First Published: in Kommunist. Ezenedel'nyi zurnal ekonomiki, politiki i obsenstvennosti. Organ Moskovskago Oblastnogo Byuro RKP (bol'sevikov) [The Communist. Weekly Magazine for Economics, Politics and Social Questions. Organ of the Moscow District Office of the RCP(B)], No. 1, April 20, 1918.
Source: Internationalist Communist Tendency
HTML Markup: Zdravko Saveski
The subject announced in the title of Comrade Trutovsky's[1] pamphlet is very interesting. But, unfortunately, we are forced to conclude that it is hard to write so much amazing nonsense at once as Comrade Trutovsky has done. Instead of looking seriously at all the issues dealt with in his pamphlet he decided to only dabble lightly in Marxism. Obviously, nothing but confusion comes out of it.
Comrade Trutovsky should not be offended by the fact that his attacks on Marxism will receive from us a severe but necessary response: he asked for it. Let us follow the author in his reasoning.
On pages 8-9, he tries to "refute" Marxism by claiming that imperialism, by nature, has nothing to do with economics. Like a vulgar journalist, it's the Roman Empire, the Catholic Church, and a thousand other things, which he considers to be imperialisms. For him, the only necessary criterion is "the desire to dominate". In fact, his considerations greatly resemble the reasoning of a simple man who would say that the hen, the most ordinary hen, is fundamentally imperialist, since it feeds on wheat while dominating and growing at the expense of the unfortunate grain of wheat. And to crown all, comrade Trutovsky refers to universal thinking, science and even "socialism which, in some ways, cuts across imperialism", because he wants "to reunite humanity in one community". In the opinion of the author, there is here only one difference, it is the absence of constraint. But this is where Comrade Trutovsky is mistaken: in reality, socialism aims to dominate the world by the socialist revolution, that is to say, by violence. According to Trutovsky's conception, socialism is "only one of the forms" of imperialism! And this is what is called "making a critique of Marxism"!
On page 10, the "economic" goals of imperialism are defined as "the domination of raw materials" and "the sale of goods at high prices". Not a word about its main feature: the export of capital. The very essence of imperialist politics is absent. It's shameful to ignore it! After such "definitions" of imperialism, Comrade Trutovsky criticises Marx's teaching on profit; and he makes such huge mistakes that one can wonder if our honourable critic has ever read Marx, or even the "exegesis" of Marx made by Bach[2] . . .
On page 10, he attributes to Marxists the following thesis:
"...commodities are sold according to their value; capitalist profit and (this "and" is really excellent!) the surplus value is created by the process of production and not by exchange; therefore, if the profit from the sale cannot be a source of capitalist enrichment, the only source of profit is the work of the worker who produces it; this is why the demand by the workers for the entire product of their labour will kill the capitalist order."
We have gladly quoted this fragment to show that the ignorance of this author knows no bounds. Marxists have "said" something else and often contrary to what Comrade Trutovsky attributes to them.
1) Commodities are never sold "according to their value" (do not you even know that?); 2) "capitalist profit and surplus value" is an expression that makes no sense because profit is a part of surplus value; 3) it is not the profit, but the surplus value that is made "in the production process" and it is realised in the process of circulation; 4) at a stage of development, during the exchange between many countries, the profit from sales can be based on "trickery and deception" (see Marx, Capital, Book III, p.307, I wrote about it in detail in my book Imperialism and World Economy)[3]; 5) the source of capitalist profit is not just the work of the workers of a company (Trutovsky obviously does not know Volume III of Capital, and its teaching concerning the organic composition of capital in relation to the rate of profit); and finally 6) the demand for the "full product of labour" was always considered by Marx, Engels, and all Marxists as an idiocy (because even in socialist society contributions to public funds will exist), so they could not say that this claim would "kill the capitalist order".
Trutovsky understands something about the super-profit of which Hilferding speaks, but he does not understand what this author says:
Where does this profit come from? In the production process or in that of exchange? Certainly, in the process of exchange. Capitalist surplus value has many other sources than super-profit.
All this is blatantly stupid because the super-profit is, like any profit, a part of surplus value. Comrade Trutovsky! It's a fact that the monopoly character of some companies, branches, or the monopoly structure of whole countries allocate, again and in another way global surplus value. Saying that "the profit of the capitalist is not made from one element, but two: the surplus value and the super-profit", means that he is so ignorant that we are ashamed for him.
From all that we have said we must not draw the conclusion that the developed capitalist countries cannot exploit the backward countries. Marx and Engels already pointed this out. Moreover, they also claimed that in this case, conservatism among the workers could emerge (Engels on the monopoly position of England). But either comrade Trutovsky does not know this or. . . he hides it from his readers.
From the reasoning, outlined above, Trutovsky draws the following conclusion: "most of the work of revolutionary socialism" is expressed in "backward, fiercely exploited countries, where, for the first time under capitalism, its most intractable gravediggers reveal themselves: the despoiled and starving peasant labourers". To put it another way, capitalism will not be overthrown by the workers of the advanced countries but by the peasants of the backward countries. This is the "new" gospel! It's written on page 13 and those following. But on page 48 we discover that the socialist revolution is maturing in advanced countries.
"And this threat is more real in advanced countries where not only is there sufficient production . . . but also where the working class ... is psychologically ready for the advent of a new society."
This is Comrade Trutovsky's idea of consistency . . .
His crass and terrifying ignorance can also be seen on page 66 where we read:
"Under socialism the workers will receive all the product of their labour(!) [...]in the transition period only part of the profit, surplus-value, is eliminated, but the percentage in relation to capital persists."
Until now it was thought that rent, profit, percentage, etc. were all parts of surplus-value. But ... now it's the surplus value that's a part of profit: "everything has changed".
The sociological and "critical thinking" of the author are at about the same level as his economic knowledge! He finds that "according to Marxism", socialist transformation is not possible in backward countries, "simmering in the pot of the factory". Where is this written? Probably, Trutovsky knows? But, unfortunately, he does not say so. We ask him to betray his secret.
The author's superficiality goes so far that in pages 20 and 21 he preaches about "Marxists" like Plekhanov "who have renounced Marxism", but ... etc., yet alongside it, he writes: "They are faithful children of the Marxist church." In the end, what are they? "Faithful children" or "renegades"?
His whole critique is to take up old "arguments" against historical laws. And its corollary in practice is the rejection of the "Blanquist conspiracy" tactics of the Bolsheviks. These are the same methods of the good old revisionist opportunists!
In this summary we could not confine ourselves to the author's analysis of the transitional measures and the current situation (even here he is inconsistent to the point of stupidity, for example, when he declares that no external danger threatens us). Let's just note one thing. According to the author, we are living in a social but not a socialist revolution (p.43 and 78). But these "considerations" are totally banal. Every revolution is social, Comrade Trutovsky. There is no such thing as a "purely political" revolution: it only exists in the minds of people. In reality, it is a socialist revolution that we are going through, that is to say the revolution that expropriates capital. Summa summarum: the example of Comrade Trutovsky serves all those who, stuffed with hatred for Marxism, do not bother reading Marx. Adventurous forays can be very harmful to the literary health of the critics.
Notes
[1] Vladimir Evgenievich Trutovsky, (1889-1937) was People's Commissar for Local Government until he resigned along with the other SR Commissars in March 1918 as a protest against the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
[2]Alexei Nikolayevich Bach (1857-1946) a famous Russian biochemist and academician. He studied Capital when still at school, and agitated amongst students, which led to his expulsion from the University of Kiev. He became an active member of People's Will (Narodnaya Volya) after 1881. He carried out socialist propaganda and became a Socialist Revolutionary though he denied this in his 1926 autobiography. From 1883 Bach went underground to live in Kharkov, Yaroslavl, Kazan and Rostov. During that period, he wrote his famous revolutionary book Tsar Hunger, which played an important role in spreading the ideas of scientific socialism in Russia and is presumably what Bukharin is referring to here. He left Russia in 1885 to avoid arrest. He supported the October revolution and returned to Russia and broke with the SRs during the Civil War. He founded the Institute of Biochemistry in 1920 and devoted himself to scientific research in a career which won him many honours from the Stalinist regime.
[3] Imperialism and World Economy was written in 1915, and Lenin borrowed extensively from it for his shorter and more "popular outline" Imperialism - The Highest Stage of Capitalism written in the year following.