Page - 242 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

242 chapter 5 capitalistbarbarismofexploitation,unemployment,andclassrule’ (ourtrans- lation).167Hence, itshouldcomeasnosurprisethatBauercoheredtothehope ofananti-fascistrevolutiontotheussrand,from1934onward,regardedsocial- istdevelopmentinRussianotasapossibility,butasreality.168 TheprogressionofBauer’sviewswithrespecttorevolution,dictatorshipand buildingsocialismintheussrwasfundamental.Fromdenyingthatrevolution innon-capitalistcountrieshadanychanceofsuccessandrecommendingthat theproletariandictatorshipbeabandoned,hehadcomealongwayasherecog- nisedthesocialistcharacteroftheussr,extolledthenecessityofdictatorship, andciteddomesticrelationsintheSovietrepublictoveneratetheStalinistbur- eaucracy.It isworthcontemplatingwhethertheaforementionedreasonssuffi- cientlyexplainthegreatdivergencebetweenhissuccessivepositions.Largely, theyweredrivenbyhisdeterministicviewofSovietdevelopment.AsSchöller succinctly notes: ‘Evenhe [Bauer] is prone to distort his justified interest in reducingpolitical phenomena to their economic backgroundby referring to themasunavoidableor inevitable’.169 Bauerbelievedwith absolute certainty that theeconomicconsequencesof theFiveYearPlanwouldprecedethecul- tural emancipationof theworkingclass,which, in turn,would transformthe Communist regime intoademocratic republic ruledby law.That iswhyuntil 1936hemaintainedagainstallevidencethatStalin’sdictatorshipwasaneces- sarystepontheroadtowardsde-totalitarianisingthesystem. Bauer’s optimistic prognoses for theFiveYearPlananddemiseof thedic- tatorshipwerenotacceptedbySocialDemocrats.Themajorityofparticipants at the Labour and Socialist International congress inVienna objected to his positions.Kautsky,FriedrichAdler,andDancriticisedthesdapleaderharshly. 167 ‘… imstande seinwird, die großenweltgeschichtlichenResultateder großen russischen Revolution zu verteidigen, den Faschismus, den Todfeind der Arbeiterklasse zu schla- genunddieErschütterungderkapitalistischenWeltdurcheinenneuenKriegzurÜber- windungderkapitalistischenBarbareiderAusbeutung,derArbeitslosigkeit,derKlassen- herrschaft,desKriegesauszunutzen’–Bauer1980z,pp.559–60. 168 In 1935, Bauerwrote that the ussr had laid the economic foundations for socialism– seeBauer 1980l, p. 477. In 1936, he added: ‘If theussr is grantedpeace for a fewmore years, it will, thanks to its rapidly increasing productivity, be able tomatch the living standards of themost advanced capitalist countries, and even surpass them’. Original: ‘BleibtderSowjetunionnochwenigeJahrederFriedeerhalten,wirdsiedankderüberaus schnell steigenden Produktivität der Arbeit die Lebenserhaltung der Volksmassen der vorgeschrittenstenkapitalistischenLändereinholenundüberholenkönnen’–Bauer1976p, pp.224–5. 169 SeeSchöller 1979,p. 115.