44. The Civil War and the Struggle with international Imperialism.
The bourgeoisie continued to do everything in its power to hinder the working class from organising production, and to prevent the upbuilding of a workers’ society. Immediately after the victory of the proletariat, the bourgeoisie instituted a widespread policy of sabotage. All those who had been high officials, all the managing engineers, teachers, and bank clerks, all those who had been masters, did everything they could to hinder work. Plot followed upon plot; one counter-revolutionary rising succeeded another. The Russian bourgeoisie entered into alliances with the Czecho-Slovaks, the Entente, the Germans, the Poles, etc.; an attempt was made to crush the Russian proletariat by never-ending fights. The proletariat had to create a huge army, one able to repel the onslaughts of the armies sent by the landlords and capitalists of all lands. The imperialists of the whole world hurled their forces against the Russian proletariat.
This war is for the proletariat a holy war, a war of deliverance, but none the less it involves terrible costs. The remnants of productive industry had to be devoted to the service of the Red Army; thousands of the best organisers among the workers were called to the front. Furthermore, almost at the very outset, the bourgeoisie was able to secure a strong grip of certain regions peculiarly important to the economic life of the country. The military leaders of the Don Cossacks succeeded in depriving the working class of the Donetz coal basin. The British seized the Baku oil-fields. The corn lands of Ukraine, Siberia, and part of Transvolgia, were in the hands of the counter-revolution. The working class, therefore, had not merely to stand to arms and to meet the onslaught of innumerable foes; it was compelled in addition to carry on its proletarian economy in default of some of the most important means of production — in default of fuel and raw materials.