This is exactly where the democratic opposition has slipped up in Russia today. When they speak, the leaders of all the supposedly significant protest movements say they are in favour of “unity”. Indeed, it would be very odd to hear them declaim that they’re against a wide front in the struggle with the dictatorship. Yet many of those who talk about unity, are guided in practice by a different principle, one that was put forward in similar historical circumstances by Lenin: “Before we can unite…we must first of all draw firm and definite lines of demarcation”. The danger of this slogan is that in the process of putting all their efforts into demarcation, the ultimate goal of unity slips into the background. This is exactly what we see happening today in Russia.
If we look back at history, we can see that protest movements have succeeded by following various paths. Among these, we can pick out two types of successful revolutions. Some were carried out by close-knit groups of like-minded people, united not only by their similar political views, but who organised themselves on pseudo-military lines. This gave them a structure on which to build the new state after their victory. Other successful revolutions were carried out by a wide coalition of the most varied political forces, linked by only a fragile political bond. This bond rarely survived the actual revolution.
If we look more closely at this, we realise that very often the tactical tasks of the revolution, such as the seizure and consolidation of power, were carried out more effectively by pseudo-military, conspiratorial organisations (resembling religious sects in their structure), rather than by political parties in the strict sense of that term. But the strategic tasks that the revolutions had before them, notably tasks of a democratic nature, were better solved where a coalition of diverse forces stood at their head, having been brought together by the moment and the circumstances.
Knowing this, you might think that all responsible political forces would try to create a broad coalition. But in practice this doesn’t happen. Either coalitions aren’t formed or, if they are, they quickly fall apart. Unfortunately, there are strong objective reasons for this. History shows that the more aggressive the dictatorship and the more merciless the regime, the fewer chances there are for a coalition to come together and triumph. This is understandable. The regime recognises that the unity of the opposition forces represents the greatest threat to its existence, and so does everything in its power to prevent the opposition from uniting, including supporting secessionist sentiments among their opponents. If the regime has to choose between “irreconcilable elements” and “the most irreconcilable elements” among the opposition, strangely enough they tend to choose the latter, even though this risks bringing about their own downfall. This has already happened once in Russian history, at the start of the twentieth century.
We must never forget that there is not only a tradition of autocracy in Russia, there is also a tradition of Bolshevism, with sectarianism and schismatics within the revolutionary movement. Each of these traditions is closely linked to the other. In the country’s history, Bolshevism has played no less a tragic role than autocracy, which it first destroyed, then reincarnated in a more sophisticated format. For the vast majority of our contemporaries, Bolshevism and Communism are one and the same thing. But this is not the case. It’s possible not to be a Communist – even to be an Anti-Communist – and at the same time remain a Bolshevik. What’s more, if Communism in Russia appeared largely by chance, Bolshevism grew out of the very roots of Russian culture.
Bolshevism is a movement which developed out of Russian populism, [through movements such as the narodniki – Tr.] and not through liberal ideals. For Bolshevism, as for autocracy, it was the state that was the “social demiurge”, not society. But if autocracy aimed to preserve society with the help of the state, Bolshevism wanted to use the state to turn society inside out. The Bolsheviks never needed allies when they were in power; they simply needed power itself. Bolshevism is very tenacious, and can take on the most unexpected forms. It’s not only Leninism and Stalinism, but also, for example, it can be Yeltsinism in its most extreme form. Unfortunately, many of the reforms of the 1990s were carried out in the same cavalier, Bolshevik ways as Soviet reforms had been, although at the time this was not so obvious. And today we can see the rise of a neo-Bolshevik mood in the Russian protest movement. This philosophy and ideology is becoming increasingly attractive as the regime becomes ever more restrictive.
Neo-bolshevism’s strength lies in its being aimed at literally creating an army of like-minded people who are ready to act harmoniously and in an organised way as the centre commands. Lenin called this “a new type of party”. Such an army is much more effective than an amorphous and shaky coalition in solving political issues in conditions of the civil war that the regime is currently waging against its own people. But there’s another side to the coin. War creates fertile ground for neo-bolshevism to flourish strongly through violence. That’s the environment for neo-bolshevism, which is why – consciously or unconsciously – it’s always geared up for war. Neo-bolshevism’s response to the civil war that the dictatorship has declared on the people is to launch its own civil war. It puts out a fire by using fire of its own in response.
The Bolshevik tradition in the Russian protest movement presupposes that the unity of the protest should depend on a single party. This means that the nucleus of the protest movement must be ideologically and organisationally homogenous, governed from a single point at the centre by a leader or a group of leaders. The nucleus may be surrounded by hangers-on, but any alliance with them is merely temporary and opportunistic. For neo-bolshevism, betrayal of such allies is the political and ethical norm. A reliable ally should totally merge into the party, politically and in an organisational sense. The party is not there to represent the interests of society; it’s meant to be the driving force between the leadership and the revolutionary class.
Naturally, if we’re talking about an armed uprising or a war then organising the protest movement this way is ideal. But the problem in such circumstances is that for the neo-bolsheviks the war becomes an end in itself. If the situation develops relatively peacefully they’ll have no chance whatsoever of coming to power. Indeed, they simply cannot come to power; they can only seize power, when things have broken down to such an extent that all the institutions of the state have ground to a halt. That’s why the two principal slogans of neo-bolshevism always have been, and remain, “the worse things are, the better”; and “anyone who is not with us is against us”.
Paradoxically, as a radical tendency in the protest movement, neo-bolshevism assists the temporary stabilisation and strengthening of the regime. Thanks to the neo-bolsheviks, the only possible change can come about through a violent coup, carried out at the moment of the regime’s final ruin. This happens when there’s a total collapse because of war, a huge ecological disaster or some other similar cause. Because neo-bolshevism sees itself as the main beneficiary of such a situation, it stops the protesters from uniting and prevents any handover of power that might take place before such a collapse or in a less violent way. It deliberately supports the regime in the belief that it will eventually bury it. It is because of this support that it’s valued by the regime.