Program of the Executive Committee of the People's Will

One of the versions of a program published by the Executive Committee of the Social Revolutionary Party of the People's Will. The program appeared in the third issue (No. 3) of the newspaper Narodnaya Volya on 1 January 1880, in addition to being republished in a modified form at various other points. While not without its objectionable parts, the program called for the end of tsarist rule and the creation of a socialist society organized on a democratic basis, in which both peasants and workers would manage their own affairs. The program also notably advocated violent resistance against the despotic tsarist order, which had only recently abolished the centuries-long practice of serfdom in 1861 (around the same time that the US officially abolished slavery in 1865). While not in full agreement with all of their ideas, both Marx and Engels regarded the People's Will favorably, particularly in relation to the more passive group Black Repartition, whose members took refuge in Switzerland.

The document is reproduced here for historical reference and archival purposes.

Author

People's Will

In our fundamental convictions we are socialists [sotsialisty] and populists [narodniki]. We are convinced that only upon a socialist basis can humanity embody freedom, equality and fraternity in its existence, and ensure general material well-being and full, all-round personal development—hence progress. We are convinced that only the will of the people can sanction social forms; that the people's development is only stable when it proceeds independently and freely, and when every idea that is to be translated into reality passes first through the consciousness and will of the people. Popular well-being and the popular will—these are our two most sacred and indissolubly linked principles.

1. If we examine the situation in which the people has to live and operate, we find that the [common] people [narod] is in a condition of absolute economic and political servitude. As a worker, it labours exclusively to 'nourish' and maintain the parasitic strata; as a citizen, it is devoid of all rights. Not only does Russian reality as a whole not accord with its will: it does not even dare express or formulate that will; it does not even have any possibility of thinking about what is good or what is bad for it; and the very notion of any kind of will of the people is seen as an offence against the existing order. Enmeshed on every side, the people is reduced to physical degeneration, stupefied, down-trodden, pauperized—enslaved in all respects.

2. On top of the people shackled in chains, we can observe enshrouding layers of exploiters, created and protected by the State. We observe that this State constitutes the mightiest capitalist power in the land; that this same State constitutes the sole political oppressor of the people; that only thanks to it can lesser predators exist. We see that this State-bourgeois excrescence maintains itself only through naked violence—through its military, police and bureaucratic organization—in precisely the same way that Genghis Khan's Mongols maintained themselves in our country. We see the total absence of popular sanction for this arbitrary, violent rule, which forcibly introduces and maintains State and economic principles and forms that have nothing in common with popular aspirations and ideals.

3. In the people itself, we see that its old traditional principles are still alive, though repressed in every way: the people's right to land; communal and local self-government; the rudiments of a federal system; freedom of conscience and speech. These principles would attain a broad development and give a quite new direction to our entire history, in a popular spirit, if the people were only to get a chance to live and arrange matters as it wished, in accordance with its own inclinations.

1. We therefore hold that, as socialists and populists, we should pose as our immediate task: to free the people from the oppressive yoke of the present State; to carry out a political revolution, with the aim of transfer of power to the people. Through this revolution we shall achieve: first, that the people's development will henceforth take place independently, in accordance with its own will and inclinations; secondly, that many purely socialist principles, common to us and to the people, will be recognized and supported in our Russian life.

2. We hold that the will of the people would be adequately expressed and enacted, in accordance with the voters' instructions, by a Constituent Assembly, freely elected by universal suffrage. This, of course, is a far from ideal form of expression of the popular will; but it is all that is possible in practice today, so we consider it necessary to adopt precisely that.

3. Thus our aim is: to remove power from the hands of the existing regime and transfer it to a Constituent Assembly, composed as just indicated, which must review all our State and social institutions and reshape them in accordance with its electors' instructions.

Albeit submitting ourselves entirely to the popular will, we shall nonetheless consider it our duty, as a party, to present ourselves before the people with our own programme. We shall disseminate this up until the revolution; we shall advocate it during the electoral campaign; we shall defend it in the Constituent Assembly. This programme is as follows:

1. permanent popular representation, constituted as indicated above, and having full power on all state-wide questions;

2. extensive provincial self-government, guaranteed by election to all administrative posts, autonomy of the peasant commune [mir] and economic independence of the people;

3. autonomy of the mir, as an economic and administrative unit;

4. ownership of the land by the people;

5. a set of measures aiming to transfer all plants and factories into the hands of the workers;

6. full freedom of conscience, of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association and of electoral agitation;

7. universal voting rights, without class or property restrictions;

8. replacement of the regular army by a territorial one.

We shall carry out this programme, in the conviction that its several points cannot be achieved in isolation from one another, but only in their aggregate would they ensure the people's political and economic freedom or healthy development.

In view of the aims just outlined, the party's activity is set out in the following sections:

1. Propaganda and agitational activity.

The aim of propaganda is to popularize among all layers of the population the idea of democratic political revolution, as a means of social reform, and also to popularize the party's own programme. Criticism of the existing order, exposition and explanation of the methods of revolution and social reform, constitute the essence of propaganda.

Agitation must strive to foster among the people and in society, on the widest scale possible, protests against the existing order and demands for reform in the spirit of the party—particularly the demand that a Constituent Assembly be convened. The forms of protest may be rallies, demonstrations, petitions, partisan speeches, refusal to pay taxes, etc.

2. Destructive and terrorist activity.

Terrorist activity involves annihilating the regime's most obnoxious personalities, defending the party against espionage, punishing the most notorious cases of violence and injustice on the part of government or administration, and so on. Its aim is to destroy the aura of government power; to give constant proof of the possibility of struggle against the regime; in this way to stimulate the people's revolutionary spirit and belief in the success of the cause; and finally to create forces ready for—and accustomed to—armed struggle.

3. The organization of secret societies and their unification round a single centre.

The organization of small-scale clandestine associations—for every kind of revolutionary purpose—is essential, both to implement many of the party's tasks and to train its members politically. But these small organizations, for more harmonious conduct of their struggle and especially for organizing the revolution, must at all costs group themselves around a common centre—on the basis of either full amalgamation or a federal union.

4. Acquiring an influential position and good connections in the administration, the army, the educated classes [obshchestvo] and the people.1

In order to accomplish all the party's functions successfully, a solid position in the various strata of the population is of the greatest importance. For the seizure of power [perevorot], the administration and army are especially important. The party must pay equally serious attention to the people. The party's main task within the people consists in preparing it to assist in the seizure of power and in laying the ground for a successful electoral struggle after the seizure of power: a struggle having as its aim the installation of genuine popular deputies. The party must recruit conscious supporters in the most prominent section of the peasantry; it must carry out preparatory work, at the most vital points and among the most receptive elements of the population, aimed at securing active assistance from the masses. In view of this, each member of the party must strive to occupy a position among the people that will enable him to defend peasant interests; to relieve peasant needs; to acquire the reputation of an honest man and well-wisher of the peasantry; to maintain the party's good name and defend its ideas and aims among the people.

5. Organization and execution of the seizure of power.

In view of the people's oppressed state and the fact that the regime can contain the general revolutionary movement for a long time through local repressive actions, the party must itself take responsibility for initiating the actual seizure of power—rather than waiting until such time as the people is in a position to manage without it. As regards the conditions for executing the seizure of power. . . .*

6. Electoral agitation in connection with the summoning of a Constituent Assembly.

However, the overturn [perevorot] may have occurred whether as the result of an autonomous insurrection or through a conspiracy—the party's responsibility is to work for the immediate convocation of a Constituent Assembly, to which the powers of the Provisional Government established by the insurrection or conspiracy should be transferred. In its electoral agitation, the party must fight in every way against the assorted kulak candidates, fight with all its strength to get in people truly representing peasant communes.

* This part of Point 5 is not for publication [author's comment].

Translation by Quintin Hoare taken from Teodor Shanin's Late Marx and the Russian Road (pp. 207-212). All footnotes and in-text commentary belong to the editor and/or translator unless otherwise stated.

1The Russian terminology of the period has adopted as self evident the concepts obshchestvo, i.e. nominally 'society' but actually the educated classes and the public opinion as against narod, i.e. the people equated with manual labour and plebeian classes, i.e. within Russia, mostly peasants. [I believe this commentary belongs to the editor and/or translator, since it does not seem to appear in the original newspaper issue.—adri]

Comments

People's Will wrote: 3. The…

People's Will wrote: 3. The organization of secret societies and their unification round a single centre.

The organization of small-scale clandestine associations—for every kind of revolutionary purpose—is essential, both to implement many of the party's tasks and to train its members politically. But these small organizations, for more harmonious conduct of their struggle and especially for organizing the revolution, must at all costs group themselves around a common centre—on the basis of either full amalgamation or a federal union.

It's worth pointing out that socialists were obviously not allowed to openly organize in tsarist Russia at the time. It was not until after the 1905 Revolution that tsar Nicholas II agreed to create the State Duma, one of the Russian Empire's first democratic institutions (though it was a complete farce in terms of actually representing the mass of people), and lift some of the restrictions on organizing and free speech. Groups like People's Will, the General Jewish Labor Bund, the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, and others were to a large extent forced to adopt secrecy before this time. It wasn’t like Western Europe and North America, for example, where, depending on the time and place, workers could openly establish an International Workingmen’s Association and form various socialist groups and political parties. Nonetheless, People's Will would likely have had to operate clandestinely, regardless of whether their organization was allowed to exist, given their more militant platform against tsarist rule.

The document is reproduced…

In between capitalist and communist society there lies the period of the revolutionary transformation of the one into the other. Corresponding to this is also a political transition period in which the state can be nothing other than the revolutionary dictatorship by the proletariat.

The document is reproduced here for historical reference and archival purposes.

Also, as critique of its blatant social-democratic demands and relevance to the future seizure of state power by Российская социал-демократическая рабочая партия, the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. See, E, points 1, 2, 3, 4 ,5 & 6.

A starting point of this critique must be to compare and contrast the stark opposition between the social predictions—now virtually complete in the most advanced industrial country—set forth in the Manifesto of the communist party with the pertinent political proposals of the above programme. The former predictions, listed directly below, are a road map of the emancipation of the working class; the latter, a programme of its enslavement.

1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralisation of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8. Equal liability of all to work. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of all the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the populace over the country.
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children’s factory labour in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, etc., etc.

The last point, 6., is most poignant in light of the fascism ("binding together of the nation state in service of capital") of Left, Right and Centre of the political establishment:

However, the overturn [summoning of a Constituent Assembly] may have occurred whether as the result of an autonomous insurrection or through a conspiracy...

Or, as it transpires, through conspiratorial action in reaction against autonomous insurrection.

Also, as critique of its…

Also, as critique of its blatant social-democratic demands and relevance to the future seizure of state power by Российская социал-демократическая рабочая партия, the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. See, E, points 1, 2, 3, 4 ,5 & 6.

There were no "Marxist" social democrats at this time in Russia; this tendency had yet to even develop. It was also the rival group Black Repartition, headed by Plekhanov and co., that would eventually form this social-democratic faction within the Russian socialist movement, particularly with their formation of the Emancipation of Labor group in 1883. Plekhanov and other former Narodniks began arguing, in part due to their failure in inspiring a revolution among the peasantry, that capitalist development was indispensable for Russia's socialist transformation, which stood in contrast to what both Marx and Engels argued (i.e. they never claimed that Russia was always obliged to go through capitalist development; they in fact thought in the early 1880s that revolution in Russia was imminent). Marx and Engels also sympathized more with People's Will, who were trying to create a revolution based on the initiative of the peasantry and working class, than with the more passive and remote Black Repartition. Engels would later correspond with Plekhanov after he became their "disciple," and also express some doubts about whether the Russian mir/commune could be saved, but neither he nor Marx ever subscribed to any strict stage-ist view of history.

A starting point of this critique must be to compare and contrast the stark opposition between the social predictions—now virtually complete in the most advanced industrial country—set forth in the Manifesto of the communist party with the pertinent political proposals of the above programme. The former predictions, listed directly below, are a road map of the emancipation of the working class; the latter, a programme of its enslavement.

1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.

[...]

It's also worth pointing out that both Marx and Engels later wrote, in their 1872 Preface to the Manifesto, that this list of revolutionary measures (at the end of Section II) was no longer particularly relevant. Nonetheless, they still regarded the main thrust of the Manifesto to be as relevant as ever:

Marx and Engels wrote: However much the state of things may have altered during the last twenty-five years, the general principles laid down in the Manifesto are, on the whole, as correct today as ever. Here and there, some detail might be improved. The practical application of the principles will depend, as the Manifesto itself states, everywhere and at all times, on the historical conditions for the time being existing, and, for that reason, no special stress is laid on the revolutionary measures proposed at the end of Section II. That passage would, in many respects, be very differently worded today. In view of the gigantic strides of Modern Industry since 1848, and of the accompanying improved and extended organization of the working class, in view of the practical experience gained, first in the February Revolution, and then, still more, in the Paris Commune, where the proletariat for the first time held political power for two whole months, this programme has in some details been antiquated. One thing especially was proved by the Commune, viz., that “the working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state machinery, and wield it for its own purposes.” (See The Civil War in France: Address of the General Council of the International Working Men’ s Association, 1871, where this point is further developed.) Further, it is self-evident that the criticism of socialist literature is deficient in relation to the present time, because it comes down only to 1847; also that the remarks on the relation of the Communists to the various opposition parties (Section IV), although, in principle still correct, yet in practice are antiquated, because the political situation has been entirely changed, and the progress of history has swept from off the earth the greater portion of the political parties there enumerated.

Russia was also a majority-peasant country well into the twentieth century, which the Manifesto was not really directed at.

The practical application of…

What makes them [social-democrats] representatives of the petty bourgeoisie is the fact that in their minds they do not get beyond the limits which the latter do not get beyond in life, that they are consequently driven, theoretically, to the same problems and solutions to which material interest and social position drive the latter practically.

Marx, 18th Brumaire, written between December 1851 and March 1852.

Social-democracy only ever masqueraded as "Marxist"; social-democracy is always a petty bourgeois ideology.

The practical application of the principles will depend, as the Manifesto itself states, everywhere and at all times, on the historical conditions for the time being existing, and, for that reason, no special stress is laid on the revolutionary measures put forward at the end of Section II. That passage would, in many respects, be very differently worded today.

Certainly today, even more so than in 1872, these principle predictions—having been largely fullfilled—are obsolete. We are onto the next chapter, so to speak, and a new generation of revolutionists is drawing up the future course of proletarian revolution.