On Second Congress of Comintern
From Chapter 3 of Memoirs of a Revolutionary
Serge, Victor
http://www.connexions.org/CxArchive/MIA/serge/1945/memoirs/ch03a.htm
http://www.marxists.org/archive/serge/1945/memoirs/ch03a.htm
Year First Published: {25545 On Second Congress of Comintern ON SECOND CONGRESS OF COMINTERN From Chapter 3 of Memoirs of a Revolutionary Serge, Victor http://www.connexions.org/CxArchive/MIA/serge/1945/memoirs/ch03a.htm http://www.marxists.org/archive/serge/1945/memoirs/ch03a.htm World capitalism, after its first suicidal war, was now clearly incapable either of organizing a positive peace, or (what was equally evident) of deploying its fantastic technical progress to increase the prosperity, liberty, safety, and dignity of mankind. The Revolution was therefore right, as against capitalism; and we saw that the spectre of future war would raise a question-mark over the existence of civilization itself, unless the social system of Europe was speedily transformed. The fearful Jacobinism of the Russian Revolution seemed to me to be quite unavoidable; as was the institution of a new revolutionary State, now in the process of disowning all its early promises. In this I saw an immense danger: the State seemed to me to be properly a weapon of war, not a means of organizing production. Over all our achievements there hung a death-sentence; since for all of us, for our ideals, for the new justice that was proclaimed, for our new collective economy, still in its infancy, defeat would have brought a peremptory death and after that, who knows what? I thought of the Revolution as a tremendous sacrifice that was required for the future's sake. 1943 1967 BC12563-MemoirsRevolution.jpg ART Article CX10839 0 false true false CX10839.htm [0xc00119d140] Cx}
Year Published: 1967
Resource Type: Article
Cx Number: CX10839
World capitalism, after its first suicidal war, was now clearly incapable either of organizing a positive peace, or (what was equally evident) of deploying its fantastic technical progress to increase the prosperity, liberty, safety, and dignity of mankind. The Revolution was therefore right, as against capitalism; and we saw that the spectre of future war would raise a question-mark over the existence of civilization itself, unless the social system of Europe was speedily transformed. The fearful Jacobinism of the Russian Revolution seemed to me to be quite unavoidable; as was the institution of a new revolutionary State, now in the process of disowning all its early promises. In this I saw an immense danger: the State seemed to me to be properly a weapon of war, not a means of organizing production. Over all our achievements there hung a death-sentence; since for all of us, for our ideals, for the new justice that was proclaimed, for our new collective economy, still in its infancy, defeat would have brought a peremptory death and after that, who knows what? I thought of the Revolution as a tremendous sacrifice that was required for the future's sake.
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