William Z. Foster

Name: The Russian Revolution
Author: William Z. Foster

The Russian Revolution (1921)

Summary

William Z. Foster’s The Russian Revolution examines the 1917 upheaval through the perspective of working-class mobilization and Soviet governance, highlighting the role of the Communist Party as the vanguard of laborers. Concentrating on Russia’s shift from capitalist exploitation to a workers’ state, the text investigates the Red Army’s democratic framework, the peasantry’s land reforms, and the Comintern’s global impact.

Foster emphasizes the revolution’s radical restructuring of industry, trade unions, and political authority, portraying Soviets as the manifestation of proletarian self-rule. Through thorough analysis, the work depicts the revolution as a transformative force reshaping economic systems and confronting bourgeois dominance.

Quotes from The Russian Revolution (William Z. Foster)

William Z. Foster, The Russian Revolution (1921)

“ Quality, not quantity, is its very breath of life. In the ranks of the workers there are a small percentage of keen, brave, intelligent, tireless idealists; who, man for man, when serious work is to be done, are worth a hundred or a thousand ordinary people. It is of these natural leaders of the working class that the Communist Party is composed; all others being rigidly excluded. The masses would only clog up the organization machinery and prevent the smooth working together of these militants. The Communist Party is the distilled essence of working class energy and revolutionary spirit. ”

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Source: Wikisource

William Z. Foster, The Russian Revolution (1921)

“ For a working class that has broken with capitalism and that finds itself on the road to power, it is perfectly logical, if not inevitable, for it to discard the old state machinery and parasitic social elements, and to select its governmental representatives, Soviet fashion, directly in the workshops, fields, and barracks. Indeed, Soviets are the sign-manual of the revolution. When the great crash comes in any country, the workers are always confronted with the supreme question of whether they shall seize all political power themselves or call back the bourgeois to share it with them. ”

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Source: Wikisource

William Z. Foster, The Russian Revolution (1921)

“ Far more important even than legal right to work is the Russian workers' recognized right to the full product of their labor. In other countries the cream of industry's products flow into the maw of the exploiters; the benefits of invention and intensified production are absorbed by social parasites; the drones idle in luxury; while the workers drudge in poverty and deprivation. But how different in Russia: there there are no exploiters. The workers have to pay no tribute to a ruling class. ”

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Source: Wikisource

William Z. Foster, The Russian Revolution (1921)

“ Liberty was dead and brutal autocracy reigned supreme. Politically and industrially, the workers and peasants were destitute of right and justice. They were mercilessly abused and robbed at the whims of their heartless masters. But the day of reckoning finally came: with a mighty effort the downtrodden slaves turned against their tormentors and finished with them.
Never has human history been made so rapidly as during the tremendous Russian revolutionary drama. Great event has followed great event with bewildering speed. ”

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Source: Wikisource

William Z. Foster, The Russian Revolution (1921)

“ In the industries it is the Communists who must do the hardest and meanest work; upon them falls the weight of all the drives for more efficient production. They are the good and tireless workers, the mainstays of the shops. In times of food shortage they must not only bear their own reduced rations bravely, but also inspire the great rank and file to do the same. And when any Communists go wrong, when they are found guilty of theft or other serious crimes against the revolution, they are always punished with extraordinary severity. ”

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Source: Wikisource

William Z. Foster, The Russian Revolution (1921)

“ The Red Army is just as different from other armies as the Soviet Government is different from capitalistic governments. It is pervaded throughout with a democratic spirit totally unknown in other military organizations. Between the officers and the soldiers a feeling of brotherhood prevails; they dress just alike and call each other "comrade." The Red Army is a people's army in the true sense of the word. Its function is to defend the workers' rights.
The Red Army is an organized crusade for the revolution. It defeats its foes not only by force, but also by education. ”

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Source: Wikisource

William Z. Foster, The Russian Revolution (1921)

“ Of the two great branches of Russia's toiling millions, industrial workers and peasants, the latter have, so far at least, reaped the most material advantages from the revolution. This is true inasmuch as while the industrial workers are still struggling in the face of severe trials to bring about the re-organization of industry which for them will mean emancipation, the peasants have actually come into possession of that dear mother earth which they have longed for, dreamed of, and sung about for generations past. ”

William Z. Foster

Summary

Quotes from The Russian Revolution (William Z. Foster)

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