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G. Zinoviev

The Problems of the German Revolution

The Classic Proletarian Character
of the Approaching German Revolution

(27 October 1923)

Source: International Press Correspondence, Vol. 3 No. 68 [44], 27 October 1923, pp. 763–765.
On-line Publication: Zinoviev Internet Archive, May 2023.
Transcription/Mark-up: Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.

Events in Germany are developing with the inexorableness of fate. The road which the Russian revolution required 12 years to travel, from 1906 until 1917, has been covered by the German revolution in die space of 5 years, from 1918 until 1923. The simple “Coalition”, the “Grand Coalition”, the Kornilov period (the events in Bavaria), “business ministry”, personal candidatures (like the Russian Kishkin and Borishkin), then again the great coalition – an unending change of ministers. This is what happened “at the top”. And down below, among the broadest masses of the people, dissatisfaction has been seething, and the struggle is flaming up which, in the near future, will decide the fate of Germany, and he who does not see this must indeed be blind. The approaching events will be of historical significance for the whole world. Time will prove to all that the autumn months of 1923 have been a turning point, not only in the history of Germany, but in the history of the whole of humanity, far beyond the boundaries of Germany. With trembling hands the German proletariat is turning the most important page in the history of the world struggle of the working class. The hour has struck A fresh chapter is beginning in the history of the proletarian world revolution.

What will be the social import of the impending German revolution? What class will carry forward the revolution, and supply it with leaders? Let us cast a glance at the social composition of the German population. In the year 1920 Germany had a total of 59.4 million inhabitants. The adult population included in this total fall under the following categories:

Those designating themselves “independent”, that is, a large number of property owners, have been included in the group “without profession” or “without occupation”. The survey is rendered even clearer if we adduce the figures showing the classification of the population within each of the groups in a more detailed form. The appended table gives a clear idea of Germany’s social framework:

Thus: 4½ million “independent”, 3½ million semi-proletarians, 3¼ million employees, and 22¾ million workers. The number of workers, even apart farm the employees and the semi-proletarian elements, is twice as large as that of the all other groups put together. In industry: ½ million owners, 12 million workers, over 1 million employees, and 1¼ [several lines of damaged text] In the free free professions: ½ million independents, 2 million workers and employees.

The social basis of the coming revolution may be plainly seen. In the cities the workers are in the absolute majority. Up to now the working class in Germany has cooperated in one way or another with the counter-revolutionary German Social Democracy. So long as this gigantic class wandered along the path of “peace”, in the attempt to avoid revolution and to secure its morsel of bread without civil war, so long could the German bourgeoisie sleep in peace. The whole essence of the “present moment” lies in the fact that the moment has come in which this gigantic class has arrived at the conviction that there is no possibility of avoiding the inevitable; that there is no other way of saving the country and the working class than by revolution. From the moment the working class of Germany turned its back on social democracy, and turned to the communists, from this moment Germany’s destiny was decided. Small delays are possible. This or that variation in the order of the program of the coming events in Germany is also possible, but only within very narrow limits.

The seven million agricultural laborers will also contribute, in the German villages, to impress an indelible stamp on the course of the impending decisive events. When resistance of the landowners and large farmers impelled the proletarian revolution in Russia to carry on a real war against these classes, the Russian revolution had no other choice but to provide the city workers with weapons and to lead them into armed battle against the large peasantry. The armed troops of workers from the cities could only find support, even in the best of cases, among the poor peasantry, the ex-service men, etc. In this respect things will proceed much more smoothly in Germany. Here it will only be necessary to send proletarian leaders from the towns to the villages. The main work connected with rendering the landowning and large farming counter-revolution harmless (to speak more exactly, the work of annihilating it), will be carried out in the villages by the agricultural workers themselves. The great masses of these are already in sympathy with the communists. The German large farmers – in reality small landowners, are naturally excellently organized. They will attempt to oppose a furious resistance to the proletarian regime. But anyone bearing in mind the proportions of the above figures cannot be in doubt as to which side will carry off the victory.

The approaching German revolution will be a classic proletarian revolution The 22 million workers form the core of the international proletariat; they represent the working capital of International Revolution. On a generous estimate, Russia had only 8 to 10 million workers in 1917, out of a total population of 160 millions. But Germany has more than 20 million workers out of a total population of 60 millions. In Russia, the working class was in reality but a fraction of the population, but In Germany it forms the main part, the majority. The German workers have almost all enjoyed the advantage of elementary schooling. The German workers have learnt organization in an excellent school. They are educated. Most of them took part in the imperialist war as members of the army, and will thus be the best of revolutionary soldiers. In Social Democracy they have passed through a hard, but a highly instructive school.

But the main point is that the German revolution has at its disposal a mighty industrial basis. It is true that German industry is in a critical situation at tie moment. Alsace Lorraine with its enormous natural wealth has been taken from Germany. She has lost a great part of East Prussia, Upper Silesia, Memel, Danzig, the Northern part of Schleswig, the Saar district, and finally the Ruhr area. Germany is naturally not in a position to pay the 132 milliard gold marks which the Entente demands from her under the terms of the Versailles Treaty. But nevertheless, German industry has mighty powers at its disposal. In this sense the pronouncement of Comrade Lenin, when he predicted that in Europe (especially in such European countries as Germany) it will be more difficult to begin the proletarian revolution, but much easier to continue it and bring it to a conclusion, still holds true. The German proletariat is superior in numbers, both in city industry and in agriculture. Technics have advanced in Germany as in no other country. The kernel of qualified workers, able to successfully take a position at the head of socialist economics, is nowhere so compact as in Germany.

Today it is no longer possible for the German proletariat to seize power too soon – in the historical sense of the word. This was once known to even Kautsky, who pointed it out as early as 1909 in his last revolutionary work The Road to Power. The objective prerequisites for the victory of the German revolution have long since matured. And the war of 1914–18, as well as all the events connected with the war and the Versailles Peace, created the remaining prerequisites for the real victory of the proletarian revolution in Germany.

The German revolution will be a classic proletarian revolution. This does not however mean that the whole remainder of Germany’s population will form a “reactionary mass”. On the contrary! The new and distinguishing characteristic of the German proletarian revolution will consist precisely in the special role played in it by the “petty bourgeois masses”, officials, lower and medium employees, small traders, etc. It may even be said that that same rôle which was played in the Russian revolution by the war-weary peasantry, will be played in the German revolution by the broad strata of the city bourgeoisie, exhausted by the devastation, and brought to the verge of economic ruin by the developments of capitalism. These strata are naturally vacillating between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. In the course of the revolution they will perhaps often enough side with the opponents of revolution. But they form the chief strength of the revolution. The main bearer of the revolutionary idea is naturally, now as ever, the proletariat in town and country. But the vacillating strata of city petty bourgeoisie none the less represent an important factor in the relationship of forces. In a certain sense they form the background of the picture. The revolutionary proletariat of Germany has already succeeded in neutralizing some sections of the petty bourgeoisie within a comparatively brief period, and even to a certain extent, to secure their support. There are already a number of employees, fewer officials, etc., who take part m the illegal factory council meetings held under the leadership of the German Communist Party.

We knew – this has been taught us by Lenin – that every great revolution develops in a new country in its own peculiar way. We know that the German revolution cannot simply repeat that which we have seen in the Russian revolution, that it is bound to have its own characteristic features. Today, there can be no longer any doubt but that the unique feature in the German revolution is the part played by the petty bourgeoisie of the cities.

The classic proletarian character of the revolution – and a more favorable attitude of the city petty bourgeoisie towards the revolutionary proletariat – are these two things consistent? Is there no inner contradiction in this? By no means.

The attitude of the German city petty bourgeoisie results in the first place from the brutal policy of the Entente, which has done every possible thing calculated to drive this stratum of the population into despair and indignation, and in the second place by the extreme narrow-mindedness of the class policy pursued by the German big bourgeoisie, which, caring nothing for the morrow, has, by its whole policy, driven the great masses of the city petty bourgeoisie to the brink of economic ruin. As Marxists we were also theoretically aware that big capital disintegrates and annihilates the petty bourgeoisie of the towns by the process of proletarianizing a large section of this bourgeoisie. This process may be most clearly observed when it takes place in a large state – and we are seeing it for the first time on such a large scale in Germany,

The impoverishment of the petty bourgeoisie has attained immense proportions in Germany. And this is inducing one section of the petty bourgeois intelligenzia to side with the workers. There are considerable strata of city petty bourgeoisie, the same strata which Russian conditions rendered for so long a time our most irreconcilable opponents and the most reliable pillars of “social revolutionary” counter revolution, which in Germany are in part so demoralized, that they will not be able to take any part as a serious factor in coming events; this group is in such a mood, that at the decisive moment it will remain neutral or take sides with the workers. The unheard of financial bankruptcy of Germany has dealt the petty bourgeoisie of the towns a severe blow. The fact the owner of a cigarette shop in Berlin closed his shop, and displayed a notice that his business having been ruined by the high prices and the depreciation of the mark, he was shutting up shop and going over to the Communist Party, is not an anecdote, but a characteristic symbol.

If a correct policy is pursued, a proletarian power in Germany can secure the permanent and complete victory of the German revolution, as the support lent by the German proletariat, plus that of a part of the city petty bourgeoisie insures for proletarian power the support of the majority of the population within the country. And this is the foremost condition for the maintenance of power.

The impending German revolution, as we have already said, will be a classic proletarian revolution. But this does not by any means exclude a far-sighted and conciliatory policy with regard to thee petty bourgeoisie; indeed, it presupposes such a policy. The German revolution is utilizing the lessons taught by the Russian revolution, and will endeavor to avoid the errors committed in the latter. The proletarian revolution a Germany, when taking its first steps towards building the new structure of state, will bear in mind the tremendous importance of establishing satisfactory relations between town and country on the one hand, and between live proletariat and the city petty bourgeoisie on the other. The German proletarian revolution is hardly likely to proceed to a too hasty nationalization of trade and small industry, of small landed property, etc. Unless the resistance offered by the small and medium property owners forces the proletarian government in Germany to resort to extreme measures in the interests of the defence of the revolution, this government will doubtless pursue a correct cautious, and considerate policy with regard to these strata of society. Revolutionary power in Germany will have to endeavor, from the very first, to pursue such a policy towards the petty bourgeoisie, the intelligenzia, the small craftsmen and tradesmen, and the small and medium farmers, as will permanently secure the sympathies of the petty bourgeoisie in town and country in favor of the proletarian regime.

Because the proletarian revolution in Germany is built on such a firm foundation, precisely because the proletariat will so preponderate in the German revolution, will it be able to allow itself the luxury of avoiding anything which might repel the petty bourgeoisie. Just because in Germany today, the material prerequisites for the carrying out of a whole series of great economic measures of a socialist character are already mature, the German proletariat, at least at first, will not brutally brush aside the vital interests of the city petty bourgeoisie.

What miracles of energy the 20 million steeled, educated, and organized proletarians of Germany will perform when they step forward into decisive battle for Socialism, this is something of which today we cannot even form an idea.

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Footnote

1. The figures adduced are taken from the Annual for Economics Politics, and the Labor Movement 1922/3 (Communist International publishing office, Carl Hoym Successor, Louis Cahnbley, Hamburg 8, pp. 613–614). In this same Annual we find Comrade Varga’s statements (p. 226) with reference to Germany in his article on Class Categories, as follows:

The last official census of trades in Germany was made in 1907. This census yielded the following figures:

Those occupied in production are classified as under:

As the population of Germany has increased by 10% since the year 1907, and the process of concentration of capital and the proletarianizing of the middle classes of the population has proceeded at a very rapid pace, the figures given in this annual can be regarded as fairly accurate.

We must mention in conclusion that the figures of the Annual include “Members of families also taking part in production”; besides this, these figures refer to the whole of Germany, including the territories at present occupied.

 
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