Date: Wed, 29 Nov 1995 07:09:21 -0500 (EST)
From: Spoon Collective <spoons-AT-jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU>
Subject: Rosser's "seeds of stalinism"



I assume that most of us on this l*st are interested in the
question of "good ideas" and "bad ideas".  After all, if you
understand which ideas are "good", it can help you in the work of
understanding and changing reality.  Conversely, "bad" ideas can
lead to a great waste of time at best and criminal acts at
worst.

I question, however, whether all of history can be understood in
terms of the pernicious effect of "bad ideas", and in particular
whether attempting to isolate the bad ideas of one individual is
a good guide to analyzing a broad historical current.

Still, Barkley Rosser assures us that Stalinism can best be
understood in the light of the "bad ideas" of Vladimir Il'ich
Ulyanov, popularly known by his pen name of "Lenin", and in
particular those bad ideas which led up to the split between
Bolsheviks and Mensheviks in 1903, so I'm willing to have a go at
looking at said ideas.  Be forewarned, however, that I don't
believe in "intellectual property", and still less that any of
these ideas were Lenin's alone.

I should say as a caveat that I wasn't present at the famous 1903
congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, so I'm
just going on what I remember of what others have said. Anyone on
the list who was actually there can feel free to correct me. From
what I've heard, there were four main issues in the discussions
and debates which led to the division of that party into
Bolsheviks (Russian for "majority") and Mensheviks ("minority").
I'll deal with them in the order they came up.

1. "Economism"

The "economists" were a tendency in the Russian movement (and not
only there) who believed that a socialist movement would grow
spontaneously out of labor union struggles, and that therefore
the main task of the socialist party was to support the
organization of unions.  It followed by extension for most of
them, but probably not all, that the union leadership were the
most important part of the socialist movement and should be
deferred to in most questions of program and strategy. It further
followed, less directly, that in the short run "political"
activity per se should be mainly confined to support of
liberalism in the struggle for democratic reforms.

Almost as soon as "economism" emerged, a tendency in opposition
to this current was organized.  This tendency, which included not
only Lenin but almost all the future leaders of the Mensheviks,
argued that a socialist movement could only be built by an
organized party which consciously organized and propagandized for
socialist ideas. Moreover, they maintained that such a party
would participate not only in labor struggles, but in
landlord-tenant questions, the fight for the rights of national
and religious minorities, and every other area where where
questions of democracy or the rights and needs of working people
arose. In Lenin's formulation, the model social democrat would be
"not the trade union secretary, but the tribune of the people."
The group was organized around two periodicals--a newspaper
called "Iskra" (The Spark), edited by Lenin, and a magazine
called "Zarya" (Dawn), edited as I recall by Georgi Plekhanov.

So this is the first "bad idea" which (according to Rosser) leads
to Stalinism--a party which is organized to educate and fight for
a socialist program and to carry it into every area of life. Bear
in mind that Lenin can't claim sole ownership of this idea--not
only do the Menshevik leaders Plekhanov and Vera Zasulich have
equal responsiblity for the crimes of Stalinism by this standard,
but so do the thousands of other socialists around the world who
held similar pernicious concepts.



2. "Bundism"

Hundreds of thousands of Jews were concentrated in the "Pale", a
belt of town and villages in the western part of the Tsarist
empire (mostly in Ukraine, Byelorussia and Poland) which Jews
were forbidden to leave without special permits.  They were
subject to legal and popular discrimination and sporadic
"pogroms", organized terror raids similar to those conducted by
white supremacist organizations against Blacks in the United
States.

The largest socialist organization in the Pale was the Jewish
Labor League, commonly known simply as "the Bund" (the Jewish
word for league). The Bund was organized on a program of labor
organizing and fighting for the rights of Jewish language and
culture. It supported "cultural autonomy" for Jewish communities.
Most crucially for the debates at the RSDLP Congress, the Bund
claimed not only that it should be an autonomous section of the
party, but that it should have total authority over any aspect of
the party program related to "the Jewish question". The Iskra
group, both later Bolsheviks and later Mensheviks, (and othrs as
well) opposed this and argued for the unity of all workers in a
single party with a single program, while encouraging separate
organization and publications aimed at different national and
religious groups. The separation on this question was not so much
over the question of autonomous national sections (which tended
to happen anyway) as of the demand for veto power over any part
of the program dealing with Jews.

Lenin, who was on the agenda committee of the congress, arranged
to have the Bund's demands placed early on the agenda.  He
anticipated that they might walk out if they were defeated (which
they surely would be) and wanted to get the question over with
quickly, both so that it wouldn't drag on as an acrimonious
background to other matters and to eliminate any chance of the
Bund forming an opportunist alliance with the economists during
the course of the meeting.

At the opening session of the Congress, the floor debate on the
Bund's proposals was carried out entirely among Jewish delegates,
with the opposition to them being led by Yurii Tsederbaum
("Julius Martov") and Lev Bronstein ("Leon Trotsky"). As
expected, the Bund was decisively defeated and walked out of the
Congress.

So this is the second "bad idea" which leads to Stalinism--that a
separate organization or caucus representing one constituent
element of a party shouldn't have veto power over any part of the
party's program effecting that group and that you shouldn't have
segregated branches.  Once again, note that Lenin shares
ownership of this "bad idea" not only with the Menshevik
leadership but also with thousands of others in other parties
around the world.

3. Party membership

Next came an issue which was later treated (especially by
outsiders) as if it were the actual casus belli on which the
Bolsheviks and Mensheviks divided, and which was certainly the
first division with the Iskra group: the definition of membership
in the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. Two proposed party
rules were submitted. (Some of you may recognize them from Louis
Proyect's little quiz in September.)

Julius Martov: A party member is one "who recognizes the Party's
program and  supports it by material means and by regular
personal assistance under  the direction of one of the party's
organizations."

V I Lenin: A party member is one "who recognizes the Party's
program and  supports it by material means and by personal
participation in one of  the Party's organizations."

Note that neither of these proposals defined "membership" as just
paying dues.  Martov said you have to pay dues and do some work. 
Lenin said you have to be an active  participant in the party. 
Martov won, 28-22. Lenin said, "we certainly shall not perish
because of an unfortunate clause in the rules."

So here's Rosser's third "bad idea" which leads to Stalinism--
defining membership in a party as including active participation.
Again, Lenin shared ownership of this idea with quite a few other
people, including Plekhanov and, again, thousands of socialists
in other organizations around the world. (It should be noted that
the Mensheviks themselves adopted Lenin's formulation at a
conference in late 1905, and it was unanimously adopted at the
Fourth "Unity" Congress of the RSDLP, where the Mensheviks had a
majority.)

4. Who should edit the paper?

Now we come to the real issue on which Bolsheviks and Mensheviks
split, the very kernel of the seed of Stalinism, if we are to
believe Rosser. The newspaper _Iskra_ had a six-person editorial
board, consisting of V.I. Lenin, Julius Martov, Georgi Plekhanov,
Vera Zasulich, Paul Axelrod and A. N. Potresov ("Starover").  If
Lenin is to be believed (and no one ever contradicted him so far
as I know):

"The old board of six was so ineffectual that *never once in all
its three years* did it meet in full force. That may seem
incredible, but it is a fact. *Not one* of the forty-five issues
of _Iskra_ was made up (in the editorial and technical sense) by
anyone but Martov and Lenin. And *never once* was any major
theoretical issue raised by anyone except Plekhanov. Akselrod did
no work at all (he contributed literally nothing to _Zarya_ and
only three or four articles to all forty-five issues of _Iskra_.
Zasulich and Starover only contributed and advised; they *never*
did any actual editorial work." 
--V. I. Lenin, "Account of the Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P."

Lenin therefore proposed that the editorial board be reduced in
number to just Lenin, Plekhanov and Martov. Unexpectedly, the
Congress blew up over this question, which involved hurting the
feelings of movement veterans. Martov declared that he wouldn't
serve on the smaller board, which was nevertheless ratified by
the majority of delegates.  This was the actual Bolshevik-
Menshevik split.

So here's the fourth "bad idea" which leads to Stalinism: purging
dead wood off editorial boards.

If all of that doesn't sound much like the basis of a split to
people on this list, don't worry.  It surprised most of the
participants, too.  Lenin and Krupskaya were in a state of shock
and bewilderment after the congress, and went on a hiking tour of
Switzerland to clear their heads. In May 1904 Akselrod wrote to
the German socialist leader Karl Kautsky that there were "still
no clear, defined differences concerning either principles or
tactics" between the two factions. Since Rosser, 90 years out,
can see with greater clarity the importance of these differences,
let's go over them again.

A Recapitulation: The Four Seeds of Stalinism According to Rosser

1. An organized party to work for socialism in every arena,
rather than waiting for it to spontaneously arise.

2. A unified party and party program rather than segregated
branches and an amalgam of "identity politics" positions.

3. Party membership defined by active participation.

4. No inactive members on newspaper editorial boards.

Anyone can buy this product who wants to.


Tom Condit




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