In studying the history of the Soviet state it is insufficient to consider such factors. One particular characteristic—the total influence of the ruling party on all spheres of existence on a scale never before known—acts as a determining force in all Soviet institutions and on the typical Soviet citizen, Homo Sovieticus. This total influence has distorted the normal processes at work in contemporary societies and has resulted in the emergence of a historically unprecedented society and state.
The transition from pre-October Russia to the USSR, as Aleksandr Sol- zhenitsyn has said, "was not a continuation of the spinal column, but a disastrous fracture that very nearly caused the nation's total destruction." The history of the Soviet Union is the history of the transformation of Russia—a country no better or worse than any other, one with its own peculiarities to be sure, but a country comparable in all respects to the other countries of Europe—into a phenomenon such as humanity has never known.
On the date of October 25, 1917, under the old Russian calendar (November 7 by the Western calendar), a new era began. The history of Russia ended on that day. It was replaced by the history of the Soviet Union. The new era affected the entire human race, because the whole world felt, and still feels, the consequences of the October revolution. "The history of Homo Sapiens," Arthur Koestler has written, "began with zero." One might add that the history of Homo Sovieticus began the same way.
LIST OF ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS
Department of Agitation and Propaganda American Relief Administration Chinese Communist party
All-Russia Extraordinary Commission for the Struggle Ag
Counterrevolution and Sabotage Central Intelligence Agency Communist Party of the Soviet Union Far Northern Construction Project Federal Republic of Germany German Democratic Republic Main Literature and Art Administration State Commission for the Electrification of Russia State Publishing House State Political Administration Main Frontier Troops Administration Main Highway Construction Administration intercontinental ballistic missile Institute of Philosophy, Literature, and History Caucasus Bureau State Security Committee Young Communist League
Agitprop ARA CCP Cheka
CIA CPSU
Dalstroi FRG GDR Glavlit GOELRO Gosizdat GPU GUPV Gushossdor ICBM IFU Kavburo KGB Komsomol Komuch KONR KPD LEF MGB
Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia German Communist party Left Front of Art Ministry of State Security
mutiple independently targeted reentry vehicle
medium-range ballistic missile
Military Revolutionary Committee
machine and tractor station
Ministry of Internal Affairs
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Novocherkassk Electric Locomotive Plant
New Economic Policy
People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs
National-Labor Alliance of Russian Solidarists
Unified State Political Administration
Organizational Bureau
United Revolutionary Organization
Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
Petrograd Military Organization
Provisional Polish Revolutionary Committee
Red Trade Union International
Proletarian Cultural and Educational Organization
Polish United Workers party
Russian Association of Proletarian Writers
Russian Liberation Army
Russian National Liberation Army
Russian Union of All Military Men
Russian Social Democratic Labor party
Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic
military counterintelligence
Free Interprofessional Association of Workers
Council of People's Commissars
Socialist Revolutionary
Department of Records and Assignments
Ukrainian Insurgent Army
Supreme Economic Council
All-Russia Executive Committee of the Railroad Workers' Union
All-Russia Social Christian Union for the Liberation of the
MIRV MRBM MRC MTS MVD NATO NELP NEP NKVD NTS OGPU Orgburo ORI OUN PMO Polrevkom Pro/intern Proletcult
PUWP RAPP ROA RONA ROWS RSDLP RSFSR SMERSH SMOT Sovnarkom
SR
Uchraspred UPA VSNKH VIKZHEL
VSKhSON
Zakburo
People Transcaucasian Bureau
CHAPTER
—i
BEFORE OCTOBER 1917
WORLD WAR I
The October revolution was a direct consequence of World War I. The decade preceding the war had been one of rapid economic growth. Industrial progress, in general, had begun in Russia in the 1860s after the emancipation of the serfs, but it intensified especially after Japan defeated Russia in 1905. Forced to rebuild its shattered navy and reequip its land forces, the tsarist government allocated large sums for military purposes, from which the industrial sector benefited the most.
Six months before the war started, the French economist Edmond ТЬёгу published a book entitled The Economic Transformation of Russia, in which he presented some rather eloquent figures. In the five-year period 1908- 1912, coal production increased by 79.3 percent over the preceding five years; iron by 24.8 percent; steel and metal products by 45.9 percent.1 From 1900 to 1913 the output of heavy industry increased by 74.1 percent, even allowing for inflation.2 The rail network, which covered 24,400 kilometers in 1890, had grown to 61,000 kilometers by 1915.3 Industrial progress helped to reduce Russia's dependence on foreign capital. Although The History of the USSR, a textbook for students of history at Soviet universities and teachers colleges, states that in 1914 the "specific weight" of foreign capital in the Russian economy was 47 percent,4 another Soviet source, the historian L. M. Spirin, estimates that foreign investments amounted to only about "one-third of total investments."5 The English writer Norman Stone notes that on the eve of World War I foreign investment in Russia had declined by 50 percent in the period 1904^1905, and amounted to 12.5 percent in 1913.6
Edmond ТЬёгу emphasized that Russian agriculture had made as much progress as industry. From 1908 to 1912 wheat production rose by 37.5 percent over the preceding five years; rye by 2.4 percent; barley by 62.2 percent; oats by 20.9 percent; and corn by 44.8 percent. ТЬёгу commented: "This increase in agricultural production served not only to meet the new needs of the population. ... It also allowed Russia to expand its foreign markets significantly and, thanks to its earnings from grain exports, to end its unfavorable balance of trade." In good harvest years, such as 1909 and 1910, Russian wheat exports amounted to 40 percent of world wheat exports. Even in bad years, such as 1908 and 1912, they still accounted for 11.5 percent.7
The population of the Russian empire, which in 1900 was 135 million, reached 171 million in 1912. ТЬёгу, basing himself on the demographic statistics of the beginning of the century, predicted a population of 343.9 million by 1948.® The figure cited by Soviet historians for the Russian empire in 1917, based on 1914 borders, is 179,041,100.9
The nation's economic progress was accompanied by fundamental social change. In the last fifty years of the empire, the urban population grew from 7 million to 20 million. The hierarchical structure of the state began to crumble. Social barriers fell. The importance of the nobility, the autocracy's traditional base of support, declined. "The class that provided leadership has ceased to fulfill its function; it is obsolete," wrote Vasily Shulgin, a prominent conservative politician (a monarchist) and subsequently one of the most talented chroniclers of the revolution.10
Major improvements were initiated in public education. In 1908 a law introducing compulsory primary education was adopted (although its implementation was interrupted by the revolution and delayed until 1930). The increased government spending for education serves as an index of the efforts being made: between 1902 and 1912 such spending rose by 216.2 percent.11 By 1915, 51 percent of all children between eight and eleven years of age were in school, and 68 percent of all military conscripts knew how to read and write.12 Certainly Russia still lagged behind the advanced Western countries, but the increased number of schools and greater funding testify to the government's commitment and the considerable success achieved in this area. The first two decades of the twentieth century also saw a remarkable flowering of Russian culture, which is often referred to as Russia's Silver Age.