The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism · Chapter
Why Russian Communism Has Failed explained
Russell argues that the Bolshevik experiment in Russia has failed due to industrial collapse, peasant hostility, and the use of terror and coercion.
What happens
Russell argues that the Bolshevik experiment in Russia has failed due to industrial collapse, peasant hostility, and the use of terror and coercion. He contends that the Bolsheviks' methods—forced requisitions, labor conscription, and militarism—have created a system resembling Tsarist autocracy rather than true communism. He warns that Western nations must learn from these failures to avoid a similar descent into chaos.
Themes in this chapter
Power and Dictatorship
Russell describes how the Bolsheviks' reliance on terror, militarism, and a secret police created a system as oppressive as the Tsarist regime.
Individual vs. State
The chapter highlights the suppression of workers and peasants through forced labor, requisitions, and the denial of basic freedoms.
Materialist Conception of History
Russell critiques the Bolsheviks' deterministic economic theory, arguing it failed to predict the hostility of capitalist powers and the collapse of industry.
Methods of Transition to Socialism
Russell argues that the Bolsheviks' coercive methods—forced requisitions, labor conscription, and terror—led to failure and warns against adopting similar tactics in the West.
Characters to notice
- Lenin
Implied as leader of the Bolshevik government whose policies are critiqued.
- Kerensky
Mentioned as predecessor whose government was even less efficient than the Bolsheviks'.
- Marx
Referenced in context of Marxist theory and the Bolsheviks' deterministic economic views.
- Plato
Not directly mentioned; omitted.
- Trotsky
Not directly mentioned; omitted.
- Gorky
Not directly mentioned; omitted.
- Kamenev
Not directly mentioned; omitted.
- Sonia
Not directly mentioned; omitted.
Key passages
“Everything that is worst in Russia we found traceable to the collapse of industry.”
Russell attributes all of Russia's major problems to the breakdown of its industrial base.
Central thesis of the chapter.
“The unpopularity of the Bolsheviks, which is primarily due to the collapse of industry, has in turn been accentuated by the measures which it has driven the Government to adopt.”
The Bolsheviks' loss of popular support, caused by industrial failure, was worsened by the harsh policies they implemented in response.
Describes a vicious cycle of failure and repression.
“Out of all this has grown a system painfully like the old government of the Tsar—a system which is Asiatic in its centralized bureaucracy, its secret service, its atmosphere of governmental mystery and submissive terror.”
The Bolshevik regime has become as authoritarian and secretive as the Tsarist autocracy it replaced.
Russell compares Bolshevik rule to colonial administration in India.
“Bolshevism may be defended, possibly, as a dire discipline through which a backward nation is to be rapidly industrialized; but as an experiment in Communism it has failed.”
While Bolshevism might be justified as a harsh method to industrialize a backward country, it has not succeeded as a genuine communist experiment.
Russell's final verdict on the Bolshevik project.
