Chris Nineham on Trotsky’s contribution to the theory and practice of revolution

Given the crisis in society, many people are asking questions about revolution. What would it look like? Could a revolution happen here? Under what circumstances? One of the best places to start is the life and work of Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky.

Alongside Lenin, he was one of the key leaders of the Russian revolution – the only workers’ revolution to successfully take state power. He was the main organiser of the insurrection that led to workers taking control in October 1917.

He also wrote brilliantly about the experience in the pamphlet the Lessons of October and in his epic History of the Russian Revolution. He did more than anyone else to keep alive the ideas of revolutionary socialism through the 1930s, when the project was crushed between fascism on the one hand and Stalinist counterrevolution on the other.

Two fundamentals guided Trotsky. One concerned capitalism itself. Capitalism is based on the exploitation of workers, and it is also a chaotic, competitive system that causes economic crisis, war and imperialism. This means that from time to time it creates explosions of discontent.

The other fundamental point was that even major social unrest doesn’t automatically lead to social change. Because of the strength and experience of the capitalist ruling class, because of unevenness in workers’ consciousness, and because of the continuing influence of reformist and gradualist ideas, there can be no successful, purely spontaneous workers’ revolution.

That means movements need to have specifically revolutionary organisation at their heart. As Trotsky says:‘The spontaneous activity of the masses is not sufficient for the victory of the revolution. Without a mass revolutionary party, victory for the proletariat is not possible. Without a guiding organisation, the energy of the masses would dissipate like steam not enclosed in a piston box. But nevertheless what moves things is not the piston or the box, but the steam.’

From February to October

There were two revolutions in Russia in 1917. The first in February led to the overthrow of Tsarism and the establishment of a bourgeois republic. State power was in the hands of capitalists but there were also councils of workers, soldiers and peasants, or soviets. As a result, for the next few months there was dual power in Russia.

The second Revolution was in October. On the basis of the slogan ‘Bread, peace and land’, it led to the peasants seizing the land, the end of Russia’s involvement in the First World War, and to power being taken by the soviets.

So the role of the party that Trotsky describes from February to October 1917 was to ensure that the revolution didn’t stop at its bourgeois democratic phase and that it pushed forward to win economic and social power for workers.

This involved not just propaganda but giving active leadership to the movement.  In April, Lenin had to win a big argument amongst the Bolsheviks about the need for a second revolution. In July, the Bolsheviks had to restrain the Petrograd workers from seizing power before workers and peasants outside of the capital were ready to follow them. In August, the Bolsheviks led the defence of the revolution against an attempted military coup.

As a result of these actions, the Bolsheviks went from being a minority in the Soviets to winning the majority in all the main centres.

The art of insurrection

The conditions for a revolution were in place, but even now nothing was inevitable. Trotsky argues insurrection is an art. If time is always a prime factor in politics, ‘then the importance of time increases one-hundredfold in war and in revolution’. There must be a careful assessment of when working-class confidence peaks, and when the capitalist state is at its most disorganised.

There also needs to be a plan that is executed decisively. The essence of a successful working-class revolution is that state power is undermined. In October, the army in Petrograd refused to go back to the front. Armed workers were able to take over the post office and communication centres without a fight, because staff in them had lost confidence in the regime. Even the much-feared Cossack troopers failed to move because their commanders had no real plan.

More people died filming the storming of the Winter Palace in the 1928 film celebration of October than in the actual event itself.

The meaning of October

Russia in 1917 was a relatively backward country. The state and its institutions were weak. Its revolution was isolated and the capitalists and landowners regrouped to fight a counter-revolutionary civil war, supported by the imperialist powers. This combination created the conditions for the Stalinist counterrevolution.

Trotsky makes the point that in more developed capitalist countries where the state is less brittle, the seizure of power will be harder and the revolutionary process will be longer. But, he argues, once power has been taken, it will be more secure. Nevertheless, the experience of the Russian Revolution remains essential.

There have been a whole series of insurgent movements this century including in Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Tunisia, Egypt, Greece and Sudan, that have shaken capitalist states to the core. The problem has been that these movements have lacked a deeply rooted leadership committed to ensuring workers’ power and challenging the state. Trotsky’s words still ring true: ‘Without a party, apart from a party, over the head of a party or with a substitute for a party, the proletarian revolution cannot conquer.’