61. Our old Army Program, and the Question of War in a socialist State.
In § 12 we explained how the standing army of the bourgeois State is constructed and for what purposes it is used. The socialists of all countries, including the Russian social democrats, used to demand the abolition of standing armies. Instead of a standing army, the socialists wanted the general arming of the people (a citizen army); they demanded the abolition of the officers’ caste, and the election of officers by the rank and file.
Let us consider what should be the communists’ attitude towards these demands.
The first question that arises in this connexion is, on behalf of what form of social order the before-mentioned demands were made. Were they made for a bourgeois society, or for a socialist society, or for a society in the throes of the struggle between bourgeoisdom and socialism?
The socialist parties adhering to the Second International had no clear ideas concerning the nature of the society in relation to which their program was drawn up. For the most part, indeed, their program related to a bourgeois society. What the socialists usually had in their minds as model was the Swiss Republic, where there is no standing army but a national militia.