Leon Trotsky: The denouement approaches

I. Revolutionary push

[my own translation of the Russian text in "Pravda" (Vienna) No 20, 16/29 April, 1911. Reprinted in Sochineniya, Vol. 4, Moscow-Leningrad 1926. compared to the German translation. Corrections by English native speakers would be extremely welcome]

Indeed, trouble does not come alone. First, Tolstoy died in a very restless way. Then Yegor Sazonov died even more restlessly. Then the students inflicted irreparable damage to the legend of "pacification", then the State Council fell out of obedience, then the State Duma stood up for the Council, Guchkov resigned in protest, and although Stolypin remained in power, now no one will give even a nickel for the strength of his position. Where does all this come from? Here, first of all, you need to understand one extremely important circumstance - namely: the student riots were the immediate impetus that knocked the entire building out of equilibrium. Crooks and fools write day after day in the government and Octobrist press that the university strike has failed. In fact, it achieved results that no one could have thought of in advance, and which even now are not clear to the vast majority of its participants. The student strike compromised the government to an unexpected degree, undermined the reputation of its invincibility, tore off its halo, and destroyed its authority. And such is the strength of the revolutionary fact that even the liberals, who did everything in their power to undermine the strike, became quite bold under its influence and began to cheat in earnest in the Duma and in their press. Student are, of course, too weak a detachment to crush the regime on June 3; but the courage and energy of its uproar proved to be sufficient to undermine the Stolypin reputation, woven from the fright of the possessing classes, from the Octobrist sycophancy and cadet self-contempt. However, the liberal cretinism is so profound that even now the Cadet and even the "left" -democratic press, filling its columns with the most detailed definition of the political role of every old fool from the State Council, completely failed to understand that the role of the insurgent students in the collapse of the Stolypinism was a thousand times over. more significant than the behind-the-scenes machinations of some Witte or Durnovo. So the student melee with the Stolypin sergeant-major, despite the modest strength of the students themselves, turned out to be an excellent demonstration of the power of the revolutionary method of action.

II. They knew what they were aiming at

But if the student movement played the role of a revolutionary impetus, then the main reasons for the Stolypin-Octobrist crisis lie, of course, much deeper, in the very foundation of the building on June 3.

The Octobrists are now complaining that the government has gone round them on a curve. But this is nonsense. Who, in fact, could have admitted, even for a minute, that the noble bureaucracy, which drowned the people's revolution in blood and crushed two Dumas, agreed as a result to give up its place to the "liberal"-conservative representative of capital, the Moscow stock broker Guchkov?

Nobody deceived the Octobrists, they knew what they were aiming at. "Peasants and workers do not exist as political allies for the bourgeoisie." "The only ally for the bourgeoisie is the landowners." This is how the Golos Moskvy, Guchkov's organ, has repeatedly expressed the main idea of ​​Octobrism. This did not mean, of course, that the capitalists and the nobility had one and the same interests - far from it. But this meant that the deepest contradictions of their interests fade and disappear when the social movements of the popular masses appeared on the scene. Having concentrated millions of workers within the walls of its factories and plants and clashed with them face to face in 1905, the capitalist bourgeoisie with closed eyes provided the entire state apparatus to the old monarchical power, based on the noble bureaucracy. Uniting with the landowners, as with the "only ally," the capitalist classes thereby completely renounced plans to improve the internal market by allotting land to the muzhik: for when did the nobility voluntarily release their land from their clutches? Blessing the coup d'état of June 3, 1907, as a salutary act, that is, bowing subserviently to the restoration of the autocracy that cracked in October 1905, the capitalist bourgeoisie thereby deliberately renounced the budgetary rights of parliament, and hence a serious restructuring of the tsarist budget, thoroughly saturated with noble parasitism and bureaucratic predation. In a word: the bloc of June 3, concluded in broad daylight, from the very beginning meant the supremacy of the landowner over the "merchant's son", the official over the landowner and the merchant, the State Council over the Duma, the ministry over both "legislative chambers", the court camarilla over the ministry. Nobody deceived Guchkov, he knew what he was aiming at. And we can say with complete certainty that if the Octobrists, wise by the experience of the last four years, were returned to the era of June 3, 1907, they would repeat all their steps from beginning to end.

III. The state machine of 3 June

The block of 3 June was fastened by a fivefold knot. Firstly: in order to finally tame the Octobrist party, which united the stock exchange with the less Asian part of the landowners, Stolypin sent a whole cloud of officials and court marauders, who gave the party its hopelessly lackey character. Secondly: powerless in its capitalist-landowning core, especially weakened by its additional bureaucratic detachment, the Octobrist party was placed in direct dependence on the right-wing landlord and the hooligan-police wing of the Duma, without which it could not take a step in all its "reforms". Thirdly: over the Duma, so that it would not be carried away and buried, the State Council was appointed, mostly bureaucratic, from retired ministers and losing their teeth satraps at the special selection of the tsar. Fourthly: every legislative decision, which the Duma and the Council agreed on, in order to become law, must still find the approval of the tsar, surrounded by a convoy of court uncles and in the closest relationship with the Council of the United Nobility. And, finally, fifth: above all else, the so-called article 87 was embedded in the basic laws, which during the parliamentary recesses allows the tsarist ministry to legislate in its own way.

And it fell to this monstrous legislative machine to "heal" the country after the revolution with its horrific social and national ulcers, with its oppression and lack of rights that had been accumulating for centuries!

IV. Imperialism and nationalism

An attempt by the allies to get out of the vicious circle of domestic politics on the great road of external robbery, to forcibly open to Russian capital access to the Balkan and Asian markets, to divert people's attention from the internal turmoil with external successes - these powerlessly farcical attempts by the Stolypin bloc, supported by the Cadets, led to a number of shameful diplomatic defeats. It turned out that it is impossible to have influence in the international arena if the higher officers are made up of ignorant and bloodthirsty executioners, if the "loyal" soldier is unenlightened, and the conscientious soldier is dissatisfied, if the military budget, starting with the battleship and ending with the soldiers' ration, is plundered by quartermasters and, in general, scoundrels, in a word, if the army is in the end disorganised, and the government is constantly fighting its own people. The people of 3 June had to make a new turn: from imperialist failures to internal "reforms" ... vice versa. The noisy great-power charlatanism was partly replaced and partly supplemented by petty, vicious, but no less charlatan nationalism. If the alliance of the big bourgeoisie with the nobility and bureaucracy excludes the possibility of freeing the internal market; if a strong army and a victorious imperialist policy are impossible on the basis of an emaciated and enslaved internal market, then it remains to try to monopolise the internal market for the "indigenous" owners, remove the Polish and Jewish capitalist from the national pie, if possible, and feed the true Russian nobleman and industrialist at the expense of "chukhonts" [Finns an Estonians]. The campaign against Finland, the projects for the separation of the Vyborg province and Chelm Land, the projects of municipal self-government in Poland and, finally, the project of zemstvo in the western governorates grew out of the nationalist course that closely welded Stolypin with the Duma nationalists, under which the Octobrists were increasingly turning into a left annex.

Nationalism first tried out the strength of its teeth in Finland, but the small cedar nut turned out to be very tough. They did not refuse the defeat of the Finns, but they decided to wait with storming, preferring for the time being to act by starvation. Efforts of national policy were directed along the line of least resistance: against the Jews and Poles. And it was here that the project of the Western Zemstvo came into play, around which a great scuffle ensued: they did not know their own, one Cain rebelled against the other Cain, and as a result, everyone, both the victors and the vanquished, ended up with bruised sides.

What is the essence of this great legislative act on the Western Zemstvo? In short, it is as follows: Zemstvo suffrage is transformed into a mockery of the peasantry and the urban masses; Jews are thrown completely overboard; and the land nobility, for the sake of which this massacre is carried out, is divided into two stables (curiae): a cramped stable – for the Polish Pans – and a spacious stable for the serf-owners of the Orthodox confession. Under the guise of the zemstvo, the dictatorship of the savage landowner was introduced in the economy of six western governorates.

The horse breeders in this reform were nationalists, among whom the main place is occupied by Russifying parasites from the western governorates and the Kingdom of Poland. But the Octobrists, too, did not put their faces in the mud before them. And this vile bill that passed through the Duma was unexpectedly brought down in the State Council. For what reason did the "Real Privy Councillors" rebel?

V. "Parliamentary" crisis and Stolypin

The most astute conservatives were simply frightened by the nationalist unbridledness of Stolypin's work. “This is impossible”, they decided. “You need to act more carefully, otherwise you will turn the masses of the people and the "foreign" possessing classes against yourself!” The other part, consisting of seasoned bureaucrats, like Durnovo and Witte, rebelled for motives of a different order: in essence, they spit completely at the Zemstvo, the Poles and all the dear fatherland, en gros and en detail, but they spent five years of Stolypin's economy in the State Council, they really want to stretch their legs, taking power into their own hands, and for this it is necessary to overthrow Stolypin in one way or another. Cautious conservatism combined in the State Council with bureaucratic intrigue, and the Stolypin zemstvo was ruined.

The nationalists howled, fearing for the fate of the zemstvo pie in the western provinces. The Octobrists also dug their heels in. They need the upper chamber, of course; no matter how shamelessly reactionary the Duma may be, there may be limits for it too, before which it will stop, for it is still an elected body, and they need a bureaucratic council, which in certain cases would slow down its work and would give it the opportunity to divert from itself popular indignation at the irresponsible "upper house". But the Duma wants the State Council to oppose it only with its own behind-the-scenes consent, so that a kind of division of labour would emerge; in one department the knots are tied and in the other they are untied. But Stolypin was indignant most of all. The eyes of the minion were filled with blood: why, to hell with it, were these old caps planted in the legislative chamber, to contradict him, the saviour of property and the throne! And Stolypin decided: article 87 allows the government to take emergency legislative measures during the absence of the chambers. What has become of this? First let us force the chambers to be absent, and then - our own hand is the ruler. On 12 March , the legislators were sent to graze for three days, and Stolypin, in the name of his monarch, enforced the Western Zemstvo under the forged label of Article 87. The measure was clearly and openly fraudulent, and the fraud itself was brazen, but clumsy, of the Nozdrev school. To complete the Stolypin victory, two of the bureaucrats most hostile to him flew out of the State Council. But the Council did not give up. The conservatives of the centre, from the more astute and cautious, were finally horrified by the military-field reprisals against the "high chambers" and united with the left group, consisting of eunuchs of the Zemstvo-professorial liberalism; this bloc was joined by the intriguers of the extreme right, who tomorrow, in Stolypin's place, will show the same nature of the Kamarinsky dance of state people - and the Council accepted a request for violation of the basic laws.

To Stolypin's astonishment, the State Duma also revolted against him. The minion had become so accustomed to making no fuss with his parliamentary bigwigs that he did not even notice how, striking a blow at the Council, he hit the Duma in the physiognomy. The nationalists, of course, accepted the Zemstvo from Stolypin's hands with a servile bow, like a fur coat off a master's shoulder. But the Octobrists grumbled. "The violation of the basic laws by the head of government," said their orator Lerche, "is an absolutely extraordinary phenomenon." Of course, this is a helplessly ridiculous lie. The only stable and constant feature in all Stolypin's work was precisely the violation of the basic laws. On 9 November, 1906, a law on the plundering of communal lands was passed in order to mock the basic laws. Through an open coup d'état carried out by Stolypin on 3 June, 1907, by prior agreement with the Guchkov union, the Octobrists became the leading party in the Duma. Owing all their influence to a coup d'état, they helped Stolypin carry out a coup d'état in Finland on 14 March, 1910. A whole series of less significant measures were carried out by Stolypin in the manner of the same Nozdrev legality. Finally, how many thousands of souls were sent in these five years to the other world by the bloody minion through his rapid-fire butchery, this organised mockery of the court and the law. And the Octobrists never once protested; on the contrary, they supported it. And how could they not support him; Should they reckon with such trifles as basic laws and written statutes when suppressing a people awakened from age-old hibernation?

But it's another matter now, when the conflict does not go beyond family misunderstandings among the winners themselves. No matter how disappointing the opposition of the Council to the national course, it is impossible to deal with the Council with hussar measures, for the Council is needed, it will be usable more than once as a bulwark against the onslaught of democracy. And you can't send legislators to air out for three days while the clerks are making laws - otherwise why would the constitutional vegetable garden be fenced off? - so reasoned the Octobrists, accepting the request for the government's violation of the basic laws.

In response to the request from the State Council, Stolypin referred to all sorts of scholarly German and French books on state law - this came out stupidly and made Stolypin look like a guard who launches sophisticated words. But Stolypin could answer much more succinctly and convincingly, without any scholarly grimaces. “Who am I? - he could tell his disgruntled allies - I, the former governor of Saratov, a secutor [heavily armed gladiator], without political ideas, but impudent and with a nose, I groped for ways from the very beginning, negotiated with both the cadets and the pogromists, the pogromists I used, and with regards to the Cadets I convinced myself of their complete political powerlessness, and, most importantly, I discovered the secret that the only desire of the possessing classes, no matter under what political mask they may appear, is to protect their property from revolution. And then I dropped all conventions and said straight to you: “My program is the protection of your lands and profits!” And you answered me in chorus: “And our program is Stolypin.” And from that time I hung up, strangled, legislated in full confidence that my actions could not violate any laws, for in me both the law and the prophets are embodied for you!"

By such an answer, Stolypin would not, of course, absolve himself of responsibility in the face of the people, but he would have correctly distributed the burden of the crimes of the counter-revolution among all his allies, concealers and indulgents. He did not do this, but the Social Democracy will do it. And when the hour of reckoning comes, the people will reward them all according to their deeds.

VI. Now it's our turn!

Thus ends a new chapter in the history of the Third Duma; after the bankruptcy of the Octobrist reformism, after the scandalous failures of the imperialist policy - the brutal collapse of the nationalist course. Even before the policy of a renewed onslaught on foreigners gave any practical result, with its provocative excesses it frightened even the worthy conservatives of the State Council and completely upset the ranks of the allied victors. The general scuffle among the ruling parties laid bare all contradictions and destroyed all illusions. From now on, Stolypin, like his eventual deputy, will be able to rule only through bureaucratic self-power, purged of all "ideologies," and only an industrial upsurge, moderating the discontent of the capitalist classes and temporarily weakening the contradictions between the bourgeoisie and the nobility, can prolong the existence of this exposed regime in which a gallant bouncer in an English frock coat was reputed to be a state genius, and parties of political rudeness presented themselves as a bulwark of culture and progress. Stocks are going up now, and the stock exchange is in a conciliatory mood, it needs peace of mind at all costs. For this reason alone, it would be senseless to expect now any decisive steps on the part of the Octobrists. Whether Stolypin will hold out under these conditions for some more time, or tomorrow he will cede his post to another saviour - this, of course, will not be predicted by any astrologer. And in the end, this is just as indifferent to the working class as it is indifferent to the Social Democratic faction, who is now presiding over the miserable and bewildered Duma: Guchkov or Rodzyanko.

We use the grace period that history gives people on 3 June before a new industrial crisis inflicts a fatal blow on them by the hand of the proletariat in order to instill in the consciousness of the working masses clear and simple Social-Democratic conclusions from the tangled conflicts and intrigues in the very depths of the counter-revolutionary statehood.

1. The Octobrists complain about the legislative obstruction of the State Council. But there is a very radical way to end this obstruction: you need to destroy the State Council. Down with the upper house! The people do not need dignified custoda over their representatives.

2. But on the other hand, the people need the lower house to be an accurate and complete expression of their interests. And this is possible only when parliament is elected by all adult citizens without distinction of sex on the basis of universal, equal, direct and secret suffrage.

3. If the deputies with the June 3 stamp are offended by the fact that the ministry sits astride the parliament and lashes it in the physiognomy with the whip of Article 87, then there is a sure remedy against this: the ministry appointed by the parliament must be responsible to it in all its actions ...

4. Behind the back of the ministry, the Octobrists and the Cadets complain, influential court circles of whisperers and earphones are concentrated, and they tirelessly carry on intrigues against the parliament and its rights. But even against this terrible liberal scarecrow, against the camarilla, there is a simple and reliable recipe: the republican system! Since the Tsar is the centre of whispers, intrigues and machinations, the focus of all kinds of mischief against the people, to eradicate the camarilla it is necessary to destroy the Tsar's power and its material support - the standing army.

Liberalism has more than once powerlessly scoffed at our revolutionary slogans, calling them a utopia - it will not accept them, of course, even now. But life has shown again that it was precisely the Cadet hopes for a peaceful and painless development under the shadow of a constitution, the existence of which Miliukov confirmed with a sacred oath, proved to be the most miserable and vulgar utopia. The collapse of the Octobrists and Stolypinism is not opening the way for the Cadets, but for us, the party of the revolution. And there is no doubt: the proletariat will hear the call of history and will do its job!