Mikhail Geller - Utopia in Power

Terrible, the cruelties of Peter the Great, the "Conditions" limiting monarchical power that were torn up by Empress Anne in 1730, or the manifesto granting a few liberties to the nobility, signed by the short-lived Tsar Peter III in 1762. Reaching back into the distant past, Soviet historians argue that the dream of socialism was nurtured by the peasants of Yuri Dolgoruky or that Ivan Kalita, the grand duke of Moscow, brought prosperity and prominence to the future capital of the first victorious socialist country in the world. Similarly turning to the distant past, Western historians draw a direct line from Ivan Vasilievich (Ivan the Terrible) to Joseph Vissarionovich (Stalin), or from Malyuta Skuratov, head of Ivan the Terrible's bodyguard and secret police force, to Yuri Andropov, the longtime head of the KGB who recently headed the Soviet state, thus demonstrating that from the time of the Scythians Russia was inexorably heading toward the October revolution and Soviet power. It was inherent in the national character of the Russian people. Nowhere else, these schol­ars think, would such a thing be possible.

There is no question that historical events affect the lives of nations, not only in the immediate present but over the long term, even for centuries. Clearly in studying history one must take into account many factors: geo­graphical, climatic, and soil conditions, as well as national characteristics and forms of government. Moreover, there are certain similar factors in all modern societies, such as urbanization, industrialization, and demographic cycles.

In studying the history of the Soviet state it is insufficient to consider such factors. One particular characteristic—the total influence of the ruling party on all spheres of existence on a scale never before known—acts as a determining force in all Soviet institutions and on the typical Soviet citizen, Homo Sovieticus. This total influence has distorted the normal processes at work in contemporary societies and has resulted in the emer­gence of a historically unprecedented society and state.

The transition from pre-October Russia to the USSR, as Aleksandr Sol- zhenitsyn has said, "was not a continuation of the spinal column, but a disastrous fracture that very nearly caused the nation's total destruction." The history of the Soviet Union is the history of the transformation of Russia—a country no better or worse than any other, one with its own peculiarities to be sure, but a country comparable in all respects to the other countries of Europe—into a phenomenon such as humanity has never known.

On the date of October 25, 1917, under the old Russian calendar (No­vember 7 by the Western calendar), a new era began. The history of Russia ended on that day. It was replaced by the history of the Soviet Union. The new era affected the entire human race, because the whole world felt, and still feels, the consequences of the October revolution. "The history of Homo Sapiens," Arthur Koestler has written, "began with zero." One might add that the history of Homo Sovieticus began the same way.

LIST OF ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

Department of Agitation and Propaganda American Relief Administration Chinese Communist party

All-Russia Extraordinary Commission for the Struggle Ag

Counterrevolution and Sabotage Central Intelligence Agency Communist Party of the Soviet Union Far Northern Construction Project Federal Republic of Germany German Democratic Republic Main Literature and Art Administration State Commission for the Electrification of Russia State Publishing House State Political Administration Main Frontier Troops Administration Main Highway Construction Administration intercontinental ballistic missile Institute of Philosophy, Literature, and History Caucasus Bureau State Security Committee Young Communist League

Agitprop ARA CCP Cheka

CIA CPSU

Dalstroi FRG GDR Glavlit GOELRO Gosizdat GPU GUPV Gushossdor ICBM IFU Kavburo KGB Komsomol Komuch KONR KPD LEF MGB

Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia German Communist party Left Front of Art Ministry of State Security

mutiple independently targeted reentry vehicle

medium-range ballistic missile

Military Revolutionary Committee

machine and tractor station

Ministry of Internal Affairs

North Atlantic Treaty Organization

Novocherkassk Electric Locomotive Plant

New Economic Policy

People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs

National-Labor Alliance of Russian Solidarists

Unified State Political Administration

Organizational Bureau

United Revolutionary Organization

Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists

Petrograd Military Organization

Provisional Polish Revolutionary Committee

Red Trade Union International

Proletarian Cultural and Educational Organization

Polish United Workers party

Russian Association of Proletarian Writers

Russian Liberation Army

Russian National Liberation Army

Russian Union of All Military Men

Russian Social Democratic Labor party

Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic

military counterintelligence

Free Interprofessional Association of Workers

Council of People's Commissars

Socialist Revolutionary

Department of Records and Assignments

Ukrainian Insurgent Army

Supreme Economic Council

All-Russia Executive Committee of the Railroad Workers' Union

All-Russia Social Christian Union for the Liberation of the

MIRV MRBM MRC MTS MVD NATO NELP NEP NKVD NTS OGPU Orgburo ORI OUN PMO Polrevkom Pro/intern Proletcult

PUWP RAPP ROA RONA ROWS RSDLP RSFSR SMERSH SMOT Sovnarkom

SR

Uchraspred UPA VSNKH VIKZHEL

VSKhSON

Zakburo

People Transcaucasian Bureau

CHAPTER

—i

BEFORE OCTOBER 1917

WORLD WAR I

The October revolution was a direct consequence of World War I. The decade preceding the war had been one of rapid economic growth. Industrial progress, in general, had begun in Russia in the 1860s after the emanci­pation of the serfs, but it intensified especially after Japan defeated Russia in 1905. Forced to rebuild its shattered navy and reequip its land forces, the tsarist government allocated large sums for military purposes, from which the industrial sector benefited the most.

Six months before the war started, the French economist Edmond ТЬёгу published a book entitled The Economic Transformation of Russia, in which he presented some rather eloquent figures. In the five-year period 1908- 1912, coal production increased by 79.3 percent over the preceding five years; iron by 24.8 percent; steel and metal products by 45.9 percent.¹ From 1900 to 1913 the output of heavy industry increased by 74.1 percent, even allowing for inflation.² The rail network, which covered 24,400 ki­lometers in 1890, had grown to 61,000 kilometers by 1915.³ Industrial progress helped to

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