Seite - 241 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

the ‘thirdway’ to socialism 241 ReadingBauer’sworks onRussia, one cannot fail to notice that he recog- nisedtheossificationofStalin’s systemandresultingdangers. In the 1930s,he basedhisstandpointontwoelementaryassumptions.Firstly, thesentimental belief that a socialist societywould arise fromtheprocess initiatedbyLenin and theBolshevikParty,whichwasnot validatedby theactual eventsoccur- ring in the Soviet republic. Secondly, that the existence of the ussr offered hope for the internationalworking class.At the sdapparty congress of 1932, when commenting on the situation in Russia, he stated that the demise of the Soviet regimewould ‘strengthen reaction all over theworld. The break- downof the great experimentwould shatter thebelief in thepossibility of a socialistmode of production everywhere in theworld for a long time’ (our translation).166Weresuchstatementsexclusivelymotivatedbypropagandistic reasons as well as Bauer’s personal orientation towards the East? This was most definitely not the case, yet there is an explanation for his emphasis on socialist transformations in theussr: the SocialDemocrats’ fallacious belief in a peaceful road to socialismwas destroyed by the defeat of theworkers’ movement inWestern Europe from 1933 until 1934. Consequently, prospects for internationalsocialismlookedincreasinglymiserable. Inthissituation,the Communist-ruled country appeared tohimas theonly force capable of pre- venting the forwardmarch of fascism. Bauerwas convinced that the future of the internationalworking class dependedonwhether ‘… itwill be able to defendthegreatworld-historicgainsof thegreatRussianrevolution,beat the mortal enemyof theworking class, fascism, takeadvantageof the great con- vulsion that a newwarwill bring to the capitalist world, and overcome the popularmasses.Thedictatorshipoftheproletariat,meanwhile,suspendstheresultsofthe political emancipationof the individual inorder to force thesocial emancipationof the popularmasses.But regardlessofhowprofoundlyand fundamentally theydiffer in this respect, theynonethelesshave incommonthat theydestroy the libertiesandhumanity that theageofbourgeois revolutionswon’ (our translation).Original: ‘Selbstverständlich bestehteinwesentlicherGegensatzzwischendenbeidenmodernenFormenderDiktatur. Die faschistischeDiktatur zerstörtdieResultatederpolitischenEmanzipationdes Indi- viduums,umdiesozialeEmanzipationderVolksmassenzuverhindern.DieDiktaturdes ProletariatshebtdieResultatederpolitischenEmanzipationdesIndividuumsauf,umdie sozialeEmanzipationderVolksmassenzuerzwingen.Abersotiefundwesentlichdieser Gegensatzauchist, sohabenbeidedochgemein,dasssiezerstören,wasdasZeitalterder bürgerlichenRevolutionanFreiheitundMenschlichkeit eroberthat’ – seeBauer 1976p, p. 196. 166 ‘…dieReaktion inder ganzenWelt stärken.DerZusammenbruchdes großenVersuchs würde den Glauben an dieMöglichkeit einer sozialistischen Produktionsweise in der ganzenWelt fürgeraumeZeiterschüttern’–Bauer1931,p.908.