organisation for the management of economic life, and for its advancement in every possible way. A study of the budget of the Soviet Republic will make this clear. Here are some characteristic items of expenditure.
Estimates for the half-year, January to June, 1919, in millions of roubles:
These figures show that the defence of the republic still requires vast sums of money. Putting on one side this item, which arises out of the peculiar conditions of the moment, we see that nine-tenths of the expenditure of the proletarian State is devoted to production, administration, the safeguarding of future functional capacity, the maintenance of labour power, etc. All this expenditure is purely economic.
Furthermore, in the Communist Saturdays the workers in the various productive organisations, the soldiers of the Red Army, and the war commissars, all combine to do their duty in the matter of productive labour — though at first, of course, the results are slender. Prior to the year 1919, there was no State in the world in which the civil servants were voluntarily engaged in such tasks as the repairing of locomotives and the lading of wood on behalf of the State.
124. The Budget of the proletarian State.
We have seen that the expenditure of the proletarian State is increasingly devoted to productive purposes. The question now arises, from what sources its income will be derived.
The finances of the Russian Soviet Republic give some information upon this subject.
In the early days of its existence, the Soviet Power had certain extraordinary sources of revenue. It had the bank deposits which had