The Stalin school of falsification - Marxists Internet Archive

Stalin School of Falsification - Chapter 5
of the Soviet forces and the need of a breathing spell, Lenin stood for signing the proposed peace treaty,
even though it meant agreement to Russia's being despofled of vast territories and forced to pay tribute to
the Germans. Bukharin and his group (including Inessa Armand, A. Bubnov, Bela Kun, Alexandra Kol
lontai, Kuibyschev, N. Muralov,M. N. Pokrovsky, Preobrazhen sky, Piatakov, Radek, Uritsky, etc.),
opposed the acceptance of the peace terms and advocated a revolutionary war against the Germans.
Trotsky, recognizing the exhaustion of the armed forces of the Soviets, proposed that the war be declared
at an end, that the peace treaty be not signed, and that if the Germans continued to advance, the terms be
accepted "at the point of a bayonet," in order to show the international and especially the German work
ing class t~at the Soviets had held out against German imperial ism till the very last. Trotsky's
formula-"Neither war nor peace" — was, for example, exactly the status for years to come of relations
between Russia and Roumania. At first Lenin was in a minority in tile leadership and the ranks. The
principal Soviets in the country (except for Petrograd and Sebastopol) expressed themselves against
signing the treaty (thus, Moscow, Ekaterin burg, Kharkov, Kronstadt, etc.). On January 21, 1918, at a
conference in Petrograd of active leaders throughout the country, with 68 present, the revolutionary war
position received an absolute majority of 32, the Trotsky position ("Neither war nor peace") 16, and the
Lenin position 15. At the very last moment, when the Germans had resumed their advance and given
their final ultimatum, the Central Committee session carried Lenin's proposal to sign the treaty. At the
February 23 meeting, Lenin, Zinoviev, Sverdlov and Sokolnikov voted to sign, with Bukharin,
Dzerzhinsky, Uritsky and Lomoy voting against. Trotsky stated:
"If there were unanimity among us, we could proceed with the organization of the defense and would do
a good job of it. .
But this requires a maximum of unity. But since this unity does not exist, I cannot assume the
responsibility for voting in favor of war." The C.C. thereupon decided by 7 votes to 4, with 4 abstain ing
(Trotsky's abstention gave Lenin the necessary majority) to accept the German proposal instantly. At this
session, it was Stalin who declared: "It is not necessary to sign, but we can begin peace negotiations" —
a position which Lenin attacked. The "Left Communists," Bukharin, Lomov, Bubnov, Yakovlev,
Piatakov and V. Smirnov thereupon announced their withdrawal from all responsible party and Soviet
posts in order to be free to carry on their agitation against the decision in the ranks of the party; in the
name of the Moscow Party Committee controlled by them, they issued Kommunist as a faction organ in
which a violent polemic was conducted for several months against Lenin's course. The signing of the
Brest Treaty also had as one of its results the withdrawal of all the Social Revolutionary Commissars
from the Soviet Government, followed by an armed uprising of that party against the Bolshevik régime.
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19. The N.E.P. (New Economic Policy) was adopted, on Lenin's initiative, by the Tenth Congress of the
Communist Party of Russia, early in 1921, and re-enforced at the Tenth Party Conference in May of the
same year. Not only had the post-war revolutionary wave in Europe subsided, especially after the fail ure
of the Red drive on Warsaw, but relations with the peasantry in Russia had become strained to the
breaking point. The ex tremely rigorous regulations of so-called War Communism (requisitioning and
confiscation of grain from the peasant), accompanied by the breakdown of industry consequent upon the
ravages of the civil war (in 1920, industrial output was only 18 per cent of the pre-war level; in heavy
industry, specifically, the situation was far worse), had brought the alliance of the workers and peasants
to extreme tension. The Tenth Congress met dur ing the Kronstadt rebellion, which reflected the intense
discon tent of the peasants. Lenin proposed a policy of substituting a tax in kind for requisitions; of
allowing the peasant to dispose of his surplus within the limits of "local trade"; of allowing the
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