THE PEASANTS UNDER LENIN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIV, 19 March 1921, Page 9

THE PEASANTS UNDER LENIN

One oj' the most striking of Lenin's utterances (writes Lancelot Law ton in the Nineteenth Century) was contained in an interview which the Russian leader gave not long since to a special correspondent of the Manchester Guardian He said—what is perfectly truethat the peasants were individualists, and that, if they were united political force, they could swamp (he .Bolsheviks. Then followed this extremely illuminating passage between the Russian leader and the interviewer:— ' "I said: 'lf State agriculture in Russia comes to be on a larger scale, will there not he a, sort gt proletarianisation of the peasants, ho that in the long run their interests will come to be more or less identical with those of the workers in other than agricultural industry r "He said: 'Something' in that direction is being done, but it will have to be done very care fully, and must take a very long time. When we are getting many thousands of tractors from abroad, then something of the sort would become possible.' "Finally I asked : 'Did he think they would pull through far enough economically to satisfy the needs of the peasantry, before that same peasantry had organised % real political opposition that should overwhelm themf J "Lenin laughed. 'lf I could' answer that question I could answer everything, for on the answer to that question everything depends. I think wo can. Yes, I think we can. But I do not

know that we can.' " j In pre-revolution days the Rus-, sian peasants were in the propor-J tion of eighty per cent, to the rest of the population over the whole of Russia. Outside the Governments of Petrograd and Moscow this proportion was much greater, and since the revolution it has increased enormously, for Russia has lost some of her principal industrial districts in Poland, and it is well known that the towns have fallen into decay and xarge numbers of their inhabitants have gone to the country. It is clear from these simple statistics that the attitude o£ the millions of peasants will decide the fate of Russia—and perhaps of the world. Lenin himself admits that this attitude is at present undetermined. For it to be determined in favour of the Bolshevists he lays down two conditions as essential: (I) The slow proletarianisation ot the peasants: (2) that their economic needs should be satisfied before their political discontent develops an opposition wJucn would admittedly be overwhelming. Lenin .sees plainly that the danger to Bolshevism lies in the peasant enigma. Some of his native supporters, particularly in this country, are never tired of leihng us that Bolshevism distinguishes itself from doctrinaire Socialism in that it docs not talk Communism but acts Communism. 1 think Lenin and his more intelligent colleagues are under no such illusions, and! the realities, ot the situation in Russia uphold their judgment. Lev us analyse these realities The Bolsheviks :n repealed manifesto* describe themselves as the advance guard of the workers. The number of conscious Joisnev;ks has been given at totals varying from 200,000 to (.00,000. liut wo need not concern ourMjke* too deeply with this matter, liie ultimate ideal of Bolshevism, n* r;cciaimed by Lenin himself is Kor.alism without the State, that •s a cM-d'tion of philosophic an-im-hv vMch Tolstoy would have described a s the Kingdom of God on earth. It requires no gift ot cynicism to say that the number ot people fully qualified to enter this Kingdom is exceedingly tew. Therefore we can conclude that ihe number of conscious Communists is as small as the ouncer ot perfpefc Christians. What the JioJshevAs in their \r.anife.3ic«3 really m«an. but do not want to say, 19 that their adherents are party men; but again the number ot fully conscious and trustvortny party men—say of the type of Liivinoff- must of necessity I*6 very small. Let us not forge also'that the force which maintains the rc-f-hevik Party m power is the Red Army, composed of men

i limited in numbers by military age land with a. fair sprinkling of the town proletariat which by now cannot, possibly number in all more than ten per cent, of Russia's population. From these circumstances it will. ( readily -be •mderstcod that Lenin is to feel anxious about the future, which has yet to disclose the, atuia.'e of the peasantry towards Lelshevism-of ninety per cent- of Russia'.-, whole population. Why. it will be asked, docs the peasant whom Lenin .has righti/ oescfibed as an individ'.mlisi. not rise aid sweep away a. i-egum.-. the a\o\\e<i purpose ot which is io prefect at once to the destruction of private property and to the setting up in its place of 1:1111.munal ownership of the mean., of production,' The apathy of the peasantry is accounted for by many circiimslanees. For the principal oi these circumstances we turn once more to the recent utterances of Lenin : "Having overthrown Tsardoiu and militarism (he says in his Proletarian Revolution) the pea santry was dreaming about equalised land tenure, and no power, on earth would have tie en able to kill this dream in the peasantry, as it became free from landlordism and from the bourgeois parliamentary republican state. The proletarians wero saying to the peasants. We shall help you to_ attain this "ideal" form of capitalism (since equalisation of land tenure is the idealisation of capitalism from the point of view of the small producer); but by doin" so wc shall demonstrate to

you its inadequacy, and the necessity of passing to the social tillage of the land.' " Elsewhere in the same work I Lenin admits that although the Bolsheviks did not agree to the claim of the neasants they regarded it as their duty to satisfy it "because it was the claim of the overwhelming majority of the peasants." In other words, the Bolsheviks were "to help the peasantry in that process of testing the petty bourgeois ideas in order to pass from them as speedily as possible to the Socialist demands. When he savs "as speedily as possible" Lenin is not really sanguine that the transformation will be accomplished soon. For he knows that to attain this ideal., what he terms the "process ot proletarianisation" must be carried out, and did he not tell the. Manchester Guardian interviewer that this "will have to be done very carefully and must take a very long time"? Here the problem with which the Bolshevik* are confronted is one of _ the greatest problems of humanity itself. The peasant is a man of undeveloped mind and frugal habits. By a strange irony the Communist Party has secured to him—and boasts of the achievement—the highest ideal attainable under canitalisra-the equalisation p land distribution. Thus by the aid of the Bolsheviks he has become what they term "a petty bourgeois." To convert him into a class-conscious Communist he must be turned into a prolctarian-that is to say, he must be taught the benefits of association, and bis occupation, must be Lenin mentions the introduction 01 "thousands and thousands > ot tractors"'as one of the 'principal influences which will produce this great change. The experiment is perilous. Lenin knows this, for he says that the work will have to be done very carefully, and that u will take a very long time. Things have proved different with the town proletariat who worked in factories together, and never experienced the blessings of the equalisation of property. The Bolsheviks themselves know enough about human nature to admit tnat the peasant will not remain content to live simply from the fruits of his little plot of land. He will want more. Admitting that, owing to the peculiar circumstances which prevailed in Russia at the time of the revolution, the levelling process in regard to the peasant has been successfully carried out, is he to get this "more by beginning again the whole history of individual competition, or will the Bolsheviks by law and propaganda succeed in making him an intelligent and realising Communist, ready to give up his individual allotment and farm the land

-and share its fruits in association ' with his fellow-men I Most J>ol sheviks think that (hey will sin: eeed in accomplishing this miracle and that under their tnitioi. peasants will jump over the stage of middle-c.la.ss development an< land straight in Utopia.. But Lenin is obviously apprehensive. Meanwhile time presses. Th< towns, we know, have fallen inh ruin and decay. No Labour Mis sions to Russia are necessary to tell us this; the Bolsheviks _d. not deny it. We have less information about the conditions in tin country. We do know, however, that the standard of iile there ha, gone down and not up. It wa. always low, but to-day it hasreached the level of primitive con ditions. The peasants demand at least as good a life as they ha« before ; and in their new capacity more ----probably much more. ;V:things are at. present, they eaniioi possibly improve their lot. Paper money is valueless. The towns, have no products lo give them in exchange for the crops which Hie; have raised. Hence it is literal!;, true tha' they are sitting on their allotments living solely from _ hand to mouth on the frugal fruits ol their own soil. A dull and barrel; existence this, it must be con fessed. Lenin doubtless had this stafr of affairs in the back of his mind when he said that everything do pended on whether they couh pull through far enough ccononii cally to satisfy the needs of tin peasantry before that same pea santry had organised a, real poli tical opposition that should over whelm them. Here we see how uv gent, it has become for the 80l sheviks to open up trade rela tious with the West- Without tin products of the industrial Wesi they carry out the process of the proletarianisation 0 the peasant, which is essential t< their Socialistic plan and purpose. What, let us next inquire, does Lenin mean when he talks of sat isfying (he, needs-'of; the peasants' Has he a nice regard for language and does he really mean needs'. Certainly some Bolsheviks ha,v< quite ordinary ideas of what con stitutes man's needs. But th< peasant will have something to say on the point. The whok prospect is one that might make Tolstoy turn in his grave. Lenin relies upon the dictatorship of the poor peasant to attain his end. He forgets thai poverty is a disease largely of com paiison; and that now equalisa tion has been carried out the poor are no loner the exception. Yetalways he has in the inner recess es of his mind some fears. iI A common peasant revolution," hf says, "is still a, bourgeois revolution aiid could not in a backyard country be turned into a Socialist—one without a. whole series of t. ran si tions and successive stages." If is, after all, not so very surpris ing that the anarchists should now be calling Lenin bourgeois—Lenii of all men in this world? It conies then to this: The fa|,< of the Bolsheviks will depend upoi the as yet undetermined attitude of fho; peasants, who number ninety per cent, of Russia's popu latioiii. Jf this attitude is to fav our Communistic principles the proletarianisation of the peasants must first be accomplished. _ proletarianisation is meant chiefly the satisfaction of their economic, or to put the matter more plainly their human, needs. This purpose can only be carried out by opening up tra.de with the West ing the necessary machines, goods, and commodities which the pea- ■■■»'. demands before he will part with food to keep alive his future proletarian brother of the towns. Tu the process, starting from the small beginning of his equal allotment, he may become corrupted and conceivably develop an incorrigible taste for private property and an unequal share of ttie good things of this life. That is 111* risk which Lenin runs. But meanwhile t.hings are in a state oi stagnation," and he, is in a great hurry to resume trade and begin the ' long and weary process ol proletarianisation upon which he w confident depends the realisation of all his dreams. He believes, that he has planted bis seed in virgin soil—the equalisation of land tenure—and that if he can only make the peasants prosper—"satisfy their economic needs" is the I term he uses-and, in the meanj rime, peaceably persuade them to , see the merit* of Communism, all will bo well. The unhappy bourgeoisie did not get off so lightlv, but (.hen they were very few in number. The peasants, as evervone knows, are an overwhelming force. Here Lenin points out. that the bourgeoisie were of a fixed mentality, and therefore hornless from his point of view, whereas the peasants are undeveloped and therefore capable of change. Perhaps he will be disillusioned if he begins to bribe them with luxuries. To sum up, ■the piquancv of the whole situa- ' tion in Russia lies in these facts: » (1) That a party believing in [direct action to establish Communlism has been compelled to equalise private property among ninety per cent, of the population, and that it owes its retention of power to the maintenance of this system. (2) That in order to produce Socialism among this ninety per cent, of the population it has found it urgently necessary to secure the products of the Western capitalistic States, To all this the answer of the Bolshevik is simple, it is: The means justify the end., . Let us always keep in mind what Lenin never forgets: That the Peasants are an overwhelming force, one which, if only lfc bestirs itself, can "swamp" Bol-shc-vism-againl I use, Lenin s

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