The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism · Chapter
Town and Country explained
Russell examines the Bolshevik government's struggle to secure food from the peasantry for the urban centers, highlighting the peasants' indifference to national defense and the government's reliance on forced requisitions.
What happens
Russell examines the Bolshevik government's struggle to secure food from the peasantry for the urban centers, highlighting the peasants' indifference to national defense and the government's reliance on forced requisitions. He describes the food shortage in Moscow and Petrograd, the black market, and the unsustainable reliance on selling personal belongings. Russell argues that the situation is due to war and blockade, not Bolshevik policy, and that the only solutions are peace and trade or slow industrial development.
Themes in this chapter
Individual vs. State
The chapter illustrates the conflict between the state's need to feed urban workers and the peasants' desire to keep their produce, highlighting the tension between collective goals and individual interests.
Hope vs. Reality
Russell contrasts the Bolshevik ideal of a planned economy with the grim reality of black markets, corruption, and chronic underfeeding in Moscow.
Key passages
“The peasants will not willingly part with a portion of their produce merely for purposes of national defence, but only for the goods they need—clothes, agricultural implements, etc.—which the Government, owing to the war and the blockade, is not in a position to supply.”
Peasants only give up food in exchange for essential goods like clothing and tools, but the government cannot provide these due to war and blockade.
Russell explains the peasants' reluctance to support the state without material compensation.
“The Government represents the interests of the urban and industrial population, and is, as it were, encamped amid a peasant nation, with whom its relations are rather diplomatic and military than governmental in the ordinary sense.”
The Bolshevik government acts like an occupying force among the peasants, relying on diplomacy and military power rather than normal governance.
Russell highlights the adversarial relationship between the urban-focused state and the rural majority.
“The attempt to suppress private commerce has resulted in an amount of unprofessional buying and selling which far exceeds what happens in capitalist countries.”
Banning private trade has created a massive black market that is even larger than typical capitalist commerce.
Russell critiques the unintended consequences of Bolshevik economic controls.