Dictatorship vs. Democracy (Terrorism and Communism): a reply to Karl Kantsky
Kant · en
Here it is necessary to reply to another accusation directed against
the defenders of the one-man principle. Our opponents say: "This is
the attempt of the Soviet militarists to transfer their experience in
the military sphere to the sphere of economics. Possibly in the army
the one-man principle is satisfactory, but it does not suit economical
work." Such a criticism is incorrect in every way. It is untrue that
in the army we began with the one-man principle: even now we are far
from having completely adopted it. It is also untrue that in defence
of one-man forms of administration of our economic enterprises with
the attraction of experts, we took our stand only on the foundation of
our military experience. In reality, in this question we took our
stand, and continue to do so on purely Marxist views of the
revolutionary problems and creative duties of the proletariat when it
has taken power into its own hands. The necessity of making use of
technical knowledge and methods accumulated in the past, the necessity
of attracting experts and of making use of them on a wide scale, in
such a way that our technique should go not backwards but
forwards--all this was understood and recognized by us, not only from
the very beginning of the revolution, but even long before October. I
consider that if the civil war had not plundered our economic organs
of all that was strongest, most independent, most endowed with
initiative, we should undoubtedly have entered the path of one-man
management in the sphere of economic administration much sooner, and
much less painfully.
Some comrades look on the apparatus of industrial administration first
and foremost as on a school. This is, of course, absolutely erroneous.
The task of administration is to administer. If a man desires and is
able to learn administration, let him go to school, to the special
courses of instruction: let him go as an assistant, watching and
acquiring experience: but a man who is appointed to control a factory
is not going to school, but to a responsible post of economic
administration. And, even if we look at this question in the limited,
and therefore incorrect light of a "school," I will say that when the
one-man principle prevails the school is ten times better: because
just as you cannot replace one good worker by three immature workers,
similarly, having placed a board of three immature workers in a
responsible post, you deprive them of the possibility of realizing
their own defects. Each looks to the others when decisions are being
made, and blames the others when success is not forthcoming.