Through Bolshevik Russia

by Ethel Snowden

In Russia Trade Unionism is of very recent birth. In February, 1917, there were three Trade Unions in Russia with a membership of less than one thousand five hundred persons. When the revolution broke out, some of the workmen thought it part of the plan to smash the machinery in the workshops, so ignorant were they of the source of their woes and of the remedy for these. The want of Trade Union training, the lack of discipline, the absence of co-ordination, both in industry and in their organisations, helped still further to increase the sufferings of the people, by delaying the work of rebuilding. The fear of bourgeois technical and scientific experts, who were accused freely of sabotage, caused their necessary skill and labour for a long period to be refused; this still further aggravated the situation. And it appears to be entirely creditable that, in those matters where the special training and specialised mind are essential, the Communist rulers have seen proper to change their method.

But it is too dangerous a step on the road to complete centralisation of power to have made of the Trade Unions, as is practically the case, a Government department working under the control of the Supreme Economic Council.

The Supreme Economic Council, when its structure is complete, will have fifty productive departments under its control, a department of finance and a department for the co-ordination and supervision of the local Economic Councils which are spread all over the country. A Collegium of three or five members is in charge of each department, whilst the greater body, the Supreme Economic Council itself is controlled by a Presidium of eleven members, nominated by the Executive Committee of the Trade Unions and confirmed by the Council of People’s Commissars.

We had speech with Miluitin, assistant to Rekoff, the People’s Commissar for this department, who told us that, of the five thousand nationalised enterprises, seventy per cent were working more or less satisfactorily; but that whilst war and the blockade continued they could not hope to do more than maintain their industries in the condition of their comparative efficiency. They hoped, however, to develop and extend later on. All large industries such as coal, gold, iron, platinum, petroleum and their products, machinery, railway engines, etc., are nationalised; textiles, railways and large shipping; retail shops and banking. Banking has become the book-keeping department of the State. Money is still in use, but it is hoped to establish a system of exchange which will remove the necessity of money altogether.

Russia has complete conscription of labour. All men and women of from eighteen years to fifty are obliged to work. The forms of Labour organisation are being militarised. A worker must go where he is sent and do what he is told under very heavy penalties. Late-coming and dilatory behaviour are punished heavily. Nobody is allowed to be idle, except, of course, the very old and the infirm.

This cannot be wholly condemned in Russia’s present terrible condition. Those who would wish to stand idle in such circumstances ought to be constrained by hunger if public opinion is not sufficient, and if the discipline is at times over-severe, the breakdown of Russia’s economic life is a very substantial excuse, if not a complete justification.

Those soldiers of the Red Army drafted into the Labour Army and the many civilian corps added to their numbers are doing good work in reconstruction in the mines, on the railways, at the oilfields and in the workshops. They are a mobile force, and are drafted in tens of thousands from one place to another as the need requires.

I was told that every effort was made not to disturb industries that are running satisfactorily by taking their workpeople for the Labour Army. As far as possible the least usefully employed are diverted to the Labour Army. There have been administrative difficulties of a minor sort, and occasional revolts against the conscription of their labour by men who objected to leaving their homes and families, but on the whole the plan has worked well and has been of great benefit in the restoration of the railways and the oil supplies. It is not proposed to demobilise the Labour Army until the economic life of the country is re-established.

The Co-operative Societies have also become a great Government department, and it is hoped to hand over to them completely the work of the Food Commissariat. When their new organisation on these lines is completed the Co-operative Society, or “Centrosoyu” as it is called, will work under the authority of the Supreme Economic Council for the distribution of all articles of monopoly, such things as wheat, bread, coal, sugar, fur, textiles, clothing and timber. In distributing goods which are not monopolised by the Government at present the Centrosoyu will be guided by its method in respect of the other things. The Co-operative Societies are represented on the Supreme Economic Council, and the chairman has the right to attend the meetings of the People’s Commissars, but he may not vote. Citizens are informed that there is no compulsion on them to join the Co-operative Society, and there is no longer the attraction of the dividend; but as theirs is the monopoly of bread, and the only other source of supply is the outlawed “speculator,” whose charges are prohibitive—four hundred roubles for a pound of black bread—it is obvious that the freedom is illusory.

Similarly with the Trade Unions. Technically, I suppose, there is no compulsion to join a Trade Union; but as it is impossible to live unless one does, since the more important part of the pay is in the food given to a worker and his family, and since such privileges as tickets for supplies of boots and clothing and other necessaries and free passes for the theatres and the concert-halls are supplied through the Trade Unions, or the Soviets, which are largely Trade Union in character, the wise man does not care to remain outside. These facts may account for the phenomenal increase in Trade Union membership, which is said to have leapt to nearly five million during the last three years. Five millions out of a population made up of eighty-five per cent peasants is a very considerable proportion of the industrial population, and constitutes a miraculous conversion of the multitude on any other supposition than the one I suggest.