Russian Revolution- 1917
A Few Quotations from Trotsky"s "History of The Russian Revolution"
The most indubitable feature of a revolution is the direct interference of the masses in historic events. In ordinary times the state, be it monarchical or democratic, elevates itself above the nation, and history is made by specialists in the line of business- kings, ministers, bureaucrats, parliamentarians, journalists.But at those critical moments when the old order becomes no longer endurable to the masses, they break over the barriers excluding them from the political arena, sweep aside their traditional representatives, and create by their own interference the initial groundwork for a new regime. Whether this is good or bad we leave to the judgement of moralists. We ourselves will take the facts as they are given by the objective course of development. The history of a revolution is for us first of all a history of the forcible entrance of the masses into the realm of rulership over their own destiny.
In a a society that is seized by revolution classes are in conflict. It is perfectly clear, however, that the changes introduced between the beginning and the end of a revolution in the economic bases of the society and its social substratum of classes are not sufficient to explain the course of the revolution itself, which can overthrow in a short interval age-old institutions, create new ones, and again overthrow them. The dynamic of revolutionary events is directly determined by swift, intense And passionate changes in the psychology of classes which have already formed themselves before the revolution .(Vol. 1-Preface)
During September and October the possessing classes were awaiting the the outcome as a hopelessly sick man awaits death. Autumn with muzhiks (peasants) is the time for politics. The fields are mowed, illusions are scattered, patience is exhausted. Time to finish things up. The movement now overflows its banks, invades all districts, wipes out local peculiarities, draws inall the strata of the villages,washes away all considerations of law and prudence, becomes aggressive, fierce, furious a raging thing, arms itself with steel and fire, revolvers and hand grenades, demolishes and burns up the manorial dwellings, drives out the landlords, cleanses the earth and in some places waters it with blood.
Gone are the nests of the gentility celebrated by Pushkin, Turgeniev and Tolstoy. The old Russia has gone up in smoke. The liberal press is a collection of groans and outcries against the destruction of English gardens, of paintings from the brushes of serfs, of patrimonial libraries, the parthenons of Tombov, the riding horses, the ancient engravings, the breeding bulls. Bourgeois historians have tried to put the responsibility upon the Bolsheviks for the "vandalism" of the peasant's mode of settling accounts with the "culture" of his lords. In reality the Russian muzhik was completing a business entered upon many centuries before the Bolsheviks appeared in the world. He was fulfilling his progressive historic task with the only means at his disposal.With revolutionary barbarism he was wiping out the barbarism of the middle ages. Moreover, neither he himself, nor his grandfather, nor his great grandfather before him ever saw any mercy or indulgences. (vol.3.p. 37)
The chief task of a political regime, according to an English aphorism, is to put the right succession people in the right positions. How does the experiment of 1917 look from this point of view? During the first two months Russia was ruled, through right of monarchic succession, by a man inadequately endowed by nature who believed in saint's mummies and submitted to Rasputin. During the next eight months the liberals and democrats attempted from their governmental high places toprove to the people that the revolution has been accomplished in order that all should remain as before.No wonder those people passed over the country like wavering shadows leave no trace.From the 25th of October the man at the head of Russia was Lenin, the greatest figure Russian political history. He was surrounded by a staff of assistants who , as their most spiteful enemies acknowledge., knew what they wanted and how to fight for their aims. Which of these three systems, in the given concrete conditions, prove capable of putting the right people in the right positions.
The historic ascent of humanity, taken as a whole, may be summarized as a succession of victories of consciousness over blind forces - in nature, in society, in man himself. Critical and creative thought can boast of its greatest victories up to now in the struggle with nature. The Physico-Chemical sciences have already reached a point where man is clearly about to become master of matter. But social relations are still forming in the manner of the coral islands. Parliamentarism illumined only the surface of society, and even that that with a rather artificial light. In comparison with monarchy and other heirlooms from the cannibals and cave-dwellers, democracy is of course a great conquest, but it leaves the blind play of forces in the social relations of men untouched. It was against this deeper sphere of the unconscious that the October revolution was the first to raise its hand. The Soviet system wishes to bring aim and plan into the cery basis of society, where up to now only accumulated consequences have reigned. (Vol.3 -pp/321/22)
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