Chapter 4. The Point of No Return:
the Street or the Commanding Heights?
`At which moment does a revolution become irreversible? Many suggest that it’s when you “take control of the streets”. But is this so?
“The street” was and remains the principal mantra for the liberally-minded Russian intelligentsia. They see their mission as bringing the mass of the people out onto the streets. But frequently this isn’t the best thing to do. More often than not the people act less upon the call to action from the intelligentsia than to hidden hints that come from the authorities. This was the case in Gorbachev’s time, when a split in the Central Committee of the Communist Party led to the success of the largest mass meeting ever seen in Russian history. Sometimes, the people will take to the streets themselves, as happened at the start of the last century, when the intelligentsia were left in their wake, barely able to catch up. But it’s even more serious when the intelligent leaders of the revolution don’t know what to do with these masses of people who’ve taken to the streets. And the less intelligent ones understand, but prefer not to speak out about it. That’s how it’s come about that since Lenin’s time no one has been prepared to speak openly about this matter. This is no one’s fault. At first, there were serious reasons for keeping quiet about this; later there was simply no need to do so.
Why do political leaders call people out onto the streets? As discussed above, there are two main situations where this happens: for peaceful or non-peaceful protest. In this context we don’t need to look at peaceful protest. If there’s some hope that the dictatorship will step down under psychological pressure (for example, if the leaders have become decrepit, if there are splits among the elite, or if the regime is afraid that there’ll be foreign intervention), then people go out on the streets simply as a demonstration of their strength, and not as a way of overthrowing the regime. In such a situation, the opposition leaders use the mob on the streets as a tool when negotiating with the representatives of the regime to discuss the terms of capitulation. But it’s a completely different situation when it’s clear that there will be no capitulation, and that the regime is ready to open fire on the people.
When matters have reached such a peak that the most vicious measures might be needed to overthrow the authorities, the call to take to the streets becomes a call for the attack to begin; it’s an open call for an uprising. This is an extremely responsible step to take. In such a situation, the leaders must be prepared to take charge of this attack and to follow all the rules of revolutionary and military science. If not, then they have no right to call the people out, because such a move would simply provoke the authorities and senselessly send people under a hail of truncheons and even bullets. If you’re going to lead an uprising it's not enough just to want people on the streets. As Lenin wrote – the only person in Russian history to have led a successful revolutionary uprising – organising an uprising is an art and you have to learn how to do it. An uprising has to be prepared in advance. It’s not something that’s decided on the spur of the moment.
The reason for calling people out onto the streets in a revolutionary situation is to seize the commanding heights. Despite how it may seem in the utopian dreams of the armchair leaders, “the street” is not important in and of itself. It’s simply a way of directing unarmed or poorly armed people at a crucial moment and bringing them together as a critical mass at one or in several places. There needs to a sufficient number of people in order to persuade the regime’s local commanders at these previously appointed places not to take retaliatory action.
Over a hundred years ago a revolutionary who went under the pseudonym of Postoronny, or “the Stranger”, rapidly dictated to his colleagues in Petrograd his advice on how to organise a revolutionary uprising. Some of his advice is now out of date, but parts of it remain relevant:
“An armed uprising is a particular form of the political struggle, and one that obeys certain laws. You need to think about them carefully. Karl Marx embossed this truth wonderfully, when he wrote that an armed ‘uprising, like a war, is an art’.
Marx outlined the main rules of this art thus:
Never play at an uprising; once it’s begun it’s essential that you know that you must carry it to its conclusion.
It is vital that in the right place and at the decisive moment you have much greater numbers of forces. If you do not then an enemy that has prepared and organised better will annihilate the rebels.
Once the uprising has begun, you must act with the greatest decisiveness, and most certainly go on the attack. ‘Defence means the death of an armed uprising.’
You must try to surprise the enemy, seizing the moment when his forces are scattered.
You must achieve even small successes every day (you could say every hour if we’re talking about actions in a single city); this way, whatever happens, you’ll maintain morale.
Marx summed up the lessons of armed insurrections in all revolutions with the words ‘of Danton, the greatest master of revolutionary tactics in the whole of history: courage, courage and once again, courage.’
Relating this to Russia and to October 1917, this means…
With the combined efforts of your three main forces – the navy, and the workers’ and military units – this means that without fail and whatever it costs in casualties, we must seize and hold in the first assault a) the telephone exchange; b) the telegraph office; c) the railway stations; d) the bridges.
We must divide the most reliable elements (our ‘shock troops’ and the young workers, along with our best sailors) into small units in order to seize the most important objectives. Also, they must be the ones who take part everywhere in all the important operations, such as…forming the units of the very best workers with rifles and bombs to attack and surround the enemy’s ‘centres’ (the cadet schools, the telegraph, the telephone exchange, and so on), operating under the slogan: we may all die, but we will never give in to the enemy.
Reading over these lines a hundred years on when you know the outcome, you begin to understand how important it is to acknowledge simple truths. Unfortunately, though, simplicity does not mean that it’s easy to assimilate them. Let’s try to consider this advice from today’s point of view. We can put Marx’ thoughts to one side, as these are philosophical ideas that are difficult to apply in every concrete situation. But it’s worth looking further into the advice about bridges, the telegraph office, the post office and so on. Of course, times have changed radically. The telegraph has sunk into oblivion; post has become e-mail; and bridges have lost the significance they once had. But this is not the point.
The first thing that remains as relevant today as it was then is that it’s essential to maintain the unity of political action, because if the uprising is broken up into individual sectors, each of them can be crushed individually. Lenin needed bridges in order to maintain this unity of action, but what this really means is transport hubs, which must be isolated and immediately brought under control.
Secondly, and even more important, is that the rebels maintain uninterrupted communication. In the modern world this means having control over internet and mobile phone providers, as well as protecting the means of transmitting signals (the control hubs, masts and so on). Without the coordination that this provides, the revolutionary masses quickly become just an ungovernable mob and they’ll be smashed to pieces.