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| Title | What has become of the Russian Revolution |
| Creator (LCNAF) |
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| Contributor (Local) |
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| Publisher | International Review |
| Place of Creation (TGN) |
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| Date | 1937 |
| Subject.Topical (LCSH) |
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| Subject.Topical (Local) |
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| Subject.Geographic (TGN) |
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| Genre (AAT) |
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| Language | English |
| Type (DCMI) |
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| Original Item Extent | 63 pages; 22 cm |
| Original Item Location | HN523.Y8613 1937 |
| Original Item URL | http://library.uh.edu/record=b8304536~S11 |
| Original Collection | Socialist and Communist Pamphlets |
| Digital Collection | Socialist and Communist Pamphlets |
| Digital Collection URL | http://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/scpamp |
| Repository | Special Collections, University of Houston Libraries |
| Repository URL | http://libraries.uh.edu/branches/special-collections |
| Use and Reproduction | In Copyright: This item is protected by copyright. Copyright to this resource is held by the creator or current rights holder, and the resource is provided here for educational purposes. It may not be reproduced or distributed in any format without permission of the copyright owner. Users assume full responsibility for any infringement of copyright or related rights. |
| File Name | index.cpd |
| Title | Image 63 |
| Format (IMT) |
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| File Name | uhlib_2209396_062.jpg |
| Transcript | He cannot even be aware of the fact that the serfs below are being crushed. Neither can the great majority of the bourgeois of the avowed capitalist countries understand the constant crushing of the workers by the system that feeds their ambitions and yields them profits. The young specialist, confident of the future, lives most of the time in his calculations and formulae. He does not worry about the workers. For him they are merely the instruments of his "grandiose achievements." Or he sincerely believes that he is working—as the State catechism says—for their emancipation. Sometimes the specialist happens to complain about the regime, but not because the workers possess no power, but because he himself does not possess enough power. It is quite true that he does not enjoy any political liberty. For this reason, he sometimes shows opposition to the Stalinist dictatorship, of which he is, however, a legitimate product. The sight of the extreme exploitation of the workers fails to fill him with any remorse, for he had never promised anything to the proletariat. "The USSR is the paradise of the savant." This formula, drawn from the account of a Soviet tour by General Perrier, a professor at the Polytechnic Institute, has been picked up and echoed in chorus by the entire Communist press outside of Russia. It is a very happy phrase— although somewhat ambitious. The process of formation of the new class has not yet been completed. The new class feels that the future belongs to it, even more than the present. It is now marching toward its "paradise." Industrialization creates an incessantly renewed and never satisfied demand for "specialists" and "responsibles." It increases their importance. In the Soviet economic organization, constantly growing more modern and complicated, the specialists are becoming more irreplaceable as they acquire experience in their functions. The specialist is a precious instrument that the political bureau is obliged to handle carefully. It cannot afford to break this instrument without risking the destruction of the entire economy. An individual who has proved his value as an organizer and can ply his elbows has a place waiting for him among the specialists. There are accompanying risks, but considering the prize, they are worth taking. Here it is not one's fortune that is put at stake but one's function. The candidates are socially young. They have the boldness and unconcern of the early bourgeois. Like the early bourgeois, they are ready to leap, to take chances, in order to arrive at positions exalted enough to turn the head of the most experienced. It is an error to believe that all the specialists and the big responsibles are narrow, lopsided bureaucrats. No, they are young men who have the "stuff" and a lot of energy. They attain, at times, in the exercise of their functions, an understanding of business, a mastery of decision and breadth of view that can be envied by the American businessman. Their power, their life and their risks are of an entirely new form. No privileged class has know them before. Altogether, this power, this life, these risks, constitute a new world, the "paradise" of the specialist. Traditional capitalism cannot offer any certainty to its beneficiaries. 61 |