11.09.1997

The Moscow Conference

From ‘The Call’, paper of the British Socialist Party, September 6 1917

The proceedings of the Moscow Conference, itself an evidence of the weakening of the Russian Revolution, reveal the truly critical situation, economic and political, in which Russia now is.

The calling of the conference was a concession to the propaganda of the reactionaries of the right who are seeking to undermine the forces that brought about the Revolution. It signified the growing divergence between M Kerensky and the revolutionary parties. The constitution of the Moscow Conference was admirably suited to the purpose of the reactionary bourgeoisie. It was called for the purpose of unifying all classes in the interests of new Russia.

It did in fact bring into life the interests of the old regime. It included representatives of the zemstvos, which on the outbreak of the Revolution went out of existence and were replaced by the local councils of revolutionary workmen, soldiers and peasants’ delegates. The members of the four Dumas were there - the Duma, which Skobelev described as a “dead body”. These bodies, the slavish tools of the autocracy, were resurrected to add strength to the forces of the counterrevolution.

The conference threw a glaring light upon the class struggle that is now raging in Russia. The working class seeks to consolidate the Revolution on the economic basis of guaranteeing land to the peasants and protecting the industrial masses in the towns. The bourgeoisie, or capitalist class, are using all the forces at their command to get control of Russia in order to secure for themselves that freedom to develop and exploit the Russian masses that was secured by the bourgeoisie of western Europe and America.

The revelations made by general Kornilov as to conditions in Russia ... are truly appalling. Production of civil requirements, as well as of war material, is steadily declining. He declared that the railways will be completely disorganised by November, and it is clear that Russia is faced by a terrible winter of famine ...

The most extreme measures demanded by general Kornilov would do little to bring order out of the present chaos. Russia’s imperative need is peace. The bourgeoisie are supporting the prolongation of the war in order to continue the chaos and to use it as an excuse to impose a dictatorship and break the revolutionary forces.

Revolutionary Russia is in the throes of a struggle for her very existence. Her fate lies in the hands of the workers of western Europe. They alone can save her. The collapse of the Russian Revolution would ring the death knell of the hopes of the democracies and give the reactionaries in all countries a new lease of life.