MILITARY AFFAIRS.
As regards military affairs, the aims of the party are summed up in the following theses:
- During the epoch when imperialism is breaking up and when the civil war rages, it is impossible to preserve the old army, and it is equally impossible to construct a new army upon a so-called non-class or whole-nation basis. The Red Army as the instrument of proletarian dictatorship must necessarily have a declared class character; that is to say, it must be exclusively composed of the proletariat and of the kindred semi-proletarian strata of the peasantry. Only when class has completely disappeared, can such an army be transformed into a socialist militia comprising the whole people.[§61,62& 69.]
- It is essential that all members of the proletariat and semi-proletariat should receive military training, and that suitable military instruction should be given in the schools.[§63.]
- The work of military training and instruction of the Red Army is effected upon a basis of class solidarity and socialist enlightenment. For this reason there must be political commissars, appointed from among trusty and self-denying communists, to cooperate with the military staff; and all the communist groups must be inspired with ideas of unity and self-imposed discipline.[§64& 65.]
- To counteract the system of the old army, the following measures are requisite: the period of barrack life must be reduced to the utmost; the barracks must be assimilated to the type of military and politico-military schools; there must be the closest possible association between the military units and the factories, workshops, trade unions, and poor peasants’ organisations.[§66.]