Evguenij Piskun
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
www.icsbrussels.org , ics[at]icsbrussels.org
2 May 1998 - Brussels
What is proletariat in today's Russia?
There exist two points of view on this problem. The first one may be labelled inclusive; in this case it comprises practically all of the workforce. This approach prevails among the communist movement leaders in Russia. The very terms 'proletariat' and 'working class' are often substituted by the notion 'the working people' or just 'the people' which includes the peasants, the intelligentsia, the employees, the military, the administration workers and other population groups. The supporters of their approach justify it by two arguments.
First, all these population strata get salary or wages and bear the hardships of the capitalism restoration. Second, given the latest development of the state-of-the-art technologies, the number of the 'traditional proletariat' is decreasing in many countries. In our opinion, those who defend this point of view support In fact opportunist theories. In reality, the dissolution of the working class in semi-proletarian or non-proletarian elements, and that of the proletarian class core ñ the factory and plant workers ñ in other groups of workers, is one of the major theoretical obstacles to Russian proletariat's awareness of its class goals and to its hegemony in the political struggle.
We are of the opinion that the only right understanding of the Marxist theory is the affirm that it is the factory proletariat connected with the big-scale nationalised production that is to accomplish the mission of destroying capitalism and the private property institution. The class principle which determines its definition is 'the place in the historically determined system of social production', their 'relation to the means of production', the 'role in the social .organisation of labour'. Other groups of hired labour force (employees, intelligentsia) and semi-proletarian elements in the system of production and distribution, dispose of more opportunities for mobility in the bourgeois society and are closely connected with the ruling class. Lenin's words concerning "the-city and more precisely, factory, industry workers' capability to rule the masses of working peopleÖ to create a new social system, the socialism, as well as -to struggle for the complete destruction of class system" hold true in the end of our century, as in its beginning when they were said.
The formation of the working class in Russia
The history of Russian industrial proletariat goes back to the 1880-90s. By 1890 about 1.1 million workers belonged to it; by 1900 already 2.1.million. At this stage it developed as a class 'in itself'.
The first major economic demands were voiced. The industrial proletariat was submerged in semi-proletarian elements, mostly, as Lenin said, by the 'semi-proletarians with a plot of land', that is, the peasants and petty bourgeois elements, deprived of their property by the capitalist development.
In the beginning of the XX century the Russian Industrial proletariat evolved into a 'class for itself'. It switched over from economic demands to political struggle. By 1913 its numbers had increased to 3 million. Other groups of hired labour force were its allies; their numbers are estimated at 17.4 million. This class took part in the revolutions of 1905-1907 and 1917 in the role of the national dominant power. Overthrowing the absolute monarchy and the remains of the feudal system were its objectives on the state level.
The Russian working class at the turn of the century had the following particularities:
1. A high concentration of proletariat (by 1913 over a half of all workers were employed at the factories with workforce of more than 500)
2. A political party of the working class, adhering to the Marxist principles, was founded earlier than the trade-unions and the political parties which defend the interests of other strata of society, including the bourgeoisie.
A new form of revolutionary power ñ the Soviets ñ emerged in the course of the proletariat's political struggle in the beginning of the XX century. in Russia. Their creation permitted the proletarian dictatorship in Russia established in 1917. It corroborated Lenin's idea of 1894: "Öthe Russian worker heading all the democratic forces will overthrow the absolutism and will lead the Russian proletariat on the straight road of open political struggle to the victorious communist revolution."
Yet this heroic and triumphant struggle entailed enormous loses. During the First Worlds War, the 1917 Revolution and the Civil war the number of proletariat fell by a half. By the second half of 1920 it had reached 1.8 million, that is less than before 1917. It is not until the first five-year plan that the proletariat quantity began to increase sharply ñ it rebounded from 3 million to 6 million. By 1940 its numbers amounted to 11 million. Surrounded by the hostile imperialist powers, the working class of the USSR was constructing a state of the proletarian dictatorship in a country with a predominance of peasantry in the population. It is the peasantry that came to be the source of new industry workers. In the period of 1941 to 1950 inclusive every year 140,000 of peasants became factory workers.
It was a heroic and a difficult period. The 30s and the 40s are the years of the flourishing of the proletarian dictatorship state. It is this state that managed to overpower the reactionary force engendered by the imperialism ñ the German Nazism. But the country suffered heavy losses before this great victory. The pre-war level of the proletariat number was not achieved until 1948. Again, as during the First World War and the 1917 Revolution, it was reinforced by peasants and petty bourgeois by origin. In 1941-1950, 140,000 peasants joined the industrial workforce. In 1951-1953 the number soared to 660,000 annually, in 1954-1958 slipped back to 140,000. In 1959-1965 up to 400, 000 peasants shifted to the working class. In 1959-1961 nearly 1,2 million secondary school graduates and 2,14 million of reservists joined them. Many of the latter represented non-proletarian strata and consequently voiced their interests.
A considerable number of peasants was formally classified as workers, by renaming collective farms state farms. Such a way to replenish the proletariat made for the 600,000 annualised increase after 1957. As a result over 4 million collective farmers were transferred to state farms. The numerous craftsmen forming artels were also declared 'industrial workers'. In 1956 there were 0.5 million of them, in 1964 - already-1.4 million.
By 1965 the proletariat numbers had formally increased by 2.7 times ñ to 22 million persons. Officially, the working class constituted over 50% of the country's population (in 1940 19%). In reality, however, an altogether different tendency was emerging: a huge mass of semi-proletarian elements submerged the core of the industrial working class, which used to be the social base of the proletarian dictatorship. The very notion of 'a worker' disappeared from the official statistical reports, replaced by the vague term 'the workers and the employees'. The petty bourgeoisie was eroding the working class structure and later served as a basis for the restoration of capitalism in the USSR.
What happened in the USSR?
The causes of what is happening on the territory of the USSR go back in history. Investigating them might give an insight into the reasons that brought about the tragedy of the USSR, the CPSU, and the working class.
Our viewpoint may be summarised as follows:
1. The restoration of capitalism in the USSR was not the consequence of the subjective factors (the intrigues of the Western intelligence services, errors made by some of the leaders of the Soviet state, or the high treason by Gorbachev and his cronies), but of the objective course of the class struggle.
2. While the USSR existed, a fierce class struggle was going on within it. One of the ways in which it manifested itself was the party infighting in the Bolshevik party in the 1920-50s. The course towards creating and strengthening of the proletarian dictatorship state was supported by Stalin and represented in his party line. His numerous opponents within the party and state administration (L.D.Trotsky, G.E.Siniviev, L.B.Kamenev, N.A.Bukharin), despite their subjective loyalty to the communist ideas, incarnated the course towards bourgeois restoration.
3. In the early 1950s the bourgeois and petty bourgeois elements managed to convert the CPSU as the proletarian vanguard into an instrument of capitalist restoration in the USSR.
The present situation of the working class in Russia
The capitalist restoration in the USSR became a nation-scale catastrophe, given its consequences, both economical and social, which are an ordeal for the working class. The concluding stage of the capitalist restoration in the USSR inflicted great calamities on the working class, as well as on the majority of the population.
Around 2. 4 million enterprises in Russia use hired labour. The Russian industrial enterprises can be subdivided into two classes:
1. The state enterprises, or more precisely, state monopolies. These are large enterprises built in the Soviet era. They used to make up (and still do) most of the country's industrial potential. The majority of the industrial proletariat is concentrated on them, its number amounting to 11 million. All of them were transformed into joint-stock ventures, which was a form of redistribution of property. In this process, the quantity of such enterprises has decreased, as well as the workforce concentration, and these enterprises are gradually shifting, often as separate elements of the technological chain, to the second group, that of private enterprises.
2. The private enterprises, small or medium in size, were founded in the course of the reforms of 1990s. The quantity hit the level of 850,000. Unskilled or almost unskilled labour prevails. The majority of those enterprises is connected with trade and services, and not with production. Nearly 30 million people work there, which makes up almost a half of the active population. Most of them are salespersons and manual labour workers.
Both types of enterprises are capitalist by nature. But the working class situation is slightly different. First, trade-union organisations are preserved on the large-scale enterprises and the administration does not venture to refuse to meet the basic requirements of the labour legislation. Second, the workers of such enterprises keep up certain traditions of the struggle for their rights. It is on large-scale factories that all the industrial action has been organised.
A 'new enterprise' worker is completely dependent on its owner. There are no trade-union organisations and the labour legislation concerning the hired labour does not apply. The workers are mainly the marginal strata of society, those belonging to the lower class (large-scale enterprise's workers and employees who have been made redundant, young people lacking professional training, small businessmen gone bankrupt). They are not conscious of their being a part of the proletariat, are not formed as a 'class in itself', and not capable even of a feeble attempt to fight for their economic rights.
Yet today in general the situation of all group of the working class is similar. It is characterised by:
The relative worsening of the proletariat situation manifested itself in the decrease of the salary snare in the national income, as well as in the aggregate social production and the national wealth. The hired labour force makes up 70% of the country's population. Yet the salaries and wages constitute only 46% of Russia's GNP and only 42% of the population's income.
The absolute worsening of the proletariat situation reflected in the dramatic deterioration of the conditions of work. The most important factors that brought about the absolute worsening of the working class situation are:
1. A sharp rise of unemployment. According to ILO's report, by the end of 1997 9.1% of the economically active population were unemployed. According to other analytical studies almost 15 million unemployed are not registered (they are young people who failed to find a job after graduation: those who never registered in the job centres; those who are on the so-called temporary holidays and do not get their pay;. those who work a short working week). These groups make up as much as 40% of people occupied in the social production.
2. The prolonged working day and intensification of labour. Officially, the Russian labour legislation sets the working day limit at 8 hours; in practice it is often prolonged. Over 16% of workers have a second job (19% in the state-controlled sector). The work on a second job takes up around 28 hours per week.
3. A sharp fall in the real wages. The nominal wages in Russia have grown. But the real income fell more than by 200% in the lapse of 1992-1997 inclusive. The 1994 average wages made up 92% of the 1993 level; the 1995 72% of the 1994 level. It has been claimed officially that in 1996 the wages grew by 5%, though practical analysis shows no substantial increase. In reality, the real income in many regions and in various branches of industry fell below the minimum subsistence level and does not ensure the replenishment of the working class numbers. This has been admitted by the recently appointed prime minister Serguei Kirienko, who declared that 32 million Russian people live below the poverty line or are practically destitute.
4. The wage arrears. The wage arrears are one of the most acute problems of the day. They have acquired mass dimensions for the past 2 years. According to the inspection results of 1996-1997 (two first quarters), 72% of enterprises had fallen behind with wage payments. The total amount of wages calculated but not paid out exceeded 55 trillion rubbles (situation on Nov. 1st, 1997). It makes up 1.27 of a monthly wage of every worker, that is, 1/3 of an average monthly salary is not paid. In many enterprises the wages are 3-5 months in arrears, though this period may continue up to 2-3 years.
The right to get salary every month, obtained by Russian workers in tough economic struggle was abolished. At the same time, with the beginning of 'economic reforms' in 1990s, the government expropriated the people's bank savings. Thus, the wage arrears and the savings confiscation came to be one of the main ways to enrich the bourgeoisie and to back up financially the bourgeois state.
5. Wage payments in kind. The government is pressing ahead with the programme of bringing down inflation by limiting the money supply. The bourgeoisie inflicted all the hardships on the working class. Wages are often paid in kind rather than in money, that is, using products, made at the enterprise, for which there is no demand. This is often done in the form of distributing coupons that give the right to obtain provisions. The shops that exchange coupons for provisions are usually owned by the enterprise administration and sell low quality products for high prices.
The gap between the manual and intellectual labour has widened. The system of secondary and professional education is deteriorating. It has become almost impossible to receive higher education for working class youth. The destinations of a working class young person and a child of employees or businessmen is strictly determined. For the former it is secondary education, possibly a failure to graduate with the certificate, two years of military service and attempts to find a job demanding low qualifications, but inadequately remunerated. The latter can receive higher education which entitles him to be exempt from military service, and a business or government career later. For a person of the working class the only way to advance somehow is to work for the Mafia.
One of the peculiarities of the Russian job market is the situation of the so-called 'foreign workforce'. This term does not render exactly the essence of the problem in Russia. Differently from the Western countries, the 'foreign workforce' in Russia encompasses those who are racially and nationally homogeneous with the local population. They are ex-USSR republics citizens (Ukraine, Belorussia, Moldavia, Kazakhstan), where the unemployment level is higher and the wages lower than in Russia. In Moscow and other economically better off regions natives of the depressed province areas work. They take up any job, including the most dangerous and badly paid ones. Since hiring them is illegal, these workers depend completely on their employers and are constantly persecuted by local authorities.
The official statistics do not usually include these workers though they are considerable in number. According to some estimations, there are 500.000 unregistered workers in Moscow only, a city with a population of 9 million. They sometimes work for bread and lodgings only, and even the bourgeois Russian TV calls them 'slaves'.
In the course of the reforms from 1992 to 1997, 11 million industrial workers dropped out of the industrial production (compared with the total number of the industrial workers, 23.5 million). Considering the fact that no state-of-the-art technological changes have been introduced nor any inventory restructured, it becomes evident that the dramatic fall in the workforce number was caused by a considerable production decline. The most noticeable efflux of workforce affected the processing industry.
According to the official statistics only 1.5-6% were made redundant in the process of technical reconstruction. Up to 65-90% resigned, mostly under pressure from the administration and the employers, who thus became exempt from paying the unemployment benefits.
In 1991 to 1996 inclusive the workforce numbers rose in the export-oriented branches of industry, especially those dealing the country's natural resources. In the gas industry the numbers rose 3 times, in the petrol industry - by 40%, in the energy industry - by 30%. Yet the ratio of those who left the processing industry to the number of the newly employed in those expanding industries is 70 to 3.1%.
It is remarkable that the rise is mostly due to the administration and service department expansion. The percentage of administration workers is as high as 25-27% (one third of the employment increase in those branches). The same tendency is observed in the machine building industry. With the overall decline in production the administration department grew by 6-8% and makes up 22-26% of the workforce. The majority of these have no real functions in the production management. As a rule, they are criminal elements who redistribute the products. The dramatic growth of the administration level is matched by the swallowing of the state bureaucracy. The Russian state of today and the ruling clique have a pronounced parasitical character.
The majority of those who have lost their jobs In the social production sphere are trying to find a place in small business, handicraft industry, natural or semi-natural economy. To give a typical example, the so-called 'shuttle tradespeople', that is, those who fly abroad in flocks and buy small batches of merchandise for which there is a demand in Russia. In 1991-1995 the number of small businesses grew from 268,000 to 896,000. They usually operate in the sphere of retail trade and services.
The working class and the bureaucracy
The bourgeois state plays a role apart in infringing on the workers' rights. The particularity of today's Russia is that the bourgeois parties wield neither influence nor power. The most effective representative of the bourgeoisie's interests is the government's apparatus. Its class nature and role is especially visible in the government's policy of regulating the salary level and its social welfare programmes. The salary regulations are effected in two ways:
a) by setting the minimum wages level
b) by introducing measures to control the wages.
The minimum salary amounts at the moment to 83,490 roubles a month, which makes up 17.4 % of the minimum subsistence level, according to official sources and which is a rough equivalent of 15$. It was set at this level in September 1995 for the government and budget-controlled enterprises, and has not changed ever since. This permits the government to freeze payments in every sphere of the economy.
From 1992 on the government and the three major trade union organisations (the Federation of Independent Russian Trade-Unions, the All-Russian Labour Conference and the Labour Conference of Russia) proclaim the social partnership as the leading state ideology. The Russian multilateral commission on regulating the social labour relations was set up. The Labour and Social Welfare Ministry and other numerous government agencies and organisations ostensibly negotiate between the employers and the workers. Their activity has resulted in a huge amount of documents. In 1996 only 1500 regional agreements were reached and 150,000 collective contracts signed. But all these have no practical implications for the workers. Almost no agreements were signed on private enterprises, where trade-union organisations do not exist. According to estimations, only 10% of enterprises of this sector of economy signed collective contracts with the workforce. The owner dominates the labour and social problem settlement. The social partnership policy in Russia failed.
A new Criminal Code came into force on January 1st, 1997. Two clauses were omitted, compared with the previous one: that criminalising violations of the rights of the workers and another forbidding to restrain the legal trade-union's activity. The owner and the administration of the enterprise are no longer responsible before the criminal or the civil law for violations workers' rights.
In Russia, the local bourgeoisie and the governments representing and defending its interests, with active support of the world capital (for the most part, American) are violently attacking the working class.
The present situation in Russian proves the truthfulness of Marx's statement concerning the universal law of capitalist accumulation, formulated in the Capital: "The larger is the social wealth, the functioning capital, the tempo and the energy of its growth, and consequently the bigger is the absolute number of proletariat and its labour's productive force, - the larger is the industrial reserve army... But the larger this reserve army grows in proportion to the active labour force, the more dramatic is the overpopulation, the poverty which is in proportion to the sufferings of the active labour force. And at last, the more extensive are the lower, miserable layers of the working class and the larger is the reserve army, the more considerable is the official pauperism. This is the universal law of capitalist accumulation."
Political conclusions and perspectives
At present the Russian proletariat is back 100 years in its economical and political rights. Yeltsin's regime is striving to conceal with liberal phraseology the workers' being deprived of these rights.
We attach paramount importance to the task of organising the working class. As 100 years ago the struggle will be political and ideological as well as economical. The task is to evolve into a class 'for itself' and stand at the head of the democratic people's movement. In this respect, a leading role is predestined for a party capable of organising proletariat and its allies. In the present situation no party seems to be able to take up this burden.