Golos Truda - Publication in Russia

Publication in Russia

Though initially the Bolsheviks had not enjoyed much popularity following the February Revolution—with liberal Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky retaining enough support to repress an attempted coup d'état by the faction in July—they capitalized on the disorder and economic collapse of Russian society, mass worker's strikes and the Kornilov affair to increase their popularity among—and ultimately control over—the Soviets. Volin lamented that the almost six-month gap between the February Revolution and the launch of Golos Truda in Russia as "a long and irreparable delay" for the anarchists; they now faced a difficult task, with the majority of the workers having been won over by the powerful, consolidated Bolshevik Party whose propaganda efforts dwarfed those of the anarchists.

In Petrograd, the work of beginning publication was assisted by the nascent Anarcho-Syndicalist Propaganda Union, and the new paper bolstered the city's indigenous anarcho-syndicalist movement. Its editorial staff included Maksim Rayevsky, Vladimir Shatov (the linotype operator), Volin, Gregori Maksimov, Alexander Schapiro, and Vasya Swieda.

The first (weekly) issue was published on August 11, 1917, with an editorial stated its firm opposition to the tactics and programs of the Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, left Social Revolutionaries, right Social Revolutionaries and others, and that the conception of revolutionary action of the anarcho-syndicalists bore no resemblance to those of the socialists. It declared as its principal goal a revolution that would replace the state with a free confederation of autonomous "peasant unions, industrial unions, factory committees, control commissions and the like in locations all over the country". This revolution would be "anti-statist in its methods of struggle, syndicalist in its economic content, and federal in its political tasks". It placed its greatest hopes in the factory committees, which had arisen spontaneously around the country after the February Revolution.

Each of the early issues contained what Volin later described as "clear and definite articles on the way in which the Anarcho-Syndicalists conceived the constructive tasks of the Revolution to come", citing as examples "a series of articles on the role of the factory committees; articles on the tasks of the Soviets, and others on how to resolve the agrarian problem, on the new organization of production, and on exchange". It published copious articles on the general strike as well as on the French bourses du travail and syndicats. The paper shifted to daily publication for three months after the October Revolution of that same year. In a series of articles, it proclaimed the necessity of immediately abandoning the vanguardist Bolshevik dictatorship of the proletariat, and of allowing the workers freedom of association and action.

Although Golos Truda sharply criticized the anarchist communists of Petrograd as romantics, ignorant of the complex social forces of the Revolution among Petrograd's Bolshevik-supporting factory workers, the ideas of the union and its paper were considered bizarre and met with little initial success. Despite this, the anarcho-syndicalist union persisted and gradually acquired a degree of influence, focusing its efforts through propaganda in Golos Truda, with the intent of capturing the attention of the public with its ideals and by differentiating itself from the other radical factions. The paper's circulation continuing to increase in the city and its provinces, with robust anarcho-syndicalist collectives and meetings emerging in Kronstadt, Oboukhovo, and Kolpino. In March 1918, the Bolsheviks moved the seat of government from Petrograd to Moscow, and the anarchists swiftly followed, moving the printing of Golos Truda to the new capital.