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THIRD IMPRESSION 
 
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 SIXPENCE 
 
 THE SOVIET 
 SYSTEM AT WORK 
 
 ROBERT WILLIAMS 
 
 (in Russian Dress) 
 
 A Series of Articles contracted for 
 but refused by the " Daily Mail " 
 
 "By ROBERT WILLIAMS 
 
 t Member of the Labour Delegation) 
 
THE SOVIET 
 SYSTEM AT WORK 
 
 'By 
 
 ROBERT WILLIAMS 
 
 (member of the labour delegation) 
 
 J< Jl Jt 
 
 London : 
 
 THE COMMUNIST PARTY 
 
 1 6 King Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C. 2 
 
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 CCv". /'.DDED 
 OR-'GiNAL TO BE 
 
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 FOREWORD 
 
 In writing a foreword to the series of four 
 articles which have appeared in the Daily Herald, 
 but which should have appeared in the Daily Mail, 
 I have to explain how the latter journal refused 
 to print what they had asked for from me, namely, 
 " my experiences and observations." 
 
 A few days before leaving London for Russia, 
 I was told by a regular contributor* to the Mail 
 that that paper was anxious that some member of 
 the delegation, preferably myself, should agree to 
 contribute a series of articles upon the return of 
 the delegation. I was asked to see Mr. Valentine 
 Williams, the Foreign Editor, with a view to 
 determining certain points which required to be 
 made clear. I suggested that they knew my views 
 very well, and that I wanted a free hand to say 
 exactly what I thought required saying regarding 
 Soviet structure of government or anything else 
 with which I required to deal. The following 
 letter speaks for itself : — 
 
 Daily Mail : Editorial Department, 
 Carmelite House, 
 
 London, E.C.4. 
 April 23rd, 1920. 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 In confirmation of our telephone conver- 
 sation this evening we shall be glad to arrange 
 with you to write us four articles about your 
 experiences and observations in Russia as a 
 member of the Trade Union Delegation 
 
 M^03619 
 
4 THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK 
 
 visiting the Soviet Republic, to be signed 
 with your name and to be written exclusively 
 for the Daily Mail. These articles should be 
 about two-thirds of a column in length and 
 we will pay for them at the rate of 20 guineas 
 a column. 
 
 I should be very glad to have a talk with 
 you before you start if we could arrange a 
 meeting between this and Tuesday. I will 
 telephone you in the morning with a view to 
 arranging this. 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 G. VALENTINE WILLIAMS, 
 
 Foreign Editor. 
 Robert Williams, Esq., 
 8, St. Martin's Place. 
 
 Let me say that the figure of twenty guineas was 
 fixed at my own suggestion because I had no desire 
 to undercut any writer for the Daily Mail or any 
 other newspaper. 
 
 On arriving at King's Cross from Russia on 
 June 30th I again saw the contributor to the Mail 
 already referred to. He asked me if I had any- 
 thing to say for publication. I replied that I had 
 two of the promised articles in manuscript which 
 would be typed forthwith' and senif to the Mail 
 ofRce immediately. When I reached my own 
 office, one of the sub-editors of the Mail asked over 
 the telephone whether the typescript was ready 
 of the first article, to which the reply was that it 
 would reach the Editorial Department within a few 
 minutes. I fulfilled my part of the contract, and 
 was surprised to find the following morning that, 
 although great anxiety had been expressed regard- 
 ing the delivery of the typescript, not a word 
 appeared. 
 
 I quite naturally drew the conclusion that the 
 Mail was expecting from me the kind of things 
 
THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK 5 
 
 which were being said by Mr. Keeling and also by 
 another member of the delegation. They were 
 prepared to print any and every attack upon the 
 Soviet Government, but with the customary 
 attitude of the British Press they did not welcome 
 anything which tended to show the strength of the 
 Soviet organisation and forms of Goverment. I 
 spoke to Mr. Valentine Williams, and he was 
 anxious that I should change the form of the 
 articles : that in effect I should write according to 
 the instructions of the Daily MaiU I explained to 
 him that there had been plenty offering diverse 
 criticisms of the Soviet regime, and that they need 
 not be afraid of my four columns in the paper. 
 Moreover, in view of the smashing attacks made 
 against the dupes of the Polish Barons by the Red 
 Army it was essential that people if they desired 
 to be well-informed should know something of the 
 strength of the nation which was behind the Red 
 Army. 
 
 At Mr. Valentine William's suggestion. I sub- 
 mitted the second article, which it appeared was 
 even less aceptable than the first, and in a second 
 telephonic conversation he said that they were 
 unable to print them as they stood. 
 
 I do not apologise for writing for the Daily Mail 
 or any other capitalist newspaper. I think that of 
 the upwards of a million readers of that paper 
 there must be some to whom the truth would do 
 no harm, and I suggested that the Mail had every 
 opportunity of attacking my views in its leaders or 
 elsewhere in the paper. However, when it was 
 made clear that they had no intention to print the 
 articles as they stood ; and when I indicated equally 
 clearly that I had no intention of altering what I 
 said, I informed Mr. Valentine Williams that the 
 articles had better be returned and I would make 
 other use of them. I received the articles by 
 return, accornpanied by the following letter : — 
 
6 THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK 
 
 Daily Mail : Editorial Department, 
 Carmelite House, 
 
 London, E.C.4. 
 Personal July 1st, 1920. 
 
 Dear Mr. Williams, 
 
 I propose to avail myself of your suggestion 
 to return the two articles on your impressions 
 of Soviet Russia. I am sorry there has been 
 a misunderstanding about them. 
 
 Believe me. 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 G. VALENTINE WILLIAMS, 
 
 Foreign Editor. 
 Robert Williams, Esq. 
 
 The articles then appeared in the Daily Herald, 
 and the British Socialist Party has suggested that 
 they should be issued as a pamphlet with as wide 
 a circulation as possible, and be printed in full, 
 which was impossible for space reasons in the 
 Herald. Opportunities would be afforded for wide 
 publicity by the distribution of the pamphlet at 
 Socialist meetings, through Socialist branches, and 
 more particularly at the meetings to be held in 
 connection with the '' Hands Off Russia " Cam- 
 paign. It was my intention to enlarge materially 
 upon the subject-matter of the four articles, but 
 pressure of work leaves me little or no opportunity 
 so to do. 
 
 I will supplement the foregoing by saying that 
 in my judgment and in the judgment of our comrade 
 Lenin, it is essential that the Socialists of the Left 
 must achieve unity if they are to carry on success- 
 fully the work of emancipating the working-class 
 from capitalism and landlordism. Far-reaching 
 events are pending in Eastern Europe which will 
 
THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK 7 
 
 have the profoundest effect upon the Western 
 nations. We have seen the Red Annies, and 
 while we were in Russia we realised that the Poles 
 would not withstand their military efficiency coupled 
 with their physical and moral energy. 
 
 The movement in Great Britain has been chaotic 
 because of our intense individualism and because 
 we possess many forms of liberty without the 
 content of liberty. The imminent breakdown of 
 the capitalist system makes it imperative that we 
 should subordinate our individualisms, our own 
 personal conceptions regarding tactics, and our own 
 futile sectionalisms in order to consolidate all the 
 forces of the Left. 
 
 In a conversation I had with Lenin I asked him 
 whether in view of the need for peace so manifest 
 in Russia the delegates should on their return con- 
 centrate all their energies and efforts on the restora- 
 tion of peace and the opening up of trade relation- 
 ships between Great Britain and Russia ; or whether 
 we should assiduously propagate the ideas of the 
 Third International and work consistently and 
 systematically for the overthrow of capitalism in 
 Western Europe which might for a time prevent 
 Russia from getting those things of which she 
 stood in so paramount a need. Lenin's reply was 
 incisive and conclusive : 
 
 '' Let those who believe in peace work for 
 peace; and let those who believe in Com- 
 munism and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat 
 work for the overthrow of Capitalism." 
 He indicated further that in his judgment the 
 capitalists of Western Europe and of America would 
 not and could not make a real peace between 
 themselves and Soviet Russia for the simple reason 
 that the great Communistic experiment would 
 offer such an example to the proletarians of the 
 whole world that it would provide more forceful 
 propaganda by example than all our precepts. 
 
e THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK 
 
 Purcell and I and others, therefore, have 
 returned from Russia to offer such encouragement 
 as we may to the attempts to form a definite Com- 
 munist Party based upon the unalterable conception 
 of proletarian or working-class dictatorship. The 
 influence of definitely Socialist organisations upon 
 the vast mass of the people in the past has been 
 small because of the exclusiveness of Socialist 
 teaching. We have to make it increasingly clear 
 to the workers — and especially the manual workers 
 — that there is no hope of any real improvement 
 in their economic status unless and until they 
 break the vicious system of capitalism which 
 exploits them. We have to show them that 
 Proletarian Dictatorship can only come by means of 
 the assumption of control of the mines, factories, 
 workshops, railways, docks, and means of pro- 
 duction and transport generally. Every intelligent 
 trade unionist must be made the centre of organisa- 
 tion and propaganda of the idea of the proletarian 
 control of industry. There is no reason why within 
 a year, the membership of the New Communist 
 Party should not be as great as that of the Com- 
 munist Party in Russia, namely, 650,000 members. 
 
 During the transitional period which lies ahead 
 there must be a great measure of discipline, 
 mutually imposed and mutually accepted by those 
 who will join in the fight for the triumph of com- 
 munist ideas. When the movement was in that 
 stage of develpment when many of our schemes 
 were impracticable because of the want of economic 
 preparedness, we could all do much as we liked 
 and say what we would, but during the coming 
 months we must ourselves give and expect from 
 others as much solidarity and loyalty to the 
 decisions and programme of the Communist Party 
 as we expect trade unionists to give to their fellows 
 in an industrial dispute. Individuals there will be 
 of course who cannot and will not work under 
 
THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK 9 
 
 these disciplinary influences. They will always 
 remain a law unto themselves, but faced with the 
 stubborn fight which lies immediately ahead many 
 or most will subordinate their own personal con- 
 ceptions as to the right measures, methods and 
 tactics to the general will of the members of 
 the Party. 
 
 There are many in this country who believe 
 the Revolution can be achieved and will be achieved 
 without force. We must respect their convictions ; 
 we must solicit their assistance. We must go on 
 by every means in our power to make our policy 
 of direct action effective, and when the time comes 
 that the proprietary classes will refuse to yield 
 one jot or tittle, we must be prepared to act in 
 defence of ourselves and the proletarian interests 
 we claim to represent. There must be a good deal 
 of tolerance from each section of Socialist thought 
 to the other. Lenin has said again and again, 
 and the members of the Communist Party in Russia 
 are largely with him : — We must use Parliamentary 
 and other electoral platforms as a means of propa- 
 ganda never relying upon Parliament to give us 
 control of land and industrial capital, but working 
 steadfastly towards promoting a conception in the 
 minds of the toiling masses that '' Those who would 
 be free must themselves strike the blow." 
 
 In conclusion, let me quote the text which hung 
 over our hotel in Moscow, and which met our eyes 
 whenever we left or entered : 
 
 " We started the Revolution, comrades — 
 we started it alone; let us finish it together.'' 
 
 ROBERT WILLIAMS. 
 
THE SOVIET SYSTEM 
 AT WORK 
 
 To visit Russia under the Soviet Regime is quite 
 unlike visiting any other country. When one goes 
 to Paris, Berlin, Brussels, or Vienna for the first 
 time, one realises after a time that they are all at the 
 basis very much like London. In Petrograd and 
 Moscow, however, there is to be found an entirely 
 new civilisation. I use the word deliberately, 
 because it. is utterly useless trying to destroy or 
 even to modify the Soviet system by maligning it, 
 or pretending that it is what it palpably is not ; or 
 that it is not what it is. We see in Russia an 
 effort planned and systematically carried out to 
 place a new value on human qualifications, in fact, 
 to supersede any aristocracy of birth or wealth 
 by an aristocracy of ability. That men and women 
 should be estimated and appraised not by whom 
 they are or what they have, but by what they do. 
 
 As one of the members of the British Labour 
 delegation to Russia, I went frankly and avowedly 
 as a supporter of the Proletarian Dictatorship. My 
 impressions will therefore be coloured by my 
 essentially working-class outlook. Britishers owe 
 it to themselves to know all that can be known 
 from whatever point of view of the great experi- 
 ment in Russia. I will divide my observations 
 into four parts, dealing very briefly and indicatively 
 with what appear to me to be four outstanding 
 questions. The parts will deal respectively with 
 '' Lenin and World Revolution," '' The Militarisa- 
 tion of Labour," '' Russian Capacity for War " and 
 "^ Impressions in General." 
 
dM^i&^A 
 
 THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK 11 
 
 Someone who knows the foremost figures in 
 European bourgeois and Socialist politics as well 
 as any other said quite recently, '* The three 
 greatest men alive to-day are Lenin, Bela Kun, 
 and Smillie.'' The third 1 know very well, the 
 first I met at his request! and talked with for two 
 hours, and then met again some days later with 
 the rest of the Labour delegation. Lenin speaks 
 English rather well, and knows British politics 
 better than most Englishmen. I must confess I 
 went to the Kremlin with perhaps more trepidation 
 than I have had when encountering either Mr. 
 Asquith or Lloyd George. There were several 
 sentries on the way with rather brutal points to 
 their bayonets who scrutinised my pass closely as 
 I went through with the guide. 
 
 I found Lenin simple, genial, and entirely with- 
 out affectation. While he was at work and during 
 our conversation, a young sculptor was busily 
 employed on a clay model of Lenin's head, and 
 had, I subsequently discovered, also taken a sketch 
 of my own profile. After exchanging greetings we 
 talked about English and Russian politics, and also 
 of revolutionary possibilities in general throughout 
 the '' International." 
 
 Lenin in my opinion gives more thought to world 
 revolutionary possibilities than to gathering 
 immediately the fruits of the Russian Revolution, 
 because he has convinced himself, and not without 
 abundant reason, that a world drama is being 
 enacted in the struggle )bet!ween a small, alert, 
 determined, intelligent and thoroughly organised 
 section representing proprietary interests, and a 
 large, partially alert but growingly intelligent though 
 indiflPerently organised mass, representing working- 
 class or proletarian interests. The spear-head of 
 this mass, with its brilliant and far-sighted intelli- 
 gentsia is of course the Russia of Soviet Power. 
 
 He talked of the countfr-fOvolutionary move- 
 
12 THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK 
 
 ments of Kolchak, Denekin, Yudenifch, and also of 
 the British complicity in all these as well as at 
 Murmansk. There was not the slightest possibility 
 of these adventures being undertaken were it not 
 for the promised support of the Allied Powers. 
 
 Lenin sees clearly that if the International 
 Bourgeoisie cannot destroy or drastically modify 
 the Soviet Power in Russia, Soviet Power and all 
 its implications and potentialities will undermine 
 and eventually overthrow Capitalism, Landlordism, 
 and all that they imply in Western Europe and 
 America, not to speak of Asia and the Colonies. 
 
 Everyone in Russia realises that the Polish 
 Offensive was enginered by British and French 
 influence, supported by British and French 
 direction, training, and equipment, and was part 
 of a comprehensive and grandoise plan to include 
 Rumanian and Finnish military co-operation and 
 assistance from the new Baltic States. Lenin 
 ridicules the statement of Bonar Law that the 
 supplies of munitions to Poland were sent in fulfil- 
 ment of a pledge that they were to be given in 
 the event of a Soviet attack on Poland. The best 
 reply to Bonar Law is the statement of Chicherin, 
 Soviet Foreign Minister, who said that the essentially 
 moderate terms offered to Poland were held to be 
 evidence of Russia's internal weakness, which 
 accounts for the Polish Offensive breaking out when 
 it did. 
 
 Lenin asked about the campaign in favour of 
 Direct Action promoted by the Triple Alliance in 
 1919 to compel the British Government to refrain 
 from further intervention in Russia. He could not 
 understand the acceptance by the Parliamentary 
 Committee of the Trades Union Congress of 
 Churchill's and Lloyd George's assurances that 
 intervention would cease. The best proof of this 
 will have appeared shortly after these lines appear, 
 the delegation having been furnished with the most 
 
THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK 13 
 
 convincing proofs that the Churchill policy of last 
 year was one of studied and deliberate evasion 
 and deceit, not only towards organised labour but 
 towards traditional British Liberalism. 
 
 Those who are directing the policy of Soviet 
 Russia and also the Third International are fully 
 convinced that most or all the factors which 
 operated to bring about the economic collapse in 
 Russia are operating to bring about similar effects 
 in Western Europe. They watch critically the 
 growth of the respective national debts. Every- 
 thing which can be known is duly observed 
 relating to the class struggle and its intensifica- 
 tion, especially in industrial disputes and the 
 unending fight for the share of the product between 
 Capital and Labour. Lenin foresees that inevitably 
 there must be established in Great Britain a 
 Labour Government or Labour-plus-some-other- 
 Party Coalition. He says that Clynes, Thomas, 
 Henderson, and perhaps Macdonald and Snowden 
 must have their opportunity as Kerensky and his 
 colleagues had in Russia. But he is positive this 
 attempt will produce as little advantage to the 
 working-class as the Noske-Schiedemann Govern- 
 ment in Germany. 
 
 While we were in Russia there were also dele- 
 gates from Italy, Germany, France, Belgium, and 
 Scandinavia, and there appears every indication 
 that the Geneva Conference, if it be held, will be 
 the grave of the Second International. The Soviet 
 idea, based as it is on occupational rather than 
 residential qualification, gains ground on all hands, 
 and the policy of Revolutionary Russia as well as 
 the Third International faces West confronting 
 Industrial Capitalism instead — as many imagine — 
 the more economically backward East. Russia's 
 Eastern policy is one into which she has been 
 forced, if only to create a diversion for Great 
 Britain and preventing her from continuing to 
 
14 THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK 
 
 focus counter-revolutionary movements in general. 
 
 I shall deal with the other questions in succeed- 
 ing articles; but let me say clearly here that the 
 delegation arranged their programme apart from 
 the official welcomes we received. We went 
 where we liked ; we interviewed whom we pleased. 
 We talked without let or hindrance to supporters 
 and opponents of Soviet institutions alike. We 
 discussed grievances with workers, technical and 
 manual. 
 
 The Bolshevist experiment is destined to have 
 the profoundest influence upon the development 
 of human institutions, and we shall be compelled 
 more and more to examine critically the Soviet 
 plan as explained by its supporters and advocates 
 instead of blindly accepting the denunciations of 
 its opponents and detractors. 
 
 II.—'' MILITARISATION " OF LABOUR. 
 
 In practically every country other than Russia, 
 what is called Organisation of Labour means the 
 embarrassment and hampering of production and 
 distribution of wealth. Slur the fact over as we 
 may, the pitched battle between Capital and Labour 
 destroys any possibility of genuine co-operation in 
 production. Capital in general seek constantly to 
 cut the cost of production by reducing labour 
 charges. Labour seeks to get as much as it can 
 for as little as the employer will accept in return. 
 In Russia, not only is there no difference between 
 the Trade Unions and the administrative heads of 
 Soviet affairs, but we find the heartiest co-operation 
 between the Unions, the technicians, and the 
 Supreme Council of Public Economy. 
 
 As an illustration, I would refer to a visit to a 
 large locomotive refitting and repairing shop near 
 Saratov which I made in conjunction with Sverdloff, 
 Acting People's Commissar for Ways and Com- 
 
THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK 15 
 
 munications. Both he and I impressed on the 
 workers in the railway shops the supreme need to 
 accelerate railway work. I could not help con- 
 trasting the reception given to Sverdloff and myself 
 and the response to our appeals for discipline with 
 the acrimonious temper displayed by the Clyde 
 workers on the occasion of Mr. Lloyd George's 
 visit during the war, and his appeals to increase 
 output. 
 
 The difference of working-class outlook is deter- 
 mined by the difference of the grounds of appeal. 
 Men will make every sacrifice when they know 
 that it is for national and collective well-being, 
 and equally will resist attempts to exploit their 
 generosity for individual gain. To realise the 
 position in which Russian democracy has been 
 placed since October, 1917, is clearly to under- 
 stand their acceptance of Labour Mobilisation. 
 
 Karl Radek, one of the influential Communist 
 Party Leaders, and Secretary of the Third Inter- 
 national, puts the position with clarity as follows : 
 
 If Soviet Russia is to extricate itself from 
 the economic disorganistatiion its first task is to 
 rally the scattered forces of the skilled pro- 
 letariat. If the Socialist community has any 
 right at all to throw upon the battlefield 
 hundreds of thousands of workers to shed 
 their blood in the name of the liberation of 
 the entire working-class the more right it has 
 to say to the skilled workers who have dis- 
 persed to the villages : ** No surprise is enter- 
 tained at your having fled to the villages to 
 escape starvation, but the entire country is 
 doomed to ruin and famine unless you return 
 to town. Only by increasing the productivity 
 of locomotive repairs, only by beginning to 
 create transport means as well as means of 
 production can we save the Russian v/orking- 
 
16 THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK 
 
 class from death by starvation. Just as you 
 are bound to fight for and protect Soviet 
 Russia with arms in hand equally so are you 
 obliged to extend your credit to the Soviet 
 Government which is a Government of the 
 working-class.** 
 
 This sounds startingly like a statement by Lloyd 
 George when he assumed the position of Minister 
 of Munitions. He then said in effect that it was 
 necessary for the civil authorities to have the same 
 control over the men in the workshops and the 
 factories as the military authorities possessed over 
 the men in the trenches. We have, moreover, to 
 bear in mind that Russia's industrial and political 
 policy is shaped largely if not entirely for her by 
 inexorable pre-war and post-revolutionary circum- 
 stances. Russia lived by exchanging food and raw 
 material for manufactured articles. Since 1917 
 this process has been suspended. She has there- 
 fore had tb create <a new resourcefulness and 
 adaptability in producing the things which she 
 previously imported. Added to this difficulty it 
 must be understood that both the first and second 
 revolutions made a great drain on Russia's urban 
 proletariate. The men who manned the barricades, 
 who suffered the most casualties, were the metal- 
 workers and those other sections of skilled workers 
 who realised the meaning of the class-struggle. 
 Their ranks were again depleted by the formation 
 of the Red Armies, of which they were the 
 revolutionary leaven. Added to these factors was 
 the constant migration of thousands of engineering 
 skilled and semi-skilled workers from the industrial 
 centres to the agricultural areas because of the 
 shortage of raw material and of food in the towns 
 after the Second Revolution. 
 
 Mobilisation of civilian labour is carried out by 
 Communists and trade unionists alike because they 
 
THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK 17 
 
 understand that it is essential if they are to jRght 
 disease, improve transport, and produce agricultural 
 implements and manufactured articles to exchange 
 with the peasantry for the necessary foodstuffs. 
 Dilution will be developed scientifically and the 
 bonus system operates in such a manner as to pro- 
 vide the very best incentive to individual initiative 
 and effort. Russia can be faced with not even 
 the remotest possibility of unemployment or under- 
 employment following upon *' over-production *' as 
 we are in Western Europe. Credit is due to the 
 directors of Soviet policy that, following upon civil 
 war, ringed around by enemies, faced with the 
 most appalling difficulties, they are embarking upon 
 vast schemes of social reconstruction. They are 
 doing more for education than any other country 
 in the world. They are attempting more in a few 
 years than economically and industrially advanced 
 countries have done in a century. Their motto is 
 '' Through Discipline to Freedom.'' 
 
 When it became imperative to take the power 
 from the hands of the bourgeoisie and the remnants 
 of the feudal class, the trade unions raised the 
 demand '' Labour Control of workshops and 
 factories.'* Workshop control by CoUegiates and 
 Boards of elected Shop Stewards was gradually 
 found to have outlived the transitional stage from 
 individual ownership to social ownership, and there 
 was no hesitation on the part of the Communist 
 Party and the Trade Unions to modify their policy 
 to meet changing requirements. They say frankly 
 that if '' One-man Management " can give us 
 better and more rapid production of those things 
 of which we stand in paramount need, then intro- 
 duce such management without delay. The trade 
 unions, however, will remain in control of the main 
 currents of labour and production, but will hand 
 over the direction of the details of management to 
 the most efHcient individuals to be obtained. 
 
18 THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK 
 
 With us in this country the processes of pro- 
 duction and distribution have been socialised while 
 the product remains individualised. In Russia 
 both the processes and the product are socialised. 
 
 I repeat and emphasise what I said before. 
 Russia is working out her own social emancipation 
 according to her own racial, historic, economic, and 
 industrial needs and requirements. It does not at 
 all follow that Western Europe should in any way 
 studiously or slavishly follow the precise lines of 
 Russia's great experiment. The discipline which 
 the Soviet Power has beaten out for itself on the 
 anvil of war and counter-revolution has been 
 imposed upon our industrial workers by generations 
 of factory and workshop experience. Revolu- 
 tionary Russia marches forward steadily and stead- 
 fastly with a rifle in one hand (so to speak) and 
 a hammer in the other. The best justification of 
 '" Industrial Conscription " was and is the 
 expeditious manner in which she re-mobilised her 
 Red Armies from industry to the Polish front, 
 where once more they cover themselves with 
 military glory. 
 
 III.— RUSSIA'S CAPACITY FOR WAR. 
 
 Whatever may be said of the Soviet Government 
 no one can deny their ability in war. After the 
 decisive overthrow of the Bourgeois in October, 
 1917, the old army simply fell to pieces. They 
 had been beaten and broken in the Kerensky 
 efforts, promoted by the Entente to continue the 
 Imperialist War against the German, Austrian and 
 Turkish fronts. 
 
 The Brest Litovsk Peace was unavoidable even 
 had the newly created Soviet Government wished 
 to continue war operations. The troops had been 
 badly armed, badly clothed, and badly fed. They 
 were also disillusioned regarding the Czarist 
 
THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK 19 
 
 ambitions of Imperial aggrandisement. After 
 the definite Proletarian Dictatorship had been pro- 
 claimed the directors of Russian policy foresaw tthe 
 possibilities of either the Central Powers or the 
 Entente, or perhaps both concentrating their forces 
 against the working-class Revolutions. They called 
 again and again upon the workers in Germany, 
 Austria-Hungary, France, Britain and Italy to 
 throw over their own respective Landlord-Capitalist 
 and Imperialist Government. The insistent propa- 
 ganda of the revolutionary idea did more to sap 
 the vitality of German Militarism than is yet 
 generally understood. 
 
 While hoping and believing in the ultimate 
 triumph of the Revolutionary Idea the Russian 
 Communists are prepared to meet force with force. 
 They hastily improvised a new citizen army, the 
 Red leaven of which was the Communist members 
 of the urban proletariate. Gradually this army 
 was extended by universal conscription until 
 to-day ; it is in my personal judgment the best army 
 in the world. It is the best not necessarily because 
 it is composed of the finest fighting material, but 
 mainly because every army is influenced to an 
 unestimable degree by the motive of the Cause in 
 which and for which it fights. No army ever 
 fought in a cause worthier than that which inspires 
 the Red Soviet Army of Russia. Educational and 
 political propaganda has been worked to a fine art. 
 Much or most of what was said in Britain during 
 1914, 1915, and 1916, in order to obtain recruits 
 and afterwards to keep up the national war spirit, 
 was untrue and most of these who said it knew 
 it to be untrue. In Russia they have merely to tell 
 the Truth, the Whole Truth and nothing else, and 
 this is the basis and the whole of their propaganda. 
 We were told by Britishers in Moscow that when 
 our prisoners from Murmansk were interviewed 
 they showed evidence of perplexity as well as 
 
20 THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK 
 
 disquiet at the tactics of the Red Soldiery. The 
 British prisoners exclaimed : '* Let them come 
 against us with bayonets, machine guns, tanks or 
 gas and we'll show them what we are made of, 
 but, gorblimej how can we fight men who offer 
 us leaflets and pamphlets?" 
 
 While members of the Delegation were at the 
 Polish Front they saw a shell which explodes and 
 drops among the Poles thousands of leaflets in their 
 own language telling them how they are being used 
 as the tools and instruments of the Polish Barons 
 co-operatJing with the Entente Imperialists, and 
 headed always with ''Workers of the World, Unite." 
 
 During our stay in Moscow Purcell and I, at 
 the special invitation of Madame Balabanoff , went to 
 the All-Russian War Department, and spoke with 
 General Kamenieff, Comm.ander-in-Chief of the 
 Russian Armies, and Skliansky, who is the Acting 
 Chairman of the Russian Revolutionary Military 
 Council. The latter, by the way, presented me 
 with the Military Medal of which so much has 
 been written. 
 
 We talked with military men and were impressed 
 with the thoroughgoing efficiency of all we saw 
 and heard. I have met personally the late Lord 
 Kitchener, and Lord Derby who succeeded him as 
 Minister of War. I have visited the British War 
 Office on numerous occasions, and I have no 
 hesitation in saying that the Soviet military institu- 
 tions and the atmosphere of competency prevailing 
 compares very favourably with our own. 
 
 We saw the manufacture of light and heavy 
 artillery, of tanks and aeroplanes, and war equip- 
 ment in general. Russia, like most other countries, 
 devotes the best of her constructive powers to 
 waging war. This policy has been forced upon her 
 by the concentration of capitalist hatred in Europe 
 and America. Trotsky, with whom I talked at the 
 Opera House, Moscow, while not being over- 
 
THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK 21 
 
 sanguine of a speedy triumph over the Poles, said 
 that cost what it may and take as long as it might, 
 they would break the Polish military power 
 irretrievably. 
 
 We witnessed numerous military parades and 
 displays by the garrisons of Petrograd and Moscow 
 as well as other important military centres. The 
 personnel of the Army was as good as anything I 
 have seen in Great Britain during the years of the 
 war, the officers and men manifesting not only 
 physique, but a spirit of mental determination. 
 Through the good offices of our old Socialist friend 
 Petroff, I talked with many of the Russian soldiers 
 and sailors, and the question ever on their lips 
 was : Why are the British workers fighting against 
 the Russian workers, who only wish to establish 
 Communism to improve the economic conditions of 
 themselves and their dependents? Needless to 
 say, I was middle-stumped by such pertinent 
 questions. 
 
 Purcell, who, being a woodworker, was 
 interested in the construction of aeroplanes in 
 Great Britain during the war, says that the aero- 
 plane factories he saw compare favourably with 
 anything we had here at that time. 
 
 Military service is of course compulsory, and 
 military training is also compulsory to men between 
 the ages of 18 and 40. Those bet^veen 14 and 18 
 have to undergo physical drill as part of their 
 civil education. Corps of Boy Scouts and Girl 
 Guides are in existence in all the populous centres. 
 There is the most devoted attention to the wounded 
 by the nurses of the Red Army, and one of the 
 most striking of the banners carried during the 
 Moscow parade bore the inscription : '' Courage and 
 endurance to the Red Hospitals." The Red Army 
 is better-clothed and better-shod and fed than any 
 other section of the population. While I made 
 numerous enquiries, with all the tact and discretion 
 
22 THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK 
 
 at my disposal, regarding the numbers of men on 
 ration strength, I was met always by polite state- 
 ments that nobody knew and nobody could say. It 
 would appear, however, that there must be at least 
 six million men waging war, preparing for war, or 
 providing material for war purposes. 
 
 My own opinion is that the Allies, knowing by 
 means of their Political Intelligence Department 
 that Poland had not the ghost of a chance against 
 Soviet Russia, are pursuing the same plan in regard 
 to Russia as they found so effective in regard to 
 Germany : to occupy as much of their man-power 
 as they possibly could in order to weaken them in 
 the rear and prevent that social reconstruction 
 which would make Russia the most favourable 
 country in the world for the working-class. 
 
 Regarding the so-called rival schools of Eastern 
 and Western Policy, the overwhelming majority of 
 those who shape Russia's policy turn their eyes 
 towards the West to the reconstruction on social 
 lines of the whole of Western Europe. Their 
 capacity to wage war will be improved by the 
 recovery of the Donetz basin coal area, and the 
 occupation of Baku with its millions of tons of oil 
 for fuel purposes. 
 
 In an interesting conversation with Petrovsky, who 
 is the Director of all the Officers' Training Schools, 
 he confidently assured me that there was not the 
 remotest chance of Russia producing a second 
 Napoleon who might possibly overthrow the Com- 
 munist Revolution and establish a military dictator- 
 ship. The bulk of the officers are recruited from 
 the working-class, and they are inspired with the 
 Communist idea. There is, moreover, the fact 
 that the population of the itowns is drilled and 
 armed and equipped in order to maintain their 
 control of the workshops and factories. Russia, 
 in my judgment, could not attempt imperialist wars, 
 for while the soldiery and more particularly the 
 
THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK 23 
 
 peasantry will fight for defensive purposes, their 
 morale would be instantly destroyed were a real 
 aggressionist enterprise commenced. 
 
 IV.— THINGS IN GENERAL. 
 
 I started the invited series of impressions which 
 the Mail could not or would not publish without 
 indicating very much about the actual conditions of 
 life in Russia. It is the intention of the British 
 Socialist Party to reprint the four Herald articles 
 with some amplifications as a pamphlet as early as 
 opportunity will permit, and those who care can 
 readily see some phases of Russian life through 
 the eyes of a proletarian. 
 
 In Petrograd and Moscow' one sees every aspect 
 of City and Metropolitan life completely changed. 
 The main streets, while being thronged with people 
 going to and fro, present an outward appearance 
 of perpetual bankruptcy. Shops, cafes, stores, 
 hotels are closed and shuttered. To those who 
 like places such as Bond Street, Regent Street and 
 Oxford Street, life must be almost unendurable. I 
 must confess I longed now and then to go into 
 some place and order a decent lunch or dinner 
 such as one finds in any capitalist city, but there 
 was simply '' nothing doing." One of the best 
 illustrations I can give of the effects of the Revolu- 
 tion, as compared with conditions under Capitalism, 
 was the reply given to one of my questions by that 
 incarnation of the spirit of Working-Class Dictator- 
 ship, Angelica Balabanoff. I said to her : '' Why 
 is it that in little Esthonia which is in about the 
 same latitude as the Petrograd area, and enjoys 
 the same kind of climatic conditions, there appears 
 to be an abundance of cheese, butter, eggs, milk, 
 bacon, etc., on sale in the shops while there is 
 no evidence of the existence of these things in 
 Petrograd?" She replied by saying that if I made 
 
24 THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK 
 
 close enquiries among the workers both in Esthonia 
 ,and Russia I would make several interesting dis- 
 coveries. Firstly, that in Esthonia these nourish- 
 ing foodstuffs mentioned never appeared on the 
 tables of the workers. They could not afford them. 
 Although there appeared to be an abundance on 
 sale in the shops, it was in fact only within the 
 reach of the relatively well-to-do sections of the 
 community. The children of the Reval workers 
 lived mainly cr entirely on rye-bread as their 
 parents did, while the middle-class, the bourgeois, 
 the military heads, and those who by hook or by 
 crook could put their hands on sufficient Esthonian 
 marks might eat to repletion. Now, in Petrograd, 
 and in fact throughout Soviet Russia, whatever 
 nourishing foods there are at the disposal of the 
 Soviet Authorities go to the care and feeding of the 
 children and the invalids, utterly irrespective of 
 the class to which previously they belonged. 
 Balabanoff said further imagine, but only for the 
 sake of illustration, that the bourgeois system were 
 reintroduced into Petrograd, shops would open as 
 if by magic, food would appear on the counters and 
 in the windows, not because any more had been 
 produced, but the supplies brought on view and 
 obtained by Landlords, Capitalists and their prin- 
 cipal supporters would be taken from that which 
 now goes to the children and the infirm. 
 
 All the foregoing was quite borne out by subse- 
 quent investigations both in Russia and afterwards 
 on my return journey through Esthonia. Every- 
 where we went we saw for ourselves conditions 
 were bad, as we were frankly told, but always we 
 heard they were much worse in 1918 and 1919. 
 I consider that the Russian fatalist outlook on life 
 has helped the people to endure as they have the 
 terrible privations following on six years of war, 
 two bitterly contested revolutions and innumerable 
 counter-revolutionary movements internal and 
 
THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK 25 
 
 external. Most of the distribution of foodstuffs, 
 boots and clothing is carried on through State 
 distributive agencies which is an extension of the 
 work of the Co-operative Movement. Every man 
 and woman rendering social service is paid in 
 roubles, and in addition food and clothing cards or 
 coupons, which enable them to get their supplies 
 at one-tenth of the price obtaining in the speculative 
 markets. 
 
 The Drama, Opera, the Ballet and Kinema per- 
 formances are enjoying unprecedented popularity. 
 I spoke to the leading tenor at the Petrograd Opera 
 House where they were performing Gluck's 
 '' Orpheus," and I also spoke to the conductor 
 of the admirable orchestra. Chaliapin was singing 
 regularly at the '' Hermitage," Moscov/, and I had 
 an interesting conversation with Madame Chalia- 
 pin while in Petrograd. It may interest atrocity- 
 mongers and others who say that the Soviet Power 
 has destroyed Art to know that Chaliapin, whom 
 we heard singing at Reval, and who was perfectly 
 free to come to London or Paris where he can 
 command his own price, prefers to go back 
 to Moscow to sing to the people, and he himself 
 remains a plain member of the Artistes' Pro- 
 fessional Union, together with the scene-shifters 
 and programme-sellers. In my brief talks with 
 the leading tenor, the conductor of the orchestra, 
 and Madame Chaliapin, they all unquestionably 
 agreed that the audiences in Russia are far more 
 appreciative than they were under the old regime. 
 The tickets are distributed mainly through the 
 trade unions and the garrisons, and at such prices 
 ^s bring them within the reach of the humblest 
 Russian worker. The artistes, in general, agreed 
 they were not politicians, and concerned them- 
 selves more with art than politics, and they looked 
 forward to a period when the population, including 
 themselves, will be enabled to enjoy the higher 
 
26 THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK 
 
 standard of living procurable when the nation 
 devotes its energies to more productive efforts, 
 rather than — as it is doing to-day — waging war 
 and breaking down counter-revolution. 
 
 The problem of prostitution is being dealt with 
 in the only really effective way, that is, by destroy- 
 ing the economic causes of prostitution. The 
 elite of the demi-monde of course came to Western 
 Europe as part of the entourage of the nobility and 
 bourgeoisie. The others, being deprived of their 
 more or less well-to-do patrons, have perforce to 
 seek employment in some useful form of 
 occupation. 
 
 Although some of our temperance friends have 
 said that we have nothing to learn from Russia, 
 I am convinced that the prohibition of the sale of 
 alcohol in Russia has led to physical, social, and 
 moral regeneration. Everyone to whom I spoke 
 agreed that the revolution could not have been 
 maintained had the sale of intoxicants been con- 
 tinued. What will happen after the transitional 
 period has been passed remains to be seen, but I 
 come back to Western Europe believing profoundly 
 that if we have to pass through a revolutionary 
 crisis prohibition will be absolutely essential 
 during the period of transition. 
 
 To sum up, I believe more and more in dis- 
 cipline and organisation. Discipline first of all 
 to break down the capitalist system, and then 
 strict military and industrial discipline in order to 
 establish the Socialist or Communist State. 
 
 I have to state publicly, in conjclusion, that 
 although I was appointed in January of this year 
 as a delegate to the Second International Congress 
 at Geneva, my experiences in Russia, coupled with 
 my knowledge of the international movement, 
 preclude any possibility of my fulfilling my engage- 
 ment to attend. I think the Second International 
 worse than useless. It is attempting to erect a 
 
THE SOVIET SYSTEM AT WORK 27 
 
 new superstructure upon a foundation of sand, and 
 I shall devote such of my energies and time at 
 my disposal to working towards the extension of 
 the Third International. Moreover, Purcell and I, 
 acting in conjunction with the representatives of 
 the Italian trade unions, and members of the All- 
 Russian Trade Union Executive, together with 
 Zinovieff, have signed an appeal to the leaders of 
 the Left Wing of the trade union movement to 
 form an International of the Trade Unions from 
 the paralysing influence of the Legiens, the 
 Gompers, the Appletons, and others who were 
 more imperialist, more jingoistic, and more 
 chauvinist than the landlord and capitalist class 
 in their respective countries during the war. 
 
NATIONAL LABOUR PRESS, LTD. 
 
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