Page - 239 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

the ‘thirdway’ to socialism 239 The victory of Stalin’s linewithin the party heralded a breakwith its Lenin- istpast and the liquidationof the left (Trotsky,Zinoviev,Kamenev)andright (Bukharin) oppositional factions in 1928. In 1929, the NewEconomic Policy suffered a defeat, leading to forced collectivisation. The first Five Year Plan, adopted in 1929, outlined aperspective of rapid industrialisation, electrifica- tion,newmethodsofplannedeconomy,andforcedcollectivisation–theprice theSovietpeoplewouldhave topaywasa tougherpolitical lineanda rise in political terror. With the introduction of the first Five Year Plan, Bauer’s attitude under- went another transformation.His former repudiation that itwas possible to build socialism inaneconomicallyunderdevelopedcountrymutated into its extremeopposite.Paradoxically,hisnewfoundpositiveviewof thesocio-eco- nomiceventsinRussiacoexistedwithhiscontinuedhopeforimminentdemo- cratisationofthepoliticalsystem.ParticularlyBauer’s lastworks,Rationalisier- ung–Fehlrationalisierung (RationalisationandFalseRationalisation, 1931)and ZwischenzweiWeltkriegen (BetweenTwoWorldWars, 1936)wereproof thathe hadincreasinglysurrenderedtothe illusionthat thesocial transformations in theussrboreasocialistcharacter. Asearlyas1926,innumerousarticlesBauersupportedStalin’sabandonment of theBolshevikconceptionofworldrevolutionandintentiontobuildsocial- isminonecountry. InRationalisationandFalseRationalisation, hereferredto theFiveYearPlanastheshortestroadtotransformingtheussrintoamodern industrial country.His approval of this policy andemphasis on its economic and social gains – suchas increasedproductivity, falling levels of unemploy- ment,andmigrationofpeasantsintothecities–hadanobjective:capitalism’s recessioninGermanyandtheUnitedStates. It is truethatBauerwasawareof someofthenegativeconsequencesofStalin’spolicies,e.g. thedevelopmentof themeansofproductionattheexpenseofconsumerproducts, increasingbur- eaucratisationoftheindustry,hastycollectivisation,andtheescalatingconflict between thecities and thecountryside. Still, he sawthis as thepriceRussian society had topay so that the countrysidemight overcome its long-standing Rykov, andthemajorityof thePolitburo took thesideof socialisminonecountry,while Trotsky,Zinoviev, andKamenevdefended the thesis that socialismmustbeaccelerated by theadventofaworld revolution(1924).As to thepeasantquestion,adifferentdivide emergedinthepartyranks:Bukharin,Tomsky,andRykowadvocatedtheintroductionof market relations in agriculture andguaranteed state loans forpeasants. Stalin’s faction, which represented the partymajority, demanded a confrontationwith the kulaks and forcedcollectivisation(1928).Stalinbasedthisontheassertionthat‘theclassstrugglewill intensifyassocialismadvances’.