Page:Nikolai Bukharin - Programme of the World Revolution (1920).djvu/53

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the hands of the workers and peasants. That means that this Government will, as far as it lies within its power, assist the peasants in any useful undertaking. It is only necessary for the poorest peasants and semi-proletariat, as well as the late farm hands, to manifest greater activity, more personal initiative. The weak, poverty-stricken peasants, working each one by himself, can achieve nothing; they will hardly be able to exist. But. they will attain a great deal once they begin to unite their allotments, jointly purchasing machinery with the aid of the town workers, and in this manner cultivating the land in common, on a basis of common interests.

The town Soviets and economic organisations of the workers will assist such labour agricultural communes, supplying them with iron and manufactured goods, and they will help them by recommending land experts and competent men. And thus gradually the once poor peasant, who has never seen anything beyond his native town, will begin to be transformed into a comrade, who, hand in hand with others, will march along the road of communal labour.

It has now been made clear that to organise matters in this direction we must have a solid organisation of the poorest elements of the peasantry. This organisation must accomplish two principle tasks; the first is the struggle with the country sharks, usurers, former inn-keepers, in a word, with the former bourgeoisie; the second is the organisation of agricultural production and the control over the distribution of land, the organisation of labour communes and the management of the estates of former landowners with a view to their best possible utilisation; in other words, they must set before themselves the great task of a new reconstruction of land. The poorest peasantry should form such organisations in the shape of regional Soviets, and should introduce into them special departments such as, for instance, a food supply department, a land department, and others. The land departments of the peasants' Soviets should form the chief support of the poorest elements of the peasantry in connection with the land question. To arrange matters on a firmer basis it would be best to construct these Soviet organisations in such a way that the local and neighbouring factory workers should also have their representatives. Workmen are a more experienced set of people than the peasants, they are used to joint business organisations, and are also more experienced in the struggle against the bourgeoisie. The factory workers will