A new vision of a revolutionary society based on the Soviets of Production is being born in Russia. The main principles of the “Soviet Revolution” has been outlined in two recent articles by Anton Baumgarten, founder and chief editor of Left Russia, non-partisan online publication.  1 

The danger presented by Baumgarten is not giving up Marxist Leninism for

Anarco-syndicalism. What he has done goes way beyond hopes to revive the

dead spirits of the lost souls of 19th century Anarchism. No, he leaves

the graves untouched. What he proposes is at first glance as shocking as it

seems treacherous to Marxism and the goal of Leninist party building. The

essence of his program can be translated as follows:

1) Resolution of Russia’s present political and economic

contradictions is direct rule by Soviets; Soviets of Production.

2) There will be Soviets of Soviets rising from the local to the

national. This will resolve conflicts in local and overall majorities.

There will be no state power for political parties; there will be direct rule by the Soviets, with the power of immediate recall by the collectives that Soviets represent.

3) A general strike is the method to gaining control by the Soviets.

The reader may well ask himself: Has Baumgarten gone mad? Has this

educated man, perhaps one of the most articulate of voices on the Russian left,

lost all connection with the Marxist Leninist tradition and given himself over

to decadent Anarchist tendencies?

Is not the ultimate goal of Leninist ideology the creation of an

indestructible Communist party? Would it not be a party that would live

forever unassailable, incorruptible and inviolable? Would not this party

preserve with all its resources, with the last drop of blood of its

members the sacred dictates of Lenin? Would not such a party be subject only to

those who hold power within it? Such a party would never give over power

to a cockeyed utopian narrow minded soviet of producers? No it would look

toward the higher goals, the goals as set by Lenin just before he died.

Here of course Baumgarten has no answer, because no answer can be made to

such misguided religious obeisance to the Holy Icon of St. Lenin. For his

critics are little more than religious maniacs posing as rationalist

adherents of Lenin. Lenin’s goal was not the building of a party, the

party was a means to gain a revolutionary objective.

Despite Baumgareten’s critics saying they are Leninist, they see Lenin’s

ideology as unchangeable in its objectives, and singularly focused on

taking and maintaining political power. Practical and theoretical Leninism has no

relationship to this megalomania whatsoever. In declaring so boldly his

atheism to the Religion of Lenin the Savior, Baumgarten is closer to

actual Leninist ideology.

Baumgarten speaks about Leninism, the tradition of the Russian Revolution

and specifically the Communist Party of Lenin. What he has done is dig

beneath the historical waste and deal with Leninism as a process of

development contingent upon events and historical necessities. The end

goal for Lenin was never the creation of an all ruling party of elites

perpetuating its control over Russia indefinitely; a coffin for Russia

where each successive leader would be nothing more than the next nail in that

coffin.

In other words the goal of the Revolution was not to entrench a new group

of political rulers over another. The Russian Revolution, the October

Revolution went far deeper than this. Its aim was to get rid of the

political instinct to accumulate and maintain power merely for the sake of

power. The aim was to erase the political overlords as a class.

The reality of the revolution, that forms the foundation of Baumgarten’s

argument though unstated, was the independence of the planning process

free from party control, the essential independent support of the Soviets in

developing Russia and the non-political development of society itself.

Lenin took power and in doing so removed the cancer from Russian society, the

over-riding need to maintain power at all costs, at the cost of

development at the expense of future generations.

The real business of the Revolution is not gaining political control but

developing society itself. In letting the apparatus of social governance,

the Soviets, develop free of political struggle, free of party domination

Lenin declared to the world that his party had created something that was

not business as usual. It was a politics to end politics. The basic goal

of Lenin was a death to the destructive political economic struggle for power

between contending elites.

Baumgarten proposes not a new orthodoxy but a continuing liberation begun

by Lenin. It is a process he seeks to engage us in. To say he is an enemy to

the Leninist goal of party building is little more than to accuse Lenin of

being anti-Lenin. How long do we have to wait after the death of the

Stalin before we can revive the revolutionary tradition of Lenin? The goal of the

revolution is not the party; the goal of the party is the revolution.

Примечания

1  “The Soviet Revolution.” Left Russia , 10 (2009) <http://left.ru/2009/10/baumgarten192.phtml> and “By the Extinguished Fire.” Left Russia, 11 (2009) <http://left.ru/2009/11/baumgarten193.phtml>