mineral oil, iron, etc.; she has vast corn lands; with proper organisation and under peace conditions, all could be turned to proper account. For our part, we could help our western comrades with Russian raw materials. Provided that the whole of Europe were to be under the authority of the proletariat, there would be such a development of production as would provide amply for all needs. Since, however, the proletariat will inevitably rise to power everywhere, it is obvious that the mission of the Russian working class is to do its utmost on behalf of the transformation to communism. It is for this reason, as we have learned in Part One, that our party has made the prompt establishment of communism its definite aim.
42. Large-scale Industry in Russia.
Russian manufacturing industry, however, though a small affair in comparison with Russian agriculture, had been organised in accordance with the methods of large-scale capitalist production. In Part One we pointed out that in the most important branches of capitalist production in Russia there were enterprises employing ten thousand workers and upwards. From 1907 onwards, the centralisation of Russian industry made rapid progress, and production passed under the control of a network of syndicates and trusts. When the war began, the bourgeoisie started the organisation of State capitalism. This confirms our view that Russian industry can be organised and administered as a unified whole, even though the process may offer difficulties. It is interesting to note that the right social revolutionaries and the mensheviks, who are never weary of proclaiming that socialism is absolutely impossible in Russia, have always advocated the State regulation and control of industry. But they only believed in the necessity for this when all authority was in the hands of the bourgeoisie, when the “regulating” and “controlling” power was to be that of the capitalist State. In other words, the mensheviks and the essers, despite their protestations of patriotism, were in favour of