Letter to Alexey Sakhnin

This letter is a response to Alexey Sakhnin’s article “Practice versus phrase” on the Liva website.

Dear Alexey,

Sorry that my letter will be very laconic. As you understand, the dirty basement of the dying sect that you talk about in your text is by no means conducive to epistolary experiments.

You are going down the wrong path. Your “revolutionary practice” wastes the strength of activists and discredits the left movement in the eyes of the working people, while at the same time playing into the hands of the worst enemies of the working class.

The left and communist movement is not a “good offices bureau” serving the masses, who today blame Putin for everything, yesterday they blamed the communists for everything, and tomorrow they will blame Caucasians, liberals or Americans for everything. I, you, and other comrades are part of a political force that strives for power in order to implement its political program. And it is we who must explain to the masses what they should demand and what they should fight for. Otherwise, others will do it for us - with the help of Novaya Gazeta, Dozhd, Granei.ru. Believe me, these gentlemen will not hesitate to impose their point of view - unlike the “revolutionary activists” who forget the words “socialism” and “communism” immediately after turning on the microphone.

You write about the “great successes” achieved in 2012, that “the masses followed us as the most radical and consistent wing of the democratic movement.” But, excuse me, where are your divisions? Are your organizations experiencing a significant influx of new members? Has the number of participants in left-wing demonstrations increased sharply? Have you received key positions in opposition bodies? Or perhaps one of your comrades was elected to representative bodies?

Yes, on May 6 you were in the front row - but I have already seen a similar picture in the cinema. You know, in the film “Braveheart” there is an episode when the English king Edward “to bait” sends Irish infantry into battle against the Scots on the principle “you don’t feel sorry for them.” The liberal leaders of the protest have prepared a similar role as cannon fodder for their “pocket leftists.” Until December 2011, Limonov’s people were used for this purpose, who organized actions for ten years, bravely screwed up, and received real sentences. Now the NBP members have been thrown out as waste material, and their places in the paddy wagons have been taken by “real revolutionaries.”

Any other successes? Have “millions of people” learned about you? Have you become a “symbol of alternative”? I don’t argue that Udaltsov received good PR, but, unfortunately, today millions of people have difficulty distinguishing him from Yakushev or Nemtsov. At best, he was remembered as “that guy who screws around all the time and goes hungry.” For an alternative symbol, in my opinion, this is not enough.

You are right that in 1905 the Socialist Revolutionaries and Social Democrats gained authority in the eyes of the masses. But they came to this not by working as waiters at the “banquet companies” of liberals and not by traveling to Vyborg, but by organizing strikes, guerrilla warfare, and activity in the Soviets. Activities among the working class and for the working class.

In 1997, the book by historian Tedor Shanin, “Revolution as the Moment of Truth,” was published in Russian. In this monograph, Shanin drew attention to the importance of the peasant factor in the revolution of 1905-1907 and analyzed the conclusions that the leading political forces of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century drew from the First Russian Revolution. Monarchists, liberals, Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks made mistakes in their calculations and went to the dustbin of history. The Bolsheviks (more precisely, Lenin) and the Georgian Social Democrats made the correct conclusions from past revolutionary events and were able to come to power in 1917.

The political year 2012, which began in December 2011 with elections to the State Duma and ended in November 2012 with elections to the Opposition Coordination Council, represents for us the same unique “moment of truth.” In its mirror, we can assess the current alignment of political forces and outline a plan of action in the event of a new surge of mass activity in the country.

Workers, unlike Moscow hipsters, are not as stupid as you think. They don’t need to “open their eyes” over and over again to who liberals are. They remember very well the governorship of Mr. Nemtsov, who Ksyusha Sobchak’s dad was, and what position Mr. Navalny holds at Aeroflot. But, unfortunately, it is quite difficult for them to understand where their class enemies end and where the communist revolutionaries begin. Perhaps it even seems to some of them that “practical revolutionaries” go to the podium of swamp rallies and to the “Coordination Councils” not to expose the outrages of the liberals, but to participate in this sodom - be it a scarecrow or a carcass.

The political year 2012, like 1905, truly became a moment of truth for the Russian left. Now we have received a respite, allowing us to analyze the current political situation and choose the optimal tactics and strategy. We can serve liberals (or conservatives - as Kurginyan does), or we can pursue our own political line. We can fight for popularity among the Moscow “creative masses” (“If this ever begins, it will not be with the palace lackeys” (c) Evgeniy Shvarts, “Shadow”) or we can turn to the new Russian proletariat, which today is only being formed from among old Soviet workers, young people working in factories of foreign companies and migrant workers. We can remember our participation in the next “color” revolution, just as some leftists remember their “unity with the people” in 1989-1991, or we can make our own revolution.

Let it be a little more belated, let it be “wrong” - but not the one for which you will experience a painful feeling of shame.

Sincerely yours,

Artem Kirpichenok