The February Revolution was a Totalitarian Revolution

Abstract

Russia came to World War I as a country of developed state capitalism with a more and more distinct class of rulers-owners. Natural economic processes led, in the conditions of state feudalism, to the transformation of feudal rulers-owners into capitalist ones; also to the constant increasing of the scale of state intervention in economic life; and finally, to the further institutionalization of the bourgeoisie and the enlarging of its connections with the state apparatus. The three processes we were observing in the preceding chapter can be explained rather simply. The first by the fact that in the conditions of capitalist society, particularly of the Russian type, with a delayed agriculture, it is easier to make profits in the capitalist sector. The second by the tendency to strengthen a position in the hierarchy of power by the increase of estate. And the third trend is understandable as well because in the conditions when the basic economic decisions within a private factory depend upon decisions made within the state apparatus, the bribe becomes — together with interest or ground rent — a form of surplus value. The more a capitalist wants to have for himself, the less he wants to spend on bribes, the higher political position he must possess — joining the apparatus of power himself, or attending “coteries” (society, family, etc.) of people who belong to the apparatus.