第 16 节
作者:泰达魔王      更新:2022-08-21 16:34      字数:9321
  which;      for   all  practical     purposes;     the   bourgeois      specialist    will    be
  responsible   solely   to   the   State。    Many   Communists;   including   some   of
  the   best   known;   while   recognizing   the   need   of   greater   efficiency   if   the
  revolution is to survive at all; regard this step as definitely retrograde and
  likely      in    the    long     run     to    make      the    revolution       not    worth
  preserving。*'(*)Thus Rykov; President of the Supreme Council of Public
  Economy: 〃There is a possibility of so constructing a State that in it there
  will    be   a  ruling   caste    consisting    chiefly    of   administrative      engineers;
  technicians; etc。; that is; we should get a form of State economy based on
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  a small group of a ruling caste whose privilege in this case would be the
  management   of   the   workersand   peasants。〃           That   criticism   of   individual
  control;   from   a   communist;   goes   a   good   deal   further   than   most   of   the
  criticism      from     people     avowedly      in    opposition。'       The      enormous
  importance       attached    by    everybody      to  this  question     of   individual    or
  collegiate control; may bejudged from the fact that at every conference I
  attended; and every discussion to which
  I   listened;    this  point;    which     might    seem     of  minor     importance;
  completely overshadowed the question of industrial conscription which; at
  least inside the Communist Party; seemed generally taken for granted。                       It
  may be taken now as certain that the majority of the Communists are in
  favor     of  individual     control。    They     say    that  the   object   of   〃workers'
  control〃 before the revolution was to ensure that factories should be run in
  the interests of workers as well of employers。              In Russia now there are no
  employers other than the State as a whole; which is exclusively made up
  of employees。 (I am stating now the view of the majority at the last Trades
  Union   Congress   at   which   I   was   present;   April;   1920。)        They   say   that
  〃workers' control〃 exists in a larger and more efficient manner than was
  suggested       by   the   old   pre…revolutionary      statements      on   that   question。
  Further; they say that if workers' control ought to be identified with Trade
  Union      control;   the   Trades    Unions     are  certainly    supreme     in  all  those
  matters   with   which   they   have   chiefly   concerned   themselves;   since   they
  dominate the Commissariat of Labor; are very largely represented on the
  Supreme   Council   of   Public   Economy;   and   fix   the   rates   of   pay   for   their
  own   members。*'(*)The   wages   of   workmen   are   decided   by   the   Trades
  Unions;      who    draw    up    〃tariffs〃   for  the   whole     country;    basing    their
  calculations on three criteria: (I) The price of food in the open market in
  the district where a workman is employed; (2)the price of food supplied by
  the State on the card system; (3)the quality of the workman。 This last is
  decided   by   a   special   section   of   the   Factory   Committee;   which   in   each
  factory is an organ of the Trades Union。'
  The    enormous      Communist        majority;    together    with    the  fact   that
  however   much   they   may   quarrel   with   each   other   inside   the   party;   the
  Communists   will   go   to   almost   any   length   to   avoid   breaking   the   party
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  discipline;      means     that   at   present    the    resolutions     of   Trades     Union
  Congresses will not be different from those of Communists Congresses on
  the same subjects。         Consequently; the questions which really agitate the
  members;        the   actual   cleavages      inside    that  Communist        majority;     are
  comparatively   invisible   at   a   Trades   Union   Congress。           They   are   fought
  over with great bitterness; but they are not fought over in the Hall of the
  Unions…once the Club of the Nobility; with on its walls on Congress days
  the   hammer   and   spanner   of   the   engineers;   the   pestle   and   trowel   of   the
  builders; and so on…but in the Communist
  Congresses   in   the   Kremlin   and   throughout   the   country。   And;   in   the
  problem   with   which   in   this   book   we   are   mainly   concerned;   neither   the
  regular   business   of   the   Unions   nor   their   internal   squabbles   affects   the
  cardinal     fact   that  in  the   present    crisis   the  Trades    Unions     are   chiefly
  important      as   part  of   that  organization      of  human     will   with    which    the
  Communists         are   attempting     to   arrest   the  steady    progress     of   Russia's
  economic ruin。         Putting it brutally; so as to offend Trades Unionists and
  Communists alike; they are an important part of the Communist system of
  internal     propaganda;      and    their   whole    organization      acts   as  a   gigantic
  megaphone through   which   the   Communist   Party  makes   known   its   fears;
  its hopes and its decisions to the great masses of the industrial workers。
  THE PROPAGANDA TRAINS
  When   I   crossed   the   Russian   front   in   October;   1919;   the   first   thing   I
  noticed in peasants' cottages; in the villages; in the little town where I took
  the   railway   to   Moscow;   in   every   railway   station   along   the   line;   was   the
  elaborate      pictorial   propaganda       concerned      with    the  war。    There      were
  posters   showing   Denizen   standing   straddle   over   Russia's   coal;   while   the
  factory chimneys were smokeless and the engines idle in the yards; with
  the   simplest   wording   to   show   why   it   was   necessary   to   beat   Denizen   in
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  order     to  get   coal;   there   were    posters    illustrating    the  treatment     of   the
  peasants by the Whites; posters against desertion; posters illustrating the
  Russian   struggle   against   the   rest   of   the   world;   showing   a   workman;   a
  peasant; a sailor and a soldier fighting in self…defence against an enormous
  Capitalistic   Hydra。        There   were   also…and   this   I   took   as   a   sign   of   what
  might be…posters encouraging the sowing of corn; and posters explaining
  in simple pictures improved methods of agriculture。                     Our own recruiting
  propaganda during the war;
  good as that was; was never developed to such a point of excellence;
  and knowing the general slowness with which the Russian centre reacts on
  its   periphery;   I   was   amazed   not   only   at   the   actual   posters;   but   at   their
  efficient distribution thus far from Moscow。
  I have had an opportunity of seeing two of the propaganda trains; the
  object   of   which   is   to   reduce   the   size   of   Russia   politically   by   bringing
  Moscow to the front and to the out of the way districts; and so to lessen
  the   difficulty   of   obtaining   that   general   unity   of   purpose   which   it   is   the
  object of propaganda to produce。               The fact that there is some hope that in
  the   near   future   the   whole   of   this   apparatus   may   be   turned   over   to   the
  propaganda   of   industry   makes   it   perhaps   worth   while   to   describe   these
  trains in detail。
  Russia; for purposes of this internal propaganda; is divided into five
  sections;   and   each   section   has   its   own   train;   prepared   for   the   particular
  political needs of the section it serves; bearing its own name; carrying its
  regular   crew…a   propaganda   unit;   as   corporate   as the   crew   of   a   ship。 The
  five   trains   at   present   in   existence   are   the   〃Lenin;〃   the   〃Sverdlov;〃   the
  〃October Revolution;〃 the 〃Red East;〃 which is now in Turkestan; and the
  〃Red      Cossack;〃      which;    ready    to   start  for   Rostov     and    the   Don;    was
  standing;   in   the   sidings   at   the   Kursk   station;   together   with   the   〃Lenin;〃
  returned for refitting and painting。
  Burov; the organizer of these trains; a ruddy; enthusiastic little man in
  patched leather coat and breeches; took a party of foreigners…a Swede; a
  Norwegian; two Czechs; a German and myself to visit his trains; together
  with Radek; in the hope that