Page:Nikolai Bukharin - Programme of the World Revolution (1920).djvu/67

 way. There are no masters—there is the self administration of the working class.

 

To organise production so that life should be possible without masters, to organise it on a fraternal basis, is a very good thing, but it is easier said than done. We meet with numberless difficulties: in the first place we are now standing face to face with the heritage of the unfortunate war—a ruined country. The working class, is now obliged to clear up the mess made by Nicholas Romanoff and his servants—Sturmer, Sukhomlinoff, Protoppopoff, a mess which was later increased by Gutchkoff and Rodzianko with their servants—Kerensky, Tzeretelli, Dan, and the rest of the treacherous company. Secondly, the working class are now compelled to organise production whilst repelling the blows of their greatest enemies; on the other hand, those who are attacking them with savage hatred from without, as well as those who are attempting to destroy the Workers' Government from within.

In order to emerge victorious under such conditions, to conquer once and for ever, the workers must struggle against their own inertia. Whilst organising a labour army, it is at the same time imperative to create a revolutionary labour discipline in this army. The fact of the matter is that there are still such individuals among the workers who do not yet believe that they have now become masters of the situation. We want them to understand that at the present time the State Exchequer belongs to the workers and the peasants; the factories are national factories, the land is the land of the people, forests, machinery, mines, factory plant, houses, everything has been transferred into the hands of the working class. The administration over all this is a workers' administration. The attitude of the workers and peasants towards all this wealth cannot now be the same as it was before; before it belonged to the masters, now all this wealth belongs to the people. The masters used to sweat the workers to the utmost. The landowner who lived like a lord fleeced the poor peasant and farm labourer as bare as he could. Both the worker and the farm labourer were there-