iTHE PRESENT CONDITION OF RUSSIA
Tsarist regime is probably to be regarded as Russian
rather than Communist. If a Communist Party were to
acquire power in England, it would probably be met
by a less irresponsible opposition, and would be able to
show itself far more tolerant than any government can
hope to be in Russia if it is to escape assassination.
This, however, is a matter of degree. A great part of
the despotism which characterizes the Bolsheviks be-
longs to the essence of their social philosophy, and
would have to be reproduced, even if in a milder form,
wherever that philosophy became dominant.
It is customary among the apologists of Bolshevism
in the West to excuse its harshness on the ground that
it has been produced by the necessity of fighting the
Entente and its mercenaries. Undoubtedly it is true
that this necessity has produced many of the worst
elements in the present state of affairs. Undoubtedly,
also, the Entente has incurred a heavy load of guilt by
its peevish and futile opposition. But the expectation of
such opposition was always part of Bolshevik theory.
A general hostility to the first Communist State was
both foreseen and provoked by the doctrine of the class
war. Those who adopt the Bolshevik standpoint must
reckon with the embittered hostility of capitalist
States; it is not worth while to adopt Bolshevik methods
unless they can lead to good in spite of this hostility.
To say that capitalists are wicked and we have no
responsibility for their acts is unscientific; it is, in
particular, contrary to the Marxism doctrine of eco-
nomic determinism. The evils produced in Russia by
the enmity of the Entente are therefore to be reckoned
as essential in the Bolshevik method of transition to
Communism, not as specially Russian. I am not sure
that we cannot even go a step further. The exhaustion
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