THE CONDITIONS OF COMMUNIST ACTIVITY IN RUSSIA

State capitalism on the Prussian model. But it is perfectly plain that we cannot believe State capitalism to be possible unless we also believe in the possibility of the socialist organisation of economic life. The only difference between the two systems lies in this, that in one case industry is organised by the bourgeois State, and that in the other case it is organised by the proletarian State. If industrial production in Russia were so backward that there could be no possibility of its being organised by the proletarian State, then there could be no possibility of organising it upon State capitalist foundations either. In a country where large-scale industry does not exist, and where production is carried on by quantities of small masters, it will be impossible to organise industry even upon State capitalist lines. We know perfectly well that the centralisation of industry only becomes possible when the centralisation of capital has advanced to a certain stage. Now Russian capitalism had already reached this stage of centralisation. Even the opponents of communism recognised this by the very fact that they considered it possible for the bourgeois State to “regulate industry.” The backwardness of Russian economic life did not consist in the absence of great factories, for there were plenty; it consisted in the fact that manufacturing industry taken as a whole was of small extent when compared with agriculture. The logical inference is that, despite all difficulties, the Russian proletariat must organise industry in a proletarian fashion, and must maintain its grip of industry until help comes from the west. As far as Russian agriculture is concerned, we must establish a number of focal points where comrades carry on cooperative production. When, however, Russian manufacturing industry is able to join forces with the productive industry of the west, then the joint organisation of production will speedily enable us to draw the petty producers and the peasants into a general and immense cooperative organisation. If, for instance, there existed one great European system of production organised by the working class, then vast quantities of the products of urban industry could be supplied to the rural districts. But town industry will have to