ber of
those who belong to the period of disorganization, and,
secondly, to the fact that the most class-conscious and best
elements of the railway proletariat were at the various fronts
of the civil war.

Considering wide Trade Union assistance to the railway workers
to be one of the principal tasks of the Party, and as the only
condition under which transport can be raised to its height,
the Congress at the same time recognizes the inflexible
necessity of employing exclusive and extraordinary measures
(martial law, and so forth). Such necessity is the result of
the terrible collapse of the transport and the railroad system
and is to introduce measures which cannot be delayed and which
are to obviate the complete paralysis of the railway system
and, together with this, the ruin of the Soviet Republic.

The general attitude to the militarization of labour is stated in the
Resolution with which this section of the Proceedings begins:

The ninth Congress approves of the decision of the Central
Committee of the Russian Communist Party on the mobilization
of the industrial proletariat, compulsory labour service,
militarization of production and the application of military
detachments to economic needs.

In connection with the above, the Congress decrees that the
Party organization should in every way assist the Trade Unions
and the Labour Sections in registering all skilled workers
with a view of employing them in the various branches of
production with the same consistency and strictness as was
done, and is being carried out at the present time, in
relation to the commanding staff for army needs.

Every skilled worker is to return to his particular trade
Exceptions, i.e. the retention of the skilled worker in any
other branch of Soviet service, is allowed only with the
sanction of the corresponding central and local authorities.

It is, of course, evident that in these measures the Bolsheviks have
been compelled to travel a long way from the ideals which originally
inspired the revolution. But the situation is so desperate that they
could not be blamed if their measures were successful. In a shipwreck
all hands must turn to, and it would be ridiculous to prate of
individual liberty. The most distressing feature of the situation is
that these stern laws seem to have produced so little effect. Perha