By Paul Hampton
Martyn Hudson (Solidarity 220) goes much further than Serge did in claiming continuity between the regime established after the 1917 workersâ revolution and Stalinism.
Serge answered those who argued that âthe germ of all Stalinism was in Bolshevism at its beginningâ by stating that âTo judge the living man by the death germs which the autopsy reveals in the corpse â and which he may have carried in him since his birth â is that very sensible?â But Sergeâs âgermsâ are for Martyn a full-blown infection, if not the stench of gangrene.
Martyn argues that some civil war practices of the first workersâ state âall point to the affinity between Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin rather than the reverseâ. He states that âStalinism was born of the workersâ movementâ. I think he is utterly wrong about this, conflating the movement of class forces with biography and chronology. And Martyn has misrepresented Sergeâs views.
Suzi Weissman states that âSerge did not see Stalinism as the natural outgrowth of Leninism, but rather as the corruption of itâ. In his last essay, âThirty Years After the Russian Revolutionâ (1947), Serge wrote of certain characteristics of Bolshevism that âgave it an innate superiority over its rival partiesâ, including its Marxism, commitment to working class hegemony, internationalism and unity of thought and action. Serge defended the suppression of Kronstadt and drew a positive balance on the first 10 years of the regime. Serge was at pains to point out the contrast before and after 1927 â for example between Leninâs prisons and Stalinâs mass forced labour camps.
Serge described the Stalinist takeover as a âcoup de forceâ and as a break with the post-1917 regime. He dubbed as âreactionariesâ those who confused âStalinist totalitarianism â exterminator of the Bolsheviks â with Bolshevism itselfâ and specifically emphasised the âfavourable historical circumstancesâ which led to the rise of Stalinism. Serge did criticise some mistakes of Bolsheviks. His comments deserve discussion on their merits (though, for the record, I think his points were limited). But the weight of his critique was still on the river of blood between Bolshevism and Stalinism, not on continuity.
Martyn contrasts Sergeâs âearly insights into a bureaucratic collectivist analysis of the USSRâ with Trotskyâs view that it remained a degenerated workersâ state. But Sergeâs book Destiny of a Revolution (1937) shared Trotskyâs analysis and was a companion volume to his Revolution Betrayed, which Serge translated. By the time of his death in 1947, Serge would talk of exploitation in the USSR and of a âbureaucratic police stateâ and âbureaucratic totalitarianism with collectivist leaningsâ, though he was imprecise about whether the bureaucracy was a new class or a caste.
Trotskyâs own prognosis in the final year of his life pointed towards a new class society if the USSR survived the war, but he was killed in 1940. Weissmanâs excellent biography suggests Sergeâs view was inspired by among others Trotsky and the dissident Trotskyist Max Shachtman. Sergeâs comments are worthy of note, but they were not well-developed. Nor were they, on their own, the basis of a more adequate account of Stalinism. For that, Trotsky and Shachtmanâs group remain the key referents.
Serge is undoubtedly part of our tradition. But Martyn would do better to inform readers of what Serge actually wrote, rather than attribute views to Serge that he did not appear to hold.
Comments
Quotes, analogies and reading
In reply to I welcome this article by guenter
1) I agree Guenter, "Year 1" is a very good book by Serge that repays re-reading for this argument.
2) Martyn, au contraire. In Serge the germs are a fraction of many. The analogy is pretty weak anyway - like saying all life contains the seeds of death. The critical point is that you go much further than Serge did.
My advice is to avoid using Serge as a mask - and just argue your own view on its merits. I'm sure we'll still disagree - but on the ground of what happened in Russia after 1917, rather than over what Serge said about it.
Paul
@paul: did we mean the same book?
I agree Guenter, "Year 1" is a very good book by Serge that repays re-reading for this argument.(paul)
did we had a little missunderstanding? i dont know a book "year 1" by serge. i meant "the first year" by prof. rabinowitch.
Both books
In reply to @paul: did we mean the same book? by guenter
The Serge book I thought you meant is called Year 1 in English
http://www.marxistsfr.org/archive/serge/1930/year-one/index.htm
I agree the Rabinowitch book on the first year of Bolshevik rule is also worth reading.
Paul
I welcome this article
I think, paul´s article is a good correction of the other one.
And also the book "the first year" -which, i think, also martin mentioned- due 2 my understanding much rather points in the direction of the article above.