The Bolshevik Revolution 1917–1923

405 Pages·1952·36.624 MB·English

by  E. H. Carr (auth.)

A HISTORY OF SOVIET RUSSIA
A HISTORY OFSOVIET RUSSIA
by E. H. Carr
in lourteen volumes
I. THE BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION, Volume One
2. THE BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION, Volume Two
3. THE BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION, Volume Three
4. THE INTERREGNUM
s.
SOCIALISM IN ONE COUNTRY, Volume One
6. SOCIALlSM IN ONE COUNTRY, Volume Two
7. SOCIALISM IN ONE COUNTRY, Volume Three, Part 1
8. SOCIALISM IN ONE COUNTRY, Volume Three, Part II
9. ·FOUNDATIONS OF A PLANNED ECONOMY, Volume One,
Part 1
10. ·FOUNDATIONS OF A PLANNED ECONOMY, Volume One,
Part II
11. FOUNDATIONSOF A PLANNED ECONOMY, Volume Two
12. FOUNDATIONS OF A PLANNED ECONOMY, Volume Three,
Part 1
13. FOUNDATIONS OF A PLANNED ECONOMY, Volume Three,
Part 11
14. FOUNDATIONS OF A PLANNED ECONOMY, Volumc Three,
Part III
·with R. W. Davies
A HISTORY OF SOVIET RUSSIA 2
THE BOLSHEVIK
REVOLUTION
1917- 19 3
2
BY
E. H. CARR
Fellow 0/ Trinity College, Cambridge
VOLUME TWO
M
MACMILLAN
© E. H. Carr 1952
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 1952 978-0-333-02285-6
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First published 1952 by
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and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
ISBN 978-1-349-63634-1 ISBN 978-1-349-63632-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-63632-7
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from the British Library.
Reprinted 1963, 1969, 1972, 1978, 1994
PREFACE
0, the criticisms made by reviewers of the first volumc of this work,
the most cogent was the charge that I had inverted the natural order
by describing the political and constitutional arrangements of the first
years of the Soviet regime in advance of my treatment of the economic
conditions wh ich in large part dictated and explained them. The
appearance of the second volume a year after the first will now permit
of the two interconnected subjects being examined side by side; and
I am not whplly convinced that, since the awkward choice was imposed
on me, I should have made things easier by embarking on the complex
economic developments of the period without first setting the political
framework in which they took place. Even now the picture is not
complete, since the foreign relations of Soviet Russia in these years
are reserved for a third volume which should be ready for publication
next year.
Within the present volume awkward problems of arrangement also
presented themselves. While every part of an economy is dependent
on every other, it was obviously necessary here to divide the Soviet
economy into its main sectors. What was less dear was the necessity
of a further division by periods within the main period covered by
the volume. At first sight it might have seemed preferable to discuss
the development of, say, agriculture through the whole period in a
single chapter. Since, however, the period included three sub-periods
with markedly different characteristics - the period of the revolution
itself, the period of war communism and the first stage of NEP - I
finally decided on a chronological division into chapters with each
sector of the economy discussed in turn in each of the three chapters
devoted to these periods. The table of contents makes it easy for the
reader, if he so prefers, to adopt the alternative course of pursuing tbe
story of, say, agriculture throughout the volume without turning aside
to intervening seetions on industry, finance, etc.
A further problem on wh ich a word of explanation may be required
was the point at which to bring the volume to an end. The general
design of this first three-volume instalment of tbe history was to
carry it approximately up to the time when Lenin was withdrawn from
the Bcene and the struggle for the succession began. In the first
volume the creation of tbe USSR, the adoption of its constitution and
V
vi PHRFACR
the abolition of the People's Commissariat of Nationalities in July 1923
formed a convenient stopping-point. In the second volume the
corresponding point comes slightly earlier. The culmination of the
first phase of NEP was reached in the winter of 1922-1923; and the
twelfth party congress met in April 1923 - a month after Lenin's
final incapacity - under the shadow of an imminent economic crisis
which was a1ready compelIing rival leaders to take up positions. In
this volume, therefore, I have stopped short of the twelfth party
congres8 except in the last chapter on" The Beginnings of Planning ".
Here the discussions at the congress were a recapitulation of earlier
controversies rather than the opening of a fresh debate, and have
therefore been reported in this chapter.
Nearly all those whose assistance I gratefully acknowledged in the
preface to the first volume have also aided me in one way or another in
the preparation of its successor; in addition to these, Mr. Maurice
Dobb kindly lent me from his Iibrary so me books which would other
wise have been inaccessible to me, and Mrs. Dewar of the Royal
Institute of International Affairs generously allowed me to make use
of the material which she has collected for a projected study of Soviet
labour policies. To Mr. Isaac Deutscher I am specially indebted for
putting at my disposal the notes made by hirn of the unpublished
Trotsky archives in the Widener Library of Harvard University. To
all these and others who have given me help or advice in the search
for material and in the writing of the volume I should like once more
to tender my sincere thanks.
I should add that a full bibliography and· index to The Bolsltevik
Revolution, I9I7-I923 will appear at the end of its third and last
volume.
E. H. CARR
JunI 5, 19S1
CONTENTS
PARTIV
THE ECONOMIC ORDER
PACK
Chapter 15. THEORIES AND PROGRAMMES 3
16. THE IMPACT OF THB REVOLUTION 28
(a) Agriculture
(h) Industry
(e) Labour and the Trade Unions
(d) Trade and Distribution
(e) Finance
17· WAR COMMUNISM 147
(a) Agriculture
(h) Industry
(e) Labour and the Trade Unions
(d) Trade and Distribution
(e) Finance
18. FROM WAR COMMUNISM TO NEP 269
19· NEP: THE FIRST STEPS 280
(a) Agriculture
(b) Industry
(e) Labour and the Trade Unions
(d) Trade and Distribution
(e) Finance
20. THE BEGINNINGS OF PUNNING 360
Note C. MARX, ENGELS AND THE PEASANT 385
D. WORKERS' CONTROL ON THB RAILWAYS
394
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
399
TABLE OF ApPROXIMATE EQUIVALENTI 4°0
vii
PARTIV
THE ECONOMIC ORDER
CHAPTER I~
THEORIES AND PROGRAMMES
T
HB teaching of Marx arose by reaction from the" utopian
ism " of the early socialists, who constructed ideal socialist
societies out of the wealth and ingenuity of their own
imagination, and did not feel it necessary to concern themselves
with the question how these ideal societies of the future were to
be evolved out of the existing societies. Marx's method was
historical: a11 changes in the destinies and organization of man
kind were part of an ever-flowing historical process. He made the
assumption - the only postulate which he did not attempt to
demonstrate - that modern society would in the long run always
seek to organize itself in such a way as tq make the most effective
use of its productive resources. He started therefore from an
analysis of existing society in order to show that the capitalist
order, once instrumental in releasing and fostering an unprece
dented expansion of the productive resources of mankind, had
now reached a stage in the course of its historical development
where it had become a hindrance to the maximum use of these
resources and an obstacle to further progress: it was therefore
bound, so long as Marx's initial postulate held good, to yield place
to a new social order (which Marx called either ce socialism " or
" communism ") which would once more permit and promote the
maximum use of productive resources. Marx's conception was
political and revolutionary in the sense that he believed that the
change from capitalism to socialism would involve the replacement
of the bourgeoisie by the proletariat as a ruling dass, and that it
was inconceivable, at any rate in most countries, that this replace
ment could be effected without revolutionary violence. But it was
also scientific and evolutionary. AB the economic structure of
capitalist society had grown out of the economic structure of feudal
80ciety, so by a similar process thc economic atructure of 80cialism
3