Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-10-13

fngs, which indeed the government
! raided by taxation and the ingenious
system Of charging high prices for in
| dustrial goods and allowing only low
prices for agricultural products.
This condition inevitably brought
economic anemia and low wages, which
created a spirit of discomfort among
civil servants. clerks. workmen, peas
ants and virtually everybody In Russia.
There was, of course, the usual politi-
cal repercussion. The dictatorship had
to be strengthened, and from being a
military dictatorship during the period
of war communism, it developed into q
communism of policemen, petty poll
ticians and hypocrites.
The government of the country was
carried on at first by the Communist
party, which very largely followed Its
chiefs blindly during the period Of the
great struggles. Later it tended more
and more to pass into the hands of a
small government clique. which in
flicted its power on the Communist
party after having expelled, deported,
exiled or Inundated the leaders of the
old heroic age, such as Trotsky, zino-
vieff, Kameneff. Tomsky, Boukharine,
Rakowsky, Preobrajensky and Radek,
SOcialized by Decree.
It must be recognized that nothing
else could have happened, because, after
all, one cannot create state OF society
superior to capitalism by brutally sub
shutting for capitalism and for the conf
plicated machinery of industrial leader
ship in a country political party
which has been socialized by decree.
Such a scheme must lead either to
more or less rapid collapse. as would
have happened if that warlike prophet
TrotSky had remained in power, or to
the creation of a feudal bureaucracy,
of which Stain is the practical EN-
bodiment in the u. S. S. r.
This bureaucracy has created a back
ward and reactionary economic regime
In spite of all propaganda may say, as
to exist 1t has to stif1e all productive
forces in the country, in both towns
and villages.
The bureaucracy has further set UP
a political regime corresponding to this
economic regime-that is to say, 1t mas
formed a dictatorship in which small
governing group under nobody'S control
practices a policy of despotism 1t asks
YOU to believe is a policy OF enlighten-
ment.
It is not to be wondered that the one
question asked among friends VINO can
the situation in Russia is discussed Is:
How Is all this going to end?"
vital Question.
Will the present regime be altered?
Numbers of Communists OF the right
wing and avowed or unconscious Men
shevistS of whom many are to be founo
among government employees, will say
that the country should pass little by
little from the bureaucratic system and
from the government control OF indus
try to a state where the concessions TO
foreign capitalists will be increased very
This would allow the progressive
establishment Of a mixed economic
regime in the bigger undertakings.
which would be run half by private
capital and half by the Soviet state. 1t
also would enable smaller industrial
concerns and the small peasant investor
to develop freely, and would lead to a
gradual return of freedom of action Of
trades unions and local Soviets, and to
general evolution toward democracy.
Thus, we are told, there would be set
up in the u. S. s. r. a type Of eco
nomic and political machinery both
original and progressive.
In theory all this is not impossible
but it would be asking the Stain bu-
reaucracy to cut Its own throat. This
solidly entrenched minority which con-
trolls the enormous state organization
recently smashed the right wing of
Communism, led by Boukharine and
Tomsky, that enjoyed the support Of an
important section of the population, but
whose forces we're scattered and with
out any central control.