Unknown Revolution

Voline Voline

Description

This is the untold story of the Russian Revolution: its antecedents, its far-reaching changes, its betrayal by Bolshevik terror, and the massive resistance of non-Bolshevik revolutionaries. This in-depth, eyewitness history written by Voline, an outspoken activist in the Russian Revolution, is accompanied by a biography of the author by Rudolf Rocker and a contemporary introduction by anarchist historian Iain McKay.

Significant attention is given to what the author describes as “struggles for the real Social Revolution”; that is, the uprising of the sailors and workers of Kronstadt in 1921, and the peasant movement that Nestor Makhno led in Ukraine. These movements, which sought to defend the social revolution from destruction by the politicians, provide important material for a clearer understanding of both the original objectives of the Russian Revolution and the problems with which all revolutions with far-reaching social objectives have to contend.

Drawing on the revolutionary press of the time, Voline reveals the deep cleavage between the objectives of the libertarians and those of the Bolsheviks, differences which the latter “resolved” by ruthlessly eliminating all who stood in their way in the struggle for power.

This edition is a translation of the full text of La Révolution inconnue, originally published in French in 1947. It reinstates material omitted from earlier English-language editions and reproduces the complete text of the original volumes.

Sujets

• Ucrania
• Left-libertarianism
• Laborer
• Kronstadt rebellion
• Peasant
• Socialism
• Analysis
• Ukraine

Informations

• Publié par: PM Press
• Date de parution: 01 mai 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781629636009
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The Unknown Revolution 1917-1921
Voline
This edition 2019 PM Press
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be transmitted by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.
ISBN: 978-1-62963-577-4
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018931536
Cover by John Yates / www.stealworks.com
Interior design by briandesign
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PM Press
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Printed in the USA by the Employee Owners of Thomson-Shore in Dexter, Michigan.
www.thomsonshore.com
CONTENTS
Introduction to the 2019 edition by Iain McKay
Voline by Rudolf Rocker
Introduction: Some Essential Preliminary Notes
Preface
BOOK I BIRTH, GROWTH AND TRIUMPH OF THE REVOLUTION (1825-1917)
PART I: THE FIRST FRUITS (1825-1905)
1 Russia at the Beginning of the 19th Century; Birth of the Revolution
2 Repression, Violence and Failure; Development Continues (1825-1855)
3 Reforms; Resumption of the Revolution; The Failure of Tsarism and the Failure of Revolution; Reaction (1855-1881)
4 The End of the Century; Marxism; Rapid Evolution; Reaction (1881-1900)
5 The 20th Century; Hasty Development; Revolutionary Advance; Results (1900-1905)
PART II: THE JOLT (1905-1906)
1 The Gaponist Epic; First General Strike
2 The Birth of the Soviets
3 The Disastrous War; Victory of a Revolutionary Strike
4 Defeat of the Revolution; Evaluation of the Jolt
5 The Pause (1905-1917)
PART III: THE EXPLOSION (1917)
1 War and Revolution
2 Triumph of the Revolution
3 Toward the Social Revolution
4 Toward a Socialist Government; The Poverty of Socialism
5 The Bolshevik Revolution
BOOK II BOLSHEVISM AND ANARCHISM
PART I: TWO CONCEPTIONS OF THE REVOLUTION
1 Two Opposing Conceptions of Social Revolution
2 Causes and Consequences of the Bolshevik Conception
PART II: ABOUT THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION
1 Bolsheviks and Anarchists Before October
2 Anarchist Position on the October Revolution
3 Other Disagreements
4 Some Reflections
PART III: AFTER OCTOBER
1 The Bolsheviks in Power; Differences Between the Bolsheviks and the Anarchists
2 The Fatal Descent
3 The Anarchist Organizations
4 The Unknown Anarchist Press in the Russian Revolution
5 Some Personal Experiences
PART IV: REPRESSION
1 The Preparations
2 The Discharge
3 Unrestrained Fury
4 The Case of Leon Tchorny and Fanny Baron
5 The Case of Lefevre, Vergeat and Lepetit
6 A Personal Experience
7 The Final Settlement
8 The Extinguisher
9 The Deception of Visiting Delegations
10 Bolshevik Justice
PART V: THE BOLSHEVIK STATE
1 Nature of the Bolshevik State
2 Situation of the Workers
3 Situation of the Peasants
4 Situation of the Functionaries
5 Political Structure
6 General View
7 Achievements
8 Counter-Revolution
BOOK III STRUGGLES FOR THE REAL SOCIAL REVOLUTION
Foreword
PART I: KRONSTADT (1921)
1 Geographical Notes
2 Kronstadt Before the Revolution
3 Kronstadt as the Vanguard of the Revolution
4 Kronstadt Turns Against the Bolshevik Imposture
5 Last Act: The End of Independence
PART II: UKRAINE (1918-1921)
1 Mass Movement in the Ukraine
2 Formation of the Makhnovist Insurrectionary Army
3 Denikin s Offensives and Final Defeat
4 The Makhnovists in the Liberated Regions
5 Wrangel s Offensive and Defeat
6 Third and Last War of the Bolsheviks Against the Makhnovists and Anarchists; Defeat of the Insurrectionary Army
7 The Fate of Makhno and Some of His Comrades; Epilogue
8 Testament of the Makhnovshchina to the Workers of the World
APPENDIX I Voline Meets Trotsky in April 1917
APPENDIX II A Bibliographical Sketch
APPENDIX III Russian Revolutionary Parties
APPENDIX IV The Structure of the Soviet State
INDEX
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
INTRODUCTION TO THE 2019 EDITION
The State or Revolution 1
But in the People s State of Marx there will be, we are told, no privileged class at all. All will be equal . At least this is what is promised but there will be a government and, note this well, an extremely complex government. This government will not content itself with administering and governing the masses politically . It will also administer the masses economically, concentrating in the hands of the State the production and division of wealth . There will be a new class, a new hierarchy and the world will be divided into a minority ruling in the name of knowledge, and an immense ignorant majority. And then, woe unto the mass of ignorant ones!
-Michael Bakunin 2
The Unknown Revolution is a classic anarchist account of the Russian Revolution, and its title gave the libertarian movement a new way of describing history from below. 3 Its author, Voline (1882-1945), was well placed to both describe and analyse these world-shaking events, being a Russian anarchist who took an active part in the revolution once he returned from exile in 1917. 4 Active in radical circles from the earliest years of the twentieth century, he participated in the 1905 near revolution as a member of the populist Social Revolutionary Party, before becoming an anarchist after fleeing the bloody repression of a Tsarist regime fighting for its very existence. 5
You have in your hands a book written by both an active participant in events (when not, of course, imprisoned by the Bolsheviks) and someone knowledgeable about anarchism. 6 It provides an eyewitness account of the defining period of the twentieth century and seeks to draw appropriate conclusions to help revolutionaries avoid its errors. As Voline puts it in the Preface :
A fundamental problem has been bequeathed to us by the revolutions of 1789 and 1917. Opposed to a large extent to oppression, animated by a powerful breath of liberty, and proclaiming liberty as their essential purpose, why did these revolutions go down under a new dictatorship, exercised by a new dominating and privileged group, in a new slavery for the mass of the people involved? What will be the conditions which will permit a revolution to avoid this sad end? Will this end, for a long time still, be a sort of historical inevitability, or is it due to passing factors, or simply to errors and faults that can be avoided from now on? And in the latter case, what will be the means of eliminating the danger which already threatens the revolutions to come? Is it permissible to hope to avert or surmount it?
This is the aim of the work, and to achieve this goal Voline discusses what has been hidden from the usual accounts of the Russian Revolution. As such, The Unknown Revolution is an example of history from below, from the perspective of the working classes and our struggle for freedom from class society. However, like any work it can hardly cover every aspect of the revolution nor can it discuss work that appeared after its publication. Here we will attempt to uncover more of the Unknown Revolution and seek to show where subsequent research has confirmed Voline s classic. Along the way we will seek to address some of the many distortions and myths inflicted on those seeking to understand the failures of Bolshevism by those seeking to defend it-but who will only, if they are listened to, repeat history rather than learn from it. 7
Marxism and Anarchism before 1917
Before discussing the events of 1917 and after, we need to present some theoretical background. Neither Bolsheviks nor anarchists took part in the revolution without having some idea of what to do. Both were long-standing movements that had clashed over how best to fight for socialism and, equally important, what a socialist society would be like in its immediate post-revolution features. For while there was agreement over the end goal-a stateless, communist society-there was much disagreement on how to get there.
While the first person to self-proclaim as an anarchist, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, had critiqued the socialists of his time (namely, utopian socialists like Charles Fourier and Jacobin socialists like Louis Blanc), the defining clash between libertarian and authoritarian socialism took place between Michael Bakunin and Karl Marx in the International Working Men s Association. Between approximately 1868 and 1873, these two great thinkers opposed each other both in terms of tactics for the labour movement and for social revolution. 8
Given how Bakunin s ideas-like anarchism in general-are usually systematically distorted by Marxist accounts, some space is needed to discuss both thinkers. As Lenin draws on the writings of Marx and Engels against anarchism in his The State and Revolution , this is no academic task-particularly as the issues and solutions raised are relevant to what happened during the Russian Revolution. In short, ideas matter-particularly the ideas of a ruling party seeking to implement them.
In contrast to Marx, who sought to organise working-class political parties that would run for election ( political action ), Bakunin advocated what would later be termed a syndicalist strategy. 9 While Marxists believe it necessary to organise the workers forces in order to seize the political power of the State, anarchists organise for the purpose of destroying it by the development and organisation of the non-political or anti-political power of the working classes. Bakunin saw this in terms of creating new organs of working-class power in opposition to the state, organised from the bottom up, by the free association or