“Those of the combat groups. The terrorists too.” “To hell with the terrorists. The others. ”
He looked at Kyo.
“What do they want?”
“To leave the Kuomintang. Organize an independent Communist Party. Give the power to the Unions. And above all, not surrender their arms. Above all.”
“Always the same thing.”
Vologin got up, looked through the window towards the river and the hills. His face was expressionless except for a fixed intensity like that of a somnambulist, which alone gave it life. He was short, and his plump back, almost as round as his stomach, made him appear hunchbacked.
“I’ll tell you. Suppose we leave the Kuomintang. What will we do then?”
“To begin with, a militia for every workers’ union, for every syndicate.”
“With what firearms? Here the Arsenal is in the hands of the generals. Chiang Kai-shek now holds the one in Shanghai. And we’re cut off from Mongolia: consequently, no Russian arms.”
“In Shanghai it was we who took the arsenal.”
“With the revolutionary army behind you. Not in front of you. Whom can we arm here? Ten thousand workers, perhaps. In addition to the Communist nucleus of the ‘Iron Army’; another ten thousand. Ten bullets per man! Against them, more than seventy-five thousand men here alone. Without mentioning, of course-Chiang Kai-shek, or the others. Al too eager to make an alliance against us, upon our first really Communist move. And with what would we provision our troops?”
“What about the foundries, the manufactures?” “Raw materials have stopped coming.”
Standing motionless by the window, against the deepening night, Vologin continued-his face turned away: “Hankow is not the capital of the workers, it’s the capital of the unemployed. There are no arms; that’s all the better perhaps. There are moments when I think: if we armed them they would fire on us. And yet, there are all those who work fifteen hours a day without presenting any claims, because ‘our revolution is menaced’. "
Kyo was sinking, as one plunges in a dream, lower and ever lower.
“We don’t have the power," Vologin continued; “it’s in the hands of the generals of the ‘Left Kuomintang,’ as they call it. They would no more accept the soviets than Chiang Kai-shek does. That’s sure. We can r e them, that’s all. By being very careful."
If Hankow was only a blood-stained setting. Kyo dared think no further. “I must see Possoz on my way out," he said to himself. He was the only comrade in Hankow in whom he had confidence. “I must see Possoz. "
“. Don’t hold your mouth open with that-er- stupid expression," said Vologin. “The world thinks Hankow is Communist-so much the better. That does credit to our propaganda. It’s no reason for it to be true."
“What are the instructions right now?"
“To reenforce the Communist nucleus of the Iron Army. We can weight one tray of the scale against the other. We are not a force by ourselves. The generals who are fighting with us here hate the soviets and Communism as much as Chiang Kai-shek does. I know it, I see it, in fact. every day. Every Communist slogan will bring them down on us. And no doubt will lead them into an alliance with Chiang. The only thing we can do is to destroy Chiang by using them. Then Feng Yu Hsiang in the same way, if necessary. As in fact we have destroyed the generals we have fought up to now by using Chiang. Because our propaganda brings us as many men as victory brings to them. We rise with them. That’s why it’s essential to gain time. The Revolution cannot maintain itself, in short, under its democratic form. By its very nature it must become socialist. We must let it find its own way. Our job is to safeguard its birth. And not to abort it.”
“Yes. But in Marxism there is the sense of a fatality, and also the exaltation of a will. Every time fatality comes before will I’m suspicious.”
“A purely Communist slogan, today, would bring about the immediate coalition of all the generals against us: two hundred thousand against twenty thousand. That’s why you must arrange to get along with Chiang Kai-shek in Shanghai. If there is no way, give up the arms.”
“According to that, it was a mistake to start the Revolution of October: how many Bolsheviks were there?” “The slogan ‘Peace’ gave us the masses.”
“There are other slogans.”
“Premature ones. What would they be?”
“Complete, immediate cancellation of farm-rents and credits. The peasant revolution, without conditions or restrictions.”
The six days he had spent coming up the river had confirmed Kyo in his idea: in those clay cities that had squatted on the river-junctions for thousands of years the poor would be as ready to follow the peasant as to follow the worker.
“The peasant always follows,” said Vologin. “Either the worker or the bourgeois. But he follows.”
“No. A peasant movement lasts only by attaching itself to the cities, and the peasantry by itself can only produce a Jacquerie,1 that’s understood. But there is no question of separating it from the proletariat: the suppression of credits is a fighting slogan, the only one which can mobilize the peasants.”
1 A spontaneous, unorganized peasant uprising.
“In short, the parceling of lands,” said Vologin. “More concretely: many very poor peasants are land- o^ners, but work for the usurer. They all know it. Moreover, in Shanghai we must train the guards of the Workers’ Unions as quickly as possible. Allow them to disarm under no pretext. Make of them our force, against Chiang Kai-shek.”
“As soon as that slogan is known, we shall be crushed.” “Then we shall be crushed in any case. The Communist slogans are making headway, even when we give them up. Speeches are enough to make the peasants want the land, speeches won’t be enough to make them stop wanting it. Either we must be willing to participate in the repression with the troops of Chiang Kai-shek-does that suit you? — to compromise ourselves irrevocably, or they will have to crush us, whether they want to or not.” “Everyone in Moscow is agreed that it will be neces- sary-in short, to make the break. But not so soon.” “Then, if it’s above all a matter of being crafty, don’t give up the arms. Giving them up means sacrificing the comrades.”
“If they follow instructions, Chiang won’t make a move.”
“Whether they follow them or not will make no difference. The Committee, Katov, myself, have organized the Workers’ Guard. If you try to dissolve it the whole proletariat in Shanghai will cry treason.”
“Let them be disarmed, then.”
“The Workers’ Unions are organizing of their own accord in all the poor quarters. Are you going to prohibit the syndicates in the name of the International?” Vologin had returned to the window. He dropped his head to his chest, his double chin forming a cushion between them. Night was corning on, full of pale stars.
“To break means certain defeat. Moscow will not tolerate our leaving the Kuomintang at this time. And the Chinese Communist Pany is even more favorable to an understanding with Chiang than Moscow."
“The men at the top only: below, the comrades will not give up all their arms even if you order it. You will sacrifice us, without giving Chiang Kai-shek tranquillity. Borodin can tell that to Moscow."
“Moscow knows it: the order to give up the arms was given the day before yesterday."
Stupefied, Kyo did not answer immediately.
“And the sections have given them up?"
“Half of them-barely. "
Just two days ago, while he was meditating or sleeping, on the boat. He knew, too, that Moscow would maintain its line. His realization of the situation suddenly invested Ch’en’s plan with an obscure value:
“Something else-perhaps the same thing: Ch’en Ta Erh, of Shanghai, wants to execute Chiang."
“Oh! It’s for that!"
“What?"
“He sent word, to ask to see me when you were here."