These considerations show us what a martyr’s road the workers had to tread. Their first task was to overthrow their enemies. Not until this had been done could they begin to upbuild the new life properly.
In its struggle with the working class, the bourgeoisie likewise availed itself of all the means that could effect the economic overthrow of the Russian proletariat. The capitalists encircled Russia on all sides; the land was rigidly blockaded for years; in their retreats the Whites burned and destroyed everything. For example, Admiral Kolchak burned ten million poods of grain, destroyed a good half of the Volga fleet, and so on. The resistance of the bourgeoisie, its frantic struggles, the aid given to it by world-wide imperialism — these constituted the second great obstacle in the path of the working class.
45. The petty-bourgeois Character of Russia, the Lack of extensive organisatory Experience on the Part of the Proletariat, etc.
We have already seen that production in Russia was sufficiently centralised for the question to arise whether it could be nationalised under proletarian control, whether it could be transferred to the ownership of the workers’ State, and whether