The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-04-23
REPLY TO THE COMRADES
ON THE COLLECTIVE FARMS
BY JOSEPH STAIN.


the collective economy movement at the pres
ent moment is the agricultural production CO.
operative (arteD; that (b) in view of this
fact it is necessary to draw up model sta
tute for agricultural production cooperatives
as the chief form of the collective economy
movement; that (c) "decreeing" the collective
economy movement from above and playing
with collectivization must not be permitted in
practical work.
That means that we must now direct our
course not to the communes but to the agri-
cultural production cooperatives as the chief
form of collective economic construction; that
it must rot be permitted to spring over the
agricultural production cooperative immediate
ly into the commune; that must not sub
stitute the mass movement of the peasants to
the collective farms by "decreeing" collective
farms, by playing at collective economy"
That seems to be clear And what actually
TRANSFERRED? 1t appeared that some of our
comrades, intoxicated by the first successes
of the collective economy movement, forgot
both the drectives of Lenin and the decisions
of the C. C.. Instead of organizing a mass
movement for the agricultural production CO.
operatives, these comrades commenced to lead
over the individual peasant farms Immediately
to the commune. Instead of consolidating the
forms of movement to the agricultural pro-
QucJl0n cooperative, they began with cOmpuI-
sion to "socialize' the small cattle and poultry,
the mich cows which are not producing any
commodity for the market, and the dwelling
houses. The results of this haste, which is i'm
permissible for feminist, are now known to
all. AS a rule there were of course no stable
communes created on the other hand, how
ever, a number of agricultural production CO.
operatives got out of hand 1t is true, "beau-
tifuF' resolutions remained but what was the
use of them?
Therein lies the third mistake in the col
lective economy movement.
Third question: How did these mistakes arise
and how must the Party correct them?
Answer: They arose on the basis of our
rapid successes in the sphere of the collective
farm movement. Successes often go to ones
head. They not infrequently evoke excessive
self-confidenee and self-conceit This can cas-
lily happen to representatives of a party which
is in power, especially of such a Party as our
Party, whose power and authority are almost
unreasonable. In this respect cases of Com
munist presumptiousness, against which Lenin
fiercely fought, quite possible In this
respect belief in the omnipotence of DEGREES
of resolutions is altogether possible. In this
respect the danger of the revolutionary mea-
sures of the Party being converted into empty
bureaucratic DEGREES by individual representa-
tives of the Party in this or that corner of our
vast country is very real. In this respect |
have in mind not only local functionaries but
also district functionaries as well as members
of the c. c. Communist presumptiousness'
said Lenin-"means that man who is a
member of the Communist Party and has not
yet been purged from it, imagines he can
solve all his tasks by Communist DEGREES"
Volume XVIII. Russian edition, 1st part,
pages 1884 to 1857
1t was upon this basis that there arose the
mistakes in the collective farm movement, the
distortions of the Party line in the building
up of collective economy.
Wherein lies the danger of the mistakes and
distortions if they are continued in the future,
If they are not rapidly and completely eradi-
Gated?
The danger lies in the fact that these mis-
takes lead us directly to a disintegration of
the collective farm movement, to estrangement
from the middle peasants, to the disorganiza-
ton of the village poor, to confusion in our
ranks, to weakening of our whole socialist con-
struction, to the restoration of the kulaks. In
short, these mistakes have tendency to divert
US from the path of consolidating the alliance
with the main mass of the peasantry, from
the path of consolidating the proetarian die
tatorship, to the path of breach with the
masses, to the path Of undermining the prole-
tartan dictatorship.
This danger made its appearance in the sec
ond half of February, at the same moment
when portion of our comrades, blinded by
the previous successes, rapidly departed from
the feminist path. The &C. of the Party rec
ognized this danger and did not hesitate to
intervene in the matter by instructing Stain
to warn the comrades in "a special article on
the collective farm movement. Many believe
that the article, "Many are being Rendered
Giddy by the Successes" was written on the
personal initiative of Comrade Stain. That
of course is only empty talk. We do not have
Central Committee in order to leave such a
matter to the personal initiative of anybody.
A very thorough investigation was made by
the &C. And when the extent of the mistakes
was ascertained, the &C. did not hesitate to
proceed with the whole force of it's authority
against the mistakes by publishing its famous
decision of March Is, $780,
1t is difficult to stop people when proceeding
at rapid pace and to bring them back to
the right way and to reform the ranks while
on the march. But our Party calls itself the
Party of Lenin precisely because it possesses
sufficient elasticity to overcome such difficult
ties And it has in the main already over
come these difficulties The most important
matter now is to display manlness, to recog-
nize ones mistakes and to find sufficient
strength to liquidate them in the shortest pos
sbe time To be afraid to recognize mis-
takes after the intoxcation of the recent sue
cesses, fear of self-critcism, unwillingness,
rapidly and determinedy to correct the mis-
takes, therein lies the chief difficulty We