapons of the class struggle. ”

“ They will fight with all their might to prevent the proletariat from getting possession of the whole world. The mightier the onslaught of the proletariat, the more dangerous the position of the bourgeoisie; the more necessary it becomes for the bourgeoisie to concentrate all its forces in the struggle against the proletariat. The proletariat, having conquered in one, two, or three countries, will inevitably come into collision with the rest of the bourgeois world that will attempt to break by blood and iron the efforts of the class that is fighting for its freedom. ”

“ The revolution of the workers is victorious. The period of decay has passed into the realm of memory. The period of construction of a new order of things is upon us. A Red Army is being built now not for plunder, but for the defence of Socialism: not to guard the fatherland of profit, where everything was in the hands of capital and the landowners, but to protect the Socialist fatherland, where everything has been transferred to the hands of workers; not for the sake of mutilating and ravaging foreign countries, but for the purpose of aiding the international Communist Revolution. ”

“ They maintain that the working class is "not yet ripe" for a dictatorship. To them we can say, "You, sirs, defenders of the bourgeoisie, go to the bourgeoisie whom you love so much, but do leave the working class and the poor peasantry alone."
Just because the Communist Party is an adherent of the most rigid iron dictatorship of the workers over capitalists—small sweaters, late landowners, and all other similar delightful relics of the old bourgeois order—it is for that very reason the extremest and most revolutionary of all existing groups and parties. ”

“ The working class will achieve liberty in no other way except through a revolution, that is to say, through the overthrow of the power of capitalism, through the destruction of the bourgeois State. But every revolution is a form of violence against former rulers. The March revolution in Russia was force against the oppressors, landlords and the Czar. The October revolution was force of the workers, peasants and soldiers, against the bourgeoisie. ”

“ An ordinary republic does not only represent the power of the bourgeoisie. A republic of this kind can never, by reason of its composition, become inspired with the spirit of the workers' party. In a parliamentary republic every citizen hands in his vote once in every four or five years, and there his part in the matter ends. All the rest is left to deputies, ministers and presidents, who manage everything. There is no connection whatever with the masses. The masses of the labouring people are only tools exploited by the officials of the bourgeoisie, taking no real part in the government. ”

“ To make the task of a regular distribution of products still easier, we must aim at changing our private system of domestic economy into a social one. At present every family has its own kitchen, every family, independently of others, buys provisions, dooming woman to slavery, turning her into an eternal cook who sees nothing from dawn till night except kitchen utensils, brushes, dusters, and all kinds of refuse. An immense amount of labour is absolutely wasted. ”

“ The indifferent workman now does not injure directors or bankers, but members of workers' administrations, workers' unions, and the Government of the workers and peasants. To handle machinery carelessly, to break tools, to try and get little work done in the ordinary working hours for the purpose of working overtime and receiving double pay—by all this it is not the master who is cheated, it is not the capitalist who is harmed, but the working class as a whole. ”

“ It is self-evident that only by such tactics can the confidence of the proletariat as a whole be won. Let us imagine what would happen if the workers' Soviets of Great Russia were to attempt by force of arms to coerce the working class of other nations into submission. The latter would, of course, defend themselves with arms. That would mean the complete collapse of the whole of all proletarian movements and the fall of the Revolution. That is not the right way to act, for, we repeat, victory is possible only on condition of a fraternal union of the workers. ”

“ Banks, as a matter of fact, represent the pinnacle of capitalist organisation which rules industry. The industrial capitalists make profits uninterruptedly, and capital flows to them in a continuous stream. What does the capitalist do with the profit acquired? A part of it is spent on eating, drinking and dissipation. Another part, considerably larger, is saved for extending his business at any given moment: he can only do so when a large enough "balance" has accumulated, a sum big enough, let us say, to build a new factory or set up a new plant. ”

“ To admit the bourgeoisie, into the army would be equal to arming it: it would mean creating a White Guard within the Red Army which might easily disorganise the whole concern, becoming a centre of treason and revolt, and go over into the camp of the imperialist troops of the enemy. Our object is not to arm the bourgeoisie, but to disarm it, depriving it of its last browning.
Our second, and not less important task, is to prepare a proletarian officer corps. The working class has to defend itself against enemies who are attacking it from all sides. ”

“ Since we have a dictatorship of workers and peasants whose aim is to crush the bourgeoisie completely and to put down any attempt of reviving the bourgeois government, it is plain that there can be no question of freedom, in the wide sense of the word, for the bourgeoisie, just as there can be no question of allowing the bourgeoisie the right of franchise, nor of transforming the Soviet Government into a republican bourgeois parliament. ”

“ And consequently they use the revolution to their own ends, trying to fill their pockets, to grasp where they can, and what they can, never stopping to think of their labour duties nor of the fact that slovenliness and cheating at work at present is a crime against the working class. For labour does not now serve to enrich a master; labour now supports the workers—the poverty-stricken classes who are now at the helm of State. ”

“ He is not to be frightened by a possible return to capitalism, for he is cherishing a faint hope that he himself, John Smith, may become a capitalist. And that would not be so bad for him.
No; there is an entirely different road along which the working class should go, and is going. The working class is interested in such a reconstruction of society as would make return to capitalism impossible. Sharing of wealth would mean driving capitalism out of the front door only to see it return by the back door. The only way out of this dilemma is a co-operative labour (communist) system. ”

“ And even if the victory of the Russian workers is to be followed by a victory of the workers of Austria and Germany, there will still be left big vulture-like capitalist States. If all capitalistic Europe breaks up and falls under the blows of the working class, there will still be left the capitalistic, world of Asia, with Japan like a beast of prey at its head. ”

“ We already know that the root of the evil of all plundering wars, of oppression of the working classes and of all the atrocities of capitalism, is that the world has been enslaved by a few State organised capitalist bands, who own all the wealth of the earth as their private property. The capitalist ownership of the means of production—this is the reason of reasons which explains the barbarity of the present order of things. ”

“ And so we should, in a very short time, return to the same order which we have just destroyed, and find ourselves once again before the old problem of capitalist exploitation.
Dividing up into small property-holders is not the ideal of the worker or the agricultural labourer. It is rather the dream of the small shopkeeper oppressed by the big one, who wants to become a large shopkeeper himself. ”

“ If every workman acquires the qualifications of an engineer, then the position of the capitalist and of the rich engineer is not worth a brass farthing. They will have nothing more to boast of, for there will be many such as they. No undermining of the workers' cause, no amount of sabotage by the old servants of capital will be of any avail. And that is what the right honourable bourgeoisie is afraid of. ”

“ Because the soldiers saw that they were being organised, trained and thrown into battle for the sake of the criminal cupidity of the bourgeoisie. They saw that for nearly three years they sat in the trenches, perished, hungered, suffered, and died and killed others all for the sake of somebody's money-bags. It is natural enough that when the revolution had displaced the old discipline and a new one had not yet had time to be formed, the collapse, ruin and death of the old army took place. ”

“ The Right Socialist Revolutionaries and party of the Mensheviks were on the same side of the barricades as the counter-revolutionary rabble: the Bolsheviks were on the other side, side by side with the workers and soldiers. Blood marked a boundary line between us. Such a thing cannot and never will be forgotten.
This is why we were compelled to give a different name to distinguish us from the traitors to Socialism. The difference between us is too great. Our ways and means are too far apart. ”

“ The factory united the workers; the oppression of the capitalist taught them to struggle jointly: in the place of the weak, insipid grandfatherly wisdom there arose a new proletarian, outlook, infinitely higher than the old. It is this new outlook that is changing the proletariat into the most advanced, most revolutionary, most creative of all classes. We Communists, of course, and not the feudalist landowners, proved to be right.
At the present time the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries have taken up the attitude of the feudalists with regard to the army. ”

“ In a Communist order, when the bourgeoisie has ceased to exist, and with it class divisions and every kind of external as well as internal danger, then the axe will be needed no longer. But in the transition period, when the enemy is still showing his fangs, and is ready to drown the whole working class in a sea of blood (let us recall to mind the shooting of the Finnish workmen, the executions at Kiev, executions of workmen and peasants all over the Ukraine and in Lithuania!) , we will agree that to go unarmed, to act without this axe of State government, would be an act of folly. ”

“ Why does a poor man who is thrown on the streets have to starve to death? Because he possesses nothing but a pair of hands which he can sell to the capitalist should the capitalist want them. How is it that a rich banker or business man can do nothing, and yet lead an easy life free of care, getting a solid income, and raking in profits daily, hourly, and even by the minute? ”

“ In every capitalist country small capital has practically vanished; of late it has been eaten up by the big sharks of capitalism. At first, a struggle went on between the individual capitalists for customers; at the present time when there are only a few of them left (as the small fry is absolutely ruined) , the remaining ones have united, organised, and have it their own way in their country, just as in the olden times the barons had full power over their domains; a few American bankers own the whole of America, just as formerly a single capitalist owned his factory. ”

“ In a communist order, all the wealth belongs not to individuals or classes, but to society as a whole, which become it were, one great labour association; no one man is master over it. All are equal comrades. There are no classes; capitalists do not employ labour, nor do workers sell their labour to employers. ”

“ Culture for the bourgeoisie, spiritual subjection for the poor—these are the capitalists' war cries. Culture for all, liberation of the mind from the yoke of capital—this is the watchword of the party of the working class, the party of the Communists. ”

“ To the proprietor, the man who owns a factory or works. And this same proprietor becomes the complete master of the man's life. If his, the master's loyal servants, directors and bookkeepers, have calculated that it is possible to squeeze more profits out of fresh workers than out of the old ones, then he "gives a job." If not, he tells him to "pass along." At the factory the capitalist is monarch of all he surveys. He is obeyed by all, and his directions are implicitly carried out. The factory is extended or reduced at his will. ”

“ That is why the working class, acting in the name of the liberation of the whole of humanity from the atrocities and terrors of capitalism, must carry out this task to a definite end and with unswerving firmness. No indulgence for the bourgeoisie and no leniency—but complete liberty and the possibility of realising this liberty, to the working class and poorest peasants. ”