by Victor Serge
Will they actually join the Communist organizations, or will they organize themselves alongside them so as to co-operate fraternally with them against the common enemy? I am not even going to ask this question, which seems to me to be a secondary one. Circumstances will decide. In practice, the only thing which can impede the agreement of all revolutionaries in common action is the narrow-mindedness of those who see any ideas different from their own as being harmful. The vital thing for anarchists is that they should not belong to this group.
The future
When the revolution is victorious and the country is at peace, the dictatorship of the proletariat and the state will disappear, and as society organizes itself more consciously, some people will doubtless feel satisfied. Yet it is necessary always to go forward, unceasingly forever. Towards what?
“Towards greater material well-being,” the masses will reply, not without good reason. But at this juncture the role of the anarchists will be decisive. In all fields of social activity, it will fall to them to bring their answer to this question:
“Towards greater freedom. Towards the fullest development of the human personality.”
Conservative or reactionary tendencies will also appear then. Then, as now, philistines will exist in great numbers. Stupidity, petty egoism and vanity will continue their activity as they have always done. Authority will struggle to survive, thus blocking the way to true life.
So we shall need anarchists in order to go forward, to stimulate the endless quest of the best and the bravest, to ensure the defence of the individual against various intolerant or tyrannical collectivities, to pursue in behavior and in thought the never-ending revolutionary action which generates all human progress.
Petrograd, July–August 1920
Notes
Introduction
1 “Pendant la guerre civile,” Les Cahiers du travail No 6, May 15, 1921; “Les Anarchistes et l’expérience de la révolution russe,” Les Cahiers du travail No 12, August 15, 1921.
2 “La Ville en danger,” La Vie ouvrière, Nos 57–61 (June 4 to July 2, 1920); reprinted Paris, Librairie du travail, 1924. The 1924 version adds several sections not published in La Vie ouvrière, notably the introduction “My Road to Russia” and the concluding section on Yudenich.
3 La Ville en danger was republished in the French reprint of L’An I de la révolution russe (Paris, 1971); “Les Anarchistes …” was reprinted in Alexandre Skirda’s Les Anarchistes dans la révolution russe (Paris, 1975). As far as I know Pendant la guerre civile has never been republished.
4 A few pages from La Ville en danger are translated in D Cotterill (ed), The Serge-Trotsky Papers (London, 1994), pp 9–12.
5 Two pamphlets published by the Librairie du travail in 1925 are available in English. They are What Everyone Should Know About State Repression (London, 1979), and Lenin in 1917 (Revolutionary History, vol 5 No 3 (1994), pp 3–53.
6 For example, in his Memoirs he wrote: “I believe that the formation of the Chekas was one of the gravest and most impermissible errors that the Bolshevik leaders committed in 1918, when plots, blockades, and interventions made them lose their heads.” (Memoirs of a Revolutionary, Oxford, 1967, pp 80–81.)
7 Cited in Introduction to Memoirs of a Revolutionary, pp xviii–xix.
8 In an article on Martinet in Les Humbles Jan–Feb–March 1936 (special issue on Martinet); this article does not appear in Trotsky’s collected Writings.
9 See the account of an involved participant in A Rosmer, Lenin’s Moscow (London, 1987).
10 From the article on Martinet cited in note 8.
11 Trotsky discusses his play La Nuit (The Night) in his essay “A Drama of the French Working Class,” On Literature and Art (New York, 1970), pp 148–61.
12 His novel La Maison à l’abri (The Sheltered House) was short-listed for the Prix Goncourt in 1919, the year it was won by Proust.
13 Où va la révolution russe? L’affaire Victor Serge (Paris, 1933).
14 M Gilbert, Winston S Churchill, vol. IV (London, 1975), pp 226–7.
15 W S Churchill, The Second World War, vol. VI (London, 1954), p 198.
16 Manchester Guardian, July 13, 1920; cited in W P Coates & Z K Coates, Armed Intervention in Russia 1918–1922, (London, 1935), p 209.
17 Armed Intervention in Russia, p 229.
18 Memoirs of a Revolutionary, p 74.
19 V Serge, Littérature et révolution (Paris, 1976), p 77.
20 F Kupferman, Au Pays des soviets (Paris, 1979), p 41; see also Mauricius, Au Pays des soviets (Paris, 1921), p 197, M. Body, Un Piano en bouleau de Carélie (Paris, 1981), p 173.
21 P Sedgwick, “The Unhappy Elitist: Victor Serge’s Early Bolshevism,” History Workshop No 17 (Spring 1984), p 151.
22 For an account that is sympathetic to the anarchists but does not deny their provocative behavior, see P Avrich, The Russian Anarchists (Princeton N.J., 1967).
23 The Serge-Trotsky Papers, p 13.
24 Memoirs of a Revolutionary, pp 109–10, 123, 153.
25 This is not the place for an analysis of Serge’s views on Kronstadt, at the time and subsequently. See The Serge-Trotsky Papers, pp 18–20, 150–191, 217–8.
26 V. Serge, “La Pensée anarchiste,” Crapouillot, January 1938, p 12.
During the Civil War
1 The movement collapsed on July 19; the Barcelona general strike was postponed and was finally defeated in August.
2 A Russian word which is difficult to translate. It refers to the fearful petty-bourgeoisie.
3 Tsarkoe Selo, literally village of the Tsar, has been turned into Dietskoe Selo, village of children.
4 I have given an account of these events in one of the Cahiers du travail which appeared in 1921, During the Civil War.
The Anarchists and the Experience of the Russian Revolution
1 I owe this excellent term to comrade Amédée Dunois, who in his study Marxism and Freedom prefers it to “historical materialism.”
2 The French revolution took half a century to conquer minds—after having conquered Europe by force of arms—and was rekindled from 1848 in the form of egalitarian, libertarian and fraternal socialism.
3 Few books are so useful in understanding the terrible necessities of the Russian Revolution as Kropotkin’s The Great French Revolution.
4 Epic by the heroism of the anarchist “partisans,” who, armed with spears and clubs, began their insurrectional movement under the German occupation, and who later struck a mortal blow against Denikin by cutting off his communications and destroying his reserves. They could not be subjugated, even though they had no munitions factories, no reserves of arms, no organization of supplies, no medical services or doctors, though the territory was ravaged by epidemics. Heart-rending because of the anti-Semitic abuses which the militants who took part in the movement were not able to prevent, because of banditry, because of the ferocity of insurgents who ceased to be revolutionaries and became no more than outlaws.
5 Today—June 1921—there are in Moscow two anarcho-syndicalist groups, who can basically be distinguished as left and right; likewise there are two anarchist-universalist groups.
6 Unfortunately this is not just a possibility; it is already a fact. In Monsieur Jouhaux’s La Bataille Christian Cornelissen and Jean Grave have written articles on Soviet Russia which Albert Thomas and Kautsky would not have repudiated. Charles Malato recently wrote in France Libre, the paper of the social patriots dear to the heart of Marshal Pilsudski, a similar article entitled “On a New Religion.” And there are other examples (1920).
Further reading
For those who want to know more of Serge’s writings on the Russian Revolution and its aftermath there is a considerable amount of material available in English.
For an account of Serge’s life and political evolution the best starting point is his Memoirs of a Revolutionary 1901–1941 (New York, 1984). The first complete translation of his memoirs in English will be published by the New York Revie
w of Books in 2011. All his novels are well worth reading. Conquered City (New York, 1978) portrays Petrograd at roughly the same time as these pamphlets, while The Case of Comrade Tulayev (London, 1993) is perhaps his most striking attack on Stalinism. Year One of the Russian Revolution (London, 1992) describes the period immediately preceding that covered in these pamphlets; Russia Twenty Years After (New Jersey, 1996—also known as Destiny of a Revolution) presents a critique of Stalinism.
The Serge-Trotsky Papers (edited David Cotterill, London, 1994) traces Serge’s complex relations with Trotsky and Trotskyism; Victor Serge—the Century of the Unexpected (issue 5/3 of Revolutionary History , 1994) contains a number of important texts by and about Serge, notably his 1925 essay on Lenin and his 1927 articles on the Chinese revolution.
For a comprehensive bibliography of Serge’s writings see Bill Marshall, Victor Serge: The Uses of Dissent (Oxford, 1992).
Glossary
People
Antselovich, Naum Markovich (1888–1952); joined Communist Party 1905; exiled after 1912; organized Red Guard in Petrograd; Central Committee member from 1938; deputy trade minister from 1945.
Avrov, Dmitrii Nikolaevich (1890–1922); captain in Tsarist army in World War I; joined Red Army and Communist Party 1918; took part in suppression of Kronstadt 1921.
Bulak-Balakhovich, Stanislav Nikodimovich (1883–1940); officer in World War I; joined Red Army February 1918; defected to Whites November 1918; fought against soviet forces till November 1920; then went to Poland; assassinated in Warsaw.
Borghi, Armando (1882–1968); Italian anarchist from 1897; secretary of the Unione Sindacale Italiana (a syndicalist split from the General Confederation of Labor); interned 1916–18 for anti-war activity; visited Russia 1920, but hostile to Communist International and Red International of Labor Unions; left Italy 1922; in USA 1926–45; returned to Italy 1945, active as anarchist; in 1960s defended Cuban revolution.
Bukharin, Nikolai (1888–1938); Bolshevik from 1906; in exile 1910–17; opposed Brest-Litovsk as “left communist”; became editor of Pravda; supported Stalin against left 1923–28; then dropped by Stalin and removed from all positions; capitulated to Stalin 1933; became editor of Izvestia; executed in 1938.
Churchill, Winston (1874–1975); Tory MP 1900, defected to Liberals; Minister of Munitions 1917, Secretary of State for War 1919–21; defected back to Tories 1924, helped to defeat General Strike 1926; Prime Minister 1940–45, 1951–55.
Clemenceau, Georges (1841–1929); French politician, originally radical but strike-breaker before 1914; Prime Minister 1917–20, instigated blockade and intervention against Soviet Union.
Denikin, Anton Ivanovich (1872–1947); Tsarist general in World War I; led counter-revolutionary forces in south during civil war; defeated at Orel (1919), resigned 1920; lived in exile in France till 1945, then USA.
Dzerzhinsky, Felix (1877–1926); Polish Social Democrat; imprisoned five times under Tsarism; liberated from ten years forced labor by February revolution; became prominent Bolshevik and permanent chair of the Special Commission; died after attacking opposition at Central Committee meeting.
Glazunov, Alexander (1865–1936); composer of symphonies, studied under Rimsky-Korsakov; given title People’s Artist of the Republic; emigrated to Paris 1928.
Gorky, Maxim (1868–1936); pseudonym of A. M. Peshkov; Russian novelist and dramatist, author of Mother and The Lower Depths; worked with Bolsheviks 1905–17, raised money for them in USA; critical of repressive measures in early years of Bolshevik rule; lived abroad 1921–31; in last years made peace with Stalin and became advocate of “socialist realism.”
Jaurès, Jean (1859–1914); leader of reformist wing of French Socialist Party; assassinated on eve of World War I.
Kolchak, Alexander (1873–1920); Tsarist admiral, commanded Black Sea fleet 1916; established anti-Bolshevik government in Siberia, proclaimed himself “supreme ruler” of Russia; Czechs handed him over to Bolsheviks, who tried and shot him.
Krasin, Leonid (1870–1926); on Bolshevik Central Committee 1903; broke with Lenin 1909, trained as engineer; manager of Siemens factory in Petrograd; rejoined Bolsheviks 1917, later ambassador in London and Paris; prestige as engineer helped to attract technicians to Bolshevik side.
Kropotkin, Pyotr (1842–1921); Russian prince, zoologist, geographer, historian of the French Revolution and influential theoretician of anarchism; lived in England 1886–1917; supported Allies in World War I; returned to Russia 1917, supported Kerensky, hostile to Bolsheviks.
Lepetit, Jules, Marius (1889–1920); pseudonym of Louis Alexandre Bertho; French anarchist; worked as a laborer from age eleven; refused to serve in World War I—jailed 1917–19 for publishing illegal anti-war paper; visited Russia 1920, went to Ukraine; critical of Bolsheviks, but not hostile; died at sea on return journey (with Vergeat and Raymond Lefebvre).
Makhno, Nestor (1889–1934); born of peasant family in Ukraine; became anarchist 1906, imprisoned, released after February 1917; returned to Ukraine, organized bands of armed peasants, created anarchist communes, failed to develop urban base; 1919 made alliance with Communists to fight Denikin, but refused to move to Polish front, attacked by Red Army; new alliance with Communists in 1920, but this too broke down; Makhno’s forces smashed by Red Army; fled to Paris, died in poverty.
Pestaña, Angel (1881–1937); Spanish anarchist, member of CNT (National Confederation of Labor); later formed syndicalist party; became commissar in Republican Army in Spanish Civil War.
Peters, Iakov Khristoforovich (1886–1938); Latvian Communist from 1904; in London from 1909, member of British Socialist Party; returned to Russia 1917; on Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee October 1917; deputy chair of Special Commission; 1923 leading figure in GPU; disappeared during purges of 1930s.
Shatov, Bill (Vladimir); Russian anarchist, emigrated to USA, active in Industrial Workers of the World; birth control campaigner; returned to Russia 1917; 1919 officer in Red Army; 1920 Minister of Transport in Far Eastern Republic; later supervised construction of Turkestan-Siberia Railway; 1936, sent to Siberia and probably shot.
Vergeat, Joseph Victor (1891–1920); French syndicalist, active in Syndicalist Youth and as anti-militarist before 1914; campaigned actively against World War I; militant in metal workers’ union, secretary of Committee for Third International, 1919; visited Russia 1920; died at sea on return journey (with Lepetit and Raymond Lefebvre).
Voline (1882–1945); pseudonym of Boris Eichenbaum; joined Social Revolutionaries 1904, sentenced to deportation 1907, fled to France; became anarchist 1911; 1915 left France for USA to escape internment for anti-war activity; returned to Russia 1917; editor Golos Truda, fought with Makhno in Ukraine; Serge and friends intervened to save his life; left Russia 1922 for Berlin, then Paris.
Yudenich, Nikolay Nikolayevich (1862–1933); Tsarist general; commander-in-chief of counter-revolutionary northwestern army in civil war; after defeat emigrated to Britain.
Zhuk, Iustin Petrovich (1887–1919); from peasant family; expelled from agricultural school for distributing illegal literature; joined anarchists; 1909 sentenced to penal servitude for life for role in 1905 revolution; organized Red Guards in Schlüsselberg after February 1917.
Zinoviev, Grigory (1883–1936); Bolshevik from 1903, worked closely with Lenin; president of Petrograd soviet and president of Communist International 1919–26; allied with Stalin against Trotsky 1923, with Trotsky against Stalin 1925; expelled from Bolshevik Party 1927, capitulated 1928, expelled and readmitted 1932; executed 1936.
Organizations
Allies: The alliance in and after World War I led by Britain and France, and including several other states, notably Japan, Italy and the USA.
Cheka: see Special Commission.
Entente: 1907–17 the “Triple Entente” of France, Britain and Russia; Russia repudiated this after October 1917, and hereafter the term refers to Britain and France.
Jacobins: the most radical bourgeois curren
t in the French Revolution, dominant 1793–94; advocated revolutionary terror and an egalitarian republic of small property owners.
Social Revolutionaries: Russian peasant socialist party, formed at the beginning of the century from various Narodnik tendencies; during revolution split: right supported Kerensky, left had anarchistic tendencies, but for a time supported Bolsheviks.
Special Commission: name in full, Special Commission for the Repression of Counter-Revolution, Speculation, Espionage and Desertion, known as Cheka (from abbreviation of Russian title) established as security force in 1917; replaced by GPU in 1922.
