Socialism in One Country 1924–1926

449 Pages·1964·46.717 MB·English

by  E. H. Carr (auth.)

A HISTORY OF SOVIET RUSSIA
A HISTORY OF SOVIET RUSSIA
by E. H. Carr
in fourteen volumes
I. THE BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION, Volume One
2. THE BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION, Volume Two
3. THE BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION, Volume Three
4. THE INTERREGNUM
5. SOCIALISM IN ONE COUNTRY, Volume One
6. SOCIALISM IN ONE COUNTRY, Volume Two
7. SOCIALISM IN ONE COUNTRY, Volume Three, Part I
8. SOCIALISM IN ONE COUNTRY, Volume Three, Part II
9. ·FOUNDATIONS OF A PLANNED ECONOMY, Volume One,
Part I
10. ·FOUNDATIONS OF A PLANNED ECONOMY, Volume One,
Part II
II. FOUNDATIONS OF A PLANNED ECONOMY, Volume Two
12. FOUNDATIONS OF A PLANNED ECONOMY, Volume Three,
Part I
'3. FOUNDATIONS OF A PLANNED ECONOMY, Volume Three,
Part II
14. FOUNDATIONS OF A PLANNED ECONOMY, Volume Three,
Part III
·with R. W. Davies
A HISTORY OF SOVIET RUSSIA 8
SOCIALISM
IN ONE COUNTRY
1924- 1926
BY
E. H. CARR
Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge
VOLUME THREE-PART II
M
MACMILLAN
© E. H. Carr 1964
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B: The Soviet Union and the East
*
CHAPTER 37
POLICY IN THE EAST
T
HE first phase of the eastern policy of the Soviet Govern
ment and of Comintern found its characteristic expression
in the Baku congress of September 1920. It centred
primarily on the Near and Middle East, and was directed mainly
against the British Empire and British imperialism. Such success
as it achieved had been gained by 1921; and, after the Anglo
Soviet agreement had been concluded in March 1921, the first
wave of revolutionary enthusiasm for the eastern peoples may be
said to have subsided. The third congress of Comintern in June
July 1921 almost entirely ignored the eastern question.' Up to
this time the Far East had played only a minor and intermittent
role in the calculations of the Bolshevik leaders. At the moment
of the Baku congress, the idea was mooted in IKKI of a similar
congress of Far Eastern peoples.2 But the time was not yet ripe;
and it was not till the spring of 1921, at the height of the campaign
against Ungern-Sternberg in Outer Mongolia,3 that a Far Eastern
bureau or secretariat of Comintern was set up in Irkutsk under the
direction of Shumyatsky, an official of the Siberian bureau of the
party central committee situated at Omsk.4 In July 1921, after
the third congress of Comintern had ended, and when the Red
I See The Bolshevik Revolution, I9I7-I923, Vol. 3, pp. 387-389.
2 See ibid. Vol. 3, p. 525.
3 See ibid. Vol. 3, pp. 514-515.
4 The Irkutsk secretariat, described as " a special department of the Far
Eastern secretariat of Comintern ", was set up by the Siberian bureau of the
party (Severnaya Aziya, No.2 (20), 1928, p. 81, which specifically connects it
with work among the Mongols). Shumyatsky later gave an account of the
arrival in Irkutsk of Chang T'ai-Iei and another Chinese communist to organize
a Chinese section of the secretariat j Chang proceeded to Moscow to attend
the third congress of Comintern in June-July 1921 (RevolYlltsionnyi Vostok,
No. 4-5, 1928, pp. 213-216). Periodicheskaya Pechat' SSSR, I9I7-I949 :
Bibliograficheskii Ukazatel', i (1958), lists 7 monthly numbers of Byulleten'
Dalnevostochnogo Sekretariata Kommunisticheskogo Internatsionala published in
Irkutsk in 1921, and 2 numbers for 1922 j none,of them has been available.
For one of the rare contemporary references to this short-lived secretariat see
p. 607 below.
60S
606 FOREIGN RELATIONS PT. V
Army had completed its successful operation against Ungern
Sternberg in Outer Mongolia, IKKI instructed Radek, Popov
and Trilisser to make arrangements with representatives of Far
Eastern countries to convene a congress of Far· Eastern peoples
under the name of the Congress of Toilers of the Far East.l
The original decision was to hold the congress in Irkutsk in
November 1921. But it was transferred to Moscow, where it
met in January 21, 1922.2 The Far Eastern counterpart of the
Baku congress proved only a pale reflex ion of its predecessor,
and led to no immediate increase of interest in Moscow in Far
Eastern affairs. The transfer of the congress to Moscow was
apparently followed by the liquidation of the Irkutsk secretariat
which, sharing the fate of the European secretariats of Comintern,
ceased to exist early in 1922.3
The conception of opening a new window for Soviet policy
and revolutionary activity in the east penetrated slowly in Moscow.
Safarov, on the eve of the fourth congress of Comintern in Nov
ember 1922, boasted of the formation of communist parties in all
eastern countries, though they were all obliged to work illegally.4
Zinoviev, in his main report to the congress, indulged in some
routine expressions of optimism.s But Bukharin, in his long
speech on the draft programme of Comintern, dismissed the
colonial question in one brief paragraph with the conventional
comment that far more attention than hitherto should be paid to
it; and Radek cynically answered those delegates from the east
who complained of lack of interest in their work with the remark
that " interest is aroused by deeds". 6 The congress adopted a
long analytical resolution of an eclectic character on the" eastern
question", but gave no clear call for revolutionary action.7 On
Deyatel'nost Ispolnitel'nogo Komiteta i Prezidiuma Kommunisticheskogo
I
Internatsionala (1922), pp. 13-14.
For the congress see The Bolshevik Revolution, I9I7-I923, Vol. 3, pp.
Z
525-528; Chang T'ai-lei was evidently one of the organizers.
3 The approximate date is indicated by the fact that only two further
numbers of its bulletin appeared in 1922 (see p. 605. note 4 above); no mention
of it has been traced from the beginning of 1922 onwards .
.. Novyi Vostok, ii (1922), 71.
S See The Bolshevik Revolution, I9I7-I923, Vol. 3, pp. 478-479.
6 Protokoll des Vierten Kongresses der Kommunistischell Intemationale (1923),
pp. 419, 634·
7 See The Bolshevik Revolution. I9I7-I923. Vol. 3. pp. +81-483.
CH.XXXVII POLICY IN THE EAST 607
the other hand it provided in its resolution on organization for
the creation of an eastern department - the first geographical
department to be set up in the headquarters of Comintern.1 The
immediately following third congress of KIM set up a "small
commission" for eastern and colonial countries; but except in
China and Outer Mongolia it found no activities to report. For
colonial countries it had" no material, only projects ".2
In this early period, the meagre activities of Comintern in the
Far East were eclipsed by those of Profintern. Since Profintern
had not enjoyed in Europe even the limited successes, or illusions
of success, achieved by Comintern, and since IFTU, ·which
opposed an impregnable barrier to the advance of Profintern in
Europe, had never paid much attention to the workers of eastern
countries, it was natural that the efforts of Profintern should have
been the mo~e easily turned in this direction. Before the founda
tion of Profintern in July 1921, Mezhsovprof had divided its
work between five geographical sections, one of them being for
"the eastern countries", and established a bureau in the Far
Eastern secretariat of Comintern in Irkutsk; but its contacts with
the Far East were admitted to be slender.3 On the occasion of
the founding congress of Profintern Lozovsky issued a warning
that the workers' movement in the east, if too closely associated
with the national liberation movement, would take on,chauvinist
traits, and appealed for a movement on an unequivocal class
basis; and the congress passed a rather perfunctory general
4
resolution on " The Trade Union Movement in the Near and Far
East and in the Colonies". 5 During the Congress of Toilers of
I Protokoll des Vierten Kongresses der Kommunistischen Internationale (1923),
pp. 994-997. For the first report of this department see Bericht der Exekuti'!J6
der Kommunistischen Internationale, IS. Dezember I922 bis IS. Mai I923 (1923),
p. 9; it was said to be divided into Near, Middle and Far Eastern sections, and
was mainly concerned with the collection of information.
2 Bericht '!Jom 3. Kongress der Kommunistischen Jugendinternationale (1923),
pp. 220-221; the general resolution on work in the east (ibid. pp. 279-283)
confirmed this conclusion.
3 Compte-rendu du Conseil International des Syndicats Rouges pour la periode
du IS juillet I920 a juillet I92I (1921), pp. 26, 66-67.
4 Speech of Lozovsky at a meeting in Moscow on June 22, 1921, printed
as an introduction to the official record of the congress (IV' Mezhdunarodnyi
Kongress Revolyutsionnykh Pro/essional'nykh i Proiz'!Jodst'Vennykh Soyuzo'!J (n.d.
[1921)), p. 10).
5 Resolutionen, Statuten, Manifeste undAu/ru/e des Ersten Internationalen Kon
gresses der Roten Fach-und Industrie-Verblinde (Bremen, n.d. [1921)), pp. 79-80.
608 FOREIGN RELATION'S PT. V
the Far East in Moscow in January 1922, the executive bureau
of Profintern set up a special section to deal with the trade union
movement in eastern countries. The commission appears to
have worked independently of the congress, and was not mentioned
in the record of the proceedings. But it continued to sit for three
days. Lozovsky addressed it for two hours on the importance of
the trade union movement, and some of the delegates reported on
the position of trade unions in their respective countries. The
report was followed by a debate in which delegates of Chinese,
Indonesian, Korean and Japanese trade unions participated. The
importance of the occasion was clearly the first establishment of
contact between Profintern and the incipient trade union move
ment in the Far East.l Early in March 1922 the second session
of the central council of Profintern decided that, in view of
the increasing industrialization of the Far East, a special bureau
should be established by Profintern to direct agitation among Far
Eastern workers; Reinstein and Katayama were placed in charge
of this work, and Semaun was appointed to represent Profintern
in Indonesia.z On March 2, 1922, while the council was in
session, the transport workers' International Propaganda Com
mittee convened a conference of transport workers of the
3
Far East which was attended by delegates of the Indonesian
railway workers and of maritime workers from Japan, China and
India: one of the delegates was instructed to undertake work
among Japanese seamen.4
At this moment an initiative came from a different quarter.
In June 1922, the Australian trade union congress - also no
doubt inspired by the example of the diplomatic conference in
Washington - decided to summon in Sydney in June 1923 a
I Die Rote Gewerkschaftsinternationale, No.2 (13), February I, 1922, pp.
147-148; NO.3 (14), March 1922, pp. 214-216. Lozovsky claimed that" the
significance of the congress of Far Eastern peoples and of the special trade
union section which functioned at that congress has been very great in terms
of a rapprochement between Profintern and the workers' organizations of the
Far East" (Trud, February 22, 1922).
Die Rote Gewerkschaftsinternationale, No. 3 (14), March 1922, p. 231 ;
Z
NO.4 (15), April 1922, pp. 318-319. A few months later a certain Ma Mo-to
[sic] was appointed to represent Profintern in eastern countries (ibid. No. I2
(23), December 1922, p. 903). 3 For this IPe see p. 532 above.
4 Die Rote Gewerkschaftsinternationale, No. 10 (21), October 1922, p. 674;
3.a Mezhdunarodnaya Konferentsiya Revolyutsionnykh Transportnikov (1923),
pp. 13-14.
CH. XXXVII POLICY IN THE EAST 609
conference of trade unions of Pacific countries: Japan, China,
Australia, India, Java, the United States, Canada and the Philip
pines were the countries mentioned. Though nothing came of
1
this proposal, it may be surmised that such an invitation was not
welcome in Moscow, especially since Soviet Russia was apparently
excluded from it. The fourth congress of Comintern in Novem
ber-December 1922 attempted to trump the Australian lead by
proposing, in its resolution on the eastern question, that" repre
sentatives of the revolutionary proletariat of the Pacific countries
should convene a Pacific conference in order to work out the
correct tactics and find the corresponding form of organization
for a real union of the proletariat of all races in the Pacific".
2
Thus prompted, the immediately following second congress of
Profintern took up the running. Its main resolution, in a section
devoted to the IPCs, drew attention to the need to organize" the
transport workers in general, and the transport workers of coun
tries bordering on the Pacific Ocean in particular ", and to create
" port bureaus which will serve as a link between the revolutionary
seamen of the whole world ".3 A special resolution devoted to
"trade unions in the east and in colonial and semi-colonial
countries" concluded with a dec~sion " to convene simultaneously
with the next congress of Profintern the broadest possible con
ference of revolutionary trade organizations of colonial and semi
colonial countries of the whole world". Meanwhile the establish
ment of port bureaus in the principal ports would serve as a link
between east and west: this was to be the task of " a special
conference of transport workers with the participation of Profin
tern ".4 A conference of the transport workers' IPC was held at
the same time as the congress, delegates of the Chinese seamen's
union and Chinese and Indonesian railway unions appearing for
the first time as members of the committee ; ~ and in June 1923
the central council of Profintern drew up a further instruction to
J Byulleten' II Kongressa Krasnogo Internatsionala ProJsoyuzov (n.d.), p. 148.
2 Kommunisticheskii Internatsional v Dokumentakh (1933). p. 324 j the
German text in Thesen und Resolutionen des IV. Weltkongresses der KI (1923),
p. 51, speaks of .. convening" a conference, the Russian text of .. meeting at .. it.
3 Desyat' Let Profinterna v Resolyutsiyakh ([930), p. [03.
4 3Ib.i.d . p. 114.
5 Mezhdlmarodnaya KonJerentsiya Revolyutsiolmykh Transportnikov
(1923), p. 7 j Die Rott GewerkschaJtsinternationale, No. 12 (23), December \922,
p.889·