93. The Expropriation of the Bourgeoisie and the proletarian Nationalisation of large-scale Industry.
The very first task of the proletariat, and of the Soviet Power as instrument of the proletarian dictatorship, was to wrest the means of production from the bourgeoisie, or, as the phrase runs, to expropriate the bourgeoisie. It is self-evident that we were not concerned with the expropriation of small-scale industry or with the expropriation of artisan production, but with the seizure of the means of production that were in the hands of the great capitalists, with establishing large-scale industry upon a new foundation, and with organising it in accordance with new principles. How could the Soviet Power do these things? In Part One we learned that the proletariat must not attempt to divide up the factories and workshops, and must not plunder them, but must undertake the social, the cooperative, organisation of production. Obviously, in the epoch of proletarian dictatorship there is only one way of doing this, namely by proletarian nationalisation, by which we mean the transfer of all the means of production, distribution, and exchange into the hands of the proletarian State, the greatest and most, powerful of working-class organisations.
We must carefully avoid confusing the nationalisation of production under the bourgeois regime with the nationalisation of production under the proletarian regime. Nationalisation means “transfer into the hands of the State.” But one who speaks of the State without qualification, and without enquiring whether the State is a bourgeois State or a proletarian State, misses the whole point. When the