DEUTSCHER, ISAAC. Soviet Trade Unions: Their Place in Soviet Labor Policy. Pp. ix, 156. London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1950. $1.75

• Author: Adolf Sturmthal
• Published date: 01 March 1951
• Date: 01 March 1951
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0002716251274001102
• Subject Matter: Articles

265

This

is

the

crucial

point.

In

his

search

for

deep

sources

and

broad

horizons

of

the

Soviet

law,

which

challenge

us

to

think

over

our

own

institutions

and

trends,

the

author

overlooked

its

manifest

essence:

that

it

is

the

law

of

a

totalitarian

state,

rather

abhorring

than

challenging.

EUGENE

M.

KULISCHER

Washington,

D.

C.

DEUTSCHER,

ISAAC.

Soviet

Trade

Unions:

Their

Place

in

Soviet

Labor

Policy.

Pp.

ix,

156.

London:

Royal

Institute

of

International

Affairs,

1950.

$1.75.

This.

excellent

little

book

fills

a

widely

felt

need;

it

presents

a

reasonably

objective

discussion

of

Soviet

trade

unionism,

based

on

Soviet

sources.

Mr. -

Deutscher,

the

author

of

a

well-known

biography

of

Stalin,

has

rendered

a

real

service

in

writing

this

study.

The

arrangement

of

the

book

is

in

the

main

historical

and

covers

the

entire

Soviet

period

up

to

the

Tenth

Congress

of

the

Trade

Unions

of

the.

Union

of

Soviet

Socialist

Republics,

held

in

April,

1949.

This

is

preceded

by

an

interesting,

though

somewhat

scanty,

survey

of the

internal

discussions

within the

Social

Democratic

movement

on

the

role

of

the

unions

within

the

labor

movement.

American~readers

in

particular

would

have

been

interested

in

the

Lenin-Plekhanoff

controversy

on

work-

ing

class

&dquo;spontaneity&dquo;

and

the

part

of

the

intellectuals

in

the

development

of

class-

consciousness.

The

main

trend

of

the

evolution

of

the

unions

from

&dquo;workers’

control&dquo;

to

the

pres-

ent

state

of

ineffectiveness

is

well

described.

The

main

points

in

this

development

were

the

controversy

of

the

Tenth

Party

Con-

gress

(1921)

and

the

transition

to

the

planned

economy

under

the

Five

Year

Plans.

Lenin

endeavored

to

strike

a

bal-

ance

between

the

semi-syndicalist

demands

of

the

&dquo;Workers’

Opposition&dquo;

and

Trotsky’s

attempt

to

&dquo;statify&dquo;

the

unions.

But

the

same

logic

which

forced

the

Soviet

govern-

ment

gradually

to

destroy

democracy

within

the

party

rapidly

shifted

the

direction

of

Soviet

policy

towards

Trotsky’s

ideas:

union.

participation

in

management

was

abandoned

in

favor

of

greater

efficiency;

collective

bargaining

was

replaced

by

the

planning

of

the

wages

fund;

and

an

ex-

cessive

labor

turnover

was

substituted

for

strikes

which

were

practically

outlawed.

At

the

end

of

this

development

the

unions

emerge

as

the

administrators

of

social

insurances,

of

rest

homes

and

santoria,

of

industrial

research

institutes,

but

clearly

not

as

representatives

of

the

workers

in

defense

of

their

interests

against

manage-

ment.

In

the

author’s

view

this

evolution

was

due

to

the

attempt

to

introduce

Social-

ism

in

a

backward

country

rather

than

to

the

nature

of

planning.

The

argument

of footnote

1,

page

101,

is

dubious.

According

to

the

author,

wages

were

only

25

per

cent

of

the

total

cost

of

production

in

Russian

industry

in

the

late

1930’s.

This

may

conceivably

apply

to

direct

labor

costs,

but

surely

cannot

hold

if

labor

costs

embodied

in

equipment,

semi-

finished

products,

and

raw

materials

used,

are

included.

ADOLF

STURMTHAL

Bard

College

REDDAWAY,

W.

F.,

J.

H.

PENSON,

O.

HALECKI,

and

R.

DYBOSKI

(Eds.).

The

Cambridge

History

of

Poland.

Vol.

I:

From

the

Origins

to

Sobieski

(to

1696).

Pp.

xiv,

607,

illustrations

and

maps.

Cambridge,

England:

The

University

Press,

1950.

$8.50.

The

project,

of

which

this

volume

dealing

with

the

first

700

years

of

Polish

history

is

exactly

half

the

fruit,

was

initiated

four-

teen

years

ago,

by

a

group

of Polish

and

British

historians,

in’

part

as

a

result

of

the

enthusiasm

for

East

European

historical

studies

generated

throughout

Europe

and

in

England

by

the

International

Congress

of

Historical

Sciences

held

in

Warsaw

in

1933.

At

long

last

the

project

has

been

com-

pleted,

with

the

publication

of

the

present

volume

on

November

29,

1950.

Whether

the

date

on

which

the

work

should

be

issued

was

fixed

by

deliberate

design,

or

just

happened

by

accident,

we

do

not

know.

It

was,

at

any

rate,

the

one

hundred

and

twentieth

anniversary

of

the

November

Uprising

and

one

of

the

great

national

holidays

of

the

Polish

people,

having

particular

significance

in

Poland’s

relations

with

Russia.

Since

Polish-Russian

rela-

tions

are

again,

as

in

1830,

heated

and