168 HUMAN LIFE IN RUSSIA
to re-establish themselves as masters of its economic life and
later in its culture. Only this explains the courage with which
Stalin embarked upon collectivization. Further, it was only
because absolute power was and is centralized in Stalin that
he was able to keep in subjection hostile and disaffected
elements, and to preserve the system from collapse, despite
the enormous economic, national and other difficulties. Even
so, he was able to secure victory only by a brutal struggle
carried on daily and even hourly against all elements regarded
by the Soviet regime as unreliable or merely as not reliable
enough. The dimensions of this struggle can be seen from the
fact that Stalin's annual purge of the party has on occasions
swept away as many as 20 per cent of the party members. I
have shown elsewhere that this purge is largely intended as a
measure to defeat nationalism in various parts of the Soviet
State. Within the Communist Party the purge is only part of
the struggle carried on to-day by Stalin against the real or
supposed enemies of Moscow.
Ever since the Bolshevists seized power, the standpoint of
Moscow has been that any compromise with non-Bolsheviks is
impossible and that its existence demands the extermination, as
far as possible, of all who hold non-Bolshevik views. The extir-
pation of the enemy began at once. It was carried on by direct
methods for years, the elements in question were arrested,
banished or executed by the organs of the State^ mainly by the
Ogpu, or, as it is now called, by the State Security Police. At
first it was solely the Ogpu—the all-powerful Soviet Russian
secret police—whose work it was to keep "class enemies5' in
subjection. It is no longer necessary to describe the manner in
which it fulfilled its task, but even its more than summary
methods were found by degrees to be too costly and too
cumbrous. Another direct method was then adopted^, which
consisted in banishing undesirable elements as kulaks or
"enemies of the State," without trial5 to do forced labour in
the forests of the north or in Siberia. The fate of these per-