The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-10-06
Bolsheviks Acted Differently.

Bolsheviks Acted Differently.
Much to the dismay and chagrin
of Hillquit and his comrades of the
second international, the Bolsheviks
did not follow the path of the yves
tern European Marxists," and defend
the government of the czar. Not only
did they wage a relentless struggle
against the car, but they also de-
feated and dispersed the Kerensky
government that tried to carry out
the war policies of the czar after
the imperial family was no longer
able to rule.
According to Hillquit this was all
wrong. The Bolsheviks should not
have set up government of work
ers and peasants because economic
development had not yet reached a
stage where such a thing could be
successful.
Instead of driving relentlessly for
ward to a proletarian revolution the
Bolsheviks should have waited for
the following developments, accord
ing to Hillquit's article in Current
History:
IA capitalist system or wealth
production in a high state of de-
velopment and organization.
"A powerful capitalist class
dominating the economic life of
the country.
"a large industrial working
class. Only thus can there be the
basic condition for a successful
class struggle against capital
ism.
Hillquit claims that this is Marx
isn. Yet it was Frederick Engels,
co-worker with Karl Marx who, in
the second Russian edition Of the
Communist Manifesto, stated, in the
latter quarter of the past century
that, even then, under conditions ex-
listing in Russia, the social revolution
might well begin with its base in
the primitive communes.
Lenin, the Marxist, refuted all the
learned arguments of the Kautskys,
the Bauers, the Hillquits of the sec
ond international by explaining that
the world was no longer divided in
to Independent nations, but that the
whole world was under the domina-
ton of imperialism; that in such a
situation the only revolution possible
in country such as Russia was a
proletarian revolution, not necessar-
lily because Russia as an isolated
country was ripe for such a revolu-
ton, but because the system of world
economy as whole was ripe for it.
Joseph Stain, in his book "Lenin-
ism," aptly deals with this identical
question in a most concise and COM
prehensive manner. On page 100 of
the English edition international
Publishers of that work we read:
"In former days it was usual
to think of the proletarian reVo-
! luton in this country or that,
as an Independent magnitude.
ent magnitude, the capitalist
| forces of the same country; these
two Independent magnitudes faced
each other upon an Independent
national front. Today this form
ulation is obsolete. Nowadays
we have to think in terms of
world wide proletarian revolu-
ton for the various national
fronts, isolated of yore, have
| coalesced INTO unified whole,
the world wide imperialist front.
against which must be arrayed
the unified front of the proletar-
| ian movement"
To the question: Where will the
imperialist front first be broken ?"
Stain answers:
1.-THE capitalist front will be
broken where the chain of i'm
perialism is weakest, and Ii is
| there that the proletarian revolu-
ton (Which follows upon the de-
feat of Imperialism, must Begin
1t was precisely the Russia of 1917
that was the weakest link in the
chain Of imperialism and it was here
that the revolution broke through.