American Billions

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A source:

Stalin I.V. Works. - T. 3. - M.: OGIZ; State Publishing House of Political Literature, 1946, pp. 232–235.

Note 72: Ibid. S. 409.


The results of the Moscow meeting are being clarified. According to Russkiye Vedomosti72 (August 17, pm):

“Yesterday there was a meeting of the Central Committee of the People's Freedom Party. Milyukov delivered a report, proposing that the members of the Central Committee exchange views on the question of the results of the Moscow Conference. Speakers were unanimous in favor of the coalition principle. Most of the meeting participants agreed that the Moscow meeting gave the maximum of what could be expected.”

And so, Mr. Milyukov's party is satisfied. She is for the coalition.

“The Moscow Conference,” the defencists write, “was a victory for democracy (i.e., the defencists?), which managed in the tragic moments they were going through to act as a genuine state force, around which everything (!) that is alive in Rus' rallied” (“Izvestia ” No. 146).

Evidently, the defencist party is also satisfied. At least she pretends to be satisfied, because she is also for the coalition.

Well, what about the government? How does it assess the Moscow meeting?

According to Izvestia (No. 146), "the general impression of the members of the Provisional Government" is that:

“The meeting was in the true sense of the word state. In general, the line of both foreign and domestic policy of the government has been approved . The government's economic program met with no objections. In fact, there were no attacks on the land policy of the government either.”

In a word, the government is also content with the conference, for it also appears to be in favor of a coalition.

The matter is clear. A coalition of three forces is being forged: the government, the Cadets and the defencists.

The "honest coalition" under the firm of Kerensky-Milyukov-Tsereteli can be considered secured for the time being.

Such is the first result of the Moscow Conference.

Under capitalism, no enterprise can do without capital. The coalition now formed, headed by the government, is the largest enterprise in Russia. Not a single hour, not a single minute can it exist without the corresponding capitals. Especially now, in a war that requires incalculable means. Asked:

On what capital does the new (completely new!) coalition intend to exist?

Listen to "Birzhevka" (evening, August 17):

“The immediate result of the work of the Moscow Conference, in particular the sympathy shown for this conference by the Americans, as they say, was the possibility of concluding a 5-billion state loan on the foreign market . The loan will be realized in the American market . Thanks to this loan, the small financial program of the Provisional Government will be fulfilled.”

The answer is clear. The coalition will exist on American billions, for which the Russian workers and peasants will then have to take the rap.

The American imperialist bourgeoisie, which finances the coalition of the Russian imperialist bourgeoisie (Milyukov!), the military (Kerensky!) and the petty-bourgeois upper classes, who servilely serve the “living forces” of Russia (Tsereteli!)—this is the picture of the present situation.

The “sympathy” of American capital for the Moscow Conference, backed up by a five-billion-dollar loan—isn’t that what the gentlemen who convened the conference were striving for?...

It was once said in Russia that the light of socialism comes from the West. And it was true. For there, in the West, we learned revolution and socialism.

With the beginning of the revolutionary movement in Russia, the situation changed somewhat.

In 1906, when the revolution was still developing in Russia, the West helped tsarist reaction to recover by lending it 2 billion rubles. And tsarism really grew stronger at that time at the price of a new financial enslavement of Russia by the West.

On this occasion, it was noticed then that the West was importing into Russia not only socialism, but also reaction in the form of billions.

Now a more eloquent picture is unfolding before us. At the moment when the Russian revolution is straining its forces to defend its conquests, and imperialism is trying to finish it off, American capital is supplying the Kerensky-Milyukov-Tsereteli coalition with billions in order to finally curb [c.234] Russian revolution, to undermine the revolutionary movement growing in the West.

That is the fact.

Isn't it true: the West is importing into Russia not so much socialism and liberation as bondage and counter-revolution.

But a coalition is an alliance. Against whom is the Kerensky-Milyukov-Tsereteli alliance directed?

Obviously against those who were not at the Moscow Conference, who boycotted this conference, who opposed the conference, i.e. against the revolutionary workers of Russia.

The "honest coalition" of Kerensky-Milyukov-Tsereteli, financed by the American capitalists, against the revolutionary workers of Russia - is that right, gentlemen of the defensists?

So let's write it down.

"Proletary" No. 6,

August 19, 1917



NOTE

72 Russkiye Vedomosti, a newspaper published in Moscow since 1863; expressed the interests of the liberal landowners and the bourgeoisie. Closed in 1918 along with other counter-revolutionary newspapers. – 232.