Out of their own mouths; a revelation and an indictment of sovietism. With the collaboration of William English Walling

OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

A Revelation and an Indictment
of Sovietism

BY

SAMUEL GOMPERS

President of The American Federation of Labor

Author of "Labor and the Common Welfare,"

"Labor and the Employer," etc.

With the Collaboration of
WILLIAM ENGLISH WALLING

Author of "Sovietism: The A B C of Russian
Bolshevism— According to the Bolshevists".

NEW YORK
E. P. BUTTON & COMPANY

681 FIFTH AVENUE

Copyright 1921
By E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY

All Rifkti RMttnU

Print** in IA« Untltd Stattt of Amcrie*

FOREWORD

I HAVE been under the necessity of observing the Bol-
shevist movement from close quarters for many years.
I have had to contend with it almost daily long before
it seized the power in Russia in the name of Communism
and Soviet. Trotzky is only one of the Bolshevist leaders
who long sojourned in this country to plague the Ameri-
can labor movement. And the few thousands who have
returned to Soviet Russia represent but a small part of
the forces of revolutionary mania in America. These
forces are not strong enough seriously to threaten
American labor — provided they are isolated and under-
stood. But they must be understood and isolated.

While the labor movement of the world is gradually
but steadily shaking itself free of the illusion that the
Soviets are a workingmen's government — the first work-
ingmen's government — conservative powers are begin-
ning to give them commercial and political support and
a part of the press is engaged in finding virtuous reasons
for this policy. The pace was set by the British-Soviet
trade agreement and by Lloyd George's speech in Par-
liament in which he contended, with an intentional para- \
dox but still quite seriously, that the Bolshevists had sud-
denly become moderates. The work of labor in repudi-
ating Bolshevism has thus become more difficult. Certain
conservatives and reactionaries pretend — for motives of
their own — that they no longer have much objection to

vi FOREWORD

the Soviets. They are willing to trade with cannibals,
to use an expression of Lloyd George, lint labor cannot
affiliate or associate with cannibals — or with tyrants who
rule over labor by the Red Terror and the firing squad.

Whether an anti-labor despotism rules over <
the greatest peoples of the earth may be a matter of
indifference to the masters of the British Empire as long
as that despotism is willing to inert thr Km pi re half
way — and to sign away the title to the territories ami
natural wealth of the nation. It cannot be a matt-
indifference to labor.

Labor's interest in putting forth tin- truth about the
Soviets is in part altruistic. Labor's regard for the
fare of tin Kussian workers is deep and genuine. But
it also knows that if an anti-labor despotism may be
made to work in one country — however inefficiently — it
will encourage the enemies of labor to try the same
methods elsewhere. Moreover, if thr Sovi<
a certain permanence and success as "mod, rat. s" b
aid of certain governments and financiers they will
tainly continue to represent this success to the labor
of the world as having come to them from their own
efforts as "ultra-rcvolutionis;

The outward success of the Soviets — with capitalist
backing — would cost the capitalists tin :< arly in

nd. But labor would pay, and pay heavily from the
ling.

The Soviets may or may not reach a common under-
standing of real practical im; nal im-

! capital]

sible common ground h< \\\
labor. Nor will the proposed economic alii;.

FOREWORD vii

Bolshevism and Reaction be able to force labor to com-
promise with the Soviets. In the long run this alliance
will help to make still more clear to the wage-earners
the true character of Bolshevism. But its first result is
to re-inforce the already formidable Bolshevist propa-
ganda.

The miserable collapse of the revolution called by the
Soviets in Germany in March, following upon their
failure in January and February to capture the labor
unions of Italy and France, would have spelled the end
of the Bolshevist menace as far as labor is concerned.
But then came the British-Soviet trade agreement, the
laudatory speech of Lloyd George, and a renewed flood
of pro-Soviet propaganda from capitalist and so-called
"liberal" quarters. So that the Bolshevist propaganda
menace, while in a new form, is more threatening than
ever, and continues to strike at all the foundations of
our democratic civilization — and, in particular at the
principles that underlie the labor movement.

The American labor movement has lost no opportunity
to prove its warm friendship for the Russian people and
for the Russian Revolution. It has not hesitated to send
its greetings and offer of support even to Socialists such
as those associated with Kerensky — although American
labor is not and never has been socialistic. Officials of
American labor unions have not scrupled for this pur-
pose to associate themselves with certain Socialists of this
country who supported the war in a common address
to the Kerensky government. American labor also, in
its earnest wish to reach the Russian people after the
Bolshevist revolution, went so far as to address a mes-

viii FOREWORD

sage to the Russian nation in rare of the Soviets. Both
messages are quoted in the Appendix.

From the early beginnings of tl
lution in lfln.~i every occasion :

strat hip. In 1921 the Executive Council of the

American Federation of Labor once more ; d its

friendly attitude in the following woi

It should be understood clearly that het \veeu the
people of the United States and the pi-eat n the

people of Russia there has been, is and will eontini.
be the most 61 cnilsliip. and tha-

:-le of the United States express no sentiment to
•rary except towards those in Rus>ia who an
ing the opportunities of the Russian people for .:•
cratic self-government, and who, on the contrary, are
imposing upon the Russian people a brutal, d«
tyranny. This friendship is the friendship »rk-

ing people and of all the people of our country for a
great people whose character and aspirations have •

the confidence, respect and friendship of all
liberty lovinir people, and the earnest hope that the
nation in Russia may so change that t'reedom. ju^
democracy and humanitariani^m may he the pui
prineiphs of their every day live- iat time and

opportunity American labor fervently anticipates that
the true bond of international fraternity may be Wt
en the toilers of Russia and those
America.

The present volume endeavors to pive a balanced and
equ;: to all the mop

Sovietism. Mut. naturally, I am in a particular
able situation to disci; , jet attitude towards labor

'hout the world. The cha:

dealing with this part of t ! t should be of interest

FOREWORD ix

not only to labor and its sympathizers but to the entire
community.

I must take this opportunity to point out that the
hostility of the Bolshevists to the American Federation
of Labor is of the same degree of intensity and of the
same general character as the hostility of a large group
of reactionary employers — a group to be found in all
countries, but at the present moment far more aggressive
and powerful in the United States than in any other
nation of the globe. So closely identical are the anti-
labor-union policies of the Bolshevists and Reactionaries
that a number of instances have already arisen of deliber-
ate co-operation to destroy organized labor. But even
when there is no definite alliance the similarity of the
purposes and methods of the two groups bring it about
that they spread an identical propaganda. The Reac-
tionary, therefore, does not disguise the delight with
which he reads of the Bolshevist attacks on organized
labor, nor do the Bolshevists disguise their joy at the
victories of Reaction. Nor is this the only way by which
Reaction aids Bolshevism; in its refusal to grant reason-
*able economic concessions and to cede to reasonable de-
mands for political and legislative reforms, the Reaction-
aries inevitably drive the thoughtless and impatient into
the arms of Bolshevism.

I have been obliged to deal continually with Bolshev-
ism for the past four years. I have utilized in the
present volume parts of several recent articles from the
official organ of the American Federation of Labor, The
American Federationist, of which I am editor, as well as
certain material in the current report of the Executive

x FOREWORD

Council of that organization. Nearly all of it, howr

•w.

Mr. William English Walling, who has collabor;!
with me, is the author of a number of books dealing with
the international labor movement and of two volunn
^ia. He spent several years in that eountry at
time of tin- origin of the I^.Khev; fol-

lowed it closely for the past iifi«-< n yean, 1 1 is knowledge
of Russia and the international labor moveimn:
which I can testify, has proved most helpful.

SAMUEL GOMPEBS.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

America and the Soviets

PAGE

THE POSITION OF AMERICAN LABOR — SECRETARY
COLBY'S NOTE OF AUGUST 10, 1921 — THE BOL-
SHEVIST ANSWER — SECRETARY HUGHES' NOTE OF
MARCH 25, 1921 — REVOLUTIONARY PROPAGANDA
BY SOVIET TRADE COMMISSIONERS — TEST OF
HUGHES' NOTE — SECRETARY HUGHES' REPLY TO
PRESIDENT GOMPERS — SECRETARY W. B. WILSON'S
DECISION Re THE DEPORTATION OF "AMBASSADOR"
MARTENS — SECRETARY HOOVER'S VIEWS — THE
HEARST NEWSPAPERS' INTERPRETATION — OTHER
NEWSPAPERS — LENIN AS A "CONSERVATIVE" —
THE OFFICIAL SOVIET REPLY TO THE HUGHES
NOTE — LENIN'S SUPPOSED " COMPROMISES " AND
" REFORMS " — " STATE CAPITALISM " ADOPTED —
THE AVALANCHE OF ADVERSE EVIDENCE-THE PRO-
BOLSHEVIST PROPAGANDA CONTINUES UNABATED —
SOCIALIST, LABOR AND " LIBERAL " PRO-BOL-
SHEVISTS , 1-19

CHAPTER II
The Practical Foundation — Mendacious Propaganda

THE FUNCTION OF PROPAGANDA ACCORDING TO THE
NINTH COMMUNIST CONGRESS — LENIN PUBLICLY
AOVOCATESMENDACITY — LENIN VlEWED AS A "MAD
DEMAGOGUE " — LENIN PUBLICLY PLANS TO DE-

xii CONTENTS

RAM

8TROY THE BRITISH LABOR PARTY— III S CRUDE

FALSEHOODS ABOUT AMERICA, ENQLA \CB
AND JAPAN— HE CLAIMS COMMUNISM AS THE
CENTRA ..IN OF Co
POLITICS— FANTAM i r PHI , ,REIGN CON-
DITIONS PRESENTED TO SOVIET RUSSIA— THB
BOLSHEVIST MONOPOLY OF PAPER AND I
MATTER — CONTROI.I.INC THE THOUGHT OF 100-,
000,000 PEOPLE 20-27

CHAPTER III
The Political Foundation — War against Democracy

THE ORIGIN OF THE SOVIET GOVERNMENT AS A
REVOLT AGAINST DEMOCRACY — ATTEMPTS TO IN-

TERI'KKT THK WORD " DEMOCRACY*' FOR BOLSHE-
VIST PURPOSES — THESE ATTEMPTS OPENLY
ABANDONED — THE SOVIETS ALSO BECOME OBSO-
N SHOWS IT is NOT A LABOR STATE —
Tin; DICTATORSHIP OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY
OFFICIALLY PROCLAIMED — COMPOSITION OJF COM-
MUNIST PARTY — Tin; BoYHT ( '< INSTITUTION LAID

ASIDE— WHO CONTK< . I .s TH B COMMUN I '.' —

Cc% DICTATORSHIP TO . rr-

KIVI; 10 Pta n \i.\i: • Tii'. ' lOHM R1 II l'\RTY
3» i WAOOM HE UNCONQUERED AND

UNCONVKI 28-48

CHAPTBB IV
The Reign of Terror

PRESTOENT WILSON'S SUCCESSFUL APPEAL TO THE
CIVILIZED NATIONS TO OUTLAW THE SOVIETS —
TERRORISM GROWN \\

CONTENTS xiii

PAGE

THE MIDDLE CLASSES — TROTZKT ON BREAKING

THE WILL OF THE INTELLECTUALS— RED TERROR

URGED BY LENIN AGAINST RECALCITRANT SOCIAL-
ISTS— WHOLESALE EXECUTIONS OF HOSTAGES
OFFICIALLY ADMITTED — MEMBERSHIP OF ALL NON-
BOLSHEVIST PARTIES A CRIME AGAINST THE SOVIET
STATE — THE ALL-EMBRACING ACTIVITIES OF THE
EXTRAORDINARY COMMISSION FOR ADMINISTERING
THE RED TERROR — TERRORISM AGAINST AGRI-
CULTURAL REBELS — TERROR AGAINST THE RED
ARMY? — TERRORISM AGAINST LABOR AND TRADES
UNIONS — THE EXTRAORDINARY COMMISSION IN
ACTION AGAINST THE LEADERS OF THE AGRARIAN
PARTY — THE RED TERROR THE MEASURE OF
DESPERATION OF A DWINDLING MINORITY 49-71

CHAPTER V
Slavery and Compulsory Labor

SYNDICALISM ABANDONED — THE CODE FOR SLAVE
LABOR — MILITARIZATION OF LABOR — FACTORY
DICTATORS — LENIN DEFENDS INDUSTRIAL AUTOC-
RACY— COMPULSORY LABOR THE FOUNDATION OF
THE SOVIET STRUCTURE (TROTZKY) — LABOR
ARMIES — COMPULSORY LABOR TO LAST A GEN-
ERATION— COMPULSORY OVER-TIME — COMMUNIST
LABOR ACCORDING TO LENIN — AN AMERICAN
WITNESS — DIFFICULTIES OF LABOR REVOLT 72-87

CHAPTER VI
Persecution of Organized Labor — Trade Unions

FREE TRADE UNIONS ABOLISHED — COMPULSORY OR
GOVERNMENTAL TRADE UNIONS — FICTITIOUS
MEMBERSHIP — THE TRADES UNIONS SUBORDI-

riv CONTENTS

NATED TO THE COMMUNIST PARTY— COLLAPSB
OF THE UNIONS ADMITTED BY TROTZKY — THB
PRINTERS' UNION DESCRIBES BOLSHEVIST LABOR
UNION PRACTICES— TROTZKY'S PLAN OF APPOINT-
EM r ;VDE UNION OFFICIALS— l.i

REVOLT WITHIN nu; TNIONS -Tin: CHIEF
TERRORIST TAKES TROTZKY'S PLACE AS COM-
MISSARY OF TRANSPORT — APPEAL OF TIU: PHI NT-
BBS* UNION AGAINST THE COMMUNIST PARTY 88-103

CHAPTER VII
Oppression of the Agricultural Population

THE AGRICULTURAL POPULATION CONQUERED AND
SUBJECTED — THE "CLASS WAR" CONTINUKD

AGAINST THE AGRICULTURISTS (PEASANTS)— Tin:

" DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT " AS THE
RULE OF AN INDUSTRIAL MINORITY OVER AN AGRI-
CULTURAL MAJORITY — VILIFICATION OF THE AGRI-
CULTURAL POPULATION BY RUSSIAN BOLSHEVISTS
AND FORKIGN "LIBERALS" — THE AGRICULTUR-
ISTS AS -IHI uii ttNEMY— 1.' IHB

Coi •!•:— THE WAR \<;\i\ <;BS

-iN'sCoVEHiv; PIIKVSI:- 'I'n

v — COM-
PULSORY Co-- '• C\r-

1TA: LM P'-I.H'Y - !•'•»! M>\ I IONS

OF LENIN'S AGRARIAN P<u K Y 104-124

CHAPTER VIII
The Economic Collapse — Fictitious Reforms

THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE DUE PARTLY TO BOLSHE-
VISM—DISORGANIZATION ADMITTED — AGRK

CONTENTS xv

PAGE

ISTS IN REVOLT — BUREAUCRACY ABSORBING TOWN
POPULATION — PERSECUTION OF BRAINS — GOVERN-
MENT BY PAPER DECREES — UNEXAMPLED INEF-
FICIENCY— ACCELERATED DEGENERATION OF IN-
DUSTRY— IMPOSSIBILITY OF SOCIAL AND INDUS-
TRIAL REFORM UNDER EXISTING CONDITIONS —
MYTHICAL REFORMS — AN EXAMPLE, THE SUP-
POSED REGARD FOR CHILDREN AND EDUCATION —
DREADFUL CONDITION OF SO-CALLED." CHILDREN'S
HOMES " — ATTEMPTED COMMUNIST MONOPOLY OF
SCHOOLS— THE WAR OF THE COMMUNISTS AGAINST
THE SCHOOL TEACHERS — LESS THAN ONE-FOURTH
OF THE CHILDREN IN SCHOOL — LITERACY DESIRED
BY BOLSHEVISTS IN ORDER TO SPREAD EFFECT OF
PRINTED PROPAGANDA — EDUCATION A BRANCH OF
PROPAGANDA — SEPARATING CHILDREN FROM HOME
AND FAMILY — CULTURE AND SOCIAL RECONSTRUC-
TION TO WAIT UNTIL DESTRUCTION OF EXISTING
SOCIETY is COMPLETED 125-141

CHAPTER IX

World Revolution — The Attempt to Overthrow
Democratic Governments

WORLD REVOLUTION REMAINS THE CHIEF AIM — WARS
AND REVOLUTIONS REGARDED AS INTERDEPENDENT
— CIVIL WAR HELD AS THE NORMAL AFTERMATH
OF REVOLUTION — MILITARY AID FOR FOREIGN
REVOLUTIONS — REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS USE-
FUL TO THE WORLD REVOLUTIONARY CAUSE EVEN
WHEN THERE ARE NO REVOLUTIONS — DENIAL OF
WORLD REVOLUTIONARY PLANS BY BOLSHEVIST
REPRESENTATIVES ABROAD— BAD FAITH A FUNDA-

xvi CONTENTS

MENTAL PRINCIPLE OP BOLSHEVISM— WORLD 1
LUTION IN S i) COMMUNIST PARTY C<

gnrunoNS — REVOLUTION THE AIM OF THE COM-
MUNIST INTERNATIONALE — SUCCESSES OP MOVE-
MENT IN CON EUROPE — WORLD REVOLU-
TIONARY AIM NOT ID UTILITY OP
FOREIGN REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS TO SOVIET
GOVERNMENT — SUCCESS OF BOLSHEVIST PROPA-
GANDA AMONG FOR IK, N MIIMM.K-CLASSES— LENIN'S
PRESENT THEORY ON Wom UTION— BOL-
SHEVIST HOPES FOR WORLD WARS— THE HOPED-

POB WAR BETWEEN EUROPE AND ASIA— PRO-GER-
MAN TENDENCIES— PLAN TO ATTACK THE ENTENTE 142-158

CHAITI:K \
The Communist Internationale

RUSSIAN SOVIET CONTROL OF THE COMMUNIST (OR
THIRD) INTERNATIONALE — RUSSIAN OUDKUS TO
BRITISH COMMUNE LR BKTWKF.N Krssi

COMMUNISTS KME REVOI

ISTS — RUSSIAN Ri MSM —

WAR ON AMKKK \\ TluDi UNIONS — COMMUNIST
SUBSIDIES FOR FOREIGN LAH<»U Prm.ir VTIONS —
I low SOVIET PK<>P\<,\NI>A Kmu r.i> THK HHITISM

i -.0-168

CHAPTEB \l
The Red Labor Union Internationale

LENIN RECOGNIZES THE TRADE UNIONS AS THE M

.KMY— Boi 'i-u-

>KB-

CONTENTS xvii

PAGE

ATION OF TRADE UNIONS — ORGANIZATION OF THE
RED LABOR UNION INTERNATIONALE — MEMBER-
SHIP OF THE NEW BODY — STRENGTH OF RED UNION
MOVEMENT IN CONTINENTAL EUROPE — STATE
SOCIALIST TENDENCY OF RUSSIAN EXTREMISTS vs.
SYNDICALIST TENDENCY OF NON-RUSSIANS — ECO-
NOMIC ORGANIZATION (THE UNIONS) SUBORDINATED
TO POLITICAL (THE COMMUNIST PARTY) — Losov-
SKY, SOVIET LABOR UNION AUTHORITY, ACKNOWL-
EDGES SPLIT WITH REVOLUTIONARY SYNDICALISTS
— ACTIVITIES IN AMERICA — COUNTER-ATTACK BY
THE SOCIALIST (OR SECOND) INTERNATIONALE 169-187

CHAPTER XII
European Labor Disillusioned

REVOLUTIONARY EUROPEAN LABOR DELEGATIONS TO
SOVIET RUSSIA REPORT AGAINST BOLSHEVISM —
THE ULTIMATUM OF TWENTY-ONE POINTS SENT TO
THE SOCIALIST AND LABOR PARTIES OF THE WORLD
— EUROPEAN SOCIALISTS FAVOR ENTENTE MILI-
TARY ACTION IN GEORGIA AGAINST THE SOVIETS —
THE FRENCH LABOR UNIONS REPUDIATE Moscow
— ADVERSE REPORT OF SPANISH SOCIALIST DELE-
GATE— COUNTER-ATTACK OF THE INTERNATIONAL
FEDERATION OF TRADE UNIONS — SOVIET REPLY TO
THE BRITISH LABOR PARTY — THE VOICE OF THE
RUSSIAN PEOPLE — THE INDICTMENT BY THE RUS-
SIAN AGRARIANS (THE SOCIALIST REVOLUTIONARY
PARTY) — THE SOCIALIST REVOLUTIONARY PARTY
PROTESTS AGAINST PRO-SOVIET ATTITUDE OF THE
WORLD'S SOCIALISTS . . . 188-202

xviii CONTENTS

CHAPTi:i{ XIII

The Camouflaged Trade Agitation

PAGE

De Facto RECOGNITION OP THE SOVIET GOVERNM
THE PRIME OBJECT OP THE AGITATION FOR TRADE
TREATIES— THE CLAIM THAT I Hi IBS

MEAN THE ABANDONMENT OP COMMUNISM —
Ti i K Si i TREATIES AS A VICTORY

POI MioNM. COMMUNISM — CONTINUED
COMMUNIST PROPAGANDA IN GREAT BRITAIN IN
SPITE OF TREATY— TRADE TREATIES A PART OP
THE BOLSHEVISTS' REVOLUTIONARY TACTICS — THB
BOLSHEVISTS Avow THEIR PURPOSES IN GRANTING
COMMERCIAL CONCESSIONS — COMMUNISTS NOT
ABANDONING COMMUNISM— THE TREATIES RE-
GARDED AS MERE ARMED TRUCES — PRESIDENT
GOMPERS' LETTER ON THK SOYIKT TKADK A<;ITA-
TION — SECRETARY Hr< :.Y THK SOVIETS

TWICE REFUSE INTERNATION \i. AID FOR THE SUF-
FERING RUSSIAN PEOPLE — THE OBJECTS OF THE
BRITISH TREATY— AMERICA FREE FROM THESE
OBJECTIVES — THE PRO-SOVIET AGITATION OP
PSEUDO LIBERALS — SUFFICIENT I ION

Now AT HAND

APPKNPIX I
American Labor and Russia

CABLEGRAMS— PRESIDEN i

OF THE WORKMEN'S \ND S
COUNCII .-. I'.'i;

— EXECUTIVE Cor m: AMKIU

FEDERATION OF LABOR TO THE PRBBI-

CONTENTS xix

PAGE

DENT OF THE WORKMEN'S AND SOLr

DIERS' COUNCIL, APRIL 23, 1917 229-230

— PRESIDENT GOMPERS TO THE COUNCIL
OF WORKMEN AND SOLDIERS, MAT 6,

1917 230-232

— PRESIDENT GOMPERS TO KERENSKY,

SEPTEMBER 17, 1917 233-234

— PRESIDENT GOMPERS, FOR THE ALLI-
ANCE FOR LABOR AND DEMOCRACY, TO
THE ALL-RUSSIAN SOVIET, MARCH 12,
1918 234

APPENDIX II
The Soviet Administration of Justice 235-236

APPENDIX III

The Turko-Bolshevist Attack on the Labor

Government of Georgia 237-239

APPENDIX IV
Lenin's "Conversion"

THE WORLD REVOLUTION STILL THE MAIN CONSIDERA-
TION— LENIN SAYS THAT PRIVATE PROPERTY IN
LAND AND FREE TRADE IN AGRICULTURAL PROD-
UCTS ARE NOT TO BE RESTORED — GOVERNING OF

THE PEASANTS WITHOUT THEIR CONSENT TO CON-
TINUE FOR GENERATIONS — LOCAL AND NARROWLY
RESTRICTED PRIVATE TRADING ESTABLISHED —
THE AIM REMAINS TO MAINTAIN THE POWER OF
THE COMMUNIST PARTY . . . 240-244

xx [CONTENTS

APPENDIX V

Can the Soviets be Saved by Capital?

PAGE

THE BRITISH WHITE PAI \o POSSI-

BILITY THAT RUSSIA WILL BE ABLE TO RELIEVE
EUROPE FOR A CONSIDI i: ;IOD — RUSSIA

DEI-I >v FOREIGN CAPITAL (on CREDIT) —

CAN FOREIGN CAPITAL SAVE RUSSIA IF THE SOVIET
POWER REMAINS?— THE ECONOMIC FAILURE OP
BOLSHEVISM— INVERTED INTERPRETATIONS OF THE
WHITE PAPER.. . 24^-253

OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

AMERICA AND THE SOVIETS

THE American Federation of Labor, at its 1920 con-
vention, resolved:

That the American Federation of Labor is not justi-
fied in taking any action which could be construed as
an assistance to or approval of, the Soviet Government
of Russia as long as that government is based upon
authority which has not been vested in it by a popular
representative national assemblage of the Russian peo-
ple ; or so long as it endeavors to create revolutions in
the well-established, civilized nations of the world; or
so long as it advocates and applies the militarization
of labor and prevents the organizing and functioning
of trade unions and the maintenance of a free press
and free public assemblage.

This resolution contains a very conservative state-
ment of the anti-labor and anti-democratic nature of
the Soviet dictatorship and the reasons of organized
labor for repudiating it.

In response to the overwhelming pressure of public
opinion, including not only organized labor but all ele-
ments of the American people, Secretary of State Colby,

2 OUT OF TIIKIII <>\VN Mnl'TIIS

on the tenth of August, 1020, a iY\\ '• .Mowing

'-.invention, addressed a powerful not.- to the Italian

Government giving reasons why Am d to

have anythini: ti» do with tie ;ictatorship.

chief reasons given by Mr. Colliy wen- ( 1 i tin- unr- ;
sentative and anti-democratic character of ihe so-<-;tllcd
Soviet rnment and (2) the utter unreliability it

had shown in all international relations, includi
inents hy its leading officials that they did not in*
to he bound by their own pledges to "bourgeois" gov-
ernments.

The Bolshevists' answer was to increase their public
and underground labors in this country. In the Vi
tea as in all Kuropean countries, as well as <

la, India. Turke\ . M ,i.-o and even in South
Aim-rica, Soviet agents have been repeatedly caught
carryinir vast sums for the purposes of propaganda.
While Kussian a«rricultur ncratinjr for the lack

nf plows and < v< n .if sieklcs and scythes: while the
laboring cla .rvinir t'l-oin the deuvner

agriculture; while the rai' ':in«r to pieces and

three-fourths of the children are out of school, the Soviet
finds ample means f«»r vast expenditures- not
propaganda but for military attacks, such as thos.

ly made on the democratic labor government of

and her neighbors. T! if ' ...i • \ } M been t.
from Russia's dwindling ir»!d nd the few other

mob: tfl sneli as jrwHs. art ti-. ulatinum

and . which iniprht h.

a ba lit and setting up a ciir-

'•stem at such time a-
eivili

AMERICA AND THE SOVIETS 3

Democratic governments, no matter how large and
powerful, have no propaganda funds. Hence the un-
deniable and considerable effect of the Bolshevist agita-
tion in America as well as other countries. Though
the evidence coming from Russia, consisting in large
part of Bolshevist documents, is vast and overwhelm-
ing, it has secured less circulation than the audacious
falsifications and inventions of the Bolshevists and their
sympathizers — disproven one day only to be repeated
in some new form on the next.

The Soviets and their supporters threw themselves
into the Presidential election campaign last autumn
with the avowed hope of securing recognition from
the present Executive and State Departments of the
United States. But in spite of the huge bulk of the
pro-Bolshevist matter put out — by thousands of pub-
lications, the practical results achieved were equal to
zero. The great majority of American people read it,
pondered upon it and — threw it into the waste basket.

The new administration did not have to hesitate a
moment in deciding what to do. President Harding
and Secretary Hughes had not been in office more
than a few days when, Great Britain having signed
her trade agreement (on March 18th), the Soviets
immediately played their long expected card in the
shape of a note asking that the United States Gov-
ernment officially receive a so-called trade delega-
tion from Soviet Russia. Doubtless one consideration
affecting the new administration in its prompt reply
was the fact that all such trade delegations throughout
Europe had been employed by the Soviets for the pur-
pose of revolutionary agitation to overthrow the gov-

4 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

ernments to which I 'filed. The offer

•:!•((' hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars to
the Lnndun I><ii!i/ llirnld, the willingness of li
hury semi-Communist organ to accept it — a public;.
\\hidi. unfortunah -ly, is also the duct' organ of
British Labor Party — and the proof given hy tl
Government that Kanieneff, the trade" • •

sary, was privy to the offer, are fresh in the mind of
the American puhlic. Similar i .1 in

Germany, Italy, Switzerland and oilier countries.

Hut the grounds given by Secretary Hughes, in his
Note refusing to consider the Soviet overt inv. ,
different. AYithout either re-affirming or amending the
lusive arguments offered by President 'Wilson and
Secretary Colby, without considering the IK-

ative character of the Russian (iovernment or its
instability. Se.-retnry Hugln-s brought forward addi-
tional considerations which have met the almost unan-
imous approval of the comni" ..f the American

peoples

Text of Hughes 's Statement Rejecting Soviet's Pro-
posal for a Governmental Trade Agreement

(March 'jrnh. l!>21)

Tl m.-nt of the l"nii< ifh dcc|>

:>athy and grave concci-n the plight of the people

i and desires to aid by every appropriate n
in promoting proper opportunities through which eom-
IMi"d up.ui a sMiind basis. It is mani-
fest to this (fovernmcnt that in • i mi instances
n is no a ••lopment of trad'

upplies which H "ht now be able to obtain

would be wholly inade,|u,; r needs, and no

AMERICA AND THE SOVIETS 5

lasting good can result so long as the present causes of
progressive impoverishment continue to operate. It is
only in the productivity of Russia that there is any hope
for the Russian people and it is idle to expect resump-
tion of trade until the economic bases of production are
securely established. Production is conditioned upon
the safety of life, the recognition by firm guarantees of
private property, the sanctity of contract and the rights
of free labor.

If fundamental changes are contemplated, involving
due regard for the protection of persons and property
and the establishment of conditions essential to the main-
tenance of commerce, this Government will be glad to
have convincing evidence of the consummation of such
changes, and until this evidence is supplied this Govern-
ment is unable to perceive that there is any proper basis
for considering trade relations.

A few words have been italicized as indicating either
features of the Note that were relatively unnoticed or
features of especial importance in connection with the
data presented in the present volume.

Disturbed by the vast pro-Soviet agitation, falsely
labeled "campaign for the restoration of trade rela-
tions" which was being carried on in the labor unions
—in spite of Secretary Hughes' Note — President Gom-
pers then addressed a letter to the Secretary asking
for full information as to the facts in the case. The
Secretary's answer to this letter, together v/ith his
Note written a few weeks earlier, when taken together,
give a clear and positive statement of the American
policy. (We quote the two letters at length in a later
chapter in discussing the Russian trade question.) In
his letter to President Gompers, Mr. Hughes points out
the impossibility of aiding the Russian people or of

6 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

improving American trade with that country or of

ur Russian ci so long as tin

political and economic system continues." Issued at
that moment, April 18th, 1921, it had a special signiti-

It indicated that tin- American (loverm
attached no importance whatever to the so-called
"reforms" and the pretended abandonment of com-
munism by the Soviet ( Jovernm< -nt early in March. For
not only the pro-Bolshevists but numerous groups of
greedy capitalists and their newspapers as well as a
number of well meaning but uninformed or superficial
(ditors and correspondents had swallowed Lenin's
bait, that is, his pretense that he had reformed and
had compromised fundamentally with "capitalism."

In this letter Mr. Hughes did not limit himself to
pointing out the incapacity of the Soviet Government
to organize production. Kven should it be able 1-
80 successfully, he pointed out that "the attitude and
action of the present authorities of Russia have tended
to undermine its political and economic relations with
other countri'

In the Note above quoted, in refusing to re.,
Soviet trade delegation Mr. Hughes had stated that
amonjr the fundamental institutions of modern civiliza-
tion which w»-re indispensable if Russian production
was to be restored was the establishment of "freedom
of labor. " Kvid'iier ^iveu below will show that the
avement of labor is indeed th«- chief underlying
^o of the entire collapse of the I'.olsl
of the frightful suffering it has inflicted not only
•i labor but upon the entire population of the
country.

AMERICA AND THE SOVIETS T]

America, then, has fully endorsed the stand of the
American Federation of Labor at its 1920 convention.
As further evidence of the complete harmony between
American labor and the rest of the nation upon this ,
subject, we may point to the able statement of that
eminent representative of labor, former Secretary of
Labor, William B. Wilson, in his decisions in the Mar-
tens deportation case. The decision itself is a highly
important state document. Its principles were more
briefly summarized in a letter written by Mr. Wilson
a few weeks later (January 3, 1921) to Charles Recht,
then Counsellor of the Soviet "Embassy" and now in
charge of Soviet affairs in this country. In this letter
Secretary Wilson, basing his statements upon a vast
number of documents in his hands and upon the testi-
mony of Mr. Martens, the Soviet "Ambassador,"
reached the following conclusions as to the character
of the Soviet regime and the American attitude to-
wards it:

In the evidence presented to me in the Martens case
it was clearly shown that a group of men calling them-
selves Communists had set up a military dictatorship
in Russia; that they had camouflaged it under the
name of a dictatorship of the proletariat, seeking to
convey the impression that it was a dictatorship by
the proletariat ; that it had by force of arms introduced
compulsory labor, in other words, slavery, into Russia ;
that the proletariat were compelled to work at occupa-
tions selected for them at meager wages and long hours
imposed under the direction of the military masters.
Naturally the sympathy of the Administration and of
the American people, including the workers, goes out
to the Russian people, under such circumstances, just

8 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

ss our sympathies go out to tho oppressed of all lands

alter who or what the op] :ay be. .

Tin- evid - cumulative and conclusive that the

military dictatorship ;a, calling itsdi' the Soviet

rnment. was appropriating large sums of m«
to stir up insurrection by 1'orce of arms against
I'ni' ivernmcnt. It is a novel principle in

international law and one that is not likely to !>•• •
erally accepted, that a newly established milita

,ip in one country may eapitali/.e the traditional
idslrip of another country for its people by ma
a pretense of wanting to establish friendly relations
with the government at the same time that it is seeking
to destroy it by stirring up insurrection.

Finally we may quote a few words from Mr. 11
Hoover, Secretary of Commerce, the world's hit'
authority on European relief. Mr. Hoover believes that
nothing of any consequence can be done for the Rus-
sian people as long as the Bolshevists remain on their
necks and these are the reasons li for this posi-

tion (in his letter of March 2Kt. 1!»1M):

So long as Kuxxia is- controlled />?/ the Bo Ishcr iki. . . .

the question of trade is far more political than economic.

There are no • >mmodilies in Russia worth con-

•>cept gold, platinum and jewelry in the

is of the Bolsheviki (iovernment. The people are

Starving, cold, under-Had. If they had any consumable

commodities they would havr n-rd them Ion

Tin-re liax In prohibition on trade. Th<

:-;ade has been the failure of 1l:> produce

anything to trade with.

Trading for this parcel of gold would not effect this
• would t! -btained hy the Bolsheviki

•h»ir production. Thai n«|Uires {he almndon-
vinit of tin- present economic system.

AMERICA AND THE SOVIETS 9

On the day of the issuance of Mr. Hughes' Note
(March 25th) Mr. Hoover further declared:

Secretary Hughes 's statement on the Russian trade
situation this afternoon shows the complete agreement
in the views of the whole administration.

The first thing to be determined about Russia is if,
and when, they change their economic system. (Our
italics.)

If they so change its basis as to accept the right of
private property, freedom of labor, provide for the safety
of human life, there is hope of their recovery from
the miseries of famine. There is hope also of a slow
recovery in production and the upbuilding of trade.

Nothing is more important to the whole commercial
world than the recovery of productivity in Russia.

These very explicit and positive statements of Messrs.
Hughes and Hoover might well have disposed of the
question of the American Government's position. But
so powerful is the pro-Soviet propaganda and so strong
is the purpose to befriend the Bolshevist Government
at any cost that a widespread effort was made to explain
away the Note as being friendly to the Soviets! The
Hearst papers and their Universal Press Service boldly
claimed that "not one word of the statement was directed
at the Russian Government, and no objection to the
form of the Soviet Government was voiced" (!) They
then declared, on the very day of the note, that "it is
recognized that some of the guarantees demanded by
this Government as a preliminary to the establishment
of trade relations already have been announced by
Lenin. "

10 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

The n. uspapers mention.

the Soviets. i>ut certain mon- conservative orgi
wholly opposed to Bolshevism, also found some '
to take a position favorable to the Soviets. One of
the leading Democratic newspapers of the country,

rsiiiLT \\<.< . I »y the aliove n,

journals that the Hughes Note was to be pra
because it was friendly to the Soviets, argued that it
to be blamed beeause it was too hostile. Wilson and
Colby were hostile enough; Harding and Hughes go too
far when they are more hostile still:

Insisting that "production is conditioned upon the
safety of life, the recognition by firm guarante.

ate property, the sanctity of contract and the rights
of free labor/' they, Harding and Huu'hcs. demand in
effect an economic revolution in Russia, and it
demand that cannot very well he substantia1' !>asis

for commerce.

This conservative paper then proceeded to endorse
the entire argument upon which the pro-Bolshtf
now stake their agitation: Lenin, it appears, lias sur-
lemlered to "peasant individualism."
munist autocracy has had to yield 1o rural public
(•pinion backed by the physical power of the peasant.
What was called in 1 ning a necessary but

temporary dictatorship of the proletariat ran i1
much more quickly than in the I-Yem-h Revolution."
What truth then is in all this- if any- -we shall show
in later chapters. Undoubtedly som. -thinir of this ';
may happen if the Soviets are not furilxr /»<»/>/.
up by political recognition and financial ai<l from

AMERICA AND THE SOVIETS 11

other countries. But nothing could delay the desirable
event more effectively than to assume it has occurred
when it has not. This newspaper continues :

Now Lenin " solves" the peasant problem, as he is
said to be solving the problem of capitalism by giving
it up. In what is incomparably the largest field of
Russian industry, he drops Communism.

Again the time element is all important. If it is
wholly misleading to assume a momentous event that
has not yet taken place, it is equally misleading to
date in the present an event that has occurred long
ago and so to attribute it to present causes — in this
instance the yielding of the Soviets to the pressure
of the peasants or of foreign capitalists. We shall
show that the impossibility of applying communism
to agriculture, far from being in Bolshevist minds (as
it would be in the minds of the rest of humanity) an
argument for abolishing the communist dictatorship, is
precisely the one reason they have given from the first
for establishing that dictatorship and the one reason
why they urge that — in the face of rising peasant dis-
2ontent — it is more than ever essential for them to
maintain it now.

Such views as those just quoted are not confined
to the conservative organs of the opposition party. One
of the leading Republican papers, which had favored
the trade agreement, continued to insist editorially that
the question was whether " Lenin and Trotzky mean
it when they say Bolshevism is dead" — though this
.imaginary statement is the very reverse of everything

12 OUT OF Til KIi; OWN Mul

Trot/.ky and Lenin have been saying. The Wasliington
correspondent of another leading Republican organ
declared that "the Russian I'.olsheviki are ready to
abandon the last vestiges of their program ami to
return to capitalism in industry a-
— a statement for which he could produce no substantia-
tion whatever from any quart

Several Republican and Democratic Sena
quoted in the press to similar effect. One well-known
Senator is reported as having said:

The danger that existed of political propaganda in-
spired and paid for by the Russian (iovernment, had
practically disappeared. I think it may he said that the
Lenin-Trotzky Government has abandoned the effort to
convert the world and is modifying its own < Jovrnmont
into a much more conservative form than it started with.

The word "conservative" as well as the

"moderate" is thus bring freely applied to those ad-
vanced extremists and revolutionaries who are a shade
or two less red than others in a scale of violent revolu-
tion that now shows half a hundred varieties! The
statement here made that Lenin and Trot: i>an

cloning their propaganda for world revolt, as we shall
show, is negatived by the entire struetui une-

tioning of the Communist-Soviet machine. In the m<
while we may quote at this point as fairly coneli;
cvidenc. — the official Soviet wireless reply to the I hi-.
Note, which contains also a smashing rejoinder to the
gratuitous newspaper assumptions we ha\. 1 to:

D Consul in Reval has given our pleni-
utiary reprcst illative the reply sent by his Govern-

AMERICA AND THE SOVIETS 13

ment to the last communication of the All-Russian
Central Executive Committee. The Note of the Ameri-
can Government points out that trade between Russia
and America can only be resumed when the former
recognizes private property, guarantees "free labor"
and personal inviolability and has a market large
enough for the export of stores of raw material. At
the same time the American press states that hopes
of trade with Russia are not lost, as Lenin will rapidly
change from Communism to capitalism and all the hopes
of the Americans will speedily be brought about by the
Bolsheviks themselves. The shortsightedness of the
tools of world capital is extraordinary. . . .

The hopes of world capital in the fall of Communism
have not been fulfilled. And now that we have reverted
to peaceful reconstruction and are introducing a prac-
tical policy in order to alleviate conditions for the
peasants who have suffered from failure of the harvest,
they regard this as a sign that we are reverting from
Communism to capitalism. It goes without saying that
all the hopes of the capitalists are doomed to failure.

Later the official organ of the Moscow Government,
Izvestia, made still more clear the underlying idea of
all Bolshevistic diplomatic negotiations, namely that the
world of capitalistic governments is being forced to
recognize and to compromise with Communism as em-
bodied in the government of Soviet Russia. The mouth-
piece of the Soviets repudiates as pure nonsense the
supposition that they are surrendering any Communist
principles whatever. At the same time it may be noted
that the Soviets have reached a perfectly clear compre-
hension of the nature of the American reply — even if a
number of American newspapers have attempted to dis-
guise it. The Izvestia declares:

14 T OF THEIR OWN^MOUTHS

Tho es^ ;he Washington answer is that the re-

sumption of commerce with Russia will ho possible
after we have returned to a bourgeois regime. Tl
])uro nonsense. The English bourgeoisie who have signed
a trade agreement with us did not consider this eh,

ssary. We did not propose to the Amer
eliange their capitalistic regime for a communistic o:

1'iit neither this provocative response nor anything
the r.olshevists can say or do — no matter how a^
sively revolutionary — can put a stop to the claims made
almost daily by their diplomatic agents, foreign propa-
gandists and "liberal" admirers that they have reformed.
Each minor change in their policy is held to demon-
state once more that now at last they have not only
thrown the entire Bolshevist system overboard hut
have become "moderates" and adopted capitalism and
democracy. During recent months hardly a day has
passed without some Russian dispatch that the final step
has been taken and Communism abandoned. II.
the crux of a typical dispatch (dated Riga, May i\
1921):

Following the restoration of free trade to coopera-
tive societies, the est a hi ish im -nt of a system of taxation
in kind, and other recent coi the d» eision to

restore the coinage of silver marks, is accordim

:it arrivals from Moscow. Premier Lenin's final
admission of the impossibility of the original Com-
munistic theories at this time.

Now the original theory of the Russian Commun
Bolshevist Party was precisely that it is impossible to

Communism to the dominating industry of Russia

AMERICA AND THE SOVIETS 13

(agriculture) at the present time. This theory is not
only the one reason for the dictatorship of the pro-
letariat, as we have pointed out, but it is also the sole
reason for the establishment of the Soviet form of
government as opposed to the democratic Constitutional
Assembly.

The advocates of friendly relations with the Soviets,
approaching or actually amounting to their official
recognition, have not been satisfied with hailing every
petty advance of Bolshevism in the direction of more
practical methods of oppression as a final abandonment
of Communism. They have also seized upon every new
theoretical formulation by Lenin as a surrender to capi-
talism— in spite of the fact that new encyclicals by the
Bolshevist high priest have been handed down to his
disciples several times each year ever since 1917. No
close or persistent student of these pronouncements has
missed or could miss the fact that all the essential foun-
dations of Soviet rule, as interpreted by Lenin, remain
now what they were in 1917. But journalists and others
who are either totally ignorant of the Soviet leader's
thought or know it only at second hand easily find in
each new formulation phrases with which they are un-
familiar or expressions they do not understand. This
is why it happens so frequently that some theory which
is the strongest possible reaffirmation of Bolshevism is
interpreted as a compromise or surrender.

An excellent illustration is the long article in the
Pravda of May 3d, in which Lenin explains to his fol-
lowers the theoretical foundation of those widely dis-
cussed tactical changes made by the Bolshevists — for the
purpose of strengthening their despotic power — at the

16 OUT OF THKIll OWN MOITHS

time of the Communist Party Congress held i;
1921.

L'-nin says in this article that it is 1101

changes as "a renunciation of tin- prolet;.
torship" and proves liis point. 1 '. .
continue to insist upon the contrary intcrp
caught by Lenin's use of the expression "state cap
ism" as applied to th« Soviet policy. Now ;

erate Socialists have always referred to this interi:
ate phase hctwecn ca])italisin and socialism hy t!
getic term "state socialism," while ultra-revolutionists
have known this identical thing under the derisive '

••-capitalism." To the latter this expression is
derogatory, though non-socialists take it to represent a
policy more friendly to capitalism, nun Me than

"cialism," and a totally different thing. To
every Bolshevist the eKprarion, "state capital,
means that the present policy, revolutionary and
treme as it may still seem to the rest of the world, is
hut the merest hrginning of the thoroughgoing commu-
nism they have in view and is introduced solely as a
means to further steps in the communist direction. Yet
Lenin's clear statement on this point is interpreted hy
certain con-c- pmidcnts as a cnnccssion to capitalism.

•i's jirtic!- red to is quoted hy Michael

Farhman in the New York World as follows:

"The way to Slate-socialism." lie s;iys. "lies through

•'italism. --apitalis: V, ,• are

iinnhle and long will Ite unahle to sii|.|)ly the peasants

with all they need. This will he P.^M!,],- only after

i-ification of the whole country ( !i ha.s hceii accom-

pli.sl.

AMERICA AND THE SOVIETS 17

"At the present stage we must choose from two alter-
natives. Either we must prohibit every kind of private
exchange of goods, otherwise capitalism. Such a policy
is idiotic and would mean suicide for the party attempt-
ing to introduce it, for such policy is economically im-
possible. The other alternative is to aid the development
of capitalism in Russia, while we are trying to transform
it into state capitalism. This is economically possible
and does not contradict the proletarian dictatorship. On
the contrary state capitalism is one stage in the advance
of free capitalism."

The pessimism prevailing in Communist circles Lenine
explains by the mistake in comparing how much state
capitalism is behind Socialism. One should compare how
much state capitalism is in advance of petty bourgeois
economy. "Only then," concludes the dictator, "will
we see how great the progress is we have made. The
chief problem now is to find the proper methods of how
to turn the inevitable growth of capitalism in Russia into
the form of state capitalism now and assist in securing
speedy conversion of state capitalism into Socialism."

Another passage from the same speech (taken from
the Bolshevist organ, Pravda, and reproduced in the
German Socialist Press) explains even more clearly
Lenin's motive in advocating the policy of state capital-
ism. As Lenin said, "the Communists did not need to
fear the development of state capitalism as they can fix
limits for it to suit themselves. Capitalism under the
control of a state in which the proletariat held all the
power in its hands, was not contradictory to the ideas
of Communism."

Changes are taking place in Soviet Russia. But
what is the nature of these changes? That is the ques-
tion. It cannot be answered either by the Bolshevists

is OUT OF THEIR; OWN MOUTHS

or by thi'ir friends and ap< Only a careful

:iination of their own publications can afford
answer. Fortunately these arc now at hand -in abun-
dancc. They bring tin- whole movement into the light,
and ai Me question.

In addition to the vast accumulation of docu-
mentary evidence from Russia ami the weighty
cisions of two American administrations, we have
had adverse comment on Soviet Ku.vsia from practi-
cally every labor delegation that has visited that
country in the last twelve months— from Germany,
Italy, Sweden. Spain and other countries. Only
British report was ambiguous on certain points, but
a large part of the delegation, including Turner. Shaw,
Mrs. Snowden, Dr. Guest and Bertraml Hussell, who
accompanied the delegation, was overwhelmingly ad-
e — after having seen the Bolshevist regime with
their own eyes. Influenced by the reports of Dittmann
and Crispien, both of them radical Socialists, the '
man labor union movement is now lined up almost
solidly against the Sov:

What has been th- «f this avalanche of evi

and testimony on the pro-Bolshevist agitation in this
country? Practically none at all. In May, 1D-1. the
propaganda of falsification continues unabated. The

•ion of the writers and speakers who ar
in this campaign is similar to that of the American
Socialist Party, which still remains with one foot in
and one foot out of the Third Internationale. The
utive Commit tee of that body reports that the
•ialist Party of America has always given its un-
wavering support to t \ eminent of

AMERICA AND THE SOVIETS 19

while the resolution carried by the convention in Sep-
tember, 1920, and later by referendum reads in part
as follows:

Socialism is in complete control of the great country
of Russia. ... It should be the task of the Socialist
Internationale to aid our comrades in Russia to main-
tain and fortify their political control.

So also the pro-Bolshevist "liberals" in America, as
well as their counterparts in Europe, and all the Social-
ist parties belonging to the Second Internationale,
including the British Labor Party, have done every-
thing in their power to aid the Soviet Government and
recognize the Bolshevists either as "comrades" or —
in the case of the so-called liberals — as democrats de-
serving support.

The American Socialist Party refuses to accept the
principle of "the dictatorship of the Proletariat in the
form of Soviets." It also refuses to conduct a revolu-
tion through orders issued from Moscow, but it has
done and pledged itself to do everything in its power
to aid that regime in Russia — and in so doing, it also
aids the Soviet Government and the Third Interna-
tionale in their agitation in all countries — except the
United States. So also the European Socialists in many
countries of Europe are aiding the Soviet agitation in
all countries except their own. Not only this but these
same organizations, while refusing to accept Moscow
rule, are supporting the Soviet agitation in their own
countries in many points.

II

THE PRACTICAL FOUNDATION OF BOLSI ! K V ISM
—MENDACIOUS J'Kol'ACANDA

Tin; Bolshevists have frequently declared that the
foundation of their whole movement is propaganda.
This, in itself, is an amazing confession, but more amaz-
in still is their frank avowal of the character of this
propaganda. The ninth Communist Congress (March-
April, 1920) says on this subjeet :

The first condition of the success of the Soviet Re-
public in all departments, including the economic
chiefly systematic printed agitation.

As to the nature of the propaganda, we have the
following historic utterance of the UolshrvUt high
priest himself in regard to the methods to be used in
order to destroy the labor unions :

We must know how to apply at n<T<]. knavrry. deceit,
illegal methods, hiding truth l»y sili-m-r. in order to
t€ to the very In-art of tin- trade union-

and to accomplish theiv the ( 'miiiminist
Lenin, in "Radicalism, the Infantile Malady of
Coummni

It must not be supposed for one moment that the
childlike stupidity involved in this public pronounce-
ment of the intent ; vc is exceptional for the

20

FOUNDATIONS OF BOLSHEVISM 21

great Bolshevist "master mind." In his letter of last
November to British labor he shows the same mixture
of simplicity and arrogance. The substance of that
letter was summed up last November by the pro-Soviet
London Daily News as follows:

The true British Communist is told that it is his duty
to cooperate with Mr. Henderson, Mr. Snowden and
other degraded ' * bourgeois, ' ' in order to return members
to Parliament pledged to destroy from within that
institution, and incidentally to expose and ruin Mr.
Henderson, Mr. Snowden and the colleagues who are
to assist unwittingly in the operation. And this is said
openly in the hearing of the intended victims and of the
millions who are yet unconverted to the Gospel of Com-
munist * * hate. ' ' No one that we remember, except some
of the German war lords towards the end of the great
struggle, has ever thought aloud in public in this semi-
insane manner. The parallel is ominous.

This letter was such an exhibition of incredible
ignorance regarding Great Britain, combined with in-
capacity for the simplest logical reasoning, that even the
friendly British Labor Party lost its patience while The
Daily News, unable to restrain its wrath, thus character-
ized the Bolshevist "Czar":

Mad Kings, Tzars and Kaisers ruin, as a rule, only
themselves and their subjects; a mad demagogue pro-
vides every half-witted enemy of liberty with a moral
to his servile tale. . . .

Bolshevism has many enemies, but it has none so
formidable as its foremost figure. We can imagine a
man thinking in the sort of way in which Lenin talks
to his British Communist "Comrades" in the extracts
from his new book printed elsewhere in our columns

22 OUT OF THKIR OWN MOUTHS

lay. We can imagine a man unfolding to like-minded
Mils in the privacy of his own house some such ]»lan
ampak'n as ! kfl to them. But that an;

having conc» . lesion should proceed t<» I

claim it from the housetops is a thing almost incredible.

It argues an arrogant contempt for all possihlc oppo-
M which, to those who know the real strength of

"Communism" in this country, seems not far removal

from insanity.

The workings of the mind of this half -cra/ed and
inflated fanatic are important not only as largely domi-
nating the movement hut because they are typical of
his even less gifted Bolshevists. Perhaps the ^n ,
oratorical effort of his life was at the Second Con-/
of the Communist Internationale held at Moscow in .July.
1920. There, in rapid succession, he made a whole string
«>f utterly ignorant or consciously false statements about

My, America, Japan and France — making t
propositions the very foundation of the world policy of
the Internationale and foreign policy of the Sov

are a few of his remarks :

You know that the Versailles Treaty forced Oerrnany
and a whole ' conquered States, into conditions

'.solute impossibility of economic existence, into
ditions of complete <ihs< ncr <>f ritfhls. »f nllcr hiniiilin-
tion. . . . Am-rica. which profited all from the

war, being convert r,l into a rich country from a country
that had a mass of det.ts. . . . Japan, which profited much
remaininir outside the actual conflict, sri/ing the
>utin< nt. . . .

•iiree and one .piarler hillions,
while her liabilities are ten and a half; tliat

the country which has lived

FOUNDATION OF BOLSHEVISM 23

as a progressive civilized country because its savings
(colonial thefts, called savings), made it possible for
her to lend billions to other countries, and particularly
to Russia.

No more false, boastful, or deluded utterance was ever
recorded from the lips of Kaiser or Czar than the fol-
lowing from Lenin's much advertised but little read
"moderate" speech at the Congress of the Russian Com-
munist Party in March, 1921 ; nor could any citation
better illustrate the great hallucination upon which all
present Bolshevist calculations are built:

Certainly the Communist International which at the
time of last year's Congress existed only in the form of
proclamations has now begun to act as an independent
body in every country, and as more than merely a van-
guard party. Communism has become the central ques-
tion of the whole labor movement. In Germany, France,
and Italy, the Communist International has become the
center not only of the labor movement, but of the whole
political life of the country. It was impossible to pick
up a German or a French newspaper last autumn with-
out seeing discussions on Moscow and the Bolsheviks, and
how the twenty-one conditions of entry into the Third
International had become the central question of the
political life of those countries. This is our gain of
which no one can deprive us. (Russian Press Review,
March 15th, 1921.)

The complete falsity of the entire Bolshevist propa-
ganda may be best understood by Americans from a
few quotations suggesting the picture that is presented
to the Russian people of America and of the rest of
the world. As the Bolshevists have a monopoly of
the press and even of the paper of the country, thus

24 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

effectively precluding the « xpivssimi of nou-Molsh.
opinion, they arc able to a considerable •! iin-

BtOfea upon the mind
ami to shape their attitude to America and otl:

- accordingly. According to M • •>. >;iowden and
other recent visitors, tin- Russian people have INCH
suaded by such methods to believe that Mulsh-
spreading all the world over and that many conn
are on tho vorp< h.-vist iwolutio-

frequently in tho Bolshevist press also statements like
tho following: "If we compare the conditions o;
in Russia with the conditions of life in the \\
have to state that our situation is a brilliant n
(From Boyevaya Pravda, May 19, 1920.)

Here are a few statements illustrating Aiiieri.
as it appears in the Soviet win ;

Russian workmen, emigrants who have just returned
from America and are now in Sormo-. ihat the

Russians in America are suffering great hards!
They experience there all the horrors of prison life.
Workmen are arrest. d f,.p participation in party •

•ices; torture is resorted to when they ;n-e 1
cross-examined. Many unions are obliged to work in
v < Prom HOMO* v- 1921 ,

The workers say that the work of tin- American I'.ol
k parly is pmeredinu' suercssfully and that in \>ir
!h<r< iir i :nii,(iir ..'/•/»/.

iff wireless message, via London. Jam,
•:M.)

American Oovcrnment has as
sent to allow 100,000 Russians '

h rough licr ten-i' nerican (Jo\

' intejids to de))ort these Russians in the near
future. (From Moscow wit >bruary 7, 1921.)

FOUNDATION. OF BOLSHEVISM 25

The head of the All Russian Soviet of Trade Unions,
Tomsky, thus pictures the position of the President of
the American Federation of Labor:

Gompers, when he starts out for conferences, sur-
rounds himself with five experienced boxers. (From
Izvestia, October 19, 1920.)

The Soviet regime is keeping a number of Americans
as hostages in the hope that it will be able to use them
to compel recognition by the American Government —
a method which undoubtedly had considerable effect
in Great Britain. Among these hostages is the well-
known Red Cross worker, Kilpatrick. When first
captured by the famous Bolshevist cavalry General,
Budenny,. Kilpatrick reported that the chief intel-
ligence officer insisted "that the American working
classes were starving and the whole country on the
verge of revolution." This was at the end of 1920!
Yet, the Russian intelligence officer could have reached
no other conclusion from the Bolshevist press.

If a government appeals to its own people largely
on the basis of such falsehoods, we can imagine how
much reliance is to be placed upon Soviet statements
about their own performances especially issued for con-
sumption abroad.

The character of the Soviet regime in Russia and
of the Communist Internationale based upon it can
be understood only if we grasp firmly and keep steadily
in mind the utter and wholesale mendacity of the Bol-
shevist propaganda. Practically every statement that
comes directly or indirectly from Bolshevist sources
is vitiated, while statements emanating from the pro-

26 T OF TIIEIR OWN MOUTHS

Bolshevists who, in addition to bring indoctrii.
with this Bolshevist contempt for truth arc, almost with-
out exception, wofully ignorant of Russia, are often still
more fanciful.

It is the vast extent and persistence of this propa-
ganda smoke-screen that has obscured S issia
from our eyes, and not the lack of well authenticated
facts or any incomprehensible mystery in Soviet H'-
or iii Bolshevism.

The enormous role played by mendacious propaganda
in the Bolshevist political system arises only in part from
the character of the propaganda and in part from the
monopoly they have established in the control of edu-
cation and the press (including the monopoly of paper)
together with their prohibition of free speech and assem-
blage for all opposition par

It may be doubted if any State Socialist writer has
hitherto even conceived an Utopian system under which
all printed matter whatever is controlled by the State.
Not only have the Communists set up such a s
trol but they have established at the same time a con
trol over the state by the very small group which domi-
nates the Communist Party, as we show in following
chapters. We read in a remit despatch :

All payments for newspapers, books, magazii
:>hlets and pictuivs is •bofifhsd in a d tin-

gle's Cominissari'-s. I'rintrd matter may he distrib-
uted among organizations an. I institutions, hut not sold
to the public.

In other words a small group has undertaken t..

lish a compete monopoly Offer tlir intrllrrtiinl output of

FOUNDATION 'OF BOLSHEVISM 27

the country. This group has practically attempted to
direct the entire intellectual intake of a hundred million
people! Now let us recall once more the character of
the Communist intellectual output — as already sketched
— and we can begin to realize how monstrous is the crime
that is being attempted against the soul and mind of the
Russian people.

But this is only one aspect — though the most funda-
mental— of Bolshevist rule. We shall now take up some
others.

Ill

THE POLITICAL FOUNDATION: WAR AGAINST
DEMOCRACY

BOLSHEVISM arose as a repudiation of democracy,
when Lenin employed a company of armed sailor
disperse the Constitutional Assembly — which hud 1
deliberately and fairly elected hy the entire Un-
people. The Bolshevists have never held one election
under universal suffrage in Russia sinee that day. Far
from apologi/iu^, they have boasted of their adion
in overthrowing the constituent assembly. Their print-
ing presses have been occupied not with apolo^h s. 'hut
with seeking plausible phrases with which to O
their reactionary despotism, such as "dictatorship of
the proletariat," "Soviets." "the rule of the workmen
and peasants.*'

At first Lenin endeavored also to distort and twist
the word "democracy" to his purposes, hut the Soviet
regime was M.adily becoming more and more anti-
democratic and the effort was soon abandoned. It has
i widely claimed that at the Soviet Coiiirr.ss in
'•mber, 1920, and in the Communist Parly Con-
i;i March, I'.iLM.the Bolshevists abandoned a large part
of their practices and doctrines, threw communism

•bo;ird and adopted capitalism. The fuel is tha:
steady and ceaseless change in the I position has

been to get farther and further away from democracy

28

THE POLITICAL FOUNDATION 29

and nearer and nearer to the absolute dictatorship of
Lenin and those about him.

At the outset Lenin made a strained effort to claim
that the Bolshevist regime was democratic. In order
to do this he made use of the favorite Bolshevist propa-
ganda trick of employing a word to mean the very
opposite of what it does mean. Nevertheless at that
time he did wish the world to believe that the Bolshevists,
in some sense, represented the Russian people.

The Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Delegates con-
stitutes the form of government by the workers, and
represents the interest of all the poorest of our people,
of nine-tenths of the population, aiming to secure peace,
bread and liberty. . . . (Nicolai Lenin in a book entitled
"The Proletarian Revolution in Russia," edited by
Louis C. Fraina, pp. 24-25).

In the Die Kommunistische Internationale in 1919
Lenin similarly wrote:

So Soviet or proletarian democracy has its birthplace
in Russia. It represents another stage in evolution fol-
lowing upon the Paris Commune. . . . For the first time
in the history of the world a Soviet or proletarian
democracy has created a democracy of the masses of
the working people, of the laborers and the small
peasantry.

Never before in history has there been a government
truly representing the majority of the people and render-
ing effective the actual power of this majority except
the Soviet.

So anxious was the Bolshevist dictator to claim that
he had the support of the Russian people and so con-

30 OUT OF 'THEIR OWN MOUTHS

fidont was he of his capacity to win that support that

ven had the courage to make democracy fundamental

in the Communist doc-trine as he formulated it at that

time. Tliis may be seen in his report to the Communist

Congress in March, 1919 — a r« •••pled, like all of

M'S, by the Congress. In this report, reproduced in

the Petrograd Pravda of March 8, 1919, we read :

That which definitely distinguishes a dictatorship of
the proletariat from a dictatorship of other classes, from
a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie in all the civil
capitalist countries, is that the dictatorship of the land-
lords and of the bourgeoisie was the forcible su;
of the resistance of the overwhelming ma.i the

population, namely, the toilers. On the other hand, the
dictatorship of the proletariat is the forcible sup;
of tl. nice of the exploiters, that is. of an insigniti-

eant minority of the population — of landlord! and
capitalists.

It therefore follows that a dictatorship of the pro-
letariat must necessarily carry with it not only ch.v
in the form and institutions of dcmncraey. speakii
g.-neral terms, hut specifically such a change a.s would
tension such as has iv D seen in the

history of the world of the actual us,- of democratism
by the toiling da

And in aetual fact the form of dictatorship of the
proletariat which has already been worked out in ;
thfl Soviet authority in
rmany. the shop stewards' commit •

other similar Soviet institutions in other countries, .-ill
p'pn-s.'Mt and reali/e for the toiling classes, tl:

overwhelming ma.; n. this actual

possibility to use democratic rights and freedoms, which
pOBsibili' d. ev«-n approximately, in tin-

best and most democratic bourgeois republics.

THE POLITICAL FOUNDATION 31

Of course, there was never any foundation in fact
for these statements any more than there is any truth
in most of the other assertions of this Communist Marx.
The Reign of Terror and the dictatorship of the Com-
munist Party held in Soviet Russia then as now. More-
over Lenin himself was forced to state repeatedly that
in using the word "democracy" he did not mean to
suggest anything at all similar to any democracy that
had ever existed anywhere in the world before, until,
finally, he was forced to give such strange interpreta-
tions to the word as to make it mean its very opposite.

On the 8th of April, 1920, he said at the Russian
Labor Union Congress that no state had shown such
a democratic spirit as Soviet Russia and proceeded to
show what he meant by democracy by demanding that
the policy be continued of "making the laboring masses
participate in politics under the direction of the Com-
munist Party."

During the course of 1920 the anti-democratic course
of the Soviet regime became more and more marked and
its support among the population became narrower and
narrower. In the opening speech of the Congress of
the Communist Internationale, Zinoviev declared:

The idea of democracy has faded away before our
very eyes. When the American bourgeoisie before the
eyes of the whole world suspended constitutional guaran-
tees, when this much-praised democracy violated all the
principles established by it — by this it itself determined
its place. On this question there should not be two
opinions. In noting the victory over the II Interna-
tionale it is necessary to emphasize the much-debated
point, and finish once for all with democratic tendencies.

32 OUT OF THEIR OWN Morn is

A very clear statement of tho steady Intel :i of

the war against democracy that has IK-CM ^ointf on cease-

:i made by Isaac A. H<>ur-

\vi.-h, recently legal adviser for the Russian Soviet
Bureau in America:

All movements heretofore have been movements of
minorities or in the interests of minorities. The
Marian movement is an independent inovcincnt of
enormous majority." From tho Communist Mani:
of Karl Marx and Fred< : els. . . ,

The Bolshevik revolution dealt a heavy blow t«
theory. In Russia the proletariat is only a min-
— this fact is not disputed by either the Bolshcviki or
the anti-Bolshcviki, and it is this minority that s<
the political power and established a dictatorship of
the proletariat. . . . This is the essence of tho diet..
ship of the proletariat.

The Communist Parties of all countries and even the
Socialist Center [i.e., the M id other orth

Marxists] have accepted the new formula — the dicta-
torship of the proletariat through the B
renounced "democracy" in the sense in which
term had been understood in all socialist platform*
prior to the Bolshevik revolution. At times the old
word "democracy" is still used, but a i iin^

:d into it. In th< ion of the 1_M points i,

communist leaders have outspokenly declared a^;.
democracy and in favor of dictatorship.

The truth is th;; has demons' the

communists that even in the most highly d<
capitalistic conn' t, perhaj

proletariat is as yet not the m. •' the adult pnpu-

••fore. th. prnlrtariat is as
••lish socialism through the machinery of
iat is according!} M ith

the alternative of j ig the establishment of

THE POLITICAL FOUNDATION 33

socialism until the course of capitalistic development
will raise it to a majority of the population or of seiz-
ing the powers of government by an uprising of an
armed minority, and establishing a dictatorship which
does not need the support of the majority of the voters.

This quotation is from the Socialist Review, April,
1921.

Indeed a thoroughly anti-democratic conception ruled
Soviet Russia from the beginning. Without quoting
at length from the Soviet constitution on this point,
we can with equal effect and more brevity cite the fol-
lowing from a resolution of the Eighth Communist
Congress, held March 18-23, 1919 :

The Russian Communist Party, developing the con-
crete aims of the dictatorship of the proletariat with
reference to Russia, the chief characteristic of which
is that the majority of the population consists of petty
bourgeoisie, defines these aims as follows:

The urban proletariat . . . played the part of leader
in the revolution. . . . Our Soviet constitution reflects
that in certain privileges it confers upon the industrial
proletariat in comparison with the more scattered
petty-bourgeois mass in the village [i.e. the bulk of
the agriculturists].

By the spring of 1920 Lenin had already thrown over
the democratic idea, together with all hope of gaining
the support of the peasants within the next twenty-five
or fifty years, for he said at the Trade Union Congress
in April:

The peasantry remained, in their production, as
property owners and are creating new capitalistic rela-
tions. These are the fundamental traits of our economic

34 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUT

situation, and honco originates tlir unwwfam of fke
tnlk of • . frcnlnnt who

do not understand the actual situation. (From Soviet
vto, December 25, 1920.)

So all the fraudulent pretenses of "democracy,"
i in the most strained interpretation of the word,
have been abandoned. Let us now examine the
tense that there has been instituted a government of
"Soviets. " In Russian the word "Soviets" means
simply "councils." And so it is used, even in P.ol-
shevist Russia, in senses that vary almost from
to day. It is true they have a Soviet constitution hut
it is subject to unlimited interpretation and adminis-
tration by the Communist Party — who constructed it,
in the first place. Tor their own purposes. If, 1
we turn to the Soviet constitution, on the momei.
supposition that it means in practice what it says on
paper, we find it full of anti-democratic clauses. K
in the very friendly report of the P.ritish Labor 1'
it is pointed out that clause 23 of the const it i,
reads :

In the general interest of the working-class, the Rus-
sian Soviet Republic deprives individuals and sect i
of the community of any privileges which may be used
to the detriment of the Socialist Revolution.

The Briti Labor Party report also points out that

peasants have on! W oi < 1 pita

of the town electors, that the system of voting is always

. there I r ballot, and that the elections

are s -1 that the handful of M« sars

THE POLITICAL FOUNDATION 35

are in complete control, being only "theoretically"
responsible to the Soviets.

Just as they have abandoned the pretense of
democracy, so the Bolshevists have now given up the
pretense of a "Soviet" government, whatever that may
mean. Let us note the following from the proceedings
of the Communist Internationale, July, 1920.

"All the Russian delegates," says Comrade Trotsky,
"when they return from the Congress will have to
face a whole series of questions ; for example, the pro-
posal of the Polish Government to conclude peace.
Where shall we decide this question? In the trade
unions? Of course, not there. It is true, we have a
Soviet of People's Commissaries, but the Soviet of
People's Commissaries also requires political control
and definite political direction. We shall give it this
political direction on the basis of the work of the party
and the political control can be carried out only by
the Communist Party."

In spite of the wholly despotic nature of their rule,
the Bolshevists hold so-called Soviet elections and send
broadcast over the world accounts of electoral victories
as proof of the fact that they are a civilized and orderly
government with popular support. It may be doubted
if such "elections" have occurred in any country for a
century or more. An excellent account of the latest Bol-
shevist electoral victory was given in the German Social-
ist Press in April, 1920, by the foreign delegation of the
Socialist Democratic Labor Party of Russia.

The brilliant victory at elections to the Moscow Soviet
as announced by the Communists will probably be able
to deceive nobody either in Russia or abroad. After

36 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

recent events in Russia the whole world knows vrha

true State of niiiul of tin- Russian ina-ses ai.d what,
kind of electoral freedom . e Socialistic

Soviet Republic of Russia. Tl follows:

A complete suppression of all freedom .
assemblage for all inhabitants except ( \miinui. ists.

The absolute prohibition of all other parties to conduct
any kind of an electoral campaign.

illegal Social Revolutionists are not permit ted to
go to the polls at all, so that this strong party cannot
possess a single Soviet delegate (among tens of thou-
sands) in all Russia.

The Socialist Democratic party is formally legal but
in fact illegal since regularly before each elcetinn '
are mass arrests, the victims of which are only allowed
their liberty again after the elections.

Public voting by the reason of hands in the election
of all officials.

Election geometry as follows: of 1100 delegates in
Moscow, 600 were assigned to the army, moreover 200
were appointed by the executive staffs of the red labor
unions. [We shall show below that these executives were
in turn generally appointed by the choice of the Com-
munist party.]

The above facts are taken from the official declaration
of the electoral regulations.

, In Bolshevist Russia, then, we do not have a dn
racy or a Soviet regime but a so-called "proletarian
dictatorship." Is it a Labor State? Arguing ag.v
Trotzky at a meeting called to discuss the trade unions
end of 1920, Lenin said :

If we in 1!'17 [befON the holsli«-\

'" about a Labor State that was quite clear, hut
at present, if we Bay: "Why and auainst whom is
labor class to be protected, as there is no l>ourg«

THE POLITICAL FOUNDATION 37

as the state is a labor state?'* we must say "not quite
a labor state." This is peculiar inasmuch as many of
Trotsky's mistakes are based upon this point. In fact
we have not a labor state, but a labor-peasant's state,
first of all. Many things may be explained on this
account. Already our party program shows that we
have a labor state with burocratic perversions. That
is the reality of the transitory period. Can you tell me
whether in such a burocratic state, etc.

Also at the meeting of the Congress of Soviets, as
reported in the Petrograd Pravda of December 23, 1920,
Lenin made it clear that he was aware that the non-
Communists — the Communist Party including only
600,000 members — did not support the leading policies
of his government:

Are the members of the trades unions and most of
the non-partisan elements convinced of the necessity
of our new methods, of our great tasks of economic
construction? Are they convinced of the necessity of
giving everything for war, of sacrificing everything for
a victory on the military front?

The answer is undoubtedly, No ! They are not suffi-
ciently convinced of that.

In Russia to-day we have neither a democracy, a
Soviet regime nor a Labor State, but the dictatorship
of the Communist Party. The only phrases by which
the Communists now insist in disguising their rule are
"the dictatorship of the proletariat" and the "Republic
of the Workmen and Peasants." The fact that they
continue to use these expressions while at the same
time they confess it is the Communist Party that
governs indicates the brazen deception that permeates
their entire propaganda.

88 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

The official confession that the Communist Party
rules may be seen in the resolution proposed by that
Party at the 1920 Congress of the Communist I:
nationale and accepted unanimously by that body. We
quote only a few of the most important expressions from
this very interesting document. The meaning is so clear
that comments are not called for.

The Communist Party is a part of the working class,
precisely its most advanced, most conscious, and t!
fore most revolutionary part. The Communist P.
springs into being through a natural Beta the

best, the most conscious, the most self-sacrificing, and
far-seeing workmen. The Communist Party has no
interests different from the interests of the working
class. . . .

The Communist Party is that lever of political
organization by means of which the most «-.
part of the working class directs the mass of the
proletariat and semi-proletariat along the right road.

As long as the government*] authority has not !•
conquered by the proletariat, as long as the proletariat
has not established its rub- once for all and has not
guaranteed the working class from the possibility of
'•urgeois restoration, so long will the Communist
Tarty by ri^ht have in its . .Us only the

minority of the work men. Cp to the time of 1 1

overnimntal authority and during 1 ! of

transition the Communist Party may. in favorabl.
eumstanees. • political

inflm nee upon all the proletarian and s- mi-prolet;:
:ta of a population, but it can not brin^ then
^•ther in its ranks in an <»ri:ani/. d manner. Only ;
the i;iu dictatorship will have «: the

bourgeois of su«-h powerful in-

fluence as the press, the school, the parliament, the

THE POLITICAL FOUNDATION 39

church, the administrative apparatus, etc., only after
the final defeat of the bourgeois social order will have
become evident for everybody, only then will all or
practically all the workmen begin to enter the ranks
of the Communist Party. . . .

In Germany the Eight Independents, whenever they
make their halfway steps, allege that they represent the
desires of the masses, not realizing that a party exists
precisely for the purpose of marching in front of the
mass and of showing the mass the road it is to follow.

The Proletarian Revolution, in Russia, has brought
to the foreground the basic form of labor dictatorship,
viz., the Soviet. In the very near future the following
division will establish itself: First, the party; second,
the Soviets ; and third, the productive unions. But the
work both in the Soviets and in the revolutionized
productive unions must be invariably and systematically
directed by the party of the proletariat, i.e., the Com-
munist Party. The organized vanguard of the labor
class, the Communist Party, serves equally the interests
of the economical, the political, and the cultural strug-
gle of the working class as a whole. The Communist
Party must be the soul of the productive unions, of ,
the Soviets of Workmen's Deputies, and of all the other ;
forms of proletarian organization.

The appearance of the Soviets as the chief form of
the dictatorship of the proletariat furnished by the
history does not in any way diminish the directing role
of the Communist Party in the Proletarian Revolution.

Again the monopoly of all governmental functions,
and of nearly all the most vital economic functions, by
the Communist Party was briefly stated by Lenin on
November 5th, 1920 (before the Political Education
Conference — quoted by Soviet Russia, April 30th,
1921). In this speech Lenin referred to that party
as necessarily controlling "the mighty state apparatus"

40 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

and as "determining everything." His nK>
:icrs were the following:

We must openly recognize the predominance of the

•iinist J'arhj hi our polhij.

. 'party may : In- inter- ass more

or less, may pass through alterations of one kind «>r
another, but we do not yet know of a better form:
no other form has as yet been found in any country.
The entire juristic and practical constitution of
Soviet Republic is built upon the fact that ;
party that i'x improving and determining everything,
reconstructing everything according to a single prin-
ciple, in order that the Communist element s in close
contact with the proletariat may permeate it with their
spirit and liberate it from the heritage of capitalism,
which we are so ardently striving to overcon

••y propagandist belongs to the party, which ix
guiding and directing the < ntin state, the world stru
of Soviet Russia against capitalism. This propagandist
is a representative of the lighting class and party that
controls and necessarily must control this mighty xtutc
apparatus.

What now is this Communist Party which claims to
t the proletariat by divine right, not only in
Russia but throughout the whole world— and by r-
senting the world proletariat, proposes to take p«»ss,
<>f the earth and all it contains!

Ibre are the official Soviet statistics <>f the Party
membership of some 604,000 (we omit a few unimpor-
tant figures) :

Government or town officials. 318,000—: < 'ent.

Officers and Soldiers 102,000—27 "

.mployees M.OOO— 6 " "

AVorkingmcn 70,000—11 "

THE POLITICAL FOUNDATION 41

But while the Communist Party represents a little
more than one per cent, of the adult population of
Russia, Zinoviev, in opening the congress of the Soviets
last December (see Pravda, December 29, 1920) boast-
fully asserted that the percentage of Communists in
the provincial executive commissions was ninety-nine!
From these figures, we may see that in Soviet Russia
each Communist counts for as much as ten thousand
non-party members.

Yet the Soviet chiefs continue to make the most
preposterous claims on behalf of the party. For
example Lenin declared in his closing speech at the
Tenth Congress of the Communist Party (see Moscow
Wireless of March 20, 1921) that "there is no other
power except the Communist Party that is capable of
uniting millions of widely distributed small farmers."
In view of the fact shown in the above statistics that
the agriculturists do not include more than two or
three per cent, of the membership of the Communist
Party although they outnumber that party by more
than fifty to one, we can get some notion of the extreme
degree of untruthfulness which the Bolshevists, by
long and strenuous practice, have finally attained. But
all this flood of falsehood is proving useless for Bol-
shevist purposes, since the discussion within the Com-
munist ranks itself is now disclosing the full truth.
Late in 1920 Trotzky complained in the Pravda:

The people are now maintaining the same attitude
toward the Soviet Regeme which they maintained
against capitalism, as a force exploiting it and robbing
it of its toil. Our problem is to regain the support
of the workers.

42 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

Ossinsky, a prominent Communist, sums up the anti-
democratic retrogression of the Bolshevist regime in
Pravda, December 20, 1920, as follows:

For three years the Soviet Government has seriously
turned aside from the principles of proletarian d«
racy, and from the spirit of the Soviet Constitution. < Mi
the one hand, there have been created two legislative
bodies, not provided by our constitution — the Council of
Defense and the Military Revolutionary Couneil; on the
other, all constitution organs (legislative as well as exec-
utive) have virtually disappeared.

The eclipse of the Central K \ecutive Committee is
generally known. But even the Council of Peop
Commissars and the Council of Defense, which !

sibly replaced the Central Executive Committee,
have been, in their turn, eclipsed by still another body.

In reality the centre of political leadership has I
shifted to the Central Committee of the Communist
party, and « vm here to a smaller body, the "Political
Bureau" of this commit 1

irislative measures, diplomatic acts, and military
plans decided by this " Politik-Bureau " an formally
sanctioned and issued in the name cither of the P. op
Commissars or the Council of DetVnsc. Diplomatic
notes and military plans do not need even such formal
sanction of any of the existing legislative or 69
organs of the State.

In describing the steady reactionary trend toward
the dictatorship of a smaller and smaller number of
m. n, we cannot stop with the assertion that it is the
Communist Party that controls, for the question an
who controls the Communist Party? This is easily
answered. At a sp»ci;il meeting of the Soviet Economic
Conference in January, 1920, Lenin said:

THE POLITICAL FOUNDATION 43

No matter what domain of Soviet activity we turn
to, we see a small portion of the conscious proletariat,
a still greater number of the less conscious, and then
at the very foundation, an enormous mass of peasants
who have all retained their individual economic habits
of free commerce and speculation. Such are the con-
ditions under which we must act and which determine
appropriate methods of action. . . .

In the autocracy of the chiefs of communism and the
communist domination of the people lies the pledge of
our success.

What we really have in Soviet Russia is the rule
of the chiefs of the Bolshevist Party, the congresses
of that organization being cut and dried affairs. We
must not forget that the Commissars in control of the
Bolshevist Government are able to apply their dicta-
torial power over Communist party members, using not
only rewards and punishments for their purposes but
also the frightful "Extraordinary Commission for Com-
bating Counter-Revolution. " Furthermore the Execu-
tive of the Party reserves the right of purging it from
time to time of unsatisfactory members and thousands
>*upon thousands have been put out in this way. At
the same time entrance is made extremely difficult and
is controlled by the central committee. The excuse
for all this centralization within the Party is, of course,
the necessities of the revolutionary civil war that is
still raging and, as we show below, is expected to
continue to rage for the next twenty-five or fifty years.

The following paragraphs from the long resolution
of the Second Congress of the Communist Internation-
ale already quoted sufficiently indicate the power

44 OUT OF Till IK OWN MOUTHS

placed in the hands of the Communist bosses by the
constitution of their organization:

The 2nd Congress of the Communist Internationale
should not only affirm the historic mission of the Com-
munist Party in general, but should indicate to the
International Proletariat, at least in its fundamental
features, precisely what kind of a Communist Party
we needL

The Communist Internationale considers that the
Communist Party should be built up on the basis of
iron proletarian centralism particularly in t!
of the dictatorship of the proletariat. In order i
able to direct successfully the activities of the working
class in the long and persistent civil war which im-
pends, the Communist Party itself must operate within
its own ranks iron military order.

Under the "military order" of an "iron proletarian
centralism" any practical person may easily grasp the
futility of such reforms as are now proposed for "the
ending of the dictatorship of the people's commissars"
and "the taking over of actual control of the ai
of state by the Central Kxecntive Committee of the
Soviets." (Resolution of the 1920 Soviet Congress.)
"Where is there any authority honestly ; out

this proposed change outside of the Communist Party?
Tin- resolution on February 9, 1921. by which the Cen-
tral Kxecutive Committee ordered the local
voked and given "full power." was also m iage.

As these local governing bodies consist to the extent of
ninety-nine per cent (see /inoviev's figures above
quoted) of Communists under the dictatorial pow •
the Soviet Commissars as chiefs of the Party, what
change has taken place f

THE POLITICAL FOUNDATION 45

But is this a merely transitional party dictatorship
while the foreign wars continue and while the victory
of the Communists is not yet assured? Not at all. In
his speech before the Communist Internationale, as
quoted in the Moscow Pravda, December 3, 1920, Zino-
viev declared: " After the victory the role of the party
does not decline but on the contrary increases." We
have already quoted the resolution of that Congress
referring to "the long and persistent civil war which
impends." Again Lenin says in his "Theses," which
were adopted by the Congress:

The conquest of political power by the proletariat
does not bring about the cessation of class struggle
against the bourgeoisie, but on the contrary, makes
this struggle especially wide, sharp, and pitiless.

What before the victory of the proletariat appears
theoretically as merely a difference of opinion on the
question of "democracy," after the proletarian victory
becomes inevitably a question to be decided by force
of arms.

On January 30, 1921, Lenin said to the visiting
delegation of Spanish Socialists:

We never speak about liberty. We practice the
proletariat's dictatorship in the name of the minority
because the peasant class has not yet become proletariat
and are not with us. It will continue until they subject
themselves. Presumably the dictatorship will last about
forty years.

Similarly Lenin declared to Serrati, the Italian
revolutionary leader, a few months earlier, that the

46 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

dictatorship would last twenty-five years to fifty
years. The Second Communist Internationale eoncl
its discussion of the dictatorial role of the Communist
Party (above quoted) as follows:

The aim of a political party of the proletariat dis-
appears only with the compl-
in the process of achieving this final victory of Com-
munism it is possible that the specific gravity of the
three fundamental proletarian organizations of our
time, the party, the Soviet, and the productive uiii
will undergo changes, and that eventually a tin-
type of labor organization will heroine erysialli/.ed. Hut
the Communist Party will become dissolved completely
in the working class at the time when Communism will
cease to be the aim of the struggle, and when the v
working class will become communistic.

The fact that the dictatorship of the proletariat is not
regarded as a rapidly passing phase was again brought
out by Lenin at the Congress of the Communist Party
in March, 1920 — when the Bolshevist leader said:

We must base our activities with regard i«> < l.i
tions in our country and in nthtr count,
retain the dictatorship of the proletariat for a j>ro1nnged
period and to cxtri<-at«- ouaelvefl it' "ii!y gradually from
the misfortunes and .ich have conn- upon us.

Not only do the Bolshevists promulgate for all

< a long period of dictatorship similar to \\ ha
now see in Russia, hut they helieve that this will be
a period of civil war justifying all manner of term
violence and extreme u As the resolution

above cited frequently says, a long period of civil war

THE POLITICAL FOUNDATION 47

is before us. During this civil war no other parties
have a right to represent the proletariat, no matter
what their numerical support, except the Communist
Party. The attitude of the Communists toward other
political organizations of labor is shown by the follow-
ing remarks of Lenin:

We see in practice that the unity of the proletariat
during a social revolution may be achieved only by
the extreme revolutionary party of Marxism, and only
by means of a ruthless struggle against other parties —
(Lenin at Transport Workers' Congress — Economic Life,
December 3, 1920).

The Social Revolutionaries, the Menshevists and the
Kerenskys? . . . Everyone who is at present acting
against the Soviet Government and calls himself a non-
party member lies — (Lenin at meeting of Central Ex-
excutive Committee, Moscow Wireless, March 23, 1921 ) .

Not only are all other labor parties and non-party'
members declared to be non-labor or bourgeois, but,
whenever they assume any importance, they are defi-
nitely excluded from the Soviets, as we see from the
following decree:

•

(All-Russian Central Executive Committee, June 14 ,
(1), 1918.)

Whereas, The presence in the Soviet organization of
representatives of parties that clearly strive to dis-
credit and overthrow the authority of the Soviets is
absolutely inadmissible :

Therefore, the All-Russian Central Executive' Com-
mittee of Soviets resolves to exclude from its member-
ship representatives of the parties of Socialist-Revolu-
tionaries (Right and Center), Russian Social-Demo-

48 OUT OF^THEIR OWN MOUTHS

cratic Workmen's Party (Mensh.-vists), and also to
propose to all Soviets of Workmen's, Soldiers', Peas-
ants' and Cossacks' Deputies to remove th< r
tatives of these fractions from their mi

(Signed) PRESIDENT OP ALL-RUSSIAN <
TRAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTED

Y. JS1^
Secretary — V. Avanesov.

Not only are leaders of all opposition parti
eluded from the Soviet whenever they become pow«-r-
ful, but they are regarded as traitors and
accordingly. The only opposition tolerated is obliged
to call itself "non-partisan," and even the non-partisans
are "suspect" and subject to sudden punishment.

[Lenin's speech above quoted is only one of many
evidences of this attitude.]

IV

THE REIGN OF TERROR

As early as September, 1918, Mr. Wilson, then Presi-
dent, made an effective appeal to the civilized world
against the crimes, the "barbarism," the "mass terror-
ism" and the "indiscriminate slaughter" of the Bol-
shevists. He called for all civilized nations to with-
draw their official representatives from Soviet Russia,
and every civilized nation without exception responded
to his call.

The reign of terror continues and in many respects
has grown worse. Again and again the Bolshevist
chiefs and assemblies have re-endorsed terrorism. At
the second congress of the Communist Internationale,
in the summer of 1920, Lenin declared that "no dicta-
torship of the proletariat is to be thought of without
terror and violence against the bitter foes of the pro-
letariat and the laboring masses." Let us remember
that this international meeting is the highest Com-
munist authority and the principles accepted there are
binding until the next annual meeting, and that Lenin
and his immediate associates reserve to themselves the
right to define just who are to be regarded as "the
bitter foes of the proletariat and the laboring masses."

Anybody Lenin and Trotzky desire to destroy they
first label "bourgeois," but they are just as ready to
apply this term to laboring men or their elected leaders

49

50 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

or to laboring agriculturists as they arc to apply it
to former employers. On October 5, 1920, Tro
said:

The bourgeoisie must be torn off, cut off. The Red
Terror is an instrument used against a class doomed
to go under and which does not want to go under.

An even stronger expression was used at the h. Bin-
ning of the Bolshevist rule by Latsis, one of tin c:
of the Extraordinary Commission, which is charged
with putting the Red Terror into effect. In the organ
called the Red Terror (November 1, 1918) Latsis wr

We are no longer waging war against separate in-
dividuals. We are exterminating the bourgeoisie as a
class.

Do not seek in the dossier of the accused for proofs
as to whether he opposed the So\i. : Gforernmanl
word or deed. The first question that should be put
is to what class he belongs, of what extract ion, what
education and profession. These questions should
ide the fate of the accused. Herein lies the mean-
ing and the essence of the Red Terror.

This description gives a good picture of th«> methods
of the Red Terror, but the list of classes which v
to be exterminated was soon extended to embrace all
anti-Bolshevists, no matter whether they themselves
were wage earners and no matter how many thousands
or ton thousands of wage earners they represented. Tn
a speech made on ApH the railway

workers in Moscow Lenin stated that "the bourgeois
class does not exist any more in Russia." and boasted

THE REIGN OF TERROR 51

that it Had been " completely destroyed " by the Bol-
shevists. We may point out that this is merely a ter-
rible boast, for it is well known that after slaughtering
the " bourgeoisie" for a year or more Lenin publicly
acknowledged that he not only needed the experts in
this class but was ready to retain them at very high
salaries. But in view of their previous treatment and
the treatment of their relatives and friends we can be
assured that these bourgeois, far from being good Bol-
shevists, maintain their former views and are waiting
for a chance at revenge.

Trotzky has tried to justify mass terror (from signed
article in Izvestia of January 10, 1919, under title
" Military Specialists and the Red Army") :

By its terror against saboteurs the proletariat does
not at all say: "I shall wipe out all of you and get
along without specialists." Such a program would be
a program of hopelessness and ruin. While dispersing,
arresting and shooting saboteurs and conspirators, the
proletariat says: "I shall break your will, because my
will is stronger than yours, and I shall force you to
serve me." . . . Terror as the demonstration of the
will and strength of the working class, is historically
justified, precisely because the proletariat was able
thereby to break the political will of the intelligentsia,
pacify the professional men of various categories and
work, and gradually subordinate them to its own aims
within the fields of their specialties.

The conspirators referred to in this paragraph are
all those who stand for the right of the Russian people
to elect their own representative government in the place
of the tyranny that is now imposed upon them; the

52 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

"saboteurs" are the pr< .1 men and exi<

whose wills could not In- successfully for*

In a letter to 1 ii it ish labor dated May 30, 1'JiM. I
after denouncing the democracy of the British Labor
Party, their pacifism, etc., says of its leaders: "The
soon slum- the late of Kerensky. the V

sheviks and Social Revolutionists in Russia" the better.
What this fate was we shall see below. Leuin then
continues :

Some of tho members of your delegation have as'
me with surprise concerning Red Terror, about the lack
of the freedom of the Press, about the lac lom

of assembly, about our persecution of Mensheviks and
Mriish'-vik workers, etc. . . . Our Red Terror is a de-
fense of the working class apainst the exploiter-
is the suppression of 1he resistance of the explo'r
with whom the Social Revolutionists, the Meiishe
and an insignificant number of M. nshevik wor
align themselves. . . . The same "leaders" of wori
who duetinp a non-communist policy are !>!'

•»f the hniirp« T. of

ejudices.

n definite official statement by the Bols
chief that a regularly elected labor leader may be re-
garded as 99 per cent, bourgeois — and h- n so
regarded for purposes of imprisonment i»r < vnition.

The Bolshevist Czar recently issued a ukase n
that prisoners belonging to all active anti-Bolshe

ips would be held as all bound together as hostages

of the Bolshevist chiefs referring back

to the butchery of hundreds of such hostages after the

assassination of the bloody Uritzky and the attack

THE REIGN OF TERROR 53

on Lenin in 1918. Here are the words of the decree
as carried in the official Izvestia on November 30, 1920 :

Confident of its impregnability, the Soviet Govern-
ment is nevertheless very far from offering an oppor-
tunity to these counter-revolutionists and agents of the
Allies for resuming again the methods of struggle used
by them in 1918 and resulting in a stern lesson in Red
Terror in retaliation.

The Workers' and Peasants' Government has in its
hands quite a sufficient number of prominent and
responsible counter-revolutionary leaders from the
camp of all the above-mentioned groups, especially
from among the Wrangel officers. Regarding all of
them as ~bound together in a mutual pledge to relentless
struggle against the authority of the workers and
peasants, the Soviet Government declares the Socialists —
Revolutionists of Savinkov's and Chernov's groups, the
White Guards of the National and Tactical Centre, and
WrangePs officers — hostages. In the event of an at-
tempt on the lives of the leaders of Soviet Russia the
responsible partisans (literally in the Russian text —
those who think likewise) of the organizers of an
attempt will be exterminated without mercy.

In order fully to realize what this means let us quote
from the appeal to the Socialists of the world by Mar-
toff, leader of the Russian Social Democratic Labor
party — an appeal that has been endorsed by the well-
known syndicalist Merrheim, head of the French Metal
Workers and one of the leaders of the Confederation
Generate du Travail. Referring to the above ukase,
Martoff, who is well and favorably known by the entire
labor movement of Europe, writes:

Let all who would take this warning lightly remem-
ber the fatal experiment which has already been made

54 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

in Soviet Russia, in September, IIMS. after the mi;

of Uritzky, Chief of tin- lYtrograd police, and th-
tempt to shoot Lenin, the S<

mti-Bol$keviki to be hostages in • it of

thef ass; MS. and at the same time, as a

isal for the acts of terrorism already committed.
ordered a number of osta^es" in several i

to be shot.

It is impossible to estimate the number of men and
women killed at that time. The gnn-i-al public ,
motion forced the Government to conceal the tru-
tent of the hideous mass r the publi.

the first lists of victims. Hut from tln-se lists it is
known that in Petrograd 512 people were shot
in Penza, 41 in Nijni-Xovgorod, 30 in Smolensk. 1>!) in
Moscow, 6 in Mojaisk, 4 in Morshansk. 7 in Nijni-
Lvoff, and 7 in Schemlara. The last echo of tins mad-
ness was the proclamation of the IVtro/avodsk
Northern Hi \ti-aordinary Commission that it

shot 14 bourgeois hostages as a revenge for the murder

m burp and Karl Liebknecht !

Just after the above-mentioned attempts on the i:
Of Lenin and Other Holsheviks. the Social-Revolutionary
party stated officially that it had nothing to do with
these assassinations; but this statement did not prevent
the P.olshevik'H shooting down like dops member
the Social-Revolutionary party. The f(rr<>risl >m/</
of the Bolsheviks, once let loose, ignored th< a
In twccn the diff< r< nt *«-ti<»ts of ih< ir jmliticnl <>]>.
In lYtrograd they shot the metal worker Krako\
a member of the S«»cial-l)«-mo«-ratic Labor Tar'
members of the same party in Ribinsl,

fRami' .ifT and and in

N'i.jni-Novgorod t 'he local party com-

mittee, Comrade Ridnik.

Lrreat majority of tl • '-meed to tlm

••(?cois class, and were not mixi-d nj> with p.ilr'
they were arrested, not because of some crime com

THE REIGN OF TERROR 55

mitted, but as ' ' suspicious persons ' ' whom it was neces-
sary to isolate. Men and women, boys and aged people
— all were shot because two men, political fanatics, had
plotted the murder of two leaders of the Communist
party.

The official execution and wholesale butchery of hos-
tages referred to by Martoff is boastfully avowed in
the official Soviet pamphlet by which the Bolshevists
have sought to sum up and popularize the Red Terror
and the Extraordinary Commission. This pamphlet,
written by Latsis, is printed by the Soviet Printing
Office in Moscow, 1920. As to the 1918 butchery, Lat-
sis in Chapter 5 of the pamphlet declares:

But the murderess, the hysterical Kaplan, missed her
aim. The Extraordinary Commission exacted costly
retribution for these murders. In Petrograd alone as
many as 500 persons were slwt as an answer to the shots
fired at Comrades Lenin and Uritzky.

Those who dreamed of killing the revolution by
murdering the leaders severely wounded themselves,
and the damages inflicted by the proletariat were a
whole year in healing.

The Bolshevist remedy for insufficient productivity
on the part of labor, known as sabotage, is thus sum-
marized in Chapter 3 of this illuminating document :

Those who were practicing sabotage were (either)
shot to death or imprisoned by us, but nevertheless up
to this time they have eluded us in large numbers and
destroyed our apparatus and transports. Such work
is nothing else than the same counter-revolution. It
was so regarded by the Extraordinary Commission,

W OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUT

and those guilty of sabotage we without

mercy. The Extraordinary Commission threw its best

tight against this n ,

is. There is but

one way to get rid of this pestilence — burn H mil
a hot iron. And that is what the Extraordinary Com-
mission is doing.

We now come to another class « punished

by «•• 1 or any other process of law,

viz., the crime of affiliation with the s< nd labor

parties which think they have a right to a

government in proportion to their numerical I
port. This is not the Bolshevist view. And the punish-
etTort to institute cither a democratic or
a non-Bolshe i a list government «>f any chara

is i; b. We quote the following from

Chapter 4 of the above mentioned oflirial pamphlet :

there is still another kind of connter-revolu-

se who are such !>• 1<> not think.

who not seldom the triumph

Me working class, but do not understand how this

is to beaernniplished. This is the whole So.

class, the bourgeois

parties among us; s ta of the Night.

Sori of the L

re in tl working

« .' lad therefore «l--sir.- to trade with their class

is a

war no/ f,,r life but to the death; a war in which prisoners
art not taken and no compromises made, but oppoi
art killed. As there

•ion ]>d-.,
bourgeoisie and : >u may beat the

THE REIGN OF TERROR 57

as you will but he will still remain savage; so the
bourgeoisie does not change his nature.

We must recall in this connection that the civil war
is looked upon by the Bolshevists as likely to last a
generation or more and that all non-Bolshevist work-
ing men are labelled ' 'bourgeois."

Without counting irregular executions, assassina-
tions, massacres and military killings of many different
kinds, the Extraordinary Commission, in the pamphlet
quoted, confesses that it executed 2,024 persons for the
sole fact of belonging to an anti-Bolshevist organization
— such organizations, as we have said, being always
labelled for Bolshevist purposes as counter-revolution-
ary or bourgeoisie. This does not include 3,082 persons
executed for insurrection and 455 for inciting insurrec-
tion. The immense scope of the Extraordinary Com-
mission and the use of the death penalty for offenses
for which it has not been used in civilized countries
for centuries, is shown in Chapter 2 of the pamphlet
quoted :

The sphere of the labors of the Extraordinary Com-
mission was determined by the activities of the counter-
revolutionary elements; but, as there was no domain
of life into which the counter-revolutionists had not
intruded themselves, and where their destructive work
was not manifested, the Extraordinary Commission
often had to enter quite positively into all phases of
life: stores, transportation, Red army, navy, militia,
schools, consulates, industry, assessments, etc.

But the Extraordinary Commission had to interest
itself not only in direct counter-revolutionary work.
There are acts committed by no means intended cer-

58 OUT OF THKIK OWN MOUTH <

tainly to injure the Soviet authority, but simply for
personal advantage \vir

are spe<- erimei i (in

banditry, and cl

ta do no less ha >oviet

auti ;ii the open roiuM-

ollowed up in the same manner
as t!

For the sake of a ittfanflating and

mastering all the (details of tin- immense w«

rdinary Commiss

we present it to \\w n-.-id. r in i!i«- same category wt
in tli.' main was jmrsin-d in tin- course of 1:

:i the same order in which it developed,
nam«

1. Sabotage.

2. ' revolution,
-peculation.

( Yimes in office.
5. Banditry.

of the rich peasants (land-grabbrn^.
7. Desertion.

IM expression "rich peasant " ;
men' p.-asant who

called l.y them for th« ].urposes of exrcuiioi:

- needless to say that I m. H.-li or ireH-1

peasants in Russia after all t: lie de^,

of the past ' • *, and <•

years of Bolshevist persecMti(»n and attack on all
peasants who were \v. ll enough oiT to muster up
effective resistance.

Bolshevist «!

THE REIGN OF TERROR 59

passage from an order directed against the Cossacks — a
name applied to the agriculturists of a certain section :

To institute a mass terror against the well-to-do
Cossacks and peasants, exterminating them wholesale,
and to institute a ruthless mass terror against those
Cossacks in general who have any direct or indirect
part in the struggle against the Soviet power.

The Central Committee of the Russian Com-
munist Party.

Chief of the Chancellery of the Political Sec-
tion of the Southern Front.

(Signed) Cherniak,

Secretary of the Political Section of the 8th
Army.

Steklov, in the Moscow Izvestia, declares that civil
war will continue until the Social Revolutionaries and
the "koulaks" (the better-off agriculturists) who are
hampering the work of construction, particularly that
of revictualling, are completely exterminated.

Here is another example. The peasants have in many
places organized armies for self-defense which cannot
by any stretch of the imagination be called "Whites.
These so-called " Green Armies" are defending the vil-
lages from the foraging and punishment expeditions
of the Red armies. This is how a recent decree of the
Extraordinary Commission in Southern Russia pro-
poses to deal with them:

The majority of the Greens who are now in the moun-
tains have their relatives in the villages. These have all
been registered, and in case of an attack by these bands
all adult relatives of those who are fighting against

w OUT .OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

us will be shot. \\-\.\ minor relatives will be

.
In the event of a mass risinir of any villa*:.-, stanitza

\ve shall apply mass terror against these lo«
ties; for every S«- '.ill he killed

hundreds of inhabitants oi •• illages and stanitzas

will have to suff-

liolshevist remedy for any and all opponents is
to find some opprobrious to apply in-

dicating treason to Bolsh* .sh tli.-m

with the Red Terror. This method is evidently to be
used even against tin- valiant KV<1 Anny. The peasants
who ;it. of the Army arc bring

demobilized. 'naindrr. said to be sonir hundred

i sand men, an- < it In -r i y foreigners. ( 'hiuese,

Hungarian, Letts, ete.. nnd« r the name of tli

«>nalM army, or communist fanatics. The first

persecution of the rank ,'*nd fil-
Red Army was to deprive them of all rights. 1
Trot/ky in his Order of the K.-volutionary Military
Council, No. 296, dated November 10, 1920, d« < l.i

The country is in danger. The false notion that the
Umy Kill any civic n^hls threatens tlie existenee of

free Russian people and the Revoluti

It may be r« : 'hat the r.olshevists came into

power by standing for the rights of soldi n to

point of the right to rl.-rt tli«-ir own officers. Hut

now, having deprived the peasant soldiers of all rights.

in is appar. ntly upon the | turning tlie I\. d

To a meeting of the railway

THE REIGN OF TERROR 61

workers in Moscow, reported in the Bolshevist Wireless
of April 3 (1921) he said:

The soldiers do not wish to go back to cultivate their
land and become peaceful workers. The demobilized
soldiers are our greatest enemies. They have been
accustomed to rob and pillage and murder. They have
been accustomed to satisfy only their own needs and
desires.

It is evident that a despot who feels he has the power
to wage war against the personnel of his own army
is liable to proceed against any other element of his
subjects.

The use of the Extraordinary Commission and of
terroristic methods against labor is shown in the fol-
lowing passages from the report drawn up on February
1 by the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party:

In Mohilev the entire membership of both the Rus-
sion Social-Democratic Labor Party and the Bund were
arrested during the night of the 1st of November. The
Extraordinary Commission gave the following motives
for the arrest: "guilty of pernicious criticism of the
Soviet power and its activities, thereby affecting very
badly various measures taken by said power, and, since
it occurred in the war zone it affects detrimentally
the gallant Red Army." Among those sentenced (to
forced labor in various concentration camps until the
end of the civil war) were. . . .

Towards the close of the year the "verdict" (ad-
ministrative order without trial) was handed down.
Astrov, Korobkov, Grossmann, Babin, Tkatchenko,
Kuchin-Oransky and others were sentenced "for be-
longing to the right wing of the Russian Social-Demo-
cratic Labor Party" to confinement in a concentration
camp throughout the duration of the civil war.

62 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTH*

In V i't to take pnrt in the

election \vjis punished by the

*t of the local Committee of our Party (comrades
Kttatchko, Ossovsky and others < r with

tber of the Central Com 1). Dalin and 6

worl 1 actory. At the home

v N. Sukhanov a domiciliary search was made. A
month lat«T the prisoners

from Moscow, as tin- purpose of i ts had !

accomplished, the elections to the Soviet having been
most "successful" for the Bo

In Tula the outrageous behavior of the factory Com-
missary caus rnong the WOK the
Arms Fa ;iich spr« ; other cstablishm*
in that city. The protest took at fir -rm of a
strike, but following

form of so-called " aient,"

workmen and their wives compiled th«- Holsi
arrest them, thus expressing their solidarity with
prisoners. In this way several thousand work'
arrested in those days. Ti als were sev

wholesale deportations to th d to

and, as a climax, 12 of the strikers were tun
to a field court martial and hard labor

•tempt made by the
Social-Democratic group of the local Soviet to

Me s. ttlcd peaceably, the group was .
X its session.

Social Democrat i. I have

also brought bef< labor world a full i

the per* m printers and of other

Soviet at i gainst lal

party finally m>: <mg api>

I>abor— prompted by the fact that ti ibor

delegation to Russia had issued a report that was in

THE REIGN OF TERROR 63

part mildly critical or ambiguous, but, on the whole,
was distinctly friendly to the Bolshevist regime. In-
dividual members of the delegation — practically half
of it, including Tom Shaw, Ben Turner, Mrs. Philip
Snowden, Dr. Haden Guest, as well as Bertrand Rus-
sell, who accompanied the delegation had issued the
strongest adverse statements. But the report, as a
whole, was friendly, doubtless owing to domestic
politics and to diplomatic motives which do not appear.
This was all the more shocking to the Russian Socialists
and Trade Unionists since all other foreign labor
delegations — Germans, Italians, Swedish and Spanish,
had had the courage of their convictions. (See Chapter
XII.) The Social Democratic appeal is therefore
doubly important, serving not only as a picture of
Russian labor persecution but as an indictment of the
inexcusable failure of the British delegation even to
touch on these vital matters in its one-sided report —
from which was excluded also the valuable individual
testimony of Mrs. Snowden and other delegates, while
the pro-Bolshevist material of the extremists, Robert
Williams, Purcell, and Margaret Bondfield, was repro-
duced.

The Social Democratic appeal secured the following
endorsement from Merrheim, Secretary of the largest
French labor union, the Metal Workers, a leader of
the French Confederation of Labor, and an ultra-
pacifist and syndicalist himself:

Such are the facts. . . . There should arise the
vehement and indignant protest of all trade union mem-
bers and socialists (throughout the world) who still
have a sense of dignity and independence.

M OUT OF Till. IK OWN MOU I

The 1 paragraphs of thin appeal arc as fol-

1 nrti

To the British Workmen and to the Members of the
Labor Delegates to Russia

DEAR COMRADES:

We,' rsigned, Russi haverer

from Russia the information stating that the visit of

sh labour delegation to Russia

resu :>risals and peraeeationfl for all the

socialists who were bold enough t the

sdme and the acti n eonimuni.st

par

Well-known leaders of the labour movement in K
who for many years fought m- ariam, n

long and weary year ml who

hold prominent positions in tin- Russian trade union
movement, have OIK y seiiti-i.

• 1 and exi ient

We wish to repeat here a few facts mention.*.! in the
above circulars:

1. Comrji ».in. n member of th«- e.-ntrnl com-

•••c of the Russian socialist-democratic labour party,
and one of the oldest members of the party, has

om Moscow to Perm.
\vo members of the emtral committee of the

:y (Men
Dalin and Troyanovsky, ji boo in Moscow.

tubers of utive committee of the

MONCOW ; • union. ide I >• •

arrested; the printers' unio:

<>test against such actions of the soviet go\

her of the ei-ntrHl commit-
tee of the social: nary party, spoke at tho

THE REIGN OF TERROR 65

printers1 meeting in Moscow in the presence of several
members of the British labour delegates; he was, how-
ever obliged to hide after this speech, as it has made
the Extraordinary Commission (Cheka) very angry,
and they wanted to arrest him. They could not find
him, and arrested instead his wife and daughters, aged
10 and 17 years.

5. Comrade Abramovich, member of the central com-
mittee of the socialist-democratic party, welcomed the
British labour delegation at a meeting of the Moscow
Soviet. In his speech he pointed out the actual con-
dition of the Russian labour classes under the bolshevik
yoke, and was in consequence, through intrigues and
pressure from the Russian communist party, expelled
from the soviet.

We are in possession of many other similar facts,
but it would take too long to state them all here. We
think that the above facts are quite sufficient proof
that there is no freedom in soviet Russia, and that even
the socialist parties can not propagate their ideas
legally and unrestrictedly.

We feel we must put the following questions to the
British workmen and to you, members of the British
labour delegation. Do you know these facts? // you
do, what do you intend to do in order to alleviate the
sufferings of these Russian socialists who were bold
enough to tell you the entire truth about Russia f Don't
you consider that you are also responsible for their mis-
fortunes and sufferings?

We, the adherents of the socialists who are being so
severely persecuted by the Russian communist party
ruling in Russia under the disguise of the soviet gov-
ernment, think you can not and must not be indifferent
to the actual results of your policy.

We are deeply convinced that in protesting against
the blockade and intervention the British proletariat was
prompted by noble motives — the British workmen meant
to support the cause of the Russian democracy, the cause

M OUT OF THIlIi; OWN MOUTHS

•he great Russian revolution. If they did mean so,
they must understand that the struggle against the
world's reactionaries must go hand in hand with the
r the principles of the Russian d«

You denounce the blockade, the intervention and the
counter-revolution. But you must also denounce the
slavery that has been introduced into Russia by the I
sian communist party. Or Hussion u--

ing classes consider you their real friends. . . .

You have interfered ;in domestic affairs by

your struggle against the blockade, against support of
the counter-revolution, and for the recognition of the
soviet government. Your intervention was and is one-
§ided. You supported the soviet government, but
did not support the Russian proletariat and peasantry
who fought against the despotism of the soviet govern-
ment during all these terrible years. . . .

Some thirty days after this original appeal was issued
the Social Democratic Party followed it up with a seem id
appeal showing that the persecutions, instead of becom-
ing milder, had become worse, especially under the Soviet
Government set up by Moscow in the Ukrain.- i
leadership of Lenin's right bower, Rakovsky. This
Ukraine persecution seems to have been aimed mainly
and almost exclusively at the labor unions. The Social
Democratic Labor Party portrays it in the following
agraphs :

the obj- ion of the soeial-demo-

c labor party, the b< la new

weapon, which was used for the first time by II V
Rakovsky. The so-called Ukrainian ^ovenum nt ..,«;
the exile to the Georgian bord out any trial, of

seventy?
social-democratic labor party in the Ukrain ngst

THE REIGN OF TERROR 67

them are the members of the central Ukrainian com-
mittees of the social-democratic party — comrades I. Bar
(former editor of the internationalist journal, "Golos,"
in Paris during the war) , Zorohovitch, Shtern, A. Roubt-
zoff (a well-known leader of the trade union movement
amongst the metal workers), Schoulpin (leader of the
Miners' trade union), and a member of the Kharkoff
party committee, Boris Malkin. Ten other comrades
were sentenced at the same time, also without any trial,
to forced kbor in the concentration camps, until "the
end of the civil war" (i.e., indefinitely). Among them
are the well-known social- democratic leader and trade
unionist, Astroff, the trade unionist, Korobkoff from
Odessa, members of the Kieff party committee, Tchijev-
sky and Kouchin-Oransky (the latter, a well-known
socialist author, had voluntarily joined the ranks of the
"Red" army as an officer at the beginning of the Polish
war), and the distinguished leaders of the Kharkoff shop
assistants' union of Babin and Grossman.

Most of the above mentioned comrades were arrested
in Kharkoff on August 19, during the provincial con-
ference of the Russian social-democratic labor party.

Several social-democrats, leaders of the trade union
movement in Kremenchug, were also exiled to Georgia.
The boards elected by the Kremenchug trade unions have
been dissolved and replaced by persons appointed by
local organizations of the communist party.

By such measures H. T. Rakovsky, who plays the
hideous part of a menshevist renegade, hopes to destroy
the influence of the well-organized social-democrats upon
the Ukrainian working classes.

The fate of the other popular party (the Social-Revolu-
tionists) has been even more horrible — for they composed
the majority of the constitutional assembly which the
Bolshevists dispersed by bayonets and are the sole party
which can make any legitimate claim to represent the

OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

of the Russian peasants. The Social K< volu'ion-
ary Party has also addressed to world labor a vigorous
protest o '.cmcnt of physical and moral

ires introduced under Lenin through that revival of
the Spanish inqu >r<iimiry Commission

for Fighting the Counter Revolut r by

the world famed inquisitor and butcher, Djc -r/insky.
The social revolutionists state that the wife of one
he prisoners, A. T. Kuznetzov, was flogged by the
Bolshevist authorities for refusing to divulge- her hus-
band's whereabouts; that not only \v«re the wife and
daughters of Chcrnoff, Likhatch and the other leading
volutionary prisoners arrested but that in some
eases, their distant relatives were held as hostages; that
•II proposes to the wives of prisoners to enter
into its services as spies, promising to free their hus-
bands in return.

Here are the conditions of Russia's "political prison-
ers" and "conscientious objectors" as defined by the
executive committee oi i's largest political organ-

ization. The protest is addressed in the first instance
to the Soviet authorities:

The refined cruelty of the all-Russian and provincial

tor<ii nary Commissions has reached such a i
as to drive insane some of the arrested s-
revolutionists who can not endure the regime
confinement in the city of Van.slav, in the so-called
"so\ .^Q of d« -ance of

" is flaunting a si KM n-ading: "Rus-
sian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic' and above
h sign there is the old Tzarist inscription : "1
Central i nany

tried and true champions of the workers' cause among

THE REIGN OF TERROR 69

these persons to whom the March Revolution at last
opened the doors of their prisons, only to find the bars,
after a brief period of liberty, again closed on them,
this time, however, by your hands.

The prison regime to which our comrades have been
subjected in the Yaroslav soviet house of detention has
outdone the regime of the Tzarist central prison, and
even during the walks of the prisoners for their airings
they have been forbidden on pain .of the severest penal-
ties to exchange ordinary greetings with each other.
Confined to damp, cold solitary cells, left for a long time
already without necessary, repairs, with broken-down
heating, water and drainage systems, the prisoners have
been deprived of sunshine, light and air, and compelled
to live amidst filth and pestilential stench ; and if some
of them dared approach a window for a moment, the
prison guards would open fire at the window, acting
in accordance with instructions given them.

But if the outrages and brutalities, the denial of light
and air, and the shooting at the windows only repeat
and, perhaps, augment the methods used by the Tzarist
jailkeepers, torture by hunger is a new invention of the
"socialistic" prison regime.

The form of feeding the prisoners at Yaroslav falls
even far below the rations officially acknowledged by
you as hunger rations. The prisoners receive one pound
of raw, half-baked bread, and soup with some beet leaves
or herring bones for dinner, and three or four spoonfuls
of gruel for supper. But then, this gruel is no longer
given, and they are trying to make the dinner soup last
for both dinner and supper. This is all the nourishment
there is. Suck is tine regime of gradual death by starva-
tion established by you for your prisoners.

You will perhaps point to the critical food situation
all over soviet Russia, and you might say that the food
committees are not in a position to allot from their sup-
plies any more for the feeding of socialists languishing
in communist prisons.

70 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUT

not for tho food shortage of s.-.viot Russia
that slav hunger torture can be explained away.

MO case, the organs of your political ]>
would n< ith the food assistance that we are

willing to P

.s efforts and immense sacrifices

rebu have organized food assistance

to be BCI> prison. But ; vrifts

has been hedged in b\ «-ial section of your extra-

nary commission with all kinds of conditions which

made it impossible during two months to send more than

An attempt was ma<l<> to supply

prisoners with money, so as to enaMe them to order

some products permitted in thr op< a market, hut tlu»

prison authorities accepted only a certain amount which

per to confiscate ri^ht there and th.-n

in i t tho damage caused to the prison depart-

st rat ion of the p

prison. (Although it was proved that.
none of these prisoners had participated in that outhreak

Under these circumstances all efforts to fight the

• r torture havo proved futile.
Now, what is your ohj- < t in this?
Do not excuse yonrx. If hy claiming ignorance. You
know, you can not help knowing, what is ^oiiik' OB

idory of your in Yaroslav. It has be* n dis-

cussed with • -incii «.f ; -om-

missaries, Lenin i •• ith tin- rhuirman of the

tral executive committee, Kalinin, and with many otln-rs
of you.

By the hands hmen, in your communistic

'ire-chamt><'r of tho Ynrosla- , .ni want

•

manage to Q th.- tortur-

death by starvation you v, il these old champions

of socialism and the revolution'

THE REIGN OF TERROR 71

What is the cause of all these persecutions? The
answer is simple : the continued strength and popularity
of the Social-Democratic Party and labor unionists in
the citieg and of the Social Revolutionary Party of the
country. At a recent conference in Moscow, the Soviets'
leading authority, Rykov, according to the Krasnaya
Gazeta, made the following declaration :

The workers are discontented with power, for they
are hungry and lack clothing. In many of the large
factories there are no communists. There results a
political weakening of Bolshevism, notwithstanding its
strategic successes. It is -not possible to create a single
economic plan when 80 per cent of the population are
peasants who will not allow themselves to be regulated.

The Social-Democrats elected a majority in the Soviets
in many parts of the country and recently secured two-
thirds in certain elections in Petrograd. It was this that
led Lenin to an even stronger expression than Rykov,
when (early in this month of February), he declared,
in the Petrograd Pravda, that "the fight between the
labor unionists and the Soviets for supremacy will break
up the bolshevist state system unless a settlement is soon
reached." The offense of the labor unionists is very
clear. They are fundamentally opposed to the so-called
government set up by Lenin and his handful of associate
dictators. Lenin declares, "they are out for material
benefit for themselves at the expense of the general wel-
fare of the communist state." Lenin is the sole inter-
preter of the welfare of this " proletarian " state; the
organized proletariat has no voice.

SLAVERY AND COMPULSORY LABOR

WORKING men and their or^an. r not only

i the lack of any form of representative government

or freedom of press or assemblage, and not only from

the persecutions of the Extraordinary Commission, but

also from Soviet legislation aimed directly at Labor.

After a year of syndicalism, factory Soviets and an-
archy—during which production was reduced to
than ono-sovonth of its previous level — the Soviet "Gov-
••nt" in 1919 reversed its industrial policy and began
to have recourse to one form after another of labor com-
pulsion or enslavement. Compulsion has never, through-
out history, produced the same degree of cfiiciency as
freedom, but some of the most extreme disorder was
cured and the Bolshevists gave figures to prove that th<>
output of Russian industry had now " though

in a few cases only, to as high as two-thirds of its pre-
war level — a level which was very low indeed in com-
parison to that of more advanced countries.

The first completed plan of labor compulsion was that
devised by the "Code of Labor Laws." Some of tho

1 clauses of this slave code, as it was puhli
in the official orgu Soviet "Embassy" in America,

called Soviet Russia, on February 21, 1920, were as

72

SLAVERY AND COMPULSORY LABOR 73

The assignment of wage earners to work shall be
carried out through the Departments of Labor Distribu-
tion.

In case of urgent public work the District Depart-
ment of Labor may, in agreement with the respective
professional unions and with the approval of the Peo-
ple's Commissariat of Labor, order the transfer of a
whole group of wage earners from the organization where
they are employed to another situated in the same or
in a different locality, provided a sufficient number of
volunteers for such work cannot be found.

The production standards of output adopted by
the valuation commission must be approved by the
proper Department of Labor jointly with the Council
of National Economy.

The Supreme Council of National Economy jointly
with the People's Commissariat of Labor may direct
a general increase or decrease of the standards of
efficiency and output for all wage earners and for all
enterprises, establishments and institutions of a given
district.

The Ninth Congress of the Russian Communist Party,
the real Soviet Government, which took place a few
weeks later (in April, 1920), attempted to give reasons
for the new coercion plans. The chief arguments used
were these:

The Ninth Congress approves of the Central Com-
mittee of the Russian Communist Party on the mobiliza-
tion of industrial proletariat, compulsory labour service,
militarisation of production and the application of mili-
tary detachments to economic needs.

In connection with the above, the Congress decrees
that the Party organisation should in every way assist
the Trade Unions and the Labour Sections in registering

74 OUT OF TH1 :iU OWN MOUTHS

all skilled workers with a view of employing them in
the various branches of the production with the same
consist ci mess as was done, and is being

carried out to the present time, with regard to the com-
manding staff for army nct<:- . .

y social system, whether based on slavery. tVudal-
i. had its ways and means of labour
pulsion and labour education in the interests of
exploiter^.

Soviet system is faced with the task of developing
its own methods of labour compulsion to attain nn inn

and wholesomeness of labour; this
method is to be based on the socialisation of public
economy in the interests of the whole nn?

In addition to the propaganda by which tho ;
are to be influenced and the repressions which at
be a- • all idlers, p.-! .nd disorpanisers who

public zeal — tin- principal method
increase of production will become the introdue-
iie system of labour. . . .

Owing to the fact that a eonsid- »f tho

workers, of beti< •<>ndition

often for purposes of speculation, voluntarily lea\v their
places of employment or chani?.> from pi

.bly harms production and deteriorates the
general position of the working class, the Congi
aiders one of tli-

Gove and of the Trade Union organisation to be

established is the firm, systematic, and insistent stru
with labour d> The way to liirht this is to pnl

t of desertion fines, the crc Labour D.-ia.-h

t of Deserters under fine, and, finally, inUrm.
in concentration camps.

A resolution was also adopted which still more- elearly
defined the nature ,.f the new enslavement and poii
out the "necessity'* for using the same punishments for

SLAVERY AND COMPULSORY LABOR 75

labor desertion as those employed in cases of military
desertion :

The organisations of the Party must assist in every
way the Trade Unions and labour departments in
registering skilled workers for the purpose of employing
them in productive labour on the same principles and
with the same severity as are adopted with regard to
officers mobilized for the requirements of the army.

The officers' families, it may be recalled, are held as
hostages for their good behavior.

If we wish to get a picture of how this industrial
mobilization or militarisation works out in practice we
can refer to the report presented to the International
Federation of Trade Unions late in 1920 by represen-
tatives of the Russian Metal Workers Union.

Militarisation means a complete and absolute subjec-
tion of the workmen to the work's management. It em-
bodies a number of stern measures, also restriction of
leaves and cruel suppression of strikes.

In order to show to what extent militarisation is car-
ried out in the metal industry we quote below an extract
from an article, which appeared in the XIII issue of
the journal "Metallist" in August, 1920, and was con-
tributed by a Communist worker, Khronin: " Absolute
submission to the director has been introduced at these
works (Plow works of Kostroma) ; neither interference
nor contradiction on the part of the workmen are
tolerated. The instructions given by the works com-
mittee are in accordance with the instructions of the
Works' Management. At our works absence without
permission of the foreman means suspension of the extra
ration. Refusal to work overtime also means suspension
of ration. Whereas an obstinate refusal means arrest.

76 P OF THKIK OWN MulTIIS

For beinff late at work a tin. weeks' wagt

imposed."

When the Bolsheviks came into power they abol
time work in all branches of indnsUy, Bui H

at was .: in alarming way and as many

ed worku liases the S<>

L920, reintrodo

work. At first it was optional, l»ut in the
summer "f this year it was announced that overtime is
compulsory.

At a secret meeting <>n the r.th <.f September. 1D120. the

nt «•!' tin- IVtrograd Labour Orgnr
adop f.'llou -ing resolution: "Never bei

!ely as now ; the worst

• is that more than 80% of the overtime is com-
• ry ant! any n-fusal on tlic part of (he workmen
is severely piinisi..

Ov» rfiine work is reinuneratod as follows: for the first
two hours — double pay; for the second two hours — tiim1
and a half.

The normal working day is 8 hours and 44 hoin
week, but owing to compulsory overtime the Russian

works now 12 hours a day, and 72 lion
week. Sometimes compulsory work is performed on
Sundays, which makes SO hours p»-r week.

workmen, far from being pleased with theso

a result a wave of si i
passed all over Soviet Russia in l:»iv

Th.Te is little known in Kun.pe about th-
'he measures taken to suppn-ss them, as the Bols!
Ooverni h Controls all papers and journals, does

allow this information to appear in tlir press. But
official d«' tin- following information

(Central Committee of Statistics of the Commissariat of
Labour).

During the first six months of 1920:

rikes have been called in 77% of the large and
sized works.

SLAVERY AND COMPULSORY LABOR 77

2. In nationalized undertakings strikes are continuous
and 90% of them are called at such factories and works.

As a part of the system of Labor compulsion absolute
dictators have been placed over the factories with the
power of life and death. Schliapnikoff, Chief Commissar
of Labor, printed the following explanation in the Rus-
sian Bolshevist press on November 13, 1919 :

All those circumstances (a total absence of order and
discipline in the factories) put together have compelled
us to abolish the Working Men's Councils and to place
at the head of the most important concerns special
" dictators, " with unlimited powers and entitled to dis-
pose of the life and death of the workmen.

The ' ' Code of Labor Laws ' ' was by no means the last
experiment in methods of enslavement, Trotzky follow-
ing this up with the plan for utilizing the thousands
of conscripts of the Red Army for purposes of labor,
thus going back to the military slavery of ancient Egypt
and Peru.

Lenin and Trotzky have freely expended their rhetor-
ical and propaganda talents to justify the new slavery,
not as a temporary expedient but as resting upon the
permanent principles of Sovietism. In his booklet ' ' The
State and the Revolution*' (pages 51 and 67) Lenin
says:

We want the Socialist revolution with human nature
as it is now; human nature itself cannot do without
subordination. There must be submission to the armed
vanguard of the proletariat.

Until people grow accustomed to observing the elemen-
tary conditions of social existence without force and

78 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

without subjection there mast be suppression, and it is
suppression tl ' also be

nee and there cannot be liberty or dcmoer,.

This reasoning on the surface means that no peoples
are ready for liberty or democracy, and as th<
be some form of dictatorship, why not the dictatorship
of Lenin and his Party? Hut under the surface is also
the shrewd calculation, evident throughout the S«
leader's statements, th. issian masses, being a^

tomed to merciless repression and subjection will finally
give up hope of self-government and submit to the
Soviet's rule if the Bolshevists can remain a few years
longer in the saddle.

In his official report to the Soviet Economic Confer-
ence in January, 1920, Lenin frankly justified the rule
of a minority of tin- eity workers, which he calls the
conscious "vanguard," over the majority of the city
workers as well as the peasants v
cent of the population — and it is to be an arbitrary
personal rule like that of the army. Here is what he
•Idi

In tl n of the army wo have passed from

• of command by committee to the direct
We must do the same in the
OFgai • . • !,ninit and indn-'

commit?. ;• and its d< ut we

•y, but it does not give that

™p' >rk whi. i by the situation.

In the auto* -tie chiefs of Communism and the

Communist domination of the people lies the pledge of
on nwotm

SLAVERY AND COMPULSORY LABOR 79

So in speaking of the new compulsory labor armies
under military discipline Trotzky said at the same con-
gress:

This is but the beginning of our work. There will
be many drawbacks at first, much will have to be altered,
but the basis itself cannot be unsound, as it is the same
as that on which our entire Soviet structure is founded
(i.e., this is not a temporary military expedient).

As to the workmen, Trotzky said:

All artisans will be sent into the works and trans-
ferred from one place to another, according to the in-
dications of the Government. We will have no pity
for the peasants; we will make labor armies of them,
with military discipline and Communists as their chiefs.
These armies will go forth among the peasants to gather
corn, meat and fish that the work of the workmen may
^be assured.

The Soviet scheme of compulsory labor is being ap-
plied on such a broad scale and is so boldly presented
as a "proletarian" scheme that it constitutes the gravest
danger that has confronted labor for centuries. It is
undoubtedly destined to become historic. It is therefore
well worth while to present at somewhat greater length
the extraordinary reasoning by which Trotzky and
Lenin seek to defend it. The first full justification was
presented by Trotzky to the Communist Party Congress
in March, 1920, and was published in the official Soviet
organ of Moscow on the 21st. Its most important points
are perhaps the following:

At the present time the militarization of labor is all
the more needed in that we have now come to the

80 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

mobilization of peasants as the means of solving the
problems requiring mass action. We arc mohili/ing the
peasants and forming them into labor dt -tadnm-ii1
very closely resemble mi lit

Some of our comrades say, however, that even though
in the case of the working power of mobilized peasa:
I necessary to apply militarization, a military
paratus need not be created when the question in\
^killed labor and industry because there we have pro
sional (labor) unions performing the function of or-
ganizing labor. This opinion, howe\ rotieOQS,

We have in the most important branches of our in-
dustry more than a million workmen on the lists, but

ui right hundred thousand of them
;ally working, and where are the remainder? They
have gone to the villages or to other divisions of indus-
uto speculation. Among soldiers this is called
desertion, and, in one form or another, the men-
used to e- s to do their duty should be applied

in the ti<-hl of labor.

Under a unified system of economy the masses of

workmen should be moved about, ordered and s«-nt fn-m

plaer to phi.-.- iii exactly the same manner as soldiers.

•he foundation of the militari/ation of labor, and

we are unable to sp< any

orga- :.dustry on a new basis in the conditions

of Stni \isting today.

In the period of transition in the or >M of labor

••uKion plays a very important part. The statement
that employed labor, prod

•m labor under compn1 ly when

applied to feudalist ic and bourgeois orders of soc

Later in the year in an article n-pnhlished l>y the
official Bolshevist organ in America, Soviet

at length that compulsory labor is the
of Soviet communism. According to Trotzky

SLAVERY AND COMPULSORY LABOR 81

Russia is in a period of transition to communist socialism
which must last many years. He says :

The transition to socialism means the transition from
a rudimentary distribution of labor power (by the play
of purchase and sale, by movement of market and labor
wages) to a planful distribution of workers through the
economic organs of the district, of. the province, of the
entire country. Such a planful distribution presupposes
the subordination of those to be distributed to the
economic plan of the state. This is the essence of labor
duty, which unquestionably is contained as a fundamen-
tal element in the program of the socialist organization
of labor.

The carrying out of obligatory labor is inconceivable
without an application of the methods of the militariza-
tion of labor in greater or less measure.

Why do we speak of a militarization? Of course this
is only an analogy. But it is a very pregnant analogy.
No other social organization, with the exception of the
army, has ever considered itself justified to subordinate
citizens to such an extent, to develop them on all sides
by the application of its will as the state of the pro-
letarian dictatorship is doing and considers itself jus-
tified in doing.

Trotzky asserts that compulsory labor is the very
foundation of the Soviet State and that it will have to
remain the basis until the coming generation through
compulsion, terror, and the Bolshevist press and school
monopoly (which Trotzky calls education) has converted
the population into communism. This is the view ex-
pressed in the " theses" which he presented to the Eco-
nomic Congress on January 24, 1920. One of these
"theses" is the following:

82 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

In building up a of a, very

i'd and <1
a systematic basis is i • without tin- app

relating to tin- backward
he peasantry and working class. The means
of compulsion at the disposal of the state form its mili-
tary power. Con ;• , tin- oi>raiii/ation of work on
a military basis, in some form or other, is an uncondi-
;il necessity for every society which is built upon
the principle of compulsory labor.

Compulsory measures will be less and less needed as
the system of socialization of industry develops, and the
conditions of labor become more favorable, and as the
educational level of the coming generation is raised.

Noteworthy in tl. ," is the fart that any alt-

it of the working class which the communists may
;• leased to designate as " backward" is to be treated
same as the Russian agriculturists or peasants, i.e.,
the same as the outlawed "bom

By such arguments Trotzky defends also the introduc-
tion of the Taylor system, bonuses, <

-refer© wages for labor." ho continues, "both in
the form of money and in that of commodities, must lv»
made to coincide as far as possible with the product

"f ti dual laborer. Under capitalism, pi • work

agreements for a of the Taylor

had the object of increasing the exploitn-

ti«»n workers by KM out a surplus pn.tit.

•••:••• work, premiums,

have the object of increasing the social production
with it also the gen. ral w

Yet one of the slogans by which the Bolshevists tricked
Itbor into that measure of support tl d to got

.' SLAVERY AND COMPULSORY LABOR 83

themselves into power was precisely the abolition of the
bonus system. In November, 1917, Lenin said: "The
bonus system is a heritage of the capitalistic regime and
we repudiate it." And now we see the bonus system
not only restored but established in places where it did
not exist before.

Another promise to labor by which the Bolshevists
were helped into power was a shorter working day. Now
they have made long hours and Sunday work compul-
sory:

Our workday lasts twelve hours. We are compelled
to work in two shifts in the paper department of our
factory, and we are forced to work both Saturdays and
Sundays. No exception is made with regard to women.
Since August 15, overtime work has become compulsory.
(Resolution of Petrograd government printing office
workers. )

No leave of absence is to be granted to the workers.
Failure to do overtime work is punishable, the first time
by forfeiture of food allowance, and the second time by
court action. Lateness of ten minutes on the job will
be fined with loss of a day's pay. (From an order of
the Petrograd government printing office, signed by
Manager Forst, August, 1920.)

A report at the Russian Trade Union Congress of
1920 declared that the flight to the villages was so great
that the proletariat was disappearing, melting away.
Surely a rather serious state of affairs under the * ' dicta-
torship of the proletariat!" The official representative
of the Petrograd labor unions in one of their resolutions
declared :

Si OUT OF THKIi: OWN MOUTHS

We feel as it we were hard labo? » rery-

thing l»ut our feeding has been made subjrr-

s. We have become lost as human beings, and have
been turned into slaves. (Resolution of Petrograd
workers of September 5, 1920.)

It must not be supposed that the argun Lenin

differ from those of Tn.t/.ky <>n this fundamental point.
The American organ Soviet Russia declares that
Soviet Russia is "the property of the producers" and
ry worker belongs to Soviet Kuxsia." No more ab-
solute abandonment of individual liberty has ever 1
seen in print. Soviet Russia then proceeds to justify
itself by reproducing the following article from the
i. who differs from Trotzky only in the pro;
tion that methods of compulsion will have to be con-
•>d not for one but for many gene ratio i

Communist labor, in the strictest sense of the word,
unitary labor of future so< formed with-

out pay, not as a definite duty, not in order to obtain
the right to a share of production, and not according
to rigid rules. It is labor performed freely, hound by
ule, without regard to compensation, and not with
an eye t«- vard. It is labor performed as a hal.it,

'he common good, and with the jvali/atimi of
necessity (which will also lirmme a habit), in order to
provi.lr f.,r the needs of society

•'. e, and this means our

•oci' • advance very far indeed In-fore labor of

1 in our so.-ial «.rd.-r.
i- disripline. : forms

Of » iicthods of drawing jM-(.pl««

to work— this is a task of many g is. It is

supreme task.

SLAVERY AND COMPULSORY LABOR 83

To succeed in great things, we must begin in little
things. And even after the " great" thing — the over-
throw of the state, whereby capitalism is destroyed and
power is transferred to the proletariat — the formation
of industrial life on a new basis must start with the
little things. Communist Saturdays, industrial armies,
compulsory labor — these are various forms of the prac-
tical working out of Socialist labor.

A radical American Socialist, Albert Boni (formerly
of the publishing firm of Boni and Liveright) who has
just returned from several months in Soviet Russia has
given us, in the New York Globe, a pro-Soviet news-
paper, the following unforgettable picture of the new
slavery.

The industrial collapse of Russia brings not merely
a problem of technical reorganization, replacement of
machinery and supplying raw materials and motive
power. The Communist party is facing a situation in
which the laboring classes, in whose behalf, supposedly,
the Communist party is working, are proving themselves
not only unwilling, but unable to endure the hardships
and suffering that industrial disorganization has imposed
upon them. In the face of impossible living conditions,
the workers are abandoning the cities for the country
and its more certain existence.

To meet the dearth of man-power, the Russian govern-
ment decreed that every male over sixteen years of age
must labor at such tasks as the state may assign. Labor
books, showing that this obligation is being fulfilled, have
been issued to all citizens, replacing passports and all
other identification papers.

Wherever plans of the central government meet with
opposition they have one resort that never fails — military
force and the terror imposed by the extraordinary com-
mission. But the peasants are already in a state of too

SO OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

great restlessness to pormit of foreihle measures over
wide stretches of t,rn\it n

consequences. Conscription of labor is going forv

slowly, and only where ih« Communist forces are
gathered in such strength that resistance is rendered
impossible.

The Russian laborer is held tied to his shop as c
a* any feudal serf was bound to the land of hi* I
Transfer of employees from one factory to anoth.
possible only with the consent of the shop dii
Travel beyond a radius of twenty-five miles is pos

with the consent of the local representatives of the
aordinary commission, whieh permission is granted
upon the request of the factory . \mitive. I).

:a factories is punishable by reduction
ration, and, if repeated, by arrest and internment in
cone n camps. Some of the most important pi

are being operated like military enenmpmcnts, won

'cd upon the grounds. T

• niployeesare held under armed guards and re.{
special passes to enter and to leave.

Military discipline has been introduced in all works.
H aro imposed for workers arriving late, heavy
punishments t''d from those failing to apj

unless satisfactory justification of their -rt li-

es are again placed under individual
vith dictatorial power in dii hands

f work. Overtime is demand*
Piece work, premiums, the Taylor sys
peas; hods are introduced to speed up the

ted work<r In each factory n
the extraordinary con reporting all case

dealt with sevc r

k-es are absolutely forbidden, and nin/ attempts to
organize the workers to resist the imposition of
demands are catted counter-revolutionary activities
whick long-term imprisonment is the lightest possible
punishment.

SLAVERY AND COMPULSORY LABOR 87

As far as is possible under that ruthless tyranny the
organized labor of Russia is everywhere in a state of
full revolt. The organized workers are doing what they
can to reach the hearts and minds of laboring humanity
in all countries, but they are working against overwhelm-
ing obstacles — the refusal of the bread card, which means
immediate starvation for their families, the firing squad,
death by torture in prisons. It is difficult for them
even to speak, and a decree especially forbidding speeches
at labor union meetings has been issued. Martoff,- the
world-renowned leader of the Social-Democratic Party,
has described a special decree prohibiting — under
threat of the revolutionary tribunal — speeches at work-
men's meetings without special permission from the Mos-
cow authorities. Martoff says that since the decree was
issued not a single social-democrat has obtained this per-
mission. Another decree calls for the compulsory at-
tendance of workmen at meetings at which the benefits
of Soviet rule are expounded, time being paid for attend-
ance!

VI

Till-: PERSECUTION OF ORGANIZED LABOR:
TRADE UNIONS

IN Soviet Russia the Bolslu -vists are using many words
with a new meaning. It has been shown how they
sometimes employ the word "democracy" to mean the
reverse of what all civilized peoples and all the labor
movements of the world have hitherto meant by tho
word. So also, after abolishing all the rights of labor
and labor organizations and of cooperatives the Bol-
shevists, nevertheless, continue to apply the tern.

•us" and "cooperatives" to tho empty shells that
remain.

In Soviet Russia (April 2, 1921) we read: "Tho
trad- > have been practically transformed into

organs of the Soviet (iovenmient. Membership in tho
trade unions is now compulsory for Russian work-
Never before has the term "trade union" l>em applied
to a compulsory state opgani/ati«»n. We shall show !>•
that even the Bolshevists themselves are divided as to
they shall now .ill the seven million

mental and ngrieiiltural \\ honi

they seek to classify as the "proletariat " as heing mem-
bers of the trade unions or not. It i 1 that a
large part of these people do not hat they are
members of trade unions and do not even pay dues. In
fact, the dues seem to be paid by the Government, as we

PERSECUTION OF ORGANIZED LABOR 89

may see from the following Moscow wireless sent out
in December, 1920, to trade union officials throughout
Russia :

In compliance with the decision of the 8th Congress
financial accounts must be rendered every month. The
majority of Government Trade Union Soviets at present
do not render any such accounts. The Central Soviet
of Trade Unions begs to inform all Government Soviets
of trade unions that unless they send in monthly
accounts dating from October 30th in compliance with
regulations, they will receive no funds. The decision
of the People's Commissariat.

Also these "trade unions" do not have the right to
strike or to propose a change in the form of government.
They may elect their own officials if the officials elected
meet the approval of the Communist Party, otherwise
the officials are "appointed."

In his report to the party printed (See Krasnaya
Gazeta) January 11, 1921, Zinoviev declared:

At the present moment we have 24 trade unions,
counting in their ranks 6,970,000 members. But the
larger portion of these members have been ascribed to
the unions mechanically.

Only a minority, at the very best, half a million, are
members of the party.

If we recall the fact that only 70,000 industrial
workers are listed by the Communist Party itself as
party members, we see that Zinoviev 's estimate of com-
munist trade unionists is indeed high — as he confesses.
The British Labor Delegation to Soviet Russia reports

«<) OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

an entirely different number <i "mechanically

ascribed" so-callt They say :

It was put to us that the Communist Party, number-
ing 600,000 members, could be likened to a small cop-
wheel whi.-h turns a larger cog-wheel representing the
Trade Union nt numbering 4,500,000 members.

.it wheel of Russia's indus-
and agricultural system.

Whether the number of workers labeled "trade union-
ists" v, i-miH nt is 4,500,000 or 7,000,000,
whether the number of party members among them is
100,000 or 500,000, it may !.,• seen that the proportion
of Communists is not higher than one-ninth, and prob-
ably very much leas.

According to Zorin's official report, on June 1, 1920,
out of the 29,000 railroad workers of the IVtrograd

895 were Communists, while of 5,000
ployed in the water, gas and electric works only 145
were Communists — that is three p.-r emt in each instance.

The decisions of the Communist Party do not 1-
any doubt about the plaee of t; llled "trade

MS" in the Soviet State. The party congress in
1, 1920, was very explicit on the subject, as wo may
see from the following decisions :

The Trade Unions and the Soviet State.

The Soviet State is the widest imairinable form of
Labour Orgiu which is actually ivalisintf the

Btruction of Comnui! .tiractin^ to this

K masses of n 'he other

hand, the Soviet State represents Labour Organisation
which has at its disposal all the material means of com-

PERSECUTION OF ORGANIZED LABOR 91

pulsion. In the present form of Proletarian Dictator-
ship, the Soviet State is the lever of the economic coup
d'etat. There is, therefore, no question of opposing the
organs of the Soviet Government.

Politics may be said to be the most concentrated
expression of the generalisation and completion of
economics. Therefore, any antagonism of the economic
organisation of the working-class known as the Trade
Unions towards its political organisation — i.e., the Soviets
— is an absurdity and is deviating from Marxism to-
wards bourgeois ideas and particularly towards bourgeois
Trade Union prejudices. This kind of antagonism is
still more harmful and absurd during the epoch of
Proletarian Dictatorship when all the struggle of the
proletariat and the whole of its political and economical
activity should more than ever be concentrated, united
and directed by one single will and bound by an iron
unity.

The Trade Unions and the Communist Party.

The Communist Party is the leading organisation of
the working-class, the guide of the Proletarian Move-
ment and of the struggle for the establishment of the
Communist system.

It is therefore necessary that every Trade Union
should possess a strictly disciplined organised fraction
of the Communist Party. Every fraction of the Party
represents a section of the local organisation which is
under the control of the Party Committee, whilst frac-
tions of the All-Russian Central Council of Trade Unions
are under the control of the Central Committee of the
Russian Communist Party.

Under such a regulation it was natural that even the
hollow shells of "trade unions" should almost cease to
exist, and it seems that an accusation to this effect was
actually made by Trotzky at a meeting reported in

92 OUT OF rl OWN MOUTHS

Igvestia January 1, 1921, as we may see from the follow-
ing remarks by Zimn

Many people say that the Professional Unions just
at present are raftering a grave crisis, and even that
Unions arc on the brink of ruin. Comrade Trot/ky
began with this point. No one can say that our l"i

satisfying shape. On the contrary the apparatus
of t! y weak, and will remain weak ax

long ;us their financial support is as small as at present.

And is it true in fact, what comrade Trot/ky said:
"Where are tli-- Professional Unions, they are doing
nothing, they have no foundation." The Professional
Unions are weak owing to tin civil war and to lack
of attention, but is it really true, that they do not exist T

For such "trade unions" to strike is not only against
the law; it is regarded as treason or desertion, and it
may be punished as such. 1 pie. the Moscow

Soviet, as reported in Izvestia of July 2, 1918, resolved :

As from now, the organised forces of the proletariat,

trades unions (professional associations) will bo

r the management of the Council of National

Economy, which will organise the management and

production of industrial enterprises. I'nder these new

methods of mana^r-mmi, tin- workers will see. to dis-

eipl -he increase of productivity, and will end

'ion. Tiider >nditions

y stoppage of work and all strikes will bo an act

of treason to the proletarian revolution.

^tnro of the practical workings of this kind of
"trade unionism" wa to the British Labor Dele-

gation in Moscow by one of the of -he Prin

Union, A. Kefali, on May 23, 1920. We quote a few

PERSECUTION OF ORGANIZED LABOR 93

sentences only from this extremely interesting and im-
portant speech — which the printers assert led to the
imprisonment of all the chief officers of the union:

One may exhibit a sitting of the Moscow Soviet, con-
sisting exclusively of Communists; one may show a sit-
ting of the Russian Central Board of Trade Unions,
consisting exclusively of Communists, but one cannot
show a single free workmen's meeting that will have a
Communist majority.

Here are thousands of Moscow printers, behind whom
stand scores of thousands of Moscow and other Russian
workmen who, at the epoch of the Russian Revolution,
under a government that calls itself a workmen's govern-
ment— a government realising its socialistic programme,
a government calling Socialism to life, a government
annihilating the parasitic classes — those thousands of
Moscow printers, I say, and behind them scores and
hundreds of thousands of Russian workmen, have all of
them under this government no right to vote, no right
to assemble, no right to print. As in the time of the
Czar's government, the printers are forced to print, not
their own thoughts, but calumnies against themselves.

Communists sometimes use menaces of arrests against
the workers to oblige them to leave their posts in the
board of the Union voluntarily, and in practice this
often happens. Sometimes they do it otherwise; they
say that if a Communist is not elected to the Board or
Factory Workers' Committee, they, the Communists,
will arrange things so that their workers will receive
less food and other necessary things. And sometimes
this produces its effect. This affirmation can be verified
in a series of factories in Moscow.

When such means have no result, the Communists let
the local Soviets or the Central Council of Trade Unions
dissolve the Board of the Trade Unions; such was the
case with the first Central Board of the Printers' Union.

04 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

militarization and coercion of labor has proceeded
80 far as to lead to a in M within

these go, »MS" and within the (

nun volt began as a

against the extreme violence of the head of the K'.-d
ky. We take the following from the friendly
New Statesman of London; it is amply supported by
t documents:

1 known that early in 1920 Trotsky made an
ipr to militarise industry by transforming a few
of the Red armies into labor battali

At first these "Labor armies" aroused much hope and
were greatly advertised by the Communists as the last
word in -ruction crusade, but they soon proved

an utter failure.

Only 20-24 per cent, of the soldiers actually did any
work — and that in a wasteful and grossly unprodu
way. The rest were occupied in supplying them
in preserving the military character of the institution.
After a short period of enthusiasm and exaltation, the
experiment was recognized as a wasteful delusion.
the Polish attack made an end of it before its folly
became too obvious.

-ky, however, did not give up the idea of apply-
ing military methods to industry. As the Acting (

;ir for Transport, in the absence of Kra
introduced military discipline on the railu

Commissars, revolutionary tribunals, political intelli-
gence and supervision replaced onli: hods of
management.

•id under pn
whi< other ui •npletely

1, all officers M being

pointed i,y the Chief Commissar.

All this could be t. during the war.

railways d a par1 war

PERSECUTION OF ORGANIZED LABOR 95

machine, but with the war over, the railwaymen began
to protest against military management.

Other unions, too, raised their voice against the per-
manent militarization of the railways.

At the beginning of November (1920) the Conference
of Trade Unions passed a resolution which recommended
"the most energetic and systematic struggle against cen-
tralism, militarization, bureaucratism as well as auto-
cratic and minute tutelage of the workers ' unions. ' '

The conference expressed also its conviction that "it
is high time for the Railway Union to abolish military
methods and return to ordinary proletarian democracy
within the union."

But Trotsky — the head of the union — ignored the
decision of the conference. Pointing out the manifest
improvement of the transport under his management,
he started a campaign for the adoption of military
methods all round as the basis for a new efficiency in
industry.

Far from denying his action in appointing the chiefs
of the railway unions, Trotzky defended it at the con-
gress of the transport workers. His speech is quoted in
the New York Call of January 14, 1921, as follows :

Now as to the question of appointees. Is it right, as
the State has said, that it was necessary to change the
head official of the union? Rightly or wrongly we have
intervened. . . .

The union was not suited to the revolutionary demands
of the working-class, and our faction waged a merciless
internal struggle and put its own men everywhere. . . .

And so the working-class, in the persons of its political
representatives, says: Here we interfere; we are going
to narrow this period of struggle between the two
groups ; we economize ; we diminish ; we order. To deny
the principle of intervention is to deny that we live in

a workers' state.

I

% OUT OF THKIR OWN Mur:

lie congress of

Trotzky - : " It will be necessary to reorp;;

-us without delay, that is

personnel of the more responsible positions." In otht -r
words, he proposed to apply gem rally the q
app- of labor union oflicials by tin- Communist

Party — which he had nstituted on tin- railways,

name he gave to this policy was: "democracy in

production." Even Lenin himself at
meeting made fun of this stranire : uage

— although it is entirely typical of the usual Bolshevist
s in the use of words. Lenin declared that,
Trotzky 's plan was merely an increase of "hu:
i-'roin report of the All-Russian Confer.
of Professional or Labor Unions, Pravda, January
1921.)

Lenin accused Trot/ky of lack of tact in disc
these matters in public. Lenin's own methods aiv more
secretive. He believes that the all-powerful Communist
Party, aided by the Red 'I \traordn

Com: . ,in nOim the "election" of "trade union"

als by the methods hitherto employed. What l
met bods are we can see from a passage already <|u<

We must know bow to apply, at need, k;

illegal methods, hiding truth by silenee. in ord.

ry h. -art «.f the Iradr unions, to remain
and to accomplish there the Commui,
(Lenin, in "Radicalism, the Infantile Malady of ('

inkm" pmu'ram, as hr .1
above m- : the unions should be u]

PERSECUTION OF ORGANIZED LABOR 97

suaded" to institute tribunals in order to increase
production for the Soviet Government and punish
" labor desertion.*' (See the previous chapter.)

Of course, the ' * trade union ' ' revolt could not amount
to much under the Bolshevist rule. Two factions, how-
ever, offered a very vigorous resistance and under the
Soviet tyranny it is significant that they did manage,
after all, to obtain a certain number of votes. This
opposition is divided between the faction which proposed
to restore the Soviet rule and a so-called Syndicalist
faction. Neither of them suggests any concession what-
ever to the peasant majority of Russia, but both seem
fairly strongly opposed to a continuation of the present
Communist Party rule. The New Statesman correctly
sums up the opposition of these factions as follows :

If we consider Trotzky's militarist-bureaucratic pro-
posals as the extreme left, then the extreme right is
taken up by the group of the ''Labor Opposition,'7
headed by Shliapnikov — chairman of the Metal Workers'
Union — the strongest Russian union.

The "Labor Opposition" demands that the entire
economy of the Republic should be taken over by a
congress of producers, organized in producers' unions.
This is a consistent syndicalist conception, based on the
belief that economic matters should be left entirely to
labor organizations.

Bitterly criticizing the bureaucratic tutelage over the
unions by the Communist party, the "Labor Opposi-
tion" advocates complete self-government in the fac-
tories.

Another faction, headed by Ossinsky and Sapronov,
calls itself the group of ' ' Democratic Centralism. ' ' This
group is one with the "Labor Opposition" in demanding
democratic reforms and active participation of the

I'S OUT OF TIIK1K OWN MolTIIS

:n the management of industry, but
against the syml. ;..n of the M.

icmand is for the re-establish:
of the Soviet Constitution.

The official Lenin resolution r< at the

conference, Trotzky's resolution f>o, and that of the Labor
Opposition 18.

What was the result of this conference? Far
bringing any relaxation of the Communist dictatorship
•suited in putting at the IK ad of the railroads the
one man in Russia who is noted as more violent than
Trot/.ky himself, nann n *s right arm, Djerjinsky,

:' of tin- frightful Extraordinary Commission. Such
is labor reform and "democratization" in Soviet \l\i
AB we read in a dispatch of April 19, 1920:

President Djerjinsky of the All Russian Kxtraordinarv
Commission of the People's Commissary of tin- Interior,
who is also Chairman of tin- i:\ti-aordinary Commi^

the Improvement of Conditions of Life of the
Workers, Chairman of the Extraordinary Commi-
for the Care of Children and of several other
ry commissions, has been appointed IVopb
misBary of Transport and Communi<-at ions. The present
Commissary, M. EmshanoiT, 1
The decree of the Ce1 fccntive Committ.

will maintain all his

I, thus becoming still more j.owerful. I

recent anim.v n of the position of

.y was K« for

due'mkr militnr>* methods into the ma' it of

T •

miasary - i to the

ia) methods of management only to give \\

PERSECUTION OF ORGANIZED LABOR 99

few weeks to Djerjinsky, who will introduce on the
railways the methods of the Extraordinary Commission.

No better illustration of the Bolshevist policy towards
labor unions could be offered than the picture given in
the appeal to the labor world sent out towards the end
of 1920 by the Moscow Printers' Union. We reproduce
it here in full, with the exception of a few irrelevant
sentences :

Appeal of Moscow Printers' Union

The Printers' Union of Moscow is the last trade union
organization that has remained faithful to the principles
of the independence of the trade unions and their
separate existence as a class organization.

The Moscow Printers' Union defends these principles
because a trade union organization can neither subject
itself to nor permit itself to be absorbed by the organs
of the government under the conditions now existing
when private property is not abolished, when the state
is the largest if not the only entrepreneur, when the
purchase and sale of labor power is completely conserved
— in a word, when labor's independent and free organs
of defense and protection from the pressure of the other
classes are indispensable.

In the domain of labor policy the practice of the
Soviet government during the three years of its existence
presents a striking example of this idea.

The Moscow Printers' Union believes that it is ab-
solutely necessary to carry on a campaign of discussion
amongst the proletariat against the political, economic,
and administrative monstrosities practiced by the party
in power.

For taking this position, for conducting this battle
of principles, the Communists hate the printers in a
manner surpassing even their hatred for the bourgeoisie
and the landlords, at present non-existent in Russia,

100 OUT OF Till IK OWN MOUTHS

Commui "lie hand to such counter-

as Broussiloff and Gout or, the

Czar i with the other hand, loaded

all sorts of c laws against the •ocialitta,

oppress with all their power a group of proletarians
whose sole crime they have had the hanlii

he Communist maxn nted

le I iy the party in po\\vr.
• ss of this group of proletariat
i-portablr point for tl < Mie situation

'i the represe of the Knglish workers came

to Russia. On this occasion the printers organi/.
meeting in which hymns of praise in 1 the Com-

mui 'v not heard luit where, on ti

hand, the truth n'S|M-(-tinir actual conditions in S...
ia was openly proelait;

< 'oinmunists, outraged by this meeting, imme-
diately began to e printers. Tln-y shrank
DO lie and no calumny in the attainment of their
purpose, which was to manufacture a fake public opinion
preparatory to the vigorous punishment they had de-

f) inflict on the Printers' I'nion.
It was not difiicult for the Communists to admi
this punishi: • the printers, like all the other

Russian workers, are deprived of the possibility <>f print-
ing everything that displeases the Communist ^. Kor
having printed tin- resolution adopted by the mass n
ing in honor of 'I Mi comrades. Comrade 7.:\\-

• >ff was arrested. The Printers' I'nion was inter-
"d from printing the stenographic report of tho
meeting. The independent unions were also dej,r
of their own papers.

Commir punish the printers

severely, especially because it was impossible for them
to Oppose the opinion of the workers in other industrial
''lies to the of M by tlie print ft, The party

in power would without doubt h, with d«

in a free assembly where the two points of view— that

PERSECUTION OF ORGANIZED LABOR 101

of the Communists and that of the opposition — were
given a fair field of contest. It was for this reason that
the party in power was compelled to have recourse to
meetings under the auspices of dissimilar organizations
which were nothing but self-styled representatives of
the proletariat; real representation has not existed in
Russia for a long time. At these meetings the speakers
fulminated against the printers. In this manner the
" General conference" of the printers of Petrograd was
organized and " unanimously" adopted a withering
resolution against the Muscovite printers.

The value of the "unanimity" of the organized
conferences, during which, under the menace of terrible
reprisals, the representatives of the proletarian opposi-
tion are deprived of the possibility of telling the truth,
is well known to every Russian worker. For this reason
the government journals lodged the senseless and stupid
charge of fomenting strikes against the Printers' Union.
The printers have struck less than any other group of
workers in Russia, thanks to their firm and solid organ-
ization. The workers in many other branches of indus-
try, on the contrary, driven by despair, have declared
numerous strikes. They saw no other way to improve
their conditions. These conditions drove the majority
of the Muscovite printers to the same extremity, but
the movement was usually arrested by the officials of
the Printers' Union.

For more than a month the Communists fashioned
public opinion with the aid of their monopoly. They
lied and calumniated without shame. Finally during
the night of June 17, they arrested all the members
of the administrative committee of the Printers' Union
and all other officials of the union holding important
positions with the exception of those who had the time
to hide themselves. On the morning of June 18 the
offices of the union were occupied by a detachment of
government troops, and everyone who for any reason
whatsover had displeased the Communists was arrested.

102 OUT OF Till :i II OWN MOUTHS

In the meantime the private lodgings of the employees
of the union were searched.

<-e against the working olass

aroused the indignation of all tin- printers in MOSCOW.
understood perfectly that tin- admini* <un-

cil represented the executive organ of all the members
nion, especially because it was
ouncils of all the other trade unions and tho
organs of the government, liy universal sutTrage.

Some of the workers struck and demanded the release
of the imprisoned trade unionists. The masters of
situation employed against the strikers the same

:hr lioiircLroisir in every country would like to ;n
but have never dared to. Tin strikers wen- dep;
of food. Under present conditions, when the workers
are C most rigorous weapon that

could be used. At the same time the government placed
under arrest the alleged strike leaders. Th«- ieas-

ures attained the end desired by the government : tho
strikers went back to work, and perhaps, under the ;
sure of similar lie they will soon be even t'<

to vote resolutions condemning the men who up to tho
present have been their leaders. Hut tin- hatnd of the
MOSCOW printers for the authors of this shameless punish-

1 will not be lessened tlierel.y; on the contrar
will increase day by day, and a small amouir
atmosphere would suffice to chase the inquisitors away
from the prii:

In addressing themselves to the international labor
it, the striking printers declare that, crushed
l.y brutal physical force, they appeal to tin only t
which Mill preserves for them a n . th.«

•i;d labor movement,
.intf printers assert that D demons! ra<

lahor movemint that they arc right
and not < mnista.

that the new adminis-
trative council of the Printers' Union, which has been

PERSECUTION OF ORGANIZED LABOR 103

superimposed upon them by force, has no influence and
no authority over the great mass of the workers, whose
entire sympathy and friendship, on the contrary, are
with those who are in prison, the former officials of the
Printers' Union of Moscow.

Perhaps the Bolshevist government will institute a
prosecution similar to the Beillis prosecution so notorious
under the Czarist regime, but the only possible judges
at present are the Moscow printers and the international
socialist movement.

A judgment rendered by the Communist party would
be nothing but a judgment of an interested party, of
an adversary who plays the role of a judge in a case
involving his political enemies.
So much the worse for them.

But the socialist and labor international will under-
stand !

The entire working class of Russia believes in the Mos-
cow printers !

(Signed) THE MEMBERS OP THE ADMINIS-
TRATIVE COUNCIL OF THE
PRINTERS' UNION OP Mos-
cow. (ELECTED BY UNIVEB-
SAL SUFFRAGE.)

vn

THE OPPRESSION OF THE AGRICULTURAL
POPULATION

Now that Soviet Russia has been cut off from Poland
and other industrial districts fully 90 JUT <'• nt of the
population is agricultural. Tin1 oppiv- the

agricultural population by the Communists and tho Red
tfl been « vcn more fright 1'ul than tho persecution
of labor and its political and economic organ i /at;
The Bolshevists have acted towards tho agriculturist
majority in Russia as towards a conquered people, and
expressions acknowledging this relation an- frequent
throughout Bolshevist otVicial publications. For example,
in Losov>ky's official pamphlot on the new He. I Trade
Union Internationale ;>lle<i International Coun-

'•i! of Trade and Industrial I'nionsi he refers to tho
establishment of the Bolshevist rule as "the Mihje.-tioii

lie peasants and petty bourgeoisie by tt
lariat." In a speech quoted in S<>ri< I Iiussia in 1920

n says:

las^ iu Russia was undoubtedly
in ?: t\. The jM-asantry remained in ti

as property o

tails' Tliese are the fundamental trai-

'•conomic situ nriirmates the in,

talk of • M, rar\ by those who

do no tand the actual situation.

104

THE AGRICULTURAL POPULATION 105

There is no harmony between the interests of the
proletariat and the peasantry. Here the difficulty starts
for us.

Already then there was apparent the necessity of in-
dividual administration, of recognition of the dictatorial
plenary powers of one person for the carrying out of
the Soviet idea ; therefore all manner of talk about equal
rights is nonsense. We conduct the class struggle not
on the basis of equal rights. The proletariat wins be-
cause it consists of hundreds of thousands of disciplined
men, who are animated by a uniform will.

The exact meaning of "the dictatorship of the pro-
letariat" was never stated in a more uncompromising
form than in Lenin's celebrated speech at the Commu-
nist Party Congress (March, 1921) — a speech heralded
throughout the world by all advocates of friendly rela-
tions with the Soviets, as the supreme evidence of
compromise with capitalism and surrender to the peas-
antry ! We quote a few sentences as given by the official
Russian Press Review of March 15th.

We regard all these events from the point of view of
the class struggle. We are not mistaken with regard to
the relations between the proletariat and the petty bour-
geoisie— a most difficult question, which demands com-
plicated measures in order to secure the victory of the
proletariat, or to be more correct, a whole system of
complicated transitional measures. . . .

What is the meaning of the slogan of "free trade"
advanced by the petty-bourgeois elements ? It shows that
there are some difficulties in the relations between the
proletariat and the small farmer which we have not yet
overcome. I refer to the attitude of the proletariat to
the small property-holders in a country where the pro-
letariat has been victorious and the proletarian revolu-

100 OUT O1- Tlir.Il! OWN MOUTHS

tion is developing but where the proletarian makes up

illation and the majority is i
up of petty-bourgeois elements. In such a con
proletariat must lead tin- transition <>t' these petty pi

into collective and coniinunist labor. This
'IB theoretically beyond any dispute, and on this we based
a number of our legislative acts.

The feature which is peculiar to Russia in the h
degree is that we have here a proletariat making up

and a considerable minority at that, of tin-
population, while the overwhelming majority con-
e peasantry.

That is. the class-strut^'le still continues in the shape
of a class-war between the industrial proletariat and the
agricultural population or peasants, regarded as p
bourgeois. The proletariat are the victors in this war
in so far as they have conquered the peasants and cap-
d the government. Hut the war con;, ause

the peasant subjects of the proletariat ;ire the Q
whelming majority. Th< nts must eontinu-

be excluded from all power, but they must be handed
down such economic advantages as are consistent with a

Mined proletarian dictatorship. Ami in the n
while they must be terrori/ed by frightful punishn
against attempting to set up a regime of self-government
— as Chapter IV amply demonstrates.

The nirrieultir -\ the Communist Party

are not usually even listed in t!

figures quoted above will show that they
do not numl" Mian two or tljn-e pep ecnt of that

party, t! .it one agriculturist in KHIOO is n pre-

in tlio orpani/ation tliat ^ov

out tlie agriculturist majority com-

THE AGRICULTURAL POPULATION 107

pletely as factors in the Government and having assigned
certain theoretical and "proletarian" reasons for this
policy the Communists and Bolshevists in all countries
have proceeded to justify themselves by the worst cam-
paign of vilification that has ever been directed against
any great people. The Russian agriculturists or peasants
are described by the Bolshevists and pro-Bolshevist
"liberals," such as H. G.Weils, Brailsford, andBertrand
Russell, as if they were almost savages, preferring
retrogession to progress in their own business of agricul-
ture, illiterate, violent, repudiating all urban industry
and all government. There is no foundation whatever
for these malicious slanders against this great people.
The Russian peasants agriculturally are more advanced
than the majority of the agriculturists of southern and
eastern Europe. Far from being totally illiterate a large
proportion of the male population, often estimated at
one-half, are literate. Their great desire, like that of
other agriculturists, is for better tools, better stock, more
farm machinery and better transportation facilities, and
they have shown themselves willing and anxious to make
heavy sacrifice for these objects. They proved their
political intelligence by electing a solid delegation of
intelligent progressives to all the Dumas under the Czar
and to the Constitutional Assembly forcibly dissolved
by the Bolshevists. Far from displaying hostility to the
town population they even have adopted in a vague way
in the latter 's aspirations towards a moderate form of
state socialism. But during the Bolshevist regime they
have got nothing from the cities except Red Army de-
tachments which have robbed them of everything loose
on their little farms, killed them in large numbers and

108 OUT OF TIIKIR OWN MOUTHS

carried away thoir men as conscripts for the 1
military adventures in Poland, Siberia, the Can*
and other far away sections.

To Bertrand Russell Lenin said: "Nothing will do
any good except arming the proletariat (that is, that
part of the proletariat considered reliable by the Com-
munists). Those who believe anything else are social
tors or deluded fools." Asked by the Norwegian
Socialist visitor, Friss, "Do you intend then to use the
Red Army against the internal enemy?" Lenin replied :
' Yes, of course. What the peasants call a divine right
we call high treason."

Again when referring to the plunder of the peasantry
before the British Labor Delegation Lenin laughingly
replied that they were being paid for what was being
taken in worthless paper money. As quoted by 1 1
Guest of that delegation Lenin was not ashamed: "The
peasant," he explained, "is a small capitalist. Ti
fore, the dictatorship of the proletariat means the gov-
ernment of Russia by the towns. We do not recognize
equality between the peasant (that is, the agriculturist)
and the town worker."

The Bolshevists have given various names from time
to time for this looting of the countryside l.y the Red
Army. The- usual name has been "taxation in kind."
As Trotzky declared in certain of his "tbflMl"
December 17, 191!> : "the obtaining of goods from the
country will inevitably be considered liy the more :
perous elements of the peasant class as a State tax in
kind. The methodical and regular payment of such a
tax can be assured only by coercion on the part of the
State." Not only did the peasants so regard these

THE AGRICULTURAL POPULATION 109

requisitions but the Soviet Government itself at first
gave them this name, as we may see from a passage in
Soviet Russia of February 28, 1920 :

Beginning with November, 1918, to this old system
there were added on two taxes of a purely revolutionary
character which stand out apart within the partly out-
grown system "taxes in kind" (decree of October 30,
1918), and "extraordinary taxes" (November 2, 1918).

Both decrees have been described as follows by Com-
rade Krestinsky, Commissary of the Finance, at the May
session of the financial sub- di visions :

' ' These are decrees of a different order, the only thing
they have in common is that they both bear a class
character and that each provides for the tax to increase
in direct proportion with the amount of property which
the taxpayer possesses, that the poor are completely
free from both taxes, and the lower middle class pays
them in a smaller proportion.

"The extraordinary tax aims at the savings which
remained in the hands of the urban and larger rural
bourgeoisie, from former times. Insofar as it is directed
at non-labor savings it cannot be levied more than once.

"As regards the taxes in kind, borrowing Comrade
Krestinsky 's expression, 'it will remain in force during
the period of transition to the Communist order until
the village will from practical experience realize the
advantage of rural economy on a large scale compared
with the small farming estate, and will of its own accord,
without compulsion, en masse adopt the communist
method of land cultivation.* "

Krestinsky 's claim that this intended gradual transi-
tion to agricultural communism is not to be compulsory
will deceive no one. He himself classes it with the other
revolutionary tax which is specifically designed to de-

110 OUT OF THEIR OWN M<H "THS

the larger bourgeois of Imtli to\v -untry so

complete! • can be levied only 01

Trotzky is also right about the coercion. Tli
certainly been nothing voluntary about the payim i
this "tax in kind. "

Up to April 1, 1919, the Military Suppl
(from Petrograd alone) sent 255 militan rnjuisitioniiiK
detachments to various provinces. (The Nortln m (
munc, No. 73, September 4, 1919.)

According to the report presented to the Moscow f

nee of Soviets 30,000 men had been sent in
course of a short period, but the majority of tl
incapable of performing their task, while
themselves gross speculators. (The Moscow Pro

No. !<>:>. .Inly 4. 1!M I

of aggr :;a^e and hl<>

h p«Tui«-at»'(l tlio villages, coupled with an IP

1o the pi agricultural lal>or. 'I

tion is l..^t 01 -hat out of l!

forming the total <>f the food requisitioning detach-
ments durinir th.' j>rriod from .Iuu«- 1o Dr.-mi!

'!), i.e., 2< Wm killed and wounded hy

the [.r;is;ints while " eollrc t i IlLT the •.'rain." CStitt

of the Pood Commissariat for December, 1!>18.)

tho very first and while nil of fcl -ivitirs

were M eoutinued his usual pulicy of

applying plausihle phrases to tlie Bolshevist j.raei

At the Communist Party Con 1919, he
declm

Dressing the Iwurp must

now transfer our attention tC ': "f luiildin^ up

lif«- "f tin- uiidii1. ,lry. Wo must live with

the middle peasantry in peace. The middle peasantry

THE AGRICULTURAL POPULATION 111

in a communistic society will be on our side only if we
lighten and improve its economic conditions. . . .

The middle peasant is very practical and values only
actual assistance, quite carelessly thrusting aside all com-
mands and instructions from above.

First help him and then you will secure his confidence.
If this matter is handled correctly, if each step taken
by our group in the village, in the canton, in the food-
supply detachment, or in any organization, is carefully
made, is carefully verified from this point of view, then
we shall win the confidence of the peasant, and only
then shall we be able to move forward. Now we must
give him assistance. We must give him advice and this
must not be the order of a commanding officer, but the
advice of a comrade. The peasant then will be absolutely
for us.

The measures previously described are, evidently, ex-
amples of " comradely advice" and " actual assistance. "

Under these methods the peasants hid their products
and sowed less grain in order that there should be noth-
ing left for the plunderers. It was then that the Soviets
decided to put still more terror into their actions and
to give their requisitions a new name. In order to be
able to seize plausibly all grain under all circumstances
they declared grain and certain other food products
the monopoly of the state. They decreed that the
peasants should be left only enough to supply their own
families with food and that all the "surplus" should go
to the Soviet Government.

Instead of making things better the new method made
matters worse. Bolshevist statistics in 1920 admitted
that the agricultural productivity of the country had
fallen to fifty per cent or less. The area under cultiva-
tion had fallen to about seventy per cent. The yield as

112 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

bad seeds, the lack of manure, agricultural
implements and horses (taken by the Soviet armies),
as well as poor and negligent methods of en
(partly voluntary) had also fallen so as to reduce the
crop to less than fifty per cent.

The following description of the agricultural pu
in Russia was given in one of the reports read at a n
ing in Moscow on February 22, and printed in. the
Economic Life of February 24 (1921) :

The present position of agriculture is such that the
sowing area is one-third less than in pre-war years. The
yield has decreased by 45 per cent. In former years
the export of grain amounted to 700,000,000 poods, but
nS there was already a deficit in the crops amount-
ing to about 1,000,000,000 poods. Tl con-
it ing 85 per cent, of the population, is no longer a
producer, but a consumer. Not finding the D

•noditfes he wants on the markets, the peasan*
(lucrd his produce to the minimum of his personal needs.

Alarmed at such figures and at the prospect of a
greater and more rapid agricultural decay and food
shortage the Soviet Congress in December, 1920, decided
upon still more violent persecution of the peasantry.
The new situation is thus summed up by a friendly
correspondent, Michael Farbmau:

Tin- ' -,tf famine and it, inuld obviously

have led to an immediate Ion ;•, \\s ;md

a change of policy, yet the oppo.sit,. took place. In
the Food Department published a pn'trramme

>ns almost twice as big as that obtained in the

• iousyear, while Os^insky, who frankly admitted the

peasants' refusal to cultivate their land, outlined a most

THE AGRICULTURAL POPULATION 113

fantastic scheme of compelling them to do so. He was
not in the least alarmed by the crisis, but frankly ex-
pressed satisfaction that the terrible miscarriage of
previous schemes for socializing agriculture and the ob-
stinate refusal of the peasants to fall into line justified
the state in intervening.

Unfortunately, Ossinsky's ideas aroused the sympathy
of the heads of the Food Administration, who were sure
their enormous programme of food requisitioning during
this famine year would fail unless they were permitted
to apply more force than usual. In a few weeks Ossinsky
and the Food Administration were able to convince the
Communist Party that this new scheme was a necessity.
The All-Russian Congress of Soviets last December sanc-
tioned Ossinsky's ideas, adopting a decree ''In Aid of
Agriculture." The main provisions of this embodied
the scheme of compulsory sowing of the fields and estab-
lished seed funds.

The giving to this decree the title "In Aid of Agricul-
ture" is typical. Lenin also repeated his beneficent
phrases at this Congress: "We shall not advance a step
in our program without the peasants," and he again
said that the law should "assist" peasant farming.

By March the food reserve was almost completely
exhausted, the prospects for agriculture were still worse,
and the peasant revolts, especially in the grain produc-
ing districts, South Russia, Siberia and the Caucasus,
were more frequent and menacing than ever before. The
Communists, led by Lenin, now decided once more to
change the name of their requisitions, reverting from the
"grain monoply" back to "taxation in kind." The
Moscow wireless of March 16, 1921, thus reports Lenin's
speech indicating this second change in method:

114 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

We can satisfy the small farmer in two ways. He
must first of all he allowed a certain liberty in effecting
exchange, and secondly, we must obtain p.ods and

s. Should we be able to obtain a en-tain amount
of goods which the State could use for purpose
exchange, we [i.e. the Communist Party] as a S
would add economic power to our political pov
perience will show US how a certain freedom in local
exchange is possible, not only without dest n>\ iim.
in fact strengthening the political power of the pro-
letariat.

We shall be able to obtain a certain part of the goods
we require from abroad. If the goods an in
session of the State then the power of the latter in-
creases. Economically we must satisfy the middh;
peasant and agree to the freedom [ !] of exchangi
order to keep power more firmly in the hands of the
proletariat.

It will be noted that Lenin n -assured the Commun
that no concession whatever was to be made in the d
tion of democracy or towards giving the peasant majority
any voice whatever over their own atTairs. Indeed in
a speech which was made to the railway men at Moscow
after the enactment of the new halation, reported by
the wireless on April 3, Lenin made this doubly clear:

As far as I personally am concerned, I know only too
how badly organ i. I Russian peasants, how

little class consciousness they have. In Kiich .IK inn-
stances they do not r- a serious menace t<
dictatorship of tin- proletariat. T: wt HUM by
all means Strive to attain union with the peasantry and
them half with regard to their justifiable demands.

I

Again we have fair phrases with no real change in
the peasants' economic condition:

THE AGRICULTURAL POPULATION 115

After hearing Lenin's report, the March Congress
passed the following resolution:

(1) In order to ensure the correct and unhindered
working of farms on a basis of allowing the owner greater
liberty in the use of his economic resources, in order
to strengthen peasant farms and increase their output
and also in order to accurately estimate the duties to-
wards the State which must be carried out by the land-
owners, the levy as a means of supplying the State with
food stuffs, raw materials and fodder is replaced by
taxation in kind.

(2) This tax must be less than the quantity at present
demanded in accordance with the State levy. The
amount of the tax must be estimated to cover the
minimum requirements of the Army, the town workers
and the agricultural workers. The total amount of the
tax must be gradually decreased as the restoration of
transport and industry enables Soviet authority to ob-
tain agricultural products by normal means by exchang-
ing articles produced by factories, works and peasant
craft industries for same.

(3) The tax will be levied in the form of a percentage
of the produce of the farms, taking into consideration
the harvest, the number of consumers on the farm and
the actual quantities of live stock.

(5) The law regarding taxation in kind must be drawn
up in such a way and published by such a time as will
enable farmers to accurately ascertain the amount of
taxation which will fall to their share before the begin-
ning of spring work in the fields.

When this law was being put into effect by the Cen-
tral Executive Committee of the Soviets the Moscow
wireless of March 23 reported a remark of the president,
Kalinin, as follows:

116 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

The peasant may exchange his surplus supplies, in

excess of the tax, for manufactured . r at

tin- local market place or through the co-operative

societies.

What now had changed besid<

old name for the forced requisitions? What grain had
tin Soviets taken before? There can only be on*
— all they could practically obtain. For many reasons
it was desirable to leave the peasants enough food so
that they could live until the next season and produce
a new crop. More than that was not left to thru
of the terrible shortage in the cities. Now that the crops
are less than ever and the city shortage greater will
they revert to any other division of the product?
question only needs to be asked to see what the an>
must be.

An effort is to be made, however, to state in advance
how much each peasant must pay. In those rare cases
where this estimate is for any reason low the peasant
may be able to produce a slight surplus for trading
purposes. He will then be at the mercy of the So\
which have a monopoly of all Russia's imports and
most of her home products. The peasant may be able
to make some slight exchanges with village workshops,
but in the first place this has always been permitted
and besides, being without iron or other raw materials
and without tools or machinery the village workers can
produce little of value, K«r the rest this limit.

:«•" must be with t '• lied "co-o: "which

— since the law abolishing c<> h.m Income

nothing l»ut local branches of the Soviet Administration.
These institutions have a monopoly of all tools and

THE AGRICULTURAL POPULATION 117

machinery, boots, clothing, and everything in which the
British Labor Delegation found the peasants so de-
plorably lacking — so far as these things exist at all in
the country.

From the side of the population of the small towns
there will be a certain amount of "free trade" with
these few lucky peasants who have a surplus above the
"taxation in kind." This trade has also gone on stead-
ily, though the Soviets have hitherto branded it as
criminal "speculation" and executed many persons
accordingly.

Already the so-called "co-operatives" are setting their
own prices for the scythes, sickles, and other imported
tools which have obtained such a high value in the
country-side because of their scarcity. There is no com-
petition, the Government has a monopoly, and can set
its own prices.

To call the local governmental trading posts "co-opera-
tives ' ' because they consist of remnants of the organization
of the co-operatives of the past is the grossest deception.
At one time, and until a year or so ago, the co-operatives
were the most remarkable native product of the genius
of the Russian people. Not only has the Soviet Govern-
ment destroyed them but it has given no indication
whatever of reviving them in the shape of what the
rest of the world calls "co-operatives." It will be
recalled that the Soviets refused a large relief expedi-
tion by the Entente powers for the sole reason that
it was proposed to put these supplies in the hands of
the real co-operatives. It was then — March 20, 1920 —
that the Soviets dissolved that organization. How com-
plete the work of dissolution was we may see from the

118 OUT or TIIKIR OWN Mor,

following resolution of the Commumist Party, and such
resolutions invariably become the law of the land:

To complete the work which has been begun by tho
decree of March 20, and the subsequent activity of tho
Party in connection with obtaining a dominating influ-
ence t<>r tin Party in every section of the organisation
of Consumers' Co-operatives.

For the purpose of obviating parallel activity of both
Co-operative and Soviet Organs to establish a gradual
abolition of Local Co-operative Societies and Provincial
and Central Unions of all those Sections which arc of
a parallel and competitive nature with Soviet 8
Such Sections — namely. Industrial, Timl- <-ul-

1. Co-operative, Educational — and others are to be
tran.sfi rred to the corresponding (lovcrnmcnt !)••;
ts, such as the Supreme Council of Public i:
People's Commissariat for Agriculture and so forth.

As regards the Agricultural and Trading Co-opera-
I, the Congress completely approves of the lirst stop
taken on the basis of tin- decree <>!' January 27,
is to say, the complete abolition of the existence of
All Russian Agricultural and Industrial TO-OJ
and their amalgamation with the Central Union of which
they are to become Sections.

The pro-Bolshevist British delegate, Marga
field, in the report of the Brit; Party, adm

that every voluntary element in the co-operatives had
been ab<>! d that all citizens had been "<;

98 members. The crime of the n.-il oo-O] was

that they believed in the exchange of commodities which

m call "free trade" but

which they formerly called "erii; and

profiteering." Here is a paragraph from Miss Bond-
field 's report :

THE AGRICULTURAL POPULATION 119

When the Revolution first broke out, the Soviet Gov-
ernment recognized the importance to their economic
policy of the co-eperative movement. They nursed it in
every possible way, and treated it as a pet child. But
the co-operators, who were Mensheviks and Social
Revolutionaries, could not or would not grasp the great
conception of economic change. They were also political
enemies of the Government. For two and a half years it
has had the passive and sometimes active opposition of
some of the co-operative leaders. Earlier still, in the
first year of war, many co-operative Societies became a
bunch of speculators and profiteers just like the capi-
talists.

The " speculators and profiteers " then subject to the
firing squad are now to be known as "free traders."

It is illuminating to examine the new decree on co-
operatives which is advertised by pro-Soviet propa-
gandists abroad (though not in Russia!) as one of the
most solid proofs of Lenin's "abandonment of com-
munism." Here is a good press summary:

The decree matJces all citizens of Russia automatically
members of the co-operative system. It prescribes that
there can be only one co-operative in each town, village,
or factory. Freedom of trading for individuals is em-
bodied in the provision permitting members to buy com-
modities through the co-operatives, paying in money or
products, and to exchange among themselves goods
received through their co-operatives. To the societies
within Russia is granted the right to buy surplus agricul-
tural products or products of national industries and
to sell them to their members; to conclude contracts
under Soviet law with peasants' and workers' organiza-
tions, and to arrange for furnishing agricultural ma-
chinery, threshing grain, and storing and delivering
products.

120 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

The co-oporntive societies are also given the right to
' uluction or working over raw

products, and also 1 -.ing and

ics on a large scale. To the c<>-<n>rrn cties

are assigned the sole right to organise tlistrihution and
exchange of product* tlimu<ih<nit tin «>untni. They are
t.i 1>« directed l.y adminr

which all citizens have the ritrht to
: t those excluded from suffrage by tin Soviet Con-
stitution.

The sentences underlined when taken together show
what it all amounts to. The co-operatives remain a com-
pulsory governmental monopoly. They trade in what

agricultural products the So\ phased to leave

he peasant and in the products of the Soviet 's nation-
alized industries at prices iixed by the Soviets. The
•;mis" that are to govern the co-operatives are
official, are conducted under Soviet "law" and sn

M and, the voting being public, opposition voters \vill
be n ;ed for discrimination by the Sovet Gov>

merit and. if too assertive, for prosecution by the lawless
Extraordinary Commission. A nVmie which has not
permitted majority control even in the Soviets will
scarcely permit any but Communist control of the co-
operatives.

An almost exact parallel may be noted bet we. n the
Bols' < atment of the co - - and their 1 •

nn-rit of the trade unions. (S< liapter.)

pite of all these und< i.-ts the American

pro-Bolshevist press, Red, Yellow, and "liberal." ns well
as the press representing reaction.. i<: groups

who hope to make a profitable deal with Lenin, have
hailed the restoration of "taxation in kind" as the end

THE AGRICULTURAL POPULATION 121

of Bolshevism in agricultural Russia and the restoration
of capitalism. Lenin, as usual has furnished phrases
for his friends — but it is to be noted that these phrases
are very similar to those he employed before his sup-
posed reforms. The following expressions in his speech
at the Communist Congress in March (1921) must be in-
terpreted in the double light of his previous speeches —
above quoted — and of the relatively insignificant action
actually taken as a result of all this verbiage. Lenin
said:

It is impossible to deceive a class of the population,
and it is dangerous to go on deceiving one's self. It
is time to admit frankly that the peasants manifestly
refuse to accept any longer proletarian dictatorship.

The right of the free disposal of their surplus products
must be the necessary incentive for the peasants, and
I invite the party to acknowledge its grave blunder in
attempting to deprive the producers of this right, the
most elemental of the peasants' instincts.

We must grant freer economic relations between
workers and peasants. As a matter of fact, we hitherto
have acted in a too military manner, and in some cases
have gone too far in nationalizing trade. If some Com-
munists thought the organization of a socialistic state
was possible in three years, they were dreamers. Free-
dom of economic relations means free trade, and free
trade signifies a return to capitalism.

Those who believe that in this Russia of peasants
Socialism can be realized, simply believe in Utopia.

Let us see what all this means. In spite of Lenin's
statement that the peasants can no longer be deceived
he is attempting to deceive them with the long tried

122 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

phrase, "taxation in kind." Thr peasants, he r<
nizes, do not accept th. pi,,!

n proposes to give tin -m no voice whatever in
Communist Government. Undoubtedly such very re-
stricted free trade as has b« !ish<d mean
that small degree, a return to capitalism. By admitting
the fart Lenin puls his critics off their guard,
defense of this decree before his own followers (above
quoted) is that the remaining parts of the Communist
system will he strengthened by this slight economic con-
cession, since it is unaccompanied by any surrender of
actual political power. As to his supposed c«
about the impossibility of realizing Socialism in K
now, the whole reason for the proletarian dictatorship,
as we have pointed out, is pr< cisely that violence will bo
needed to hold the power over the peasant major iiy--
until in a generation or two, Socialism does become
ible. Not only have the Communists always used this
argument but they have never used any other.
the country is not ready for Communism, the dictator-
ship of the Communists must be prolonged indefinitely —
until it is ready.

In his closing speech at the March (1921) Congress
of the Russian Communist Tarty — reproduced in Soviet
Russia, May 14th, 1921 — Lenin again laid bare in a
words his entire policy towards the agricultural popu-
lation (peasants) who compose tin- overwhelming ma-
joriV nation. The inauguration of the law of

"taxation in kind," or. rather, th. Q to that law,

it will be observed, had made no change whatever in
Bolshevist attitude towards the subj.rtcd peasantry.
Lenin said:

THE AGRICULTURAL POPULATION 123

The work of onr congress will be the more successful
that we have achieved absolute agreement from the very
beginning on two fundamental questions; the relations
of the vanguard of the proletariat with the proletarian
masses and its relations with the peasants.

"We may stop the citation here to point out once more
that the Bolshevist attitude towards the proletarian or
industrial masses is almost the same as their attitude
towards the peasants or agricultural masses. Lenin
continues :

We know that the only force able to unite millions of
scattered small proprietors who are constantly enduring
great hardships, the only force able to unite them eco-
nomically and politically against the exploiters, is the
class-conscious proletariat.

Here is the same claim of the little group that con-
trols the Communist Party that they are divinely or
otherwise called to rule the masses without their con-
sent. And, finally, Lenin proceeds to disclose the very
foundations of Bolshevist policy. An alliance or part-
nership with foreign capital is absolutely indispensable
because there must be at least a minimum of " benevo-
lence " in the tyranny of the Soviets or the peasants by
continued passive resistance and violence will not permit
them to work. These political serfs cannot be perma-
nently held in subjection unless something is done
towards ameliorating the misery into which they have
fallen through Czarist and Bolshevist rule. On this
point Lenin declares :

Relations will be normal then, and only then, when
the proletariat is in possession of a large scale industry

IS! r OF THEIR OWN. MOUTHS

with its products, and when it not only meets the needs
of the peasant but, besides furnishing him with the
necessities of life, so improves hU ihat its

superiority over the eapr a will be evident

and palpable. This, and nothing else, would 00

- of normal Socialistic society. We cannot bring
tliis about imni. diately — so harassed are we by ruin, need
and impoverishment.

indeed, a large-sized task for an utterly bankrupt
and incredibly inefficient bureaucracy to lift up materi-
ally the level of 100,000,000 wretched and embitt
agriculturists. To accomplish this the Bolsh. -\
idiose and original idea is to sell all that is most

la, industrially, to foreign capital

This plan, in turn, is based upon the expectation of a
world revolution which, within a few months or a few
years, will make it unnecessary to pay the foreign ea pi-
's for the new plants and machinery that will have
been set up. Even if this plan is not unanimously hcl.l
by every one of the negotiators, the fact that it is openly
preached to the entire Russian nation proves ihat any
such concessions are likely to be the source of endless
int'Tnational friction and possibly of wars, whatever the
future government of Russia may he. If that govern-
ment is Bolshevist the agitation for world revolution will
'inue, revived whenever any foreign uph<
tens. If the future government is uon-Holsh.
itWi 'ily repudiate the transaction that led to the

delivery of these vast sums int.. the hands of the Bol-
v, and to this attempted wholesale alienation
of the patrimony of generations yet unborn. (See
Chapter XI II.)

VIII

THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE; FICTITIOUS
REFORMS

WHILE industry was somewhat backward in Russia
under the Czars there was already a considerable devel-
opment. The country had risen to an economic level
far in advance of Asia or even of the other outlying
parts of Europe. Several millions of working men were
employed in modern industries and 40,000 miles of rail-
road were being operated under modern methods and
with modern equipment, as good as that of a number
of other European countries. In a country in this semi-
developed condition and with a backward political gov-
ernment the war did more damage than elsewhere and
the civil war that followed greatly increased the work
of destruction. We do not quote any figures as to the
economic collapse, since it is impossible to say what part
of the existing condition is due to the present govern-
ment and what part is due to previous causes. Without,
however, quoting any figures Bolshevist authorities show
that no effective effort is being made to fight the con-
stantly increasing economic disintegration — in spite of
the fact that such efforts are more needed in Russia
than in any other part of the world today.

In the report of the Central Soviet Executive Com-
mittee (Moscow wireless March 23, 1921) Kalinin said:

125

126 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

We are confronted by a number The

main ob^ km. In order to imp:

the condition of the workmen and peasants not in words
but in df«l.<, it is necessary to deliver a decisive blow
to disorganization. At present, however, there are a
great many obstacles in the way of a successful struggle
against disorganization. One of these s is ban-

in, which is greatly developed in son uces.

Bandits, who have been created by wealthy peasants who
iot reconcile themselves to Soviet authority, mas-
querade as the protectors of the interests of the peasants.

Here we have a confession as to the state of disor-
ganization and the chief obstacles, namely, the revolts

of the agricultural population — which Kalinin designates
as a revolt of bandits and wealthy peasants, although
the latter class, as recently stated by Lenin is now n«>n-
:ont, and no bodies can better deserve the title of
diis" than : -lit ions sent out by the So\

to plunder the countryside.

hevists give additional causes for the economic
degeneration :

For 3,150,000 workmen thnv are in Russia 2.<'<
offici Ob longing to th- Of controlling

organ i /.at ions. (Official B I data quoted in the

official Economic Life, Dec. 9, 1920.)

One of t! : >;c?'iptions of the results of this sort

Of thing is given liy IVm--.. Kp.pntkin. lh-- eminent
philosophical

In <•: o the British wor ; simihir to that

report of the British labor delegation,
Kropotkin declares:

THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE 127

The ways to be followed for overthrowing an already
weakened Government and taking its place are well
known from history, old and modern. But when it comes
to building up quite new forms of life, especially new
forms of production and exchange, without having any
examples to imitate, when everything has to be worked
out by men on the spot, then an all powerful centralised
Government which undertakes to supply every in-
habitant with every lamp glass and every match to light
the lamp, proves absolutely incapable of doing that
through its functionaries, no matter how countless they
may be. It becomes a nuisance.

It develops such a formidable bureaucracy that the
French bureaucratic system, which requires the inter-
vention of 40 functionaries to sell a tree felled by a
storm on a route nationale, becomes a trifle in compari-
son. This is what we now learn in Russia. And this
is what you, the working men of the "West, can and must
avoid by all means, since you care for the success of
social reconstruction, and sent here your delegates to
see how a social revolution works in real life.

To sweep away that collaboration and to trust to the
genius of party dictators is to destroy all the independent
nuclei, such as "trade unions" and the local distributive
co-operative organization, turning them into bureau-
cratic organs of the party — as is being done now.

A correspondent of a European socialist paper now
living in Soviet Russia writes in a similar vein:

All the new organisations can do nothing with the
general ruin. "We possess enormous riches, but cannot
raise them. We have no men, no tools, no transport, no
dress, nor boots. But we have a Provincial Labour Com-
mittee, a Provincial Metallic Industry Committee, a
Provincial Dress Committee (one suit for 10 years), a
Provincial Leather Committee (only for the army; the
civilians receive no leather), and so on.

12S OUT OF TH MR OWN MOUTHS

Another reason for the additional decay which the
Soviets have sup in-

dustry ' their deplorable

•y of exterminating the professional classes — a p<
which is summed up in a letter written by th<
Bolshevist writer, Maxim Gorky, to Lenin and pri.
in the Volya Rossii on October 2, 1920. In this 1.
Gorky refers to "the extermination of the cultural
sources of the count n

While Raving our own hides we are cutting off the
1 of the nation, destroying its brain.

:;mir Hitch, I take my stand on their side, and
I prefer arrest and imprisonment to compile
though it be only silent, in the extermination of tin*
best and most invaluable forces of the Russian people.
To me it has become evident that the "Reds" arc just
such enemies of the people as are the "Wh

< >

A fourth vice of the Soviet system which is burdening
industrial administration is U . im-

practical and unenforceable deems, Lenin hi:

rs to certain agricultural decrees as intended
primarily for propaganda. And at a : rt» d

in Izvestia, Moscow, January 1, 1921, he declared :

In Smolny we have talked more than enough about.

general principles. Now after three years we have

decrees on many points of this , [the trade union

;iing many of its integral parts. Hut

of the that they ;ij.

in order to be forgotten and to go unfulfilled by i

We are able to study differences of opinion in prin-
ciple ai make mistakes, we are masters at

THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE 129

this, but to study practical things, and to verify them,
we are unable to do.

What is most amusing is that Lenin himself soon gave
an illustration of the truth of his accusations. The all-
important problem for the Soviets is to get the perse-
cuted workers to work. The supposed means of accom-
plishing this at present are so-called disciplinary courts.
Yet Lenin and other Bolshevist chiefs had apparently
forgotten the very existence of these courts or of the
decree promulgating them. In Pravda (January 13,
1921) in an account of the All-Russian Conference of
Professional Unions he is quoted as follows :

When I read Rudzutuk's theses about disciplinary
courts, I thought there certainly must be a decree about
this. And, indeed there was. A regulation concerning
Disciplinary Labor juries, was promulgated on November
14th, 1919 (Statute-Book No. 537).

As this decree had been on the statute books over
a year no wonder Lenin had forgotten its existence —
in view of the numbers of the decrees issued since that
time.

In this matter of paper decrees as in the matter of
the issuance of paper money and of Bolshevist propa-
ganda generally there is one hope. The paper supply
is very short. The type is being rapidly used up. The
production of type-making factories is one-twentieth that
of peace times. Then the number of workmen in the
printing industry, doubtless for reasons we have already
pointed out, has been reduced to one-half.

We cannot better sum up the total failure of the

130 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

economic and industrial policy of the Soviets than in
the words of Maxim Gorky in the Moscow Pravda:

Revolutionary Socialist policy is assuredly a very
beautiful thing, but \ve mu^t work. We have ere,
an atmosphere of general idleness and criminal n.-^li-

have never worked so ill

as at present. To be sure, this is in part the result of
malnutrition and consequent bodily weakness, but in the
main it proceeds from a lack of sense of responsibility.

Again if we wish a detailed picture of the working
out of the system we cannot do better tlfan to quote
from another article of Gorky's in the same journal.
The description of this master writer and Bolshevist is
so able and conclusive that we quote it at some length:

In another place a car is being loaded. On one axle
are piled heavy barrels of cement, cases of 1« ad, p

. &o. On the otli -\\£ chair

i goods, a perambulator — things that are quite litrht.

overloaded axle will of course become heated and

• •an will not reach its destination. 1 have been a

. I know that had I tried to load a wagon

in that way my boss would have hoxed my ears and t«»M

to go to the devil. And 1 should d it,

should have been inju- rolling stock.

In another place a mechanical saw is being u>
and planks from a house which has 1
The wood is full of nails and the s;r.
fully. It is quickly spoiled and its treth broken,
common kn< v.l.-dL'c that wr have no saws and
price is !• one saw we have to

Houses areb< \ ..It ing fashion.

The windows are all broken, though we have no glass,

THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE 131

and it would be so easy to take out the panes without
breaking them. In the barracks transparent paper takes
the place of window glass, letting in no light and keeping
in no heat, therefore more furniture is burnt to warm
the barracks.

Metal roofing is allowed to lie for months in the midst
of the wreckage of destroyed houses. It rusts and be-
comes absolutely useless. The roofs of the inhabited
houses are also rusted and the rain -comes through, but
nothing is done to mend them. Walls and ceilings fall
in and well built houses rapidly become uninhabitable.

And this is how by sheer stupidity, by lack of regard
for their own labor, our people destroy the valuable
assets of the nation and ruin the patrimony of the public.

Our streets are littered with pieces of iron and the
moujik (peasant) in his village has nothing wherewith
to repair his wheels and axles, and cannot even forge
shoes or nails for his horses or teeth for his rakes. That
is why he goes out to the railway bridges and tries to
saw off a piece of iron, or to loosen the rivets of the
sleepers, or attempts to steal from the station the piece
of metal that he needs. For a carload of iron the moujik
would gladly barter a carload of wheat. Yet the hun-
dreds of thousands of old saucepans that are scattered
among the ruins of the houses would suit him very well
and he could put to good use the window sashes and
doors that are burned in the cities for heating purposes.

Doubtless these are all very minor matters, and par-
ticularly unimportant to us whose object is to teach
the whole world a new order of things and a new manner
of life. But can one learn conscientiously from masters
who themselves either do not know how to work or will
not work, and who will soon have no clothes to put on
their backs? I do not think the European workman
can have any great respect for comrades who do not
know how to organize their own labor. The politics of
social revolution doubtless is very fine, but work comes
first.

132 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

All these little things of which I have spoken are
repeated by thousand ns of thousands, and they

create an atmosphere of scandalous i. mess

and of criminal carelessness, for all that goes to make
up the patrimony of the public.

In lieu of a conclusion to the above we may quote

ression of that Socialistic progressive wt
President of Czecho-Slovakia, Professor Masaryk— an
ardent udmiivr of the Russian people and a life IOIIK
student at first hand of Russian affairs. President
Masaryk says:

i rouble with the Bolshevists is they do not know,
and never have known, how to work. They know how
to make slaves, fight, and murder, but they are unable
to work with application and continuity.

The economic conditions arc getting rapidly worse.
The leading Soviet railway expert rnleulates that it will
take 25 years to put the Russian railways back into
shape. But to accomplish numeration evrn in this
period would require Al credit abroad and a high decree,
h'ciency at home. As lonp as efficiency, according to
Bolshevist reports, ranges from 20 to 70 per cent of the
low pre-war level and credit approaches zero, regen

is impossible and progressive degeneration — as
Hughes and Hoover state — in i< .Wording

to official Bolshevist reports mines are in a worse state
than the railways and the basic iron and st» • -1 Indus
are in a still more complete condition of collapse. Under
these conditions the few hundred foreign locomo1

can be paid for arc but a drop in the bucket. The
slight improvements r- i mount to nothing in •

THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE 133

parison to the wholesale deterioration of 40,000 miles
of roadbed and the rotting away of the machinery in
thousands of mines.

It is obvious that all social reforms on a national scale
are wholly impossible under economic conditions like
these, where the industrial population has been reduced
to a third or fourth of what it was and where the wage-
earners 'that remain are wretchedly clothed and are
happy when they have a starvation ration of black bread
— to say nothing of any other food. Reforms of any
substantial kind whatever for 100,000,000 people cost
colossal sums of money, and occasional " model" institu-
tions in a vast country are but a mockery serving to
demonstrate the utter inadequacy and futility of what
is being accomplished.

Far from moving forward we can be mathematically
certain that every fundamental institution is falling back
in Eussia today — especially when we remember that the
liberal Zemstvos, or provincial councils, under the old
regime, had made a considerable beginning in certain
directions.

Yet the Bolshevist propagandists and their " liberal' '
accomplices have the audacity to assert that vast and
substantial reforms are being carried out in "art,"
" science," "education" and "culture." Though no
foundation whatever for any of these assertions has been
produced they have been so often repeated that the
impression has become widespread that there must be
"something" in them.

The most notorious of the mythical "reforms" being
reported by the Bolshevists and their friends is the
reform of the schools and the supposed good treatment

134 OUT OF Til F.IK OWN MOUTHS

of children by the SovioR Yet it is precisely tho
generation that always suffer from such i:

and intellectual chaos and physical suffering as pr«
for men, women and children iu Ku^la today,
from putting the child ren first, the Soviets have put
them almost last. First comes the Ked Army — used not
for defense but for aggression and to put down
peasant attempts at self-government with sutlicient
bloodshed to terrorize the survivors. Then comes the
propaganda, squandering millions of dollars from South
Ameriea to China — and in every village of Ru
Next comes the Soviet bureaucracy — usually given
privileges on the plausible ground that they nerd them
in the strenuous work of keeping their hold on the
government. Resides these two classes the army
food seizing detachments, etc., can obviously get and
demand preferred treatment. After all these, no doubt,
the children are given a preference over the mnaindei
»»f the population. And our wn-t.-lp-.i sentimentalists
call this "looking out for the children I"

The Communists alw; rl and never deny that

they are deliberately sacrificing the entire population for
the present — in the belief that they are thus introducing

form of future society that thry prete, T
acknowledge they are largely responsible for the bureau-
cracy, disorganization, etc., that ; ".e the chief
causes of the suffering. Here is how this afT«ts the
child;

Frederick .[. Libby, commissioner of tho American

nds' Service Committee (Quakers), who recently

returned from Reval, brought back information

many children are starving in Russia.

THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE 135

Mr. Libby obtained his information from Arthur J.
Watts, an English Friend, who has been engaged in
relief work in Russia. Mr. Watts gave Mr. Libby a
translation of the reports of Russian commissars from
various cities.

It appears from the commissars' report that the situa-
tion of the children varies greatly in the different cen-
tres. In some cities, such as Vitebsk, it is reported that
whole families are perishing from starvation. In others,
such as Smolensk, Yaroslav, the children are reported
to be obtaining sufficient nourishment. The report from
Vitebsk stated that the bread substitutes give the chil-
dren dysentery which it is impossible to cure.

The commissars report that in several centres the chil-
dren had been unable to obtain bread for a long time
and that in others no kind of fats or meats were obtain-
able and that milk was received rarely.

The children of Moscow were declared to have no
sugar nor fats, and to be either starving or falling ill
through under-nourishment. Inmates of the children's
homes in Novgorod are starving, the reports stated.
They receive no meat, butter, potatoes, milk or salt, but
live on a daily portion of sour cabbage soup, millet
cooked in water, and black bread made from bad flour.
They are suffering from scurvy as a result of under-
nourishment.

For all this the Bolshevists are largely — though, of
course, not wholly — responsible. Whatever the degree
of their responsibility may be, it is an outrageous false-
hood to talk of great educational advances under such
conditions — which are admitted as being far worse than
anything Russia has hitherto experienced.

Yet the Soviets have never ceased to put forth* inflated
and grandiose paper schemes as if certain of accomplish-

136 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

ment, to take credit to tl for the reopening of

old institutions under new names, such as "children's
palaces/' to show off a handful of favored schools a*
typical of thousands, to talk of new methods while ad-
mitting the wholesale lack not only of new hut
of teachers generally, and — while foisting upon the chil-
dren their crude, ignorant, violent and petty dogmas in
the place of the culture of the ages — to claim that they
are giving them a new and superior education. We have
Russian Communists in America. Let anybody who
knowrs them think of what is happening to the starving
and helpless children of Russia in the light of this Mos-
cow wireless of February 6th, 1921 :

Instructions of the General Committee of the Russian
Communist Party of Communist Workers of tfio People's
Commissariat for Education:

The fundamental direction must remain in the hands
of the Communists, while the specialists arc to he their
assistants. The curriculum of general education is to be
•d upon by the Communists alone.

Recalling the fact that only the most violent and

narrow-minded one per cent. < i arc members of

the Communist Party, and remembering that the 2«M),000
teachers who, it is said, are needed will absorb a 1
part of that organi/alion, leaving no possibility
crimination in appointments, consider the statement of
' 'ommunist Party Congress in March, 1!M!». that one
"basis of educational work ai 1 by the

Soviet Government is the preparation of a new class
of teachers who are imbued with Communi

Lenin explained the Bolshevist conception of public

THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE 137

education in the most explicit manner at the All-Russian
Political Education Conference on the 5th of November,
1920. (See Soviet Russia, April 30th, 1921.) He ex-
plained that the teachers must be, first of all, political
propagandists and humble followers of the Communist
Party:

We must treat this question frankly and in complete
opposition to tradition, must combat the erroneous con-
ception that education may under no circumstances be
combined with politics. We are living in a historic
period, in the period of struggle against the world
bourgeoisie, which is still very much stronger than we
are. In such a moment of struggle we must defend our
Socialist work of construction and wage a conflict with
this bourgeoisie, both in a military and — what is more
important — in a spiritual sense, in the way of education.

The teaching staff must itself attract the working
classes, fill them with the Communist spirit, interest them
in what the Communists are doing and win them over
to the Communist standpoint.

But the school teacher the world over has a certain
minimum respect for his calling. Though the over-
whelming majority of the teachers under Kerensky were
Social Revolutionists or Social Democrats, they were
teachers, and not propagandists. Dismissed by the
wholesale, the majority of the new teachers are scarcely
more amenable. Lenin and Lunacharsky, Commissary
for Education, complain bitterly of this difficulty and
pursue their usual method of vilifying their victims.
Lenin says, in the speech just quoted:

Already for a long time the teachers' organization has
• been fighting against the socialist transformation. In

138 T OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

pedagogical circles the bourgeois prejudices have taken

"iilarly firm • .-ompi-ll« |uer

our Communist position slowly, stop by st< p. The teach-

-taff. which gn-w up in bourp-

the bottom of its heart hostile to tl. -iat and

had no contaet with it. \Ve must now ra'Ne a new army
of pedagogical workers, which must be more
connected with the party, more intimately acquainted
with its ideals, more fully impressed with the spir.
those ideas.

Far from any advance less than 27 per cent of the
children are receiving any instruction whatever.
manite, the leading Communist organ of France, on
January 3, 1920, in summing up the official report of
Lunacharsky, Chief Soviet Commissar for Education,
gives this figure and the British Labor Party's Russian
delegation reports:

The- Russian educational authorities estimate that 25
p'-r cent of the child population are now in receipt of
a normal education of the . •!. •mentary type. This is prob-
ably an overestimate, as in some plae.s visited accom-
modation for only 10 per cent of the children
and also there is no method of insuring compu!
attendance as in England, and children who do not
to attend simply remain away. In some of the villages

M is of a very primitive description and
fined to the. winter months and to children 1,.

•imated that 1

of the childr- .ing some form of efiVctiv<

mentary rdiicat ion.

It may, t , !••• «juestioned if the proportion of

children attending school at IT than under the

Czars!

THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE 139

The Bolshevists have repeatedly stated that the people
must be made literate if they are to become useful sub-
jects for Communist rule ; this was also the Prussian idea
of education. But the Communists, not to mention their
personal incapacity, have a system that produces neither
the personnel nor the material for educational institu-
tions of any kind. Far from any sacrifice being made for
the children, education, literature, science, or art, all
these are deliberately, daily and unremittingly sacrificed
in order to maintain and, if possible, to increase the
power of the Communist Party.

Education is, first of all, the pre-requisite for propa-
ganda. Second, after the individual has learned to read
and write, education becomes propaganda — as we may
see from Lenin's speech already quoted:

The most important point at present for the comrades
in the work of culture and education is that of the
relation between education and our political aim. In
bourgeois society it has always been, and still is main-
tained, that the spirit of knowledge is apolitical, or
unpolitical. This is a piece of hypocrisy on the part
of the bourgeoisie, nothing more nor less than a refined
method of deceiving the masses, 99 per cent of whom
are oppressed by the domination of the church, of private
property, etc.

One of our chief tasks is that of opposing to bourgeois
deception and hypocrisy our truth, and of obliging the
bourgeoisie to recognize our truth.

In regard to family life there is the most rapid and
demoralizing retrogression. Homes are being broken up
and children, as far as practicable, separated from
parental influence and placed in a sort of orphan asylum

,140 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

called "children's homes" or "boarding schools." The
children are not quite so wretchedly fed in these institu-
tions as when with their families (though the reports
above quoted show they are often starving even in the
Soviet "homes") — a fact which naturally makes f-'iid
parents surrender them — "voluntarily" according to the
Bolshevists and their cold-blooded "liberal" si;
But besides this "the theory of the Communist Party
that every soul must give a labor contribution to the
community carries with it the implication that tin
dividual must be freed from the economic burden of
the family. Both men and women are paid on the basis
of the individual wage." (British Labor Delegation
art)

So with other "reforms." All vital and national im-
provements are costly. Therefore none have hern made,
and all changes are either of secondary importance —
such as new "movies" — or on an utterly insignificant
scale for a country of the first magnitude. All claims to
the contrary are among the clearest proofs of the bold and
'•rupulous character of the Bolshevist propaganda.

The HoKhevist leader himself does not make any claim
of construction worth boasting about. He is proud of
work of destruction and has said so again and again.
All pre-existing civili/ation is to he destroyed. As for
the rest he is proud of hi > resistance to those who would
destroy him. Reconstruction can and must wait. He is
very patient, as to construction, as long as he believes
the fighting is going his way:

In our struggle two main factors are apparent. On
the one hand there is the task of destroying, of an-

THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE 141

nihilating the heritage received from the bourgeois
regime, of suppressing the ceaselessly repeated attempts
of the bourgeoisie to destroy the Soviet power. This
task has hitherto taken up most of our attention and
prevented us from going about the other task, that of
reconstruction.

(Speech at Political Education Conference November
5, 1920— from Soviet Russia, April 30, 1921.)

IX

WORLD REVOLUTION; THE ATTEMPT TO OVER-
THROW DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENTS

THE foundation of the entire Bolshevist movement as
well as the foreign policy of the Soviet Government is
world revolution, the overthrow of all existing govern-
ments— even the most democratic — all being regarded as
equally "capitalistic." This is the aim of the Russian
Communist Party, which is the Soviet Government, and
also of the Communist Internationale which shapes the
Soviet foreign policy. No compromise of this aim has
been adopted or is even projected.

In the Bolshevist view tin- present is a period of
closely connected wars and revolutions, all having a com-
mon capitalistic cause, and all working towards the same
end, a communist world state.

The increasing pressure of the proletariat, partieulnrly
its victories in some count i iivjthens the resistance

of the exploiters and compels them to create new forms
NT-national capitalist solidarity i League of

or^ani/.iiitf the systematic exploitation of
all i ii a world scale, din <-ts all its , • the

iimn 'i of the revolutionary movement

of the proletariat of all count r

All this inevitahly i he Mending of civil war

within n with the defensive wars of

revolutionary countries, and the struggles of oppressed
nations against the yoke of imperialist states. (From

142

WORLD REVOLUTION 143

Programme of the Russian Communist Party (Bol-
shevists), Adopted at the VHIth conference of the
Party, Moscow, 18-23rd March, 1919, English Transla-
tion Published by the Executive Committee of the Com-
munist International.)

The same thought has been recently expressed by Trot-
zky as follows (see Soviet Russia, April 2, 1921) :

The international proletariat has set out to seize the
power. Whether civil war is or is not "in general"
one of the indispensable attributes of revolution "in
general ' * it is nevertheless incontestable that the forward
movement of the proletariat, in Russia, in Germany, and
in certain parts of what was once Austria-Hungary, has
taken on the form of civil war to the bitter end. And
that not only on internal fronts but also on external
fronts.

The military part of this program is in abeyance be-
cause of the failure of attempted Bolshevist revolutions
in neighboring countries such as Hungary, Bavaria, etc.,
and also because of the economic and military weakness
of the Soviets, but the Soviet regime has not overlooked
a single opportunity to assault a weakened neighbor, as
we see from the attack on Poland August, 1920, and the
recent conquest of Georgia and neighboring territories.
The very oath of the Red Army shows it is regarded as
a force for "liberating" the world proletariat. The
following clauses of the oath are quoted from the report
of the Russian delegation of the British Labor Party:

Before the working classes of Russia and the whole
world, I undertake to carry this name with honour, to
follow the military calling with conscience and to pre-

144 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

serve from damage and robbery the national nnd military
possessions as the hair of my head.

I undertake to abstain from and to d«'U>r any not liable
to dishonour tho name of C i»-t Kepublie ;

cover to direct all my dads and thoughts to ttie
Great Aim of Liberation of all Workers.

The effort of the Soviet "Government" through its

Third Internationale to foment revolutions throughout
the world continues. Its first aim is revolution now.
Where this is impracticable the aim beeomes to build
up a revolutionary movement prepared to attempt a
revolution within a very few years. The immediate pur-
pose, iii that case, is to undermine all governm-
destroy all non-Bolshevist labor organizations, and to
make converts who may be relied upon not only to give
the Kussian Soviet Government moral support but to
obey all the revolutionary orders it issues. While the
world revolution policy has failed to create revolutions,
it has succeeded in very large measure in all '
secondary objects. It has therefore been a great success
from the Bolshevist standpoint, and this is the view of
all tho Bolshevist leaders.

In making trade agreements and other treat its tho
^ diplomats find it suits their purpose to make
a wholesale denial of the entire world revolution policy,
and they have made these denials iiuntly from

the beginning. A few weeks befor< <>nd Congress

of the Third Internationale, where the policy of world
revolution was brought into its m<>M complete form,
Kalinin. President of tho Central Executive Committed
of the Soviets, issued a statement to Poland in whieh he
claimed that the Russian Communists "never attempted

WORLD REVOLUTION 145

and are not going to attempt to bring in Communism
in foreign countries. ' ' Within ninety days of this state-
ment the Bolshevist authorities made repeated declara-
tions of their purpose to set up a Soviet government
in Poland by force of arms. And when Trotzky, as
War Lord, was in Bialystock, in northeastern Poland, he
even assumed that Sovietism would rapidly spread from
Poland to the entire world. "Bolshevism," he said,
"was more powerful than ever and would soon spread
to other countries." "In a year," he continued, "all
Europe will be bolshevist."

When we see how totally false was the statement of
the President of the Soviets we may begin to realize
the complete worthlessness of other statements of the
Bolshevist diplomats and, in fact, of all their public
declarations issued for foreign consumption. The Com-
munist Government of Russia has now entered into
solemn agreement with Great Britain not to carry on
revolutionary propaganda in British territory. Any
such agreement, along with all other promises of the
Soviets, was denounced by Secretary Colby as wholly
worthless in view of their faithless record and their
revolutionary operations through the Third Internation-
ale. Secretary Colby said (in his note of August 10,
1920) :

The responsible leaders of the regime have frequently
and openly boasted that they are willing to sign agree-
ments and undertakings with foreign powers while not
having the slightest intention of observing such under-
takings or carrying out such agreements.

Moreover, it is within the knowledge of the Govern-
ment of the United States that the Bolshevist Govern-

146 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

mont is it self subject to the control of a political faction
with extensive international ramifications through the
Third Internationale, and that this body, which is heavily
subsidized by the Bolshevist Government from the puMie
•nues of Russia, lias for its openly avowed aim tin'
promotion of Bolshevist revolutions throughout tho
world. The leaders of the Bolsheviki have boasted that
their promises of non-interference with nthtr nations
would in nourise bind the agents of this body.

The preamble to the Soviet constitution declares that

one of the main objects in forming a Soviet government

> use it "for the victory of socialism in all lands."

In the preamble of the constitution of the Communist

Internationale we find the following:

The object of the Communist International is a strug-
gle with force of arms for the suppression of th<- i
national bourgeoisie, and the creation of an Internal
Soviet Republic, as a transitional stage for the com}
suppression of the State.

At its Second Congress, July, 1020, this Internationale
expressed itself even more strongly:

The Communist International fully and unreservedly
upholds the gains of the great proletarian revolution in
the first victorious socialist revolution in the
world's history, and calls upon all workers to follow
the same road. The Communist International niak-
its duty to support by all the power at its d '
Soviet Republic wherever it may be formed.

Among the "slogans" of the dominating Russian
Communist Party presented at that gathering were

WORLD REVOLUTION 147

Through the III International to the world dictator-
ship of the proletariat, and through the dictatorship of
the proletariat to the abolition of classes and the most
complete liberation of mankind.

Long live the III International, which is fighting to
establish an International Soviet of Workmen's Deputies.

The most important action taken at this congress was
the formulation of the "twenty-one points." The send-
ing of these points as an ultimatum to all the socialist
parties of Europe had the following results:

First, the powerful Independent Socialist Party in
Germany was split and the majority faction entered the
Third Internationale, accepting the domination of Mos-
cow and all the twenty-one points.

Second, the same result occurred in the congress of
the French Socialist Party in December, 1920.

Third, a powerful element in the Italian Socialist
Party took the same action in the middle of February,
the remainder of the party also adhering to the Third
Internationale but demanding a certain measure of
autonomy. Similar results occurred in other European
countries. A powerful group of socialist and labor or-
ganizations, refusing to repudiate or condemn the Com-
munist Internationale, also decided not to enter into it
at the present moment but to attempt to form a new
international organization in which the communist par-
ties are to be an important part.

Thus the effort of the communists to control the
socialist parties of Europe has made considerable prog-
ress within the last year, though failing to capture the
movement as a whole and failing also to convert the

148 OUT OF T1IKIK OWN MOUTHS

majority of labor unionists, with the possible •

aly.

The revolutionary communist movement directed from
Moscow is, then, a formidable force on the continent of
Europe. Let us now recall that among the most im-
portant of the twenty-one revolutionary points accepted
by all adhering organizations arc the following:

In almost all the countries of Europe and America the
class war is entering the phase of civil war. I'mier such
conditions Communists can have no confidence in bour-
geois legality. They are bound t.» create everywl

a parallel illegal organi/ation, which at the decisive mo-
ment will help the party to fulfil its duty towards tile-
Revolution. . . .

All decisions of the Congress of the Communist Inter-
national, as also the drciM..n< of its Kxe.-utive Commit-
tee, are binding for all parties belonging to the Com
munist International.

When in the Martens case ex-Secretary of Labor,
W. B. Wilson, decided that the Russian Communist
Party was an organization that "advocates the «
tli row by violence of the Government of the Hi,.
States," the Administration had every possible docu-

:iy evidence to prove its case.

Naturally the belief of the I; in impending

revolt fluctuates with their victories and defeats. Hut
the utility to the Soviet Government of nvolntionary
agitation and revolutionary propaganda an-

• •onlinues regardless of such contingencies.
We have noted Trotzky's optimism when his armies were
in 1'ulai; •:. when tin- ;. \Vrnngol

•hrown in Novrniln-r. 1920, Lenin declai

WORLD REVOLUTION 149

This triumph of bolshevism is the most gigantic ever
dreamed of, but the victory is incomplete until every
part of Europe has been revolutionized.

A month later, in an open letter to the Italian social-
ists quoted in Pravda, December 10, 1920, Lenin fear-
ing that the revolutionary movement which began in the
seizure of factories by the Italian metal workers might
be checked by the refusal of foreign capitalists to furnish
the indispensable coal and iron, gave this advice :

Hasten the revolution in England, in France, in
America if these countries decide to blockade the pro-
letariat of the Italian Proletarian Republic.

At the National Congress of the Soviets on December
23, the leading economic authority among the Commis-
saries, Rykoff, said (See Pravda, December 25) :

With the possibility of international relations and the
coming communistic revolution in western Europe, and
since we are nearing our chief aim, the European con-
gress of Soviets, we have to direct our attention to the
development of those branches of our economic life which
will come to our lot in the case of distribution of work
among ourselves and western soviet Europe.

We must note in these expressions that the Bolshevists
find no contradiction between the movement for a trade
agreement and the continued movement for world revolt.
Indeed, Lenin has advocated arrangements with foreign
capitalists from the very beginning of the Bolshevik
regime, during the period of the revolutions in Hungary
and Bavaria, as well as the wars of conquest against

150 olT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

the bord- and during all the revolutionary plots

set on foot by the Third Internationale.

In a speech (quoted in I'ravda, November 30, 1920)
Lenin explains:

We have found the right way to revolution, but this
way is not a direct one; it runs in zig zags.

In the letter to the Italian communists already quoted
Lenin advises them that in order to bring the country
to revolution at the earliest possible moment — which he
believes will be very soon in Italy — it is necessary to
move first to the right and then to the left. The failure
of the Italian revolutionary movement in October and
of the German revolutionary movement in March
n to propose one of his momentary zig zags or n.
merits to the right. The date for the big revolutionary
movements in Europe has been postponed for a year or
two. As Trotzky is reported recently to have decla

The proletarian revolution in America and Europe
will he found if not in tin- approaching months then
in the approaching years.

Touching upon the same subject at the International
Communist Congress in July, 1920, XinoviefT trucu-
lently exdaii:

"Well, what about it!" we shall say to every bour-
geois: "Yes, perhaps we were wrontr: not on, year, hut
two or three will be necessary for all Eump.- to b»-,-
Soviet. You still ha. i of grace b<

fcroyed Hut if you have now bec-miio
so modest that you rejoice at these few months of grace,

WORLD REVOLUTION 151

or a few years, then we, in any case, congratulate you
on your unusual modesty."

It is the belief, however, of Zinovieff and of all the
Bolshevist leaders that even if revolutions are not ma-
terializing very rapidly or as speedily as expected that
the revolutionary movement which is so valuable to the
communists in other particulars is continuing to spread
and that because of it they can rely more and more
upon support and aid in one form or another from
the entire labor movement of Europe. In other words,
they believe that their propaganda is bearing more and
more fruit — and there is much to support their view. In
an article in the Petrograd Pravda, November 7, 1920,
Zinovieff wrote:

Three years ago, we were absolutely alone on the inter-
national arena. We know and believed that the inter-
national proletariat would understand and appreciate
our movements, and would be with us. But at the same
time we could not fail to see that at that time the inter-
tional proletariat as yet was not with us.

And how all this has now been radically changed!
Yes, the International Proletarian Revolution is devel-
oping much less rapidly than we had wished. But
never-the-less it moves forward.

Why have the Imperialist giants, the robber League of
Nations, and the very rich and blood-thirsty bourgeoisie
of England, France, and America failed to date to de-
stroy the single proletarian Republic — Soviet Russia?
But they did not do this solely because the working class
of Europe and America is in its heart behind us.

The Bolshevist leaders realize and confess that the
strength of their movement in Russia is very largely

OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

due to the support they have obtained from port r\ in

;e.nts of labor outside of Russia. For in add/
i<> tin- Kuropean revolutionary parties and
already referred to other more or less neutral labor
bodies have undoubtedly given them very valuable mm-nl
and defensive support.

All the successes of Soviet policy, to wh,
trnneous causes they may be due, are attributed by the
Bolshevists to the merit of their foreipn propaganda
and the invincibility of their international movement.
This may be seen from a speech delivered by Lenin
at a convention of the Communist Party in Moscow
(Krasnaya Gazetta, November 23, 1920) :

The world revolution, by whose aid alone we can win,
does not mature at the speed with which we hoped for
in the beginning.

But we have obtained not merely a breathing sp«-ll,
but the possibility of existing amidst bourgeois countries.

that the revolution has already mat
within those countri<

r a period of tl N, the Impi-r

compelled to give up their struggle against i hich

has, in comparison with their own military i
practically none.

Our foes, burning with desire to crush us by armed
force, ar mpelled to conclude agreements with

ml to contribute to our consolidation and strength-
ening.

lie Communist Congress earlier in the year Lenin
had said (see Soviet Russia, August 23, 1920) :

We not only won over to our side the workers of all
countries, but also succeeded in winning the bourgeoisie

WORLD REVOLUTION 153

of the small countries, for the imperialists oppress not
only the workers of their countries but also the bour-
geoisie of the small nations. You know how we won
over the wavering middle class within the advanced
countries.

This absolute disintegration of our adversaries who
were sure of their power, shows that they are but a
handful of capitalist beasts at odds among themselves
and absolutely powerless to fight us.

Here the Bolshevist chief discloses the secret of such
" success" as he has been able to attain throughout
the world: his propaganda has succeeded in deceiving
not only a large number of workingmen but also con-
siderable elements of the middle classes.

Taking up some remarks of Lenin's at the Tenth
Congress of the Socialist Russian Party in March, 1921,
the Bolshevist press of America, assisted by pro-Bol-
shevist " liberal" publications, by the yellow press, and
by commercially directed newspapers blinded by short-
sighted greed, all joined together to claim that he had
abandoned world revolution together with communism
and all the other foundations of Bolshevism. What
Lenin actually said was: "Were we to suppose that
presently we would get help in the form of a firmly
established proletarian revolution, we would be lunatics, ' '
this speech being made in answer to a very small group
of ultra-extremists who opposed trade agreements, not
realizing that they were entirely consistent with the
policy of world revolution. Lenin's words are very
carefully chosen. He does not say that help from a
proletarian revolution is not to be expected; he says
only that early help from "a firmly established" pro-
letarian revolution cannot be counted upon. In other

154 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOU I

words, ho still expects the revolution;.
develop with steadily increasing ii and to r«

: a point that it will be helpful to tin- Soviets, «
economically, before the lapse of many years.

Referring to the question of world revolution, Lenin
said:

Aid is coming from the Western European count •
It is not coming as fast as we should like it. but it is
coming nevertheless and gathering strength. Of co
the world revolution has made a great step font-art! . in
comparison with last year. We have learned to under-
stand during the last three years that basing -
on an international revolution docs not mean calculating
on a definite date, and that the increasing rapidity of
development may bring a revolution in the spring
(1921) or it may not. Of course, the Communist In-
ternational which last year existed merely in the form
of proclamations is now existing as an independent party
in every country. ... In Germany, France and Italy
the Communist International has heeomc not only the
centre of the labor movement but the focus of attention
for the whole political life of those countries. Th
our conquest, and no one can deprive us of it. The
world revolution is growing stronger, ?/•/»//< thr ccon<
crisis in Europe is getting worse at the san

But, at any rate, were we to draw from this the
rnnclusiori that help would come from there within a
brief period in the shape of a solid proletarian revolu-
tion, we would be simply lunatics; but in this hall, I
f< • 1 eertain. there are none such. \Ve must, then I
know how to adapt our activity to tin mutual class
relat ' within our own and other conn'1

that we may be able for a long time to retain the
''iip of tin- prolet.-iria? and. at lea.st gradually,
ill the ills and crises besetting us. Only such
a view of the problem will bo correct and s<>
(Pravda, March 10, 1921.)

WORLD REVOLUTION 155

Surely all this is a far cry from " abandoning the
world revolution!"

It was as late as July, 1920, that the Third Internation-
ale declared that ' ' in nearly every country of Europe and
America the class struggle is entering upon the phase
of civil war— while as late as December (1920) it con-
verted the French Socialist majority to that view.
Discouraging and encouraging events have taken place
since that time, but the total result of all revolu-
tionary movements during recent months is far from
such as to discourage visionary fanatics like the Bol-
shevists. At the meeting of March 15 Kameneff made
a report on foreign policy to the Tenth Congress of
the Russian Communist Party:

"We must consider," began Kameneff, "our relations
with the capitalist states, seeing that our supposition
of the speedy assistance which should come to us from
Western Europe in the form of a world revolution has
not been carried out with the rapidity for which we
hoped. Though counting on the world revolution, we
must shape our practical policy in such a way that it
will be possible to take action at any time, should the
course of world development force us to fight for the
existence of our isolated Soviet Republic.

The words italicized again give a very satisfactory
portrayal of the precise state of the Bolshevist mind
as regards world revolution. The rest of this speech
develops the grounds for the Bolshevist hopes. While
indicating the usual state of extreme ignorance, these
remarks are important as showing the pro-German pre-
judices, the hatred of America and England, the ex-
pectation of the Bolshevists that they will participate in
future wars (it is strange that the pacifist extremists

156 OUT OP THEIR OWN MOUTHS

x

t upon continuing their support of tlioso militaristic
and imperialist ie fanatics) and also the willingness of the
Soviets to arm the Asiatic against the European races.
Kameneff continues:

The great Powers have gained their end. They have
succeeded in dividing up the world between them.

• rious powers have not only subjugated col« ;
semi-colonies, but many countries such as Austria
Germany, are entirely dependent on thnn. A small
party of the richest countries has divided up the world,
converting the most cultured cmm tries in tin rope, Ger-
many and Austria, into their enslaved vassals.

The danger of a new world war is arising. The strug-
gle will l»c for the possession of the shores of the Pa
Ocean and will take place between ih< former A
England and Anuriw. while Japan it-ill | Eng-

land. It may be presumed that all the capitalist st
will again lie involved in this new struggle, only a rising
of the world proletariat can prevent this new \\
catastrophe.

Soviet Russia took no part in the division of the
world. Thanks to the three :r Soviet K

gained the right to an independent existence. This in-
dependence will make it possible for us to take up sides
in the various historical events of the world. . . .

Soviet Russia is not isolated. Soviet Russia only in
the West borders on capitalist states. In the East her
neighbour is truly revolutionary AMU. The faet that
we Still exist is explained by the circumstance tb.

• •d between eapit.

Kurope and revolutionary Asia. -itu-

ated half way between the Kast and \\

In a long communication to tho Independent Labor
Party the Third Internationale last summer outlined
another war — this time it was a war of the world against

WORLD REVOLUTION 157

Great Britain and America. This also is a war from
which the Bolshevists hoped to gain:

It is probable that when throwing off the chains of
the capitalist Governments, the revolutionary proletariat
of Europe will meet the resistance of Anglo-Saxon capi-
tal in the persons of British and American capitalists,
who will attempt to blockade it It is then possible the
revolutionary proletariat of Europe will arise in union
with the peoples of the East and commence a revolu-
tionary struggle, the scene of which will be the entire
world, to deal the final blow at British and American
capitalists.

The pro-German tendency of the propaganda is al-
ways in evidence. The Bolshevists are particularly
friendly to the Germans in the attack on the Versailles
Treaty. We may see an illustration of this in a speech
of Lenin's early in 1920:

The Germans are, above all, our auxiliaries because
their hope of escaping from the penal clauses of the
Peace treaty rests on causing disorder and agitation
with a view to profit by the general confusion which
will then arise. They seek revenge — we revolution.

This friendliness to the German junkers is also seen
in a statement of Trotzky when he was at the Polish
front :

It is said that the Russian communists were the serfs
of the Prussian junkers, but that must not weigh with
us. It must not be forgotten that organized Germany
constitutes a danger to world imperialism, and nothing
must oppose an understanding with Germany for the
destruction of the imperialist governments of Europe.

158 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

We prefer such an understanding to fraternization with
the so-called free count

At the same time the Bolshevists have endeavored to
line up for war upon England and France, alongside the
junkers, the junkers' hitter enemies, the German com-
munists.

The revolutionary German socialist lead 'ion,

just returned from a visit to Russia at the invitation
of the Soviets declared:

The Russian Soviet Government intended to make war
on France if the Polish campaign had been successful,
and England also would have been attacked. The So\
were counting on the aid of the German eommtini
(From Crispien's speech at the Halle Congress of the
Independent Socialist Party— October 13, 1920.)

While the Soviets rely largely upon wars .>ut of which
revolutions are expected to arise, they rely still more
upon the direct results of revolutionary propaganda and
organization through the Third Internationale. Their
complicity in the German revolutionary movement of
March, 1921, for example, is proved l»y tin- open asser-
tions of the Moscow communist organ in Berlin, Die
Rote Fal>

In spite of such absolutely conclusive evidence and
of innumerable other instances of equally stupid B< '
vist duplicity several entirely conservative nm
vist newspapers in America and England insisted that
it was in that Moscow could at the same time be

IT n volutions and seeking trade by gov
mental agreements!

THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONALE

THE Third Internationale is the child of the Russian
Communist Party. It was created here, in the Kremlin
on the initiative of the Communist Party of Russia. The
Executive Committee of the Third Internationale is in
our own hands. (Report of Radek, Secretary of Third
Internationale, to Ninth Congress of Russian Communist
Party— Pravda, April 3rd, 1920.)

At the Second Congress of the Communist Interna-
tionale held, at Moscow in August, 1920, the following
resolution was passed:

The World Congress is the supreme organ of the Com-
munist International.

The World Congress elects an Executive Committee
of the Communist International which serves as the lead-
ing organ in the intervals between the (annual) World
Congresses.

In his report to the Congress, President Zinoviev
further explained the dictatorial powers possessed by
the Moscow Executive:

The Congress has also emphasized the need of a united
Communist International organization and has worked
out its statute, according to which the executive com-
mittee of the III International is given very wide powers,

159

160 T OF THEIR OWN MolTHS

including that of expelling from the International a
whole party for violation < 'me.

Another resolution parsed unaiiiniously by the Con-
gress indicated that the control of the Russian Commu-
Party over this world revolutionary movement is
absolute. This resolution d<

The need of a strong world unity of the prol«
is too evident to allow discussion of any kind ot'auton

Although there are "only" five Russian* on the I;
national Executive Committee, as a matter of fact, all
the other ten members were practically appointed by
the Russian Bolsheviks and their names indicate ab-
solute suhst -rvit ncy, since with one or two exceptions
tlu-y have little or no representative capacity.
example, the late John Reed was
America! With the sole exception of Italy, onl\
most extreme of extremists were chose: the

permanent bureau or directing body of the Executive
Committee consists of three Russians out of live mem-
bers: Zinoviev, Bukharin and Rad( k.

This body now claims to have the sole ri^ht to repre-
sent the proletariat of the world and in their name pro-
pose throw all governmental Revolutionists who
do not obey orders, such as d'Arragona, head of the Con-
federation of Labor of Italy, are immediately hrai
as traitors to the workin

The application of this principle of the divine right
of the Russian Bolshe 'he world revolu-

tion" was amusingly i it the Congress in the

THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONALE 161

speeches of Lenin dealing with the revolutionary move-
ment in Great Britain. Here are some passages, as
reported in the Bolshevist press:

Lenin protests against the supposition that the pecu-
liar situation of the English labor movement requires
that the decision as to the line of conduct of the Briti>h
Socialist Party should be left in the latter 's free judg-
ment. Lenin does not understand why in such a case
this Congress and this International are necessary.

Such tactics should be considered one of the worst
traditions left by the activity of the II International.
The 2nd Congress of the III International will, of course,
act differently and will discuss in detail in the proper
committee all the conditions of the English labor move-
ment and the tasks resulting therefrom. . . .

Despite the opinion of Comrade MacLean, the Labor
Party does not express the political state of mind of
the working class of England as organized in trade-
unions; it expresses the views and state of mind of its
leaders, who are the most bourgeois, reactionary hand-
maid of British Imperialism. It is necessary that the
party should effectively represent the ideology and in-
terests of the proletariat. . . .

Furthermore, these traitors are at the head of the
Labor Party which presents an unprecedented situation,
for the latter expresses the political will of 4,000,000
workmen organized in its ranks. . . .

You are constantly speaking of the differences between
the conditions in England and those in other countries.
In so far as you enter the Communist International, you
must remember that you must be guided not only by
the experience of England but also by general revolu-
tionary experience.

After the speech of Comrade Lenin the theses are put
to a vote. Comrade Zinoviev proposed to vote first, and
separately, on the thesis relating to the entrance of the

162 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

Brit: ilist Party into the Independent Labor

Party of England. This 'i adopted by a maj<

of 48 to 34 with two abstaining.

This amazing act of coercion against the left wing of
British labor, as the vote shows, was almost too imn-h
even for the hand-picked and thoroughly iliseip!
delegates of the Cominunist Internationale. Lenin's
plan to capture the Independent Labor Tarty in this
manner was, doubtless, not quite so wild as the pla:
the British Communist d< il down.

These latter wished to attack not only the British Labor
Party, though it is pro-Soviet in its foreign policy, hut
also the revolutionary Independent Labor Party \vhi<>h
expresses the warmest admiration for Soviet ism — in
Russia, but does not wish to have it in England and
will not take orders from Moscow further than leaving
the Second and Socialist Internationale at Moscow's
suggestion. Lenin's taeties on the surface \v •
what less impractical. But they were futile in any event
as the Independent Labor Party, at its succeed ing
gress, repudiated Communism by an overwhelming ma-
jority, leading to the see. 'lie small minority of
as ordered by Lenin for all countries.
Whether, from the Comim >lutionary standpoint.
this outcome in Great Britain justified Lenin'
«>r not, the British Communists were allowed little to
say on the sub.je.-t.

.'• eontrol of Mov the key to tho

id of the Third Internationale. The Commni
are unaniiii" • ed that if it is .-,1 their

lution must be a world n volution. Tiny are unan-
imously agreed that it must then fore have a highly

THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONALE 163

centralized control. They are equally agreed that Soviet
Russia is the only " proletarian " country to-day, that
it has led the world in revolutionary tactics, that it has
started the world revolution and organized the only
genuinely proletarian internationale. They are agreed,
too, that the iron dictatorship established in Soviet Rus-
sia and within the Russian Communist Party furnishes
a model for the international organization.

This is the feeling of the extreme revolutionists and
communists of all countries. But Moscow goes much
farther. It feels that the fate of Soviet Russia carries
with it the fate of the world revolution and that there-
fore all that pertains to its safety and welfare must be
given first consideration. It feels that as the light has
come from Soviet Russia the light must continue to come
from Soviet Russia. It feels that Russia has already
experienced what other countries must experience. Rus-
sia is the older sister, the others must follow in her
foot-steps. None of these ideas are shared even by the
extremists of other countries. Lenin sometimes says,
and possibly believes, he is allowing for the divergencies
of other countries and treating them as equals. But
this is scarcely consonant with his astounding twenty-one
points, by which he drove away even such ardent and
docile supporters as the leaders of the Italian Socialists.
His real state of mind is portrayed in his speech before
the All-Russian Political Education Conference (Novem-
ber 5th, 1920), in which he said:

The union of all great capitalist countries of the world
against Russia, against Soviet Russia — this is the whole
business of the present international political situation,
and we must be entirely clear as to the fact that the

OUT OF THKIR OWN MOITIIS

fate of hundreds of millions of workers in the capit

< /if/.s- on this f

In our country w-- li a manifold shap-

ing of events in thi' Ken-nsky period, am«iiLr tl
Revolutionists and the Social Democrats, su.-li a \
gated color scheme in the various towns of Kus^ia. that
we may say that we "have been tested more than any
people. If we look toward Western Europe w< shall
see that the same thing is now going on there that hap-
pened in our country. We are beholding a repetition
of our own history.

This is nothing less than revolutionary chauvinism,
similar to the doctrine of the French revolutionists win -n
they undertook to force their creed on other pen
by the aid of the bayonet. But it is infinitely ;
crude. For while France was one of the most adv.v
countries of Europe, Soviet Russia is one of the most
backward.

The Communist Internationale is now functioning in
tho United States and declares as its principal imme-
diate object the destruction of the American Federation
of Labor. By methods of secrecy, by its hold upon
tain entirely foreign elements who do not understand
anything about American conditions or American labor
organizations, by the aid of the large sums it
from Russia and by the sympathy and assistant
secures from our numerous "parlor BoLsl this

orga is able to give considerable trouble to the

American Labor movement.

The danger v«-ry largely takes the form of puhlieat ions
supporting the Soviet cause in the I'n it ed ^ mly

a few of these arc op.-nly < 'onununist. Hut a large num-
ber of publications and writers lake the Coniinui

THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONALE 165

tion of hostility with regard to the Federation of Lal>or
combined with friendship to Bolshevism. There can be
no doubt that some of them are subsidized by Moscow.
A resolution passed by the Second Congress of the Com-
munist Internationale declared:

The Communist parties must create a new type of
periodical press for extensive circulation among the
workmen; (1) Lawful publications in which the Com-
munists without calling themselves such and without
mentioning their connection with the party, would learn
to utilize the slightest possibility allowed by the laws.
(2) Illegal sheets.

One of the first actions taken by the new Bolshevist
Government after it seized power was to vote money
for such purposes. Here is one of its first decrees:

The Soviet of People's Commissaries deems it neces-
sary to bring all possible means, including money to
the aid of the Left International Wing of the workers'
movement in all lands, quite regardless of whether these
countries are at war or in alliance with Russia; or
whether they are neutral.

To that end the Soviet of People's Commissaries,
orders to appropriate for the needs of the revolutionary
international movement 2,000,000 rubles, to be taken
charge of by the foreign representative of the Commis-
sariat of Foreign Affairs.
(Signed)

President, Soviet People's Commissaries,

VI. Ulianoff (Lenin)
(Signed)

People's Commissary of Foreign Affairs,

L. Trotzky.
(Published in Izvestia, Dec. 13, 1917, p. 9.)

16« OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

Far from denying this povernmentally subsidized
propaganda the entire Hol>l ss of the world

openly boasts of it.

In the report of the Executive Committee of the Com-
munist Internationale to the Second World Coi
the Communist JnkTiiationale, Zinoviev wm

Russian workmen, to whom the progressive workmen
of other countries have rendered brotherly assistance
during the course of two decades, have considered it
their proletarian duty now to render similar broti
assistance to the struggling proletariat that is in i
difficult material rircumsta-

With respect to the assistance in money which tho
Communist International has rendered to brotherly

the yellow Social Democrats, with th-
the tatlers of the bourgeoisie pr< i lot

of noise in various countries of Europe. People who
dp not e -el'iil to use material support

given by the brigand-like League of Nation ..uts

of protest because the workmen ( !) of one country sup-
port their brothers in another country.

The workmen th< did not take this attitude

toward the matter. Tin- Italian Communists, for ex-
ample, practically declared quite oprnly that son
their party or^ani/at ions wre ablt to be founded
becau-'' the Communist International rendered hrotl
assistance to the Italian workmen. The workmen
mnnists in other countries have made similar dedara-
tioi

••ntirc western European bounreoiK pre^s, wliich

is bought up by capital, has not ceased to throw dirt

'inmunism because of the subsidy which the daily

Daily Herald," was rm-iving

from the Russian proletariat.

This last statement was publicly denied by the Lon-

THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONALE 167

don Daily Herald, but many facts are known to point in
the contrary direction. It will be noted that the Bol-
shevists treat the entire labor press and even the non-
Bolshevist Socialist press as "bourgeois."

The Bolshevists regard their enormous expenditures
in mendacious propaganda as having been brilliantly
successful and there is some ground for their claim.
Zinoviev has recently summed up this success at length
in Pravda, November 7, 1920. We note a few sentences:

The campaign of slander was very well organized by
the bourgeoisie and by its lackeys from the II " Inter-
nationale "; it was organised, one may say, scientifically
and with talent. But nevertheless, we can say with the
greatest pride, that we came out victorious from this
unequal struggle. . . .

Up to the present, the international proletariat as a
whole was on the defensive, and now it will be able
to assume the offensive. . . .

When Soviet troops were at the gates of Warsaw,
it became particularly clear that the international pro-
letariat is entering on a stage which can be called : pass-
ing from the defensive to the offensive. . . .

The Council of Action in London, which showed such
brilliant activity for a couple of weeks, was undoubtedly
the forerunner of English Soviets of Workmen's Depu-
ties.

Zinoviev 's reference to the Second Internationale also
includes as non-proletarian and bourgeois the entire
non-Bolshevist Labor Union and Socialist press of
Europe.

Krassin has also made recent reference to the success
of the Soviet propaganda, frankly stating that "the
hostility of Great Britain had been overcome by propa-

168 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

ganda," If wo recall the ceaseless campaign of falsifica-
tion concerning not only Kussia but the cntirv labor
movement of the world that is being carr'n-il on liy tlio
London Daily Hi raid and other Sovietist or pro-S<
organs of Great Britain, chvulatnl not only in that
country but all over the world, we can realize tho
enormous damage that has been inflicted upon the British
labor movement by the gold which the Bolshevists have
looted from the poverty-stricken population of Russia.

,THB NEW BED LABOR UNION INTER-
NATIONALE

OPERATING solely in the field of politics, propaganda,
and insurrection the Communist Internationale was not
a perfect instrument for the purposes of the Soviets.
The Communist, or Third Internationale, from its found-
ation in March, 1919, had directed its operations mainly,
not against the bourgeoisie, but against what it calls
"bourgeois" labor as represented in the Second or
Socialist Internationale. But it soon discovered that the
most formidable labor enemies of Bolshevism are not the
political Socialists of the Right or of the Center (the
orthodox Marxist followers of Kautsky, Longuet, etc.)
but the labor unions of the world, from the American
Federation of Labor to the British and German unions
and even the syndicalistic French Confederation.

At the Congress of the Communist Internationale at
Moscow in the summer of 1920, Lenin issued the follow-
ing declaration of war against organized labor, thinly
veiled as a war against leaders:

Our main enemy is tine opportunism in the upper
ranks of ihe labor movement. This is not a Socialist or
proletarian, but a bourgeois movement. That these
leaders of the labor movement are defending the bour-
geoisie better than the bourgeoisie itself, and that with-
out their assistance the bourgeoisie could not maintain

170 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

f— is shown not only by the regime of Kerensky,
but also by the present democratic republic in (Jermany,
and by the attitude of Albert Thomas and I lend-
toward their bourgeois Governments. Here is our >mn'n
enemy; we must triumph over this ennui/, <ind leave this
Congress with a unanimous and firm dtOMIOfl to car?-?/
this struggle through to the end in all countries. This
is our main task.

If that part of the labor movement which utterly repu-
diates Bolshevism is to be called "the upper ranks" then
recent elections throughout the labor movement of
Europe have proven that fully three-fourths of the mem-
bership is to be so classified.

Bolshevist enmity makes no distinction between the
American Federation of Labor and the European unions
adhering to the Amsterdam International Federation of
Trade Unions. The fact that this international body
was ready to declare not only a general strike but a
food blockade of the Polish people and to forcibly inter-
rupt the shipment of food and munitions to Poland,
all in order to aid the Soviets to accomplish their d« •« •!.
purpose of conquering the Poles, counted for nothing
in the minds of the would-be world dictators at Moscow.
In spite of the servile attitude of nearly all the political
parties of the Second, or Socialist, Internationale and
of the controlling elements in the Amsterdam Trades
Union Internationale, the Moscow dictators admin
nothing but rebuffs to everybody who refuses to ae
their absolute rule and demand that all exist inir ov^an-
be wholly reshaped according to Moscow's

The Bolshevists therefore decided at Moscow, last

THE NEW RED LABOR UNION 171

July, to form a new Internationale of Red Labor Unions. '
This organization is based upon the fictitious member-
ship of five millions claimed by the official Russian
Soviet trade unions, upon the temporary adhesion of
the Italian Confederation of Labor with its two million
members — although this organization is at present rather
outside than inside the Communist Internationale, and
upon lesser but equally doubtful claims in other coun-
tries. The Communist Internationale adopted, by an
overwhelming majority, the following amendment pro-
posed by Radek in connection with this new Red Inter-
nationale :

It is the one weapon of the world revolutionary move-
ment against the yellow International, because the prin-
cipal enemy of the revolutionary proletariat is not Brus-
sels but Amsterdam — that is the yellow international of
trade union organizations. By overthrowing Amster-
dam we shall deal the most terrible blow to the capital-
istic order, but this blow can be dealt only by the Red
International of trade-unions.

This Red Internationale is somewhat stronger than
at first appears. While it has comparatively little
direct support from the labor unions, with the ex-
ception of the Latin countries, it has a very strong
support from the newly formed Communist par-
ties created during the last six months by the split of
the Socialist parties — according to Moscow orders — in
several European countries. Thus a majority of the
Socialist Party members of France, through the newly
created Communist Party, have accepted the dictator-
ship of the Moscow Communist Internationale, including

17 J OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

y -one points. A powerful faction 'of the
Socialists in Germany, now organized as the Com m
Party and including a million or two supporters, has
taken the same action. And, finally, in Italy both the
Communist Party and the Socialist Party adhere to the
Third Internationale and accept tin twenty-one points,
although the latter also claims a certain mrasure of
autonomy. The leadership of all these movements is
largely in the hands of "intellectuals" and outsiders,
non-members of the labor unions. This is markedly the
case with the Italian Communist Party. But the influ-
ence on labor is, nevertheless, formidable,
> Of Moscow's twenty-one points accepted by all these
so-called labor parties, points nine and ten refer to
organized labor. They are as follows:

9. Every party which d join the Communist
Internationale muM systematically and constant 1\
velop a communist activity within the trades unions,
the workmen's and factory councils, the consumers'
societies and other mass organizations of the workmen.
"Within these organizations it is necessary to
Communist "cells" which by constant. . nt work
shall win the trades unions, &<•., over to the cause of
Communism. The "cells" are obliged in their daily
•Work to unmask everywhere tin- trOAKMD of the s-
patriots and the fickleness of the "Ctt Com-
munist " cells" must be completely subordinated to the
whole party.

10. Every party belonging to the Tlii id Internationale

1 to wage a stubborn war against tin
ttionale" of the yellow trade nnioi
must most emphatically propagate aiiion^ the unioi:

! workmen the neces ,,,-h with the

• rdam Internationale. They must support

THE NEW RED LABOR UNION 173

by all means the rising international unification of red
trade unions which join the Communist Internationale.

If it is recalled that the orders of the Moscow Execu-
tive Committee are absolute over all Communist organ-
izations and that Moscow is willing to spend the last
gold ruble of the heritage of the Russian people for the
disruptive purposes it may be seen that the danger
threatening the labor union movement of Continental
Europe is considerable. Indeed the French C. G. T.
was saved for the cause of labor unionism at the last
meeting of the Council only by a very narrow margin
of votes. The struggle was most unequal. There is no
bribery and corruption fund available for the legitimate
labor unions to counterbalance the colossal corruption
fund of Moscow. For every dollar legitimately raised
and expended by organized labor in self-defense, the
Communists, from the loot they have taken from Russian
workmen and peasants, are able to spend a thousand.

The situation in Great Britain is similar, though some-
what less acute. Because of the absence of any powerful
Communist political party, the Soviets are forced in that
country to act mainly through the subsidy of the labor
press and other propaganda, which Krassin admits ob-
tained for the Communists the signing of the British
trade agreement.

The purpose of the new organization was briefly
declared by ''The International Soviet of Trade
Unions," the name which it first assumed. On August
1st, 1920, this body issued a statement from Moscow
from which we take the following:

The substance of our activity and of our program:

174 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

Tho overthrow of the bourgeoisie by force, the establish-
ment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, a merciless
iLrgle on an international and in-

separable union with the Communist International.

From the first moment of its inauguration the newest
Red Internationale was mot with grave internal prob-
lems. A split was immediately t! i the
ultra-State Socialism of the Russians who hoped to ex-
tend their absolute authority from the Russian State
to other nations, and the ultra-revolutionary labor unions
of other countries, all of which tend in tho direction
of syndicalism or anti-Stateism. Apparently the conflict
is insoluble, but the Moscow chiefs of the new li
nationale decided to use their accepted Machiavellian
tactics of deception and to "take in" the syndicalist
elements — a,s will be demonstrated by the evidence we
shall now reproduce.

Among the reports unanimously adopted at the Con-
gress of the Communist Internationale in July, lU'JO, was
the following:

As for the revolutionary Syndicalists, as well as the

representatix wards, we shall not follow the

.pie of the II International, which always harassed

and II workmen who were not in agreement

with

We shall work in conjunction with all honest and
honestly inis'_ruided workmen, and together with them
we shall learn and make mistak.s. beetOM funda-
mentally, in our .-lass aims and ideaN with
them a single proletarian revolutionary whole.

Another resolution recommended the most "friendly
attitude" and "closer connection " with these organiza-

THE NEW RED LABOR UNION 175

tions. The language here chosen is highly significant,
as is also the phraseology of the following sentence from
the same resolution:

As regards the I. W. W. of America and Australia
and the Shop-Steward Committees of England, we have
to deal with a genuinely proletarian mass movement
which practically adheres to the principles of the Com-
munist Internationale.

In order, however, to show the utter impossibility of
any real compromise on the part of Moscow toward any
trade unions or any other body having to deal with
it — no matter how revolutionary they may be — we may
quote the following passages on the trade unions from
"the theses and statutes adopted by the Third or Com-
munist Internationale" at their 1920 Congress. "We
quote from the official publication issued by the office
of the Communist Internationale in Moscow:

All voluntary withdrawal from the industrial move-
ment, every artificial attempt to organize special unions,
without being compelled thereto by exceptional acts of
violence on the part of the trade union bureaucracy,
such as expulsion of separate revolutionary local
branches of the unions by the opportunist officials, or
by their narrow-minded aristocratic policy, which pro-
hibits the unskilled workers from entering into the
organization, represents a great danger to the Communist
movement. It threatens to hand over the most advanced,
the most conscious workers, to the opportunist leaders,
playing into the hands of the bourgeoisie.

Placing the object and the essence of labour organiza-
tions before them, the Communists ought not to hesitate
before a split in such organizations, if a refusal to split

OUT OF THEIR OWN MoiTHS

would mean abandoning revolutionary work in the trade

unions, and tfivin^ up the attempt to make of them an

instrument of revolutionary struggle, the attempt to

nize the nio^t < xploited part of the proletariat.

Where a split between the opportunists and tin- ivvlu-
ti<>nary trade union niovrment has already taken j)lace
before, where, as in America, alongside of tin ;uist

trade unions there an- unions with revolution
dem-ies — although not Communist ones — th
munists are bound to support such revolutionary nn
to persuade them to abandon Syndicalist prejudice*.
to place themselves on the platform of Commuii
which alone is economic struggle.

It is the duty of the Communists in all the phases
of the economic struggle to point out to the workers
that the success of the struggle is only possible if the
working class conquers the capitalists in open lijrht. and
by means of dictatorship proceeds to the or^ani/ation
of a Socialist order. Consequently, the Connm;'

strive to create as far as possible complete unity
between the trade unions and the Communist K

• Hnatr thr unions to the practical /«/ <1< rsh i}> of
the Party, as the advanced guard of the wo r <>lu-

tion. For this purpose the Communists should i
Communist fractions in all the trade unions and fa<
committees and acquire by their means an inllin
the labour movement and direct it.

In a word, whether with or without a split, the aim

'".nlmate. We shall now note the prm
application of the Communist trade union princi,
according to the method of Lenin aln-ady quoted, "We
must know how to apply, at net -d, knav

'i",ls. hiding truth by in order to pen. •

the trade unions, to remain there and
to accomplish he Communist task."

THE NEW RED LABOR UNION 177

As soon as the Trade Union Internationale was formed,
the leading Bolshevist authority on trade unions, Losov-
sky, was delegated to prepare an official pamphlet. This
pamphlet was printed in Russian and accepted, but
when it was being translated into other languages it
occurred to the Moscow authorities that it was indis-
pensable as far as possible to keep from the knowledge
of the revolutionary labor unionists of other countries
the irreconcilable differences between syndicalism and
Bolshevist state socialism which had developed in the
Moscow conference. Therefore, when it was too late,
the two following wireless dispatches were sent abroad:

To Litvinov for Asten, Chairman, Russian Trade Union
Delegation.

Moscow, Sept. 8.

The international council of Labor Unions has now
been joined by the British Shop Stewards and Workers
Committees, Transport Workers' Federation of Holland,
German Syndicalists and Italian Syndicalists. Please
shape your policy in accordance with this fact. The
aim of the Council is to unite all the Left elements of
the Trade Union and Industrial movement. In view
of this pp. 56-70 of Losovsky's story of the Council
must be re-written before publishing.

General Secretary of the International Council
of Trades Unions — Tomsky.

Wireless to Losovsky, Russian Trade Union Delegation,
Christiana, Norway.

Moscow, Sept. 9.

Your booklet on the International Council of Trade
Unions will be published in Russian with a foreword
and additional matters. The polemic nature of the book-
let as far as it deals with industrial syndicalists, shop
stewards and Italian Confederation representatives such

178 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

&s to make it inadvisable that it should bo published in
a foreign language.

General Secretary of International Council
of Trades Unions — Tomsky.

Tho passages which it was wished to keep from the
non-Russian adherents of the New Red Internationale
were those describing the results of the Red Trade Union
congress held in Moscow the beginning of July, 1
Among the most instructive paragraphs arc the follow-
ing: [We quote from the pamphlet entitled "The I>
national Council of Trade and Industrial Unions, by A.
Losovsky, (S. A. Dridzo) — Price 25 cents — Published by
the Union Publishing Company, New York City.]

The German syndicalists, tlic British and American
represent <itir(s of Ihc I. IV. W. and the N/;<//; Stewards
approached the question fn»n <juit, a different point
of view. They questioned the necessity <>f any form of
dictatorship. They regard « I tin dictotorikip not as the
dictatorship of the proletariat , but as di< tutorship
the proletariat and categorically protested o////?/
lishing this principle.

The repres* of the All-Russian Central Coun-

cil of Trade Unions proposed the following point on
the dictatorship of the proletariat: "The dictatorship
tie bourgeoisie must be opposed by the dictatorship
of the proletariat as a transitional, but resolute measure,
as the only m< ans by which it is possible to crush the
resistance of the exploiters, and secure and consolidate

trains of the pn.letar "ninent."

Thig formula was adopter! by all e.v-rpt th.
ista, and the ,f the I. W. W. and the

P Stewards.
It was difficult to unite these conflict inp tender-

THE NEW RED LABOR UNION 179

from tHe denial of the necessity of a political party —
to the recognition of the necessity of the inseverable con-
nection between the party and the unions, on a single
platform. It was still more difficult to reconcile the
point of view of the Russian trade unionists on the
supremacy of the party over the unions with the various
views explained above. The discussion showed one thing,
and that was that those elements of the labor movement
which denied the political struggle, which denied the
necessity of a political party of the proletariat, and the
closest bond between the Communist Party and the trade
unions could not enter the new international trade union
centre, because the whole idea of international organiza-
tion of the revolutionary unions lay in gathering all
the economic and political organizations of the working
class into one body — the Third International — for defen-
sive and offensive operations against the capitalist class.
Pestana [of the National Confederation of Labor of
Spain] said that he could not imagine such a relation
between the party and the unions as existed in Russia,
in Spain, for the reason that in Spain the unions are
a great force, while the Communist Party is only in
its embryonic stage. He opposed the subordination of
the unions to the party, but was in favor of the closest
contact between the party and the unions on a national
and international scale. Neither the representatives of
the British Shop Stewards' or the American I. W. W.
objected to co-operating with the Communist Party, but
the German syndicalists and the representatives of the
industrial Labor Unions were categorically opposed to
any co-operation.

These comrades also raised doubts concerning the
Soviet system. They asserted that the Soviet system
is not applicable to Western Europe, and that the indus-
trial unions and the shop stewards' committees will per-
form the function of the Soviets there.

180 OUT OF THIilK OWN MoiTIIS

The T latives of the All -ral Coun-

wcre of the opinion that the trade
unions should oiv Qfl within tin- Tra.lt- I:

national. From this it 1'ollows tliat the Third <
ii'.unist International should lu> the jr« : all

the militant revolutionary elass organ i/.at ion

proletariat.

All the delegates except I ;<trmns 0\

delegation. The Ital idi and Knirlish,

approaching the question from various points of view
inclined to the opinion that an independent inter-
national oruMiii/ation should he set up which, while 1
connected hy ideas and orirani/.at ion with the Third
International, nevertheless should lead an indepei.

. The representative of the (Icnnr.n syndicalists
and of the Australian 1. \V. \V. were against all OOH]
tion with the Third International and argued that the
trade unions under no eireumstanees will a with

a political or^ani/ation. It is charac 'hat the

6 point was held by th-

of the (Jerman Labor I'nions. Otto Huhle. who ?••
sented the (Jrnnan Coniinunist L.ibor Tarty, the
tin«:uisliinjr feature of which is that it denies the n

politically c»riraiii/.in£ the working
class. On this qu I "n i.ther (juestions. the

dicalists and the I. W. W. dilTcn-d. On this occasion
it was due to the I. AV. \V. supporting affiliation to the
Third International.

The question that raised most <i was that of

the of the Communist revolutionary eleii:

within the trade union movement in connection with the

old mass unions, Tin question irai: should the old

unions be split or captured? Considerable differences
i among • Mtes on this point. K<

W( akness in compariM.n with 'nan

tdch embrace nearly 8,000,000 members,

THE NEW RED LABOR UNION 181

the German syndicalists and representatives of the Ger-
man Labor Unions declared that the present day "free"
unions of Germany were hopeless, that it was necessary
to destroy them and only by destroying them it will be
possible to conquer the bourgeoisie. The represi
of the I. W. W. held the same viewpoint. In their
opinion the American Federation of Labor is an in-
vincible fortress. The only thing to do was to abandon
it and set up a separate organization outside of it. They
further asserted that the reactionary character of the
American Federation of Labor is bound up with its very
construction and to think of fighting the treacherous
policy of Gompers inside the unions was an Utopia. . . .
Both the German and the American comrades were
clearly illogical, for it is ridiculous to think that it is
possible to bring about a social revolution in Western
Europe without or in spite of the trade unions. To leave
the unions and to set up small independent unions is an
evidence of weakness.

It is obvious that a conference of representatives of
trade unions of various countries could not adopt a
point of despair, and it was resolved to "condemn the
tactics of advanced revolutionary elements leaving the
existing unions. On the contrary, these must take all
measures to drive the opportunists out of the unions,
carry on a methodical propaganda for Communism
within the unions, and form Communist and revolu-
tionary groups in all the organizations for conducting
propaganda in favor of our programme."

That the conference took up the correct point of view
is proved by the Second Congress of the Third Inter-
national which sharply opposed the tactics of leaving
the unions. The motto put forward by the Communist
International, and which is our motto also, is: "Not the
lestruction, but the conquest of the trade unions."

182 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOlTHs

It may have been possible on other questions to com-
promise in order- but on this
dinal question of international labor policy no com-
promise was possible.

nces ended in the acceptance of a declara-
tion which shoul for gathering all
the revolutionary class unions into one organi/ation.
This declaration was discussed for a whole month, and
is the result of a compromise between various tendencies.

Losovsky quotes the declaration referred to in full.
As he himself declares it is vague and for the most part
unimportant. But one resolution should be noted to-
gether with the signatur<

To organize a militant international committee for the
reorganization of the trade union movement. This com-
mittee will function as the International Council of
Trade Unions and will act in (i(jrc< rn< nf witli th-
tive Committee of the Thin! International on conditions
that will be laid down by congresses.
Signed :
A. LOSOVSKY,

All Kii Mtral Council Trade Unions.

L. D 'ARRAGONA,

vat ion of Labor. Italy.

A :

National Co. ion of Labor, Spain.

N. SlI.M'.I.IN,

General Syndicalist Labor I'nions, Bulgaria.

A

Revolutionary Syndicalist Minority, C. G. T., France,

N. M i K

•iiinunist Minority Trade l"nion>. Georgia.
N. MIT-HITCH.

n "f Labor, Jugo-Slavia \

bia, etc.).

THE NEW RED LABOR UNION 183

Losovsky follows this resolution with the following
illuminating comment:

What is the reason of the vagueness and incomplete-
ness of the declaration? It is the fact that several of
the organizations represented — the General Confedera-
tion of Labor of Italy, the unions which Robert Williams
and Albert Purcell represent — still belong to the Am-
sterdam Federation of Trade Unions, and that the
leaders of even the revolutionary class unions of Western
Europe lag behind the revolutionary masses.

It is indeed interesting that Purcell and Williams
should be permitted by the organized labor of Great
Britain to participate in an organization pledged to a
war of extermination against the Amsterdam Interna-
tional. The same remark applies to d'Arragona who
was later admitted to the Autumn Conference of the
Amsterdam Federation of Trade Unions.

Losovsky proceeds to claim that the new organization
is supported by nine million members. We have already
shown the absurdity of this claim with regard to seven
million of these, representing Russia and Italy. It may
be doubted if the Spanish Confederation wholly accepts
Moscow's dictatorship. The claim to "the revolutionary
syndicalist minority of France," seven hundred thou-
sand members, is absurd. The French labor movement
has not yet been successfully disrupted by Moscow and
the minority still accepts the discipline of the C. G. T.,
under Jouhaux, Dumoulin, Merrheim, Bartuel, Bidegary
and other militant anti-Bolshevists.

Since its formation and the publication of these official
pamphlets, the Red Labor Union Internationale has

1*4 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUT

proceeded with its work of attempted d' M of

organized labor in all countries. In a recent publication
entitled — "Two .Months' International

Council of Trade and InduMrial rnions." ithe of;
title now assumed by the new Internationale) wo read:

"The organization of the propaganda of the Council "
thu- •!<> pamphlet — "has been started and mani-

festos have already been issued to the organized workers
of Great Britain, America, Germany, India and Fra
. . . The Council is making arrangements for the «
lishment in each of the countries of at least one central
propaganda committee with its members drawn from
the revolutionary unions, where possible, the Comini,
Party. They will not hesitate lo form more than one

"iial committee' where the^- are :

committees are to undertal-. • ive propaganda

throughout the unions l.y n. -ans of the publication of
manifestos, the use of labor papers, by confer-
the unions, by controversy in the press, by the ortrani/.a-
tion of speakers, distribution of our literature and gen-
eral agitation throughout the labor movement."

In Great Britain the British Eta] tin* Inter-

national Council of Trades and Industrial I'nions has
formed under tl diip of notorious pro-Bol-

i'.ritish unionists, whose names are known if not
yet officially published. Two resolutions are lieinp
posed by this "Council" in trade union locals in (,
n and America and other countries, as follows:

1. To withdraw from the Amsterdam Federation of

id- CJnio

0 join tl • • leniationale and send d< •!

to a uorld ( red to sup-

THE NEW RED LABOR UNION 185

port ... a revolutionary policy aiming at tin-
world-wide dictatorship of the proletai

The published program of the Communist Party in
America indicates that they have studied carefully the
Moscow policy of boring from within and battering from
without. Here is its definition of the duty of Com-
munist members of trade unions:

A Communist who belongs to the A. F. of L. should
seize every opportunity to voice his hostility to this
organization, not to reform it but to destroy it. The
I. W. W. must be upheld as against the A. P. of L. At
the same time the work of Communist education must be
carried on within the I. W. W.

It will be noted that the same effort to capture is to
be applied against the I. W. W. as against the non-
Communist unions of Europe.

Naturally the elements of the European labor move-
ment adhering to the Amsterdam Federation of Trades
Unions do not accept the criticisms of the new Inter-
nationale— although as yet the Amsterdam body has
made very feeble efforts to defend itself and its most
important international action during 1920 was the
violently pro-Soviet resolution for a general strike above
referred to. At the Congress in London in November,
the Federation passed the following resolution in reply
to the Moscow Trade Union manifesto:

The Congress observes that the signatories of this
manifesto set down their declaration of war by writing
that the International of Moscow will destroy the " Yel-
low" Amsterdam International.

186 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

The Congress considers-, judging from tin the

situation, that those attacks do not emanate from the
Hat and that the latter could not be
regarded as in any de^- >nsible for them. Fur

the Congress considers that these calumnious critic
and this declaration of war prove either a total ignorance
of the composition and actions of the I1 Fed-

eration of Trade Unions or else an evident had faith
arising out of the unwholesome < destroy the

workers' organizations in every country. (From ,/?/-
December 2, 1920.)

Throughout Europe the labor elements supporting tho
International Trades Union Federation and those sup-
porting the Second or Socialist Internationale are largely
identical. Perhaps because it had been longer under
attack, the Second Internationale at its meeting in Brus-
a few weeks before the International Trade I'limn
Congress of London, passed a far more resolute anti-
Bolshevist resolution signed :

ARTIIT i \, M.P. (Great Britain).

EMILE VANDI K\ Igium).

J. RAMSAY MACDONALD ((treat Britain).

P. J. TROELSTRA (Holland).

OTTO WELS i (Jermany).

ARTIM-I: -wcden).

CAMIM.K HTYSMANS (Belgium

From this resolution we may quote the following:

Tb. •;. *} trod the desires of the Rus-

;•!•• in tin- dust, and in placi- nf d.-mocracy they

established an armed dictatorsliip. not of the proletariat,

but of a committee. Now the mpting to impose

- \\ ill and their decrees upon the Socialist and Labour

THE NEW RED LABOR UNION 187

Parties of the whole world. They belong to the old
world of Tsardom, not to the new world of Socialism.

They have insulted twenty-seven millions of organized
trade union workers by calling them " scabs" and have
declared their intention to disrupt the trade unions. . . .

They may have ended wage-slavery; they have >
lished State-slavery and misery. They have robbed the
workers of freedom of movement and of combination
and are preventing the creation of economic democracy.

This resolution undoubtedly indicates the real state
of mind of the trades unions of Europe towards the
Russian Soviets. However, neither of these resolutions
has led to any effective action of any kind against either
the international machinations or the subsidized propa-
ganda of Bolshevism. [For a later declaration of the
Amsterdam Federation see the following chapter.]

XII
EUROPEAN LABOR DISILLUSIONED

LENIN, in the summer of 1920, abandoned his policy
of excluding all persons from Russia \vh«» \\< iv not
shevists. Socialist and Labor delegations were admitted
from Kngland. Italy. France, (iermany, Spain, and
Sweden which contained non-Bolshevist members. 1
i!' any of their members belonged to the moderate winp
of the European labor movement. The majority were
pro-Bolshevists and tile other nted the revolu-

tionary or orthodox ''center" of the movement. On
r.'turningto their various countries the majority of these
witnesses condemned Bolshevism, root and branch.

Serrati, Dugoni, Vaeirca and d'Arragona. of the Ital-
ian Socialist and labor union delegation, after their
visit, declared that while the capitalist regime had '

royed "it has not been replaced by anything that
meets even the most elementary needs of a civil
pie." Crispim. ihe revolutionary leader of <Jermany's
Independent Socialists, said that under the Third h
nati' tyranny almost as bad as that of capitalism

would prevail." owden of the British Mi

declared not only that the Soviets were I .-dist and

nnti-democratir and anti-Christian, but th bodj

she had met in -ulside the Communist p.

"goes in terror of his liberty or his life."

or of Avanti and revolutionary leader of the Italian
188

EUROPEAN LABOR DISILLUSIONED 189

Socialists, stated that the Russian people are passive
and indifferent and quotecl Lenin to the effect that fifty
years would be necessary to complete the work of ili«-
revolution. The eminent German Socialist, Dittmaim,
one of the radical members of the German delegation,
reported that Russia was entirely under the control of
the Bolshevist Party with 604,000 members, and that
in one month last summer 893 people were shot by order
of the special revolutionary tribunals and a much larger
number unreported were executed "by administrative
orders." This has happened since the Bolshevists were
accredited all over the world in "intellectual" and
"liberal" organs with having abolished terrorism. Tom
Shaw, a member of the British delegation, pointed out
that the working people of Russia were in a condition
of actual slavery.

Both Professor Ballod of the German delegation and
the Italians, in their official report, concluded that the
Bolshevists are absolutely incompetent economically.
Professor Ballod states that the Soviet leaders have
proven themselves "wholly incapable of effecting an
economic restoration in Russia" and that "bureaucracy
is as bad as it was under the Czar and is on the as-
cendent. ' '

The Italians, including the revolutionary Serrati, de-
clared that the Soviet as an experiment had proved itself
a failure, though the British report held that, as an
experiment, it would prove vahlable to other count rit-s
(carried out it will be noted, at the expense of the
Russian and not of the British people). The Italians
and Germans regarded the existing resistance to the
Soviet oppressors as justifiable and inevitable. The

190 Ol'T OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

British report referred to this r under tin-

Soviet term "counter-revolution" and concluded that
the Sovi- nment was supported by the Ku-

people. The Italians, as we have said, held tliat the ;
ulation was passive and indifferent, while the al
named Germans, admirers of the Soviet and the Third
rationale, discovered after investigation in Russia,
that the is a tyranny without support

outside of the Bolshevist Party.

The second disillusionment of European labor came
with the ultimatum of the Third Internationale (the
famous 21 points) by which Lenin declared to his wor-
shippers that they either had to accept the absolute
dictatorship of Moscow or be excommunicated, and that
they had to destroy the International Federation of
Trades Unions as being a scab organization.

Finally, most frightful disillusionment, the Polish
people were not conquered by the Soviets, in spite of all
the revolutionary mrasuiv.s taken by radical labor
throughout Europe to help the Bolshevist would In
qucrors.

All these events took n little time to have their full

effect; it was not until the labor union and

Party congresses of tin- fall and winter that Kurop

labor began to find itself — but it has ;ms\\«-ivd Lenin

at last! After a visit to the GaneUDI .1. K. Ma'-Donald

demanded that (In,'! I'.ritain protect the S<.<-ial Demo-

•ic Labor Government of ' and hrini; about

an n intry with Armenia and the Tartar

•iblic. As Soviet .in'* official or^an in

America, rightly remarks, this alliance would be for

'he Soviets as well as against the Turks.

EUROPEAN LABOR DISILLUSIONED 1'Jl

Also Kautsky of Germany and De Brouckere of Bel-
gium, after visiting Armenia, recommended military in-
tervention and Huysmans, Secretary of the Second
Internationale sent the appeal to that effect to the Social-
ist parties affiliated with that Internationale (including
the British Labor Party). As between Turkish and
Bolshevist armies and those of Great Britain and France,
not only Georgia and Armenia, but also aid,

Kautsky and Huysmans were for the armies of the capi-
talist governments — a far cry from the summer's policy
of assisting in the forcible Sovietizing of Poland !

The French labor unionists, especially, are lucid, con-
sistent and outspoken. The Executive of the C. G. T.,
the French Federation of Labor, issued an appeal to
French workmen to remain faithful to the union labor
movement as against the Communist element that re-
cently split the Socialist Party at Tours, and on Febru-
ary 15th (1921) this Executive was re-elected, though by
a narrow margin — Moscow having spent millions of dol-
lars in an attempt to purchase the Congress. In a long
manifesto the Federation Executive charged the Com-
munists with the intention of ''destroying international
syndicalism that comprises 27,000,000 workers," and
asked labor to support a program of social improvement,
rather than "personal ambitions and greeds."

The Federation Council squarely accepted Lenin's
declaration of a war to the finish and authorized Jouhaux
by a vote of 103 to 3, with twenty-two abstentions, to
take any necessary measures (including expulsion)
against any members who obeyed the orders of the
Third Internationale and organized nuclei of Commun-
ists for the purpose of throwing out all non-Bolshevist

192 OUT OF THKJR OWN MOU'i

leaders. This was a logical step in pursuance of the
Orleans Congress of the C. G. T. Congr

of in<ii a as

against all outside political control. Men-heir

leading union, t, •>, at

this congress denounced the So\
described Lenin as "a sanguii
pitiless tyrant, the greatest menace to the Russian revolu-

Wi.< • hevists yelled in ;

replied that these were the very \\ L only a

•s before by the Frane.i-Kus -;ian. Kappoport, now
one of the French Bolshevist leaders. Bart;
of the next largest union, the Miners, who i

lined in a recent ronm-ess of his union, <
Bolshevism as a militaristic and reactionar
worse than capita!

At the French Socialist Congress at Tours in
her, 1920, at which the revolutionary majority

in as Czar and changed the name of the or^ani/ation
to Communist Party, the minority (itself Marxian
revolutionary) showed that the French <;. 'rikc

Of May 1st. 1920, engi ;:id snbsidi/ed hy the Kux

sian I'.. had almost d the or^ai.

labor of France.

M. Fan ! to the d< legates figures showing

material the membership in the union

of the Seine and of the French Confeder.
of Labor. The Confederation membership has ,1,.,-n
11 1,500,000 to 600,000. he declared, \ of

ndicates has d< ' 1"

140,000. II M to tli-

:iid that the party would suffer further
if the revolutionary spirit of Moscow pn \ ailed.

EUROPEAN LABOR DISILLUSIONED 193

The most recent delegation to Moscow was that of tho
Spanish Socialists. Upon his return to Spain. Ivois, one
of the two delegates, a member of the last Spanish Parlia-
ment, reported as follows:

Any one who analyzes the curious state of mind in
which the Russian leaders find themselves cannot fail
to note that it is due to the contempt in which the
notions of liberty and democracy are held. We pointed
out to Comrade Kobetsky that the Spanish party was
accustomed to refer policies to a referendum. "That,"
he said, "is playing democracy."

"How and when," we asked Lenin in our interview
with him, "can we get out of this period of the dictator-
ship of the proletariat — which you call a period of tran-
sition— and arrive at a regime of freedom for labor
unions, press, and individuals?"

"We ourselves," Lenin replied, "have never talked
of liberty. All we have said is 'dictatorship of the
proletariat/ That dictatorship we are exercising here
from the seat of power in behalf of the proletariat. In
Russia the working class, properly so-called, is in a
minority. That minority is imposing its will and will
continue to do so as long as other elements in society
resist the economic conditions that Communism lays
down. The peasants and the country people do not
think readily in our terms. They have the mentality of
shopkeepers, petty bourgeois. That is why Denikin, Kol-
chak, and Wrangel have found some support among
them. . . .

"However, to come back to your question: The period
of transition will be a long one with us — I should say
from forty to fifty years. Other countries, such as Eng-
land and Germany, where industry is better organized
than here, will recover from the proletarian dictatorship
much sooner, though the development of revolution in
those countries is taking longer than we had hoped."

194 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

Perhaps the most complete and authoritative statement
of the attitude of European labor towards th-
and their Communist Internationale i^ to ho found in

open letter of the International

Unions dated March 23, 1921. This 1. tier i l>y

the Executive Committee of the International Federa-
tion of Trades Unions as follows: Jouhaux (France),
Martens (Belgium), Fimmen and Oudeurest (Holla-
Only the name of the President of the organization, J.
H. Thomas, of Great Britain, is lacking.

This letter was in reply to a very insulting epistle
sent by Zinoviev, as President of the Communist Inter-
nationale, in which all the leaders of the International
Federation of Trades Unions were declared to be "scabs"
and traitors to the working class.

The Executive Committee of the International I
ation of Trades Unions deelares in its reply that it is
ready to support the Kussian people and the I\u
revolution to the full extent of its powers, hut it demands
in return from the representatives of ti
that "they shall pursue a similar line of conduct towards
Internationale of Labor Unions." We see from this
Statement that the International Trades Union Bureau
recognizes the Bolshevist fJovernment as representing
the HUN pie— in spite of :: 'utely contra-

dictory evidence it furnishes later in the same letter.
Of the Soviet ivirime it demands only a friendly attitude
to the Trades Union Inter . in exchange for this,

I ready to gi-. luidy free hand

Urania to continue the despotic rule over labor de-
;-d in the remainder of the letter! II ince

this introductory nt shows that the Intrrnntional

EUROPEAN LABOR DISILLUSIONED 195

Federation of Trades Unions wishes to be as fru-ndly
to the Russian Bolshevists as the latter will allow, the
indictment that follows has all the more weight. The
International Bureau Executive continues:

Up to the present we have received nothing from those
who claim the right to speak in the name of the Russian
people but curses, libels and lies, which have been ip]
without the shadow of proof.

And is it possible for us to fail to state that we find
it difficult to believe in your good will towards the pro-
letariat ? Is it not a principle of your party to subordi-
nate the freedom of labor unions to political considera-
tions? You suggest that we should hold conferences to-
gether, but up to the present you have not shown that
you have learned how to consort with decent people.
The proof of this is found in your lies and in the fact
that you cannot write a letter without filling it with
insults — and you haven't even enough cleverness to
introduce variety in your attacks. Your dictionary of
curse words, gentlemen, is as monotonous as the starva-
tion and the news of massacres in your country.

For three years you have been destroying the freedom
of the labor movement in Russia with fire and sword.
And you have done this so thoroughly and radically that
the "White Terror" of the bourgeois Government of
Hungary is but a weak reflection of your "Red Terror."

The Executive of the Trade Union Internationale then
turns its attention to the ignorance displayed by the Bol-
shevists in all their discussions of the labor situation of
other countries and especially of the labor unions. It
points out that the International Trades Union Federa-
tion has twenty-four million members and estimates on
the basis of Zinoviev's own statement that the new Red
Labor Union Internationale has less than a million mem-

1% OUT OF TlilllK OWN MOUTHS

ben outside of Russia. The International Execu
then continues:

That Zinovieff, who speaks in the name of a so-called
Labor Tnion Internationale, is ignorant of all this only

s that he has no conception whatever of the 1.
pean labor union movement. This does not sin
We are only too well aware that this gentleman ki
the labor union movement only from :ul pam-

phlets and was never a working man. Was it i
who. shortly before the October (1W7) coup d1 <
wrote ;is follows of this Mr. Zinovirff: "1 knew h«
an ignoramus; but 1 didn't know he was also a cowar
And this man accuses us of not being working D
The confusion which runs among tin- ideas of Mr. Zino-
viefl is very comprehensible to us. He is simply in.
to conceive of a labor union movement which is fully

pendent of the political movement. Did he i
in ti Internationale" on April !Mh "You

(the Communist Party) bind the political struggle
the economic struggle together as lie whole

supervise the political struggle of the proletariat just

ou conduct its economic stnigL-

We declare frankly that the situation in which the
labor organizations of your country find tin
(•wing to your conduct, doesn't entitle you to give us

'res.

Lectures from you! You dp not appear to know. Mi.
ZinovietT, that your standpoint has long air» t>6C
obsolete and belongs to the past. For more than thirty
- the labor unioi Tal and \\Vst, TII Kir

• 1 themselves from the guardianshiji of all ;
ticians and political j»ait

(y. All \..ur .

do away with the fact that you are setting about to begin
the development of the labor union movement all

u. Try, gentlemen, to be a littl- nnd tin-

times and endeavor to gain some know) he facts.

EUROPEAN LABOR DISILLUSIONED 197

It is of little consequence whether these facts are
known to you or not, or whether, according to tin- t«-:n-li-
ings of Lenin, you regard all poisons and tricks and
cloakings of tho truth as permissible in order to gain
control of the labor unions. (This refers to the Macchia-
vellian expression of Lenin cited in previous chapters.)

In our letter of the 15th of December we wrote: "If
you or other representatives of your labor union move-
ment chance to desire to gain more information about
our movement — during which you would perhaps con-
vince yourselves that you have hitherto done nothing but
to damage your own movement and to harm the prole-
tariat— then we are ready at any time to give you the
desired information.

If we haven't had the opportunity of enjoying the
blessings of your regime personally, at least we know
your system and your principles. We know your
theories, as they are printed on paper, but we also know
them as applied in practice, which is well illustrated by
your over-crowded prisons. We know the dependence
of the Soviets upon the Communist Party — which has
created a new autocracy. We know the happy condition
the Russian people finds itself in and the welfare your
rule has brought — on paper. And we hear with satis-
faction that you regard Middle and Western Europe as
not yet being ripe for your beneficent plans.

Look once more at our letter of December 15th which
in your haste to answer quickly you read too super-
ficially. For there we declared that we are very ready
to teach you, however painful it is to us that im-n
equipped with such complete power as you have can
scarcely open their mouths or take a pen in hand with-
out giving new proof that they are without the slightest
knowledge of those things which men in their position
ought to know.

We declare to you that we are still ready to undertake
this work of instruction.

198 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

The Soviet Government itself hn • i to take

notice of the rising tide of hostility in tin- ranks of
European labor. The Brit Mi Labor Party protested
against the severe punishim-nt meted out to Russian
le unionists who ha<l been bold enough to give them
truthful information during their visit to I;
protest had no effect upon the barbarian ears of the
Soviets. They refused to moderate their policy in the
slightest degree in response to such inefYerfive verbal
but at the same time felt obliged to issue one
of their usual statements attempting to cover their
actions by a few utterly meaningless phrases. The si
ment, signed by Krassin, was in part as folio

The Soviet Government is responsible to the working

>es of Russia and to the world proletariat fo:
mail 'it' the success of the Russian Socialist

Revolution.

The Soviet Government is extremely desirous to main-
tain the best relations with the British Labor Tarty,
and with other proletarian or semi proletarian •
ti«ms. The Soviet Government is extremely grateful to
them for the support they have given to the cause of
the Russian Revolution. (The British Labor Party has
not even threatened to withdraw or curtail this sup-
port!—ed.]

-Minent . . . considers, as is th.

at present, that the sole organ having any right to
impose conditions upon the Soviets and to make any

:>laints to them is the Russian working masses
the revolutionary organizations of the prohtarian world.

That is. tl • mmunists. claiming t

the revolutionary proletariat of the worl
their rik'ht of life and d<ath OVOT anybody ^ ho happens
to fall into their power, no matter how large the pro-

EUROPEAN LABOR DISILLUSIONED 199

letarian majority which condemns their action! It may
be doubted if a more thinly veiled defense of sheer des-
potism was ever offered to the world.

In spite of the fact that the Russian people are allowed
no voice whatever within that country, it must not be
supposed that they have been successfully stifled. In-
numerable representative individuals from all classes,
including the trade unions, men and women whose
integrity and credentials cannot be questioned, have
escaped, to give voice to the opinions of the Rus-
sian people. Moreover, the largest labor organiza-
tions of Russia, that is the rank and file of the
trade unions, without reference to the new leaders ap-
pointed by the Soviets or the new imaginary organiza-
tions created by them, have been in continued contact
with European labor. The same is true of the Socialist
Revolutionary Party, numerically the most important
political organization in Russia. There is, moreover,
no misunderstanding whatever of the Russian situation
in neighboring countries, such as Germany and Scan-
dinavia, where the contact with Russia has been close
and continuous and pro-Bolshevist "intellectuals" can
deceive nobody. But besides this testimony the labor
delegations visiting Soviet Russia have secured reports
from the trades unions and from the socialist parties
as organizations. Some of these are published in tin1
report of the British Labor Delegation. From the most
important, the address to British labor by the Executive
Committee of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, signal
by Chernoff, Gotz, and other leaders known to the entire
labor and socialist movement of Europe, we quote the
following characterization of the Bolshevist regime:

200 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

We quite understand that the British proletariat,
deafened by the clamour of t: world slaughter,

not . : from tin- wave of national eh,.

!d like to sec in Russia, in .spite of the libel*
bourgeois penny-a-liiu rs, the living exaini
peep having shaken oiV its feet the du>t of tin-

old world, has risen on the ruins of the war conflagration

new work of creation, free and tint rannnelled by
chains or bonds. We qii ODM illu-

• be left, and that the proletariat of Kun.pe has
created "the Red Legend" of a great country where
Socialism, unrcalisable to Philistine bff has not

only been tried, but has now existed f«.r nearly •
years, in spite of the civil war, the blockade, and an
artificial isolation from tl :' the cultured world,

amid the <_ribes of inimically-inelined pcnpl.- hediri:
round. We are well aware that this ; nd. this

Red Myth may exert an elevating intlu- the

ardour of the proletarian vanguard. Causing its !
to 1 r, proudly raising its head, and straining

its revolutionary muscle. \V.
• hat this Ked Legend must react with a f
directly proport'n 'lie s.|iiare of its distance, and

the number of models of admirable energy worthy
;.itation is far below the nuin!>< -how-

iiow a Social Revolution should not bo accom-
plisl

We would ask you to try and distinguish among the
man : . \siat ically savage facts of Rolshevik-

"inething more than the :

mad pranks of a Caliban, !><> \.>iuiion-

lon carried to fai . added to the im-

••nce characteristic of an ,-i<-iive tempi-r.

You must always bear in mind that Russia
has lived for ages under a regime of all around oppres-
sion on the part of the Government; that the training

•••oplr in ideas of dem<. manded .

of time too long for the patience of a great number

EUROPEAN LABOR DISILLUSIONED 201

of the people themselves. The temptation proved too
strong to effect a leap right over the dead level of
unpreparedness with the help of enlightened despotism
and the rod of Peter the Great shaped according to a
new Communist fashion. Taking all this into Considera-
tion, it will, perhaps, be clear to you why in the tumul-
tuous chaos of the revolutionary tempest, one part of
the Russian Socialists so quickly and easily cast off the
outward gilding of scientific Socialism, showing uml< r
neath the Asiatic nature of enlightened despotism with
a Communist lining.

In spite of abundant evidence of this character con-
tained in its report, the British Labor Delegation, being
divided, took no decisive stand — and made statements
flatly contradicted not only by other delegations,
but by some of their own delegates, as already noted.
This led to further protest by the Socialist-Revolution-
ists represented in Paris by another leader known in all
countries, 0. S. Minor — a man, like the others, who has
spent most of his life in prison or exile because of his
socialistic and revolutionary opinions. Referring es-
pecially to the failure of the British Labor Party to do
anything on behalf of the oppressed population of Rus-
sia, in particular the labor unionists and agriculturists,
Minor said:

Still less can we understand how so many of the
Socialists can, with a clear conscience, justify tlu>
methods of Bolshevism for Russia, at the same timo
rejecting them for their own countries. Such a view
shows either a conscious or unconscious deep contempt
for the Russian people, an insulting attitude toward
them as towards a nation of slaves for whom the Com-
munism of the Whip is the most appropriate, natural
and national brand of Socialism.

202 OUT OF TH KIR OWN MOUTHS

Such an attitude towards the working poop!.'
sia, proved to be wrong by innumerable uprising
workers and peasants, we, Russian Social!

ted to m»Tt with among our Kim-pi-an ft and,

we declare, that we cannot leave such a ;
mutual i within the international Socialist family

without our most emphatic protest.

XIII
THE CAMOUFLAGED TRADE AGITATION

BOLSHEVIST diplomats have repeatedly acknowledged
that one of the purposes of their negotiations for gov-
ernmental trade agreements is to obtain de facto recog-
nition of the Soviet Government with all the prestige
that this implies. Krassin, the chief negotiator with
Great Britain, has acknowledged that there can be very
little trade for some time and Mr. Hughes has demon-
strated that trade will depend upon the extension of
credit by somebody or other to the Soviet Government,

The whole negotiations are described by Lenin in a
speech before the railwaymen, reported by the Moscow
wireless on April 3rd, 1921, as "our game with the
bourgeoisie. ' '

But an additional purpose of these trade negotiations
is Bolshevist propaganda throughout the world and as
part of this propaganda the word has been passed along
by the Bolshevists — for foreign consumption — that by
the very act of making trade agreements with capital
Communism in Eussia was being abandoned.

There is no foundation for this claim. All the revolu-
tionary wars, insurrections, general strikes and agita-
tions openly subsidized by the Bolshevists throughout
the world for the past three years have been going on
simultaneously with the agitation for trade agreements
and the effort to interest capitalists through concessions,

203

204 OUT OF TIIKIK o\VN Mol TIN

that is. through alienating the patrimony oi
people without tl.- ut.

'•c can be no question that tin- Soviet British
agreement was a tremendous rictOJ
both in Russia and in every country of the world. 'I

••-.pie ground for the follou in Soviet

Russia published on April l(i,

Tin- full extent of the victory won by the workers of

-ia over the rulers of England is revealed in the
«>f the Anglo-Russian trade agreement published in this
number of Soviet /I'l/.v.vm. In the issue of .January
l!»lM. there were published in *<>i'i< t J\ti*xi« two prelim-
inary draft agreements, one submitted by the British
government on November 29, and the oilier submitted
by the Soviet government on December II. 1920. A
i <f the two papers ,. Horded a view of the
rgent and conflicting claims and purposes of the
ian and British (Jovernmen: lively. The

! agreement is the outcome of the contest in which
Mr. ! representing the power and purpose of the

•kers, met Sir Robert Home, rcpn-srntini;
the power and purpo.se of the British imp It

was a lest of strength, a significant skirmish, hetv
Communism and Capitalism. We purpose here to ex-
amine the tinal document paragraph by paragraph, to
see by comparison with th- which of the

two powers prevailed in the adjustment of their op
ing conl' -ntions. The examination will show that the
Worken1 !>'• public won an overwhelming vid.

ipire. Point by point. olftO
;d principle^ advan. ed by the Soviet <
"wn the objections and evasions o!

nt.
final document e. -ible and four-

panied by a separate dee!
. signed on the same day.

CAMOUFLAGED TRADE AGITATION 205

The very fact that the British Govern incut <•!,,
until the last moment that there was to be no political
recognition of the Soviet Government shows how this
aspect of the agreement was a defeat for Great Hritain
and a victory for the Soviets — a victory undoubtedly
due, as Krassin claims, to the Bolshevist propaganda.
Yet it was only a few weeks after the agreement had
been signed that the British courts declared that it
amounted to a de facto recognition, in spite of the fact
that it is distinctly stated in that document that it was
only preliminary to such recognition. A tremendous
comment on this trade agreement is the fact that the
Bolshevists apparently continued to expend the same vast
sums of money in Great Britain for the overthrow of
the British Government after that agreement as before.
Apparently the Bolshevists put special hopes upon the
coal strike (April and May, 1921). Although this was
a purely economic struggle in the fundamental questions
raised, a very considerable minority in the organization
openly attempted to take advantage of the crisis for
revolutionary purposes. In view of this fact the official
statement made in the House of Commons by Edward
Shortt, Secretary for Home Affairs, on May 12, is of the
utmost significance :

The British Government is considering the possibility
of introducing legislation to prohibit the receipt of
foreign money in the United Kingdom intended to pro-
mote a revolutionary movement or to sustain a revolu-
tionary propaganda.

If such agitation was indeed being carried on by the
Bolshevists it was done with the encouragement of the
British Government itself.

206 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

From tho very first Lenin has advocated this policy,
with the expressed belief that Bolshevist -aided n-vnlu-
> would soon overthrow all existing governments and
release him from his obligations.

As early as February. 1919, Tehiteherin, the Soviet
Com: • '.HI Affairs, sent to the government*

of Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan and the United
States a note in which he said:

Seeing the great interest which has always been shown
hy foreign capital for the exploitation of Russia 's natural
riches, the Russian Sovi< iinent is disposed to

grant concessions upon mines, forests, and so on

eiti/ens of the Entente Powers, under conditions which
must he carefully determined so that the economic and
social order of Soviet Russia should not suffer from the
nal rule of these concessions.

At the meeting of the Russian Communist Party on
March l.">th. 1!»21. Kann-neff ns«-d an identical argument
(Moscow Wireless, March 18, 1921) :

. . . Can we without the assistance of foreign capital
rapidly n-store our economic life? No, we cannot. \Ve

• have il perts. By 1;.

• •on, Mgth \Ve might have restored our

life iudepmdi'iitly hut fur this we would

'ii«: time.

•he foreign capitalists will not assist us for noth-
\Ve will have to pay them a liberal tribute.

1 having ivc.-ivi d this tribute from us will
product: .iid will thus

the rob d for it by Marx: Capital will dig

istoric grave.

CAMOUFLAGED TRADE AGITATION 207

In the Pravda (November 30th, 1920), Lenin defended
the policy of concessions with 1h<s<> expressions:

We have defeated the world bourgeoisie up to the
present owing to the fact that they can not unite. Both
the Brest-Litovsk and Versailles treaties have tended to
keep them apart. A bitter hatred is now growing up
between America and Japan. We are utilizing this,
and are offering Kamchatka on a long lease, instead
of giving it away without payment, considering that
Japan has taken away already by military force a large
territory in the Far East. . . .

I must repeat, concessions are a continuation of war
on an economic basis but instead of destroying tiny
reconstruct our productivity. They surely will try to
deceive us, to evade our laws, but for such purposes
there exist our respective institutions, all Russian Extra-
ordinary Commission, Moscow Extraordinary Commis-
sion, Provincial Extraordinary Commission, etc., and we
are sure that we shall be victorious.

It must be remembered that these Extraordinary Com-
missions are the official Soviet bodies for enforcing the
"red terror."

In his closing speech at the March (1921) Congress
of the Russian Communist Party Lenin exposed all the
main elements of Bolshevist policy. His internal policy,
as there developed, has been discussed at the end of
Chapter VII. It is closely linked with the external
policy. Once more — after the adoption of his "new"
proposals by the Congress — as in his opening speech, he
based everything on the coming world revolution: "But
when we look on our party as the hearth of world revo-
lution, and observe the campaign now being conducted

208 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTH-

against us by the govern i ;he world there is no

room for doubt." That is. the growing certain!;.
world revolution, removes all doubt o:
cess in impending negotiations with foreign iroverni;
for the official recognition of the Soviet tit It- b
and all tin* • B and human chattels it cont;.

Th.« Soviet leader does not deny the weakness of tho
Soviets. Hut let it be remembered that he OC
drills his followers to the thought that all other nations
are weaker still! As he says in his speech, " All this in-
formation given out by the international bourgeoisie . . .
reveals once more how we are surrounded by
and how feeble these enemies have grown within tin-
year!11

Bearing this blind and fanatical optimism in mind
we can better grasp other parts of the spee< -h in which
in shows he is counting absolutely on getting from
America the credit and supplies to revive Ku^i;m
shevism by means of a trade agreement on the British
model ! As quoted by Soviet Russia (May 14, 1921)
n said:

The world press syndicate — freedom of tho press con-
sists there in the fact that 99 per ant <>f I In jtress 18
owned by financial magnates maniimlufinr/ hu»
millions of rubles — opened the world-wide cam;
the imp. .vith the aim nf preventing, fii

with Kn<_:land which wen- be^un by I
also tin imniiui nf ctDirlu.fion of fr« >rilh

America. Tl that the • prho -nn-ound us,

no longer able to bring about intcm nti«ui. are counting
upon a revolt. The events at I\ ;

with the international h. 1 in addition to

it we see that more titan anything i/.s< they now j

CAMOUFLAGED TRADE AGITATION 209

from the practical standpoint of international capital,
the sound establishment of trade relations. But they
will be unable to prevent it. There are now in Moscow
representatives of big capital, who did not beli«
rumors, and they have told us how in America a certain
group of citizens carried on an unprecedented agitation
for Soviet Russia. This group made extracts of every-
thing printed about Russia for a few months in news-
papers of the most diverse kinds — about the flight of
Lenin and Trotsky, about Lenin's shooting Trotsky and
vice-versa, and they published all this in the form of a
pamphlet. Better agitation for the Soviet power cannot
be imagined. The contemporary American bourgeois
press has completely described itself. . . .

Was there ever a wilder farrago of gross exaggeration
and misstatement ? A few foolish rumors are taken from
thousands of substantiated dispatches and reproduced
as giving a fair picture of the American press on Ru-
But we must note, especially, that Lenin appreciates the
aid he is getting in his propaganda from "a certain
group" of American citizens, while at the same time he
openly boasts of the British trade agreement from the
practical standpoint as a defeat of international capital,
i.e., a defeat of all existing governments (all regarded as
capitalistic by Lenin) and of the existing social system.

A part of the so-called trade agitation has been the
claim that the Soviets were abandoning Communism not
only in making trade agreements with capitalists bnt
in other directions. Such changes as have in fact taken
place could be so absurdly misinterpreted and misunder-
stood only by those who have made no effort to follow
the Bolshevist policy. The Bolshevist chiefs, and
pecially their foreign diplomats, have never hesit.<

210 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

to use any and all methods for their purposes. In a
'• which appeal (•! in Pravda on December 1

192d -ed to the Italian Socialists at a moi;

which Lenin thought to be "the eve of the revolution,"

the i :<t leader thus advised the Italian revolu-

:sts:

The Italian fmrty, in order to carry out the revolution

,lly, must still take a certain number of §1
to the Left without tying itself down and without for-
getting that circumstances may very well demand some
steps to the Bight.

This advice is typical. Foreign trade agreements and
other negotiations regarded abroad as compromises are
not only presented to the Russian people as
but are evidently so considered by the Bolshevist el
The- apparent concessions made to capitalism by the Rus-
sian Communist Congress about the time of the Br
Trade Agreement are explained by Krassin. the chief
negotiator, as foil.

It from wartime conditions and advance
toward reconstruction and peace, we proceed toward a

biiMness-likr adaptation of t.ur methods to thosr of real

:11 it neither going to the right nor to the

rts we may n ; am sure.

that Lenin will D0V6V abandon his communistic prin-
ciples, but as he is a practical man with a ;
mind, lie may decidr in one matter or another to
a practical course with regard to present-day conditions.

A Moscow wi \pril Ifith, H»21 > cynically and

frankly States the 15- -Ian to repudiate any

CAMOUFLAGED TRADE AGITATION '211

treaty at the first favorable moment, as they did that of
Brest-Litovsk. It may be said that the following dis-
patch is for home consumption by the ultra-revolui in-
of Soviet Russia. But as long as such matter — uncon-
tradicted — is the sole pabulum officially furnished the
Russian people (the opposition being prohibited) how
can we expect anything but a continuation of treaty-
breaking to result ? The dispatch is as follows :

The present peace is only an armed truce. We cannot
base our peaceful policies on the present peace treaties,
because the peace itself is not secured. All Europe is
boiling. We do not know what will happen to-morrow.
All our treaties are just like the Brest treaty and may
suddenly become pieces of paper. But it makes no dif-
ference to us at present. We are striving to get in touch
with the Far West (East?). Our chief aim still remains
the fight with capitalism. But first we must give our
country time to rest. For a while we are smiling sweetly
at Lloyd George and shaking his hand, but our policy
remains the same. We shall profit by the short breath-
ing space offered us and then deal a death blow to capi-
talism.

Among the working people the agitation for a trade
agreement with Soviet Russia is put forward on the
double ground that it would give employment to the
American workers and that it would relieve the suffer-
ing in Russia. The argument that it would give employ-
ment to American labor is fully answered by Secretary
Hughes in response to a letter by President Gompers
requesting information in this matter. President Gom-
pers' letter was as follows:

212 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

Maidh i:». 1
SIR:

If it is not incompatible with the public interest would
it be possible for me to M from your

department relative to tin- situation in Soviet Kn

TO is mucli propaganda hi-in«_r circulated in the
United States claiming that the demand for manufac-
tured goods in Iiiissi; -.rival and the purcha
power of the Russian Soviet government t is
almost impossible to determine the actual capacity
the Russian market to absorb goods of Ionian manu-

urc. Ths scarcity of goods is laid to the block
which as 1 understand it was rei:;»\<d .Inly S. 1
It is said that the pressing needs of the Russians
large quantities of the following:

"Locomotives, cars, rails, tires, springs, etc. Tractors,
plows, reapers, mowers, hinders, harrows, and on
large and small, binder twine, motor trucks.
goods: shoes, etc. Textiles. Chemicals, druu's. |
Notions. Belting, all kinds. Oil well machinery and
piping. Mining machinery. Rubber \i

writers. Sewing machines. Surgical instrnm<
Machinery and machine tools of all Printing

presses, and printing supplies. Small tools. SI
Tool steel. Camera and camera supplies, fil; Raw

It is also claimed that the Commissariat of 1
Trade of the Soviet government has given orders for
the purchase of the following in America:

"Agricultural machinery, including tractors, mowers,
binders. • . etc.. qp

">: machine tOOll, bet-.

$3,000,000.00 to $5,000,000.00; small tools, files, drills, etc.
bet^ 000,000.00 and $5,000,000.00 to

100,000 • ; in. ooo tons of loo

of sprin. oniotive and car springs;

10,000 tons ol <>n; 50,000 tons of piping."

CAMOUFLAGED TRADE AGITATION 213

These figures, it is rlaimed, do not represent all the
orders that would be placed at once.

It is alleged that the Federal Reserve Board has
refused to permit the transfer of funds to the Un
States from the Soviet Russian government in order to
pay for the goods, although payment in gold is guaran-
teed. It is claimed that the American manufacturers
are prevented from accepting the gold on the probability
that it was illegally acquired by the Soviet government.

It is also said that the following raw mat or in'
ready for shipment to the United States if only the
American government recognizes the Soviet government
of Russia:

''Lumber, unlimited quantities; Flax, 20,000 tons;
Hemp, 10,000 tons; Furs, 9,000,000 pelts; Bri
sorted and cleaned, 1,000 tons; Horse hair, 2,000 tons;
Manganese ore, 250,000 tons; Asbestos, 8,000 tons;
Hides, 3,500,000 skins; Platinum, large quantities;
Petroleum and petroleum products, 2,000,000 tons. ' '

Another claim made is that if the restrictions placed
on trade with Russia were removed it would place in
operation many mills, shops and factories now closed
down and would give employment to the unemployed
of America.

This propaganda is being widely circulated among
labor organizations and I have received many letters
asking me what is the truth. In this connection I have
repeatedly called attention to the action of the American
Federation of Labor convention at Montreal, June 7-19,
1920, as follows :

Resolved, That the American Federation of Labor
is not justified in taking any action which could
be construed as an assistance to, or approval of, the
Soviet government of Russia as long as that government
is based upon authority which has not been vested in
it by a popular representative national assemblage of
the Russian people; or so lon£ as it endeavors to create
revolutions in the well-established, civilized nations of

214 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

the world: or so long as it advocates find applies the
mill' :i of labor and prevents the organizing and

•lulling of trade unions and tin- main of a

i tree public assemblage."

This resolution was based on a report made by tin-
Executive Council of the American 1'Ydcration <
and previously unanimously approved by the convention
as follow

"Bolshevism has been a lure for some of our people
and its doctrines have been propagated with great v
This hideous doctrine has found converts among two
classes of people principally — those intellectuals, so-
called, who have no occupation save that of following
one fad after another, and those so beaten in the game
of life that they find no appeal in any t hi'
most desperate and illogical schemes. The rank and tile
of the organized labor movement, as was to h.
expected, has given no countenance to the pr<
of Bolshevism, but. has, on the contrary, been its I
effective opponent in America."

Whether the statements in the circular are bf
untrue, the widest publicity of the facts should be given.
It would be more effective if it could be in official form.
If that can not be done the proper knowledge should bo
transmitted to the various organizations that have resolu-

OM the sulij :v them for approval or di

pi-oval and only awaiting an answer from me as to the
•ituation.

I. tl, ntrary to the rules

of the Department of State or if not against, the public:
interest, that you fur with such informal ion as

you mitrht have on the matter. 1 would also like to
knot :;ount of and imports between the

Unit' for a number of years preced-

ing the ncd these would be enormous

because they ha\ ant.

•f vital i! the people of the

I as they should not be misled by propa-

CAMOUFLAGED TRADE AGITATION 215

ganda that is consciously or unconsciously directed to
aid the Soviet government of Russia against the interests
of our people. I therefore trust that I am not asking
too much.

Yours very truly,

(Signed) Sam'l Gorapers.

President,

American Federation of Labor.
Hon. Charles Evans Hughes,
Secretary of State,
Washington, D. C.

Here is the response of the Secretary of State :

DEPARTMENT OF STATE.

Washington.
Mr. Samuel Gompers,

President, American Federation of Labor,

Washington, D. C.
SIR:

The receipt is acknowledged of your letter of March
15, 1921, in regard to the trade relations between the
United States and Russia.

I recognize the interest of the American people in the
questions you raise and I take pleasure in replying in
detail to them.

In reply to your first statement, it is evident that a*
years of war, during which normal industry was diverted
to the production of war supplies and accumulated stocks
were consumed, Russia does not now possess important i
quantities of commodities which might be exported. It
should be remembered that in addition to the period
of the war against Germany, Russia has n<>\\
through more than three years of a civil war during
which industrial activities have been almost completely
paralyzed. In fact the devastation of industry in Ru
has been so complete, the poverty of the country is so

216 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

acute, tho people are so hungry and tin demand for

i^n-at that at present Russia repp-

a gigantic economic vacuum ami no evidei> ;hat

tin- unfortunate situation above described is like];.

ileviated so long as tin- present political ami economic
m continues. Though tl

,.:!<; variety of coinmo. lilies uri:
i. llu- purchasin«r power of that count r
at a minimum, and the demand must con

Bed.

In some respects the condition of Russia is analog
to that of other European countries. The war lias
tin- pe. pie with diminislied productive man-power and
largely increased numbers of the disabled, the sick and
the helpless. In one important respect. howe\

condition does not correspond to that of other bel-
ligerent i the world war. While 'ates
are taking such action as is likely to reestablish

ice, the attitude and action of the present author
of Russia have tended to undermine its political and
economic relations with other countries. The Rm
people are unable to obtain credit which otherwise might
be based on the vast potential wealth of Ru-Ma and
compelled to be deprived of commodities immedi;.'
necessary for consumption, raw materials and perma
active equipment. The effect of i Ins eonditioi
that Russia is unable to renew normal e
activities, and apparently will be unable to obtain
urgently needed commodities until credits may be
tended to Russia on a sound h.

It should not ! I that there has been a

steady d- don in evm those industry

not dependent up<>n ; :' either

raw material or partly finished products, nor in which
has then tagC «>f labor. The Ku^ian

f coal, of iron and steel, of flax.

ulfuric acid, or copper, of agricultural
products, of textiles, and the maintenance and repair ^

CAMOUFLAGED TRADE AGITATION 217

of railroad equipment, have degenerated steadily from
their level of production at the time of the BnKhevik
revolution. There can be no relation of the failure of
all these industries to blockades or to civil war, for
most of them require no imports, and the men mobilized
since the Soviet revolution were far less in number than
before that event.

During the existence of civil war in Russia, her ports
were in the hands of anti-Soviet forces. However, trade
with the world through Baltic ports was opened in April,
1920. Restrictions on direct trade with Russia were
removed by the United States on July 8, 1920. The
conclusion of treaties of peace with the Baltic States
enabled Russia freely to enter upon trade with Europe
and the United States. Both American and European
goods have been sold to Russia, but the volume of trade
has been unimportant due to the inability of Russia to
pay for imports.

As suggested in your second statement, it is true that
agents purporting to be representatives of the so-called
Bolshevist Commissariat of Foreign Trade have placed
immense orders for the purchase of goods in the United
States, Europe and Asia. It is estimated that perhaps
six and one half billion dollars' worth of orders have
been booked. But shipments as a result of these orders
have been made only in small volume because the Soviet
agents were unable either to pay cash or to obtain credit so
as to insure the delivery of the goods ordered. The
actual result of the placing of these immense orders on
the part of the Soviet regime has not, therefore, ma-
terially stimulated industry in the countries in which
the orders* were placed, but has chiefly resulted in
further impairing the credit of the Soviet regime due
to its inability to carry out the transactions which it had
undertaken.

Much has been written about the large sums of Rus-
sian gold which have found their way abroad in ex-
change for foreign goods. In reality, such transfers of

218 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

gold have boon n-latr. vding to the most

-timatcs the Soviet authorities do not now have
in their possession more than £17.") .000,000 worth of r
It is apparent that the proportion.;
amount of gold which might be expected
United States, and even the immediate expenditure of
all of this amount of gold in the Tin ould

not have a pronounced or lasting effect ad-

vancement of American industry and trade, whil-
loss to Russia would take away the scant hope th

of a sound reorganization of the Russian system of
currency and finance.

In r- to your question regarding the transfer

of funds from Russia to the United States it may be
d that there arc no restrictions on the- importation
of Russian gold into the United States, and since De<
her 18, 1920, there have been no restrictions on the
exportation of coin, bullion and eurreney to Soviet Rus-
sia or on deal in ITS or exchange transactions IM Ru
roubles or on transfers of credit or exchange transac-
tions with Soviet Russia. It is true that no a.ssurances
can be given that Russian gold will be accepted by tho
Federal Res, rve Banks or the Mint, in view of the fact
that these public instil ut ions must be fully assured that
the legal title to the gold accepted by them is not open
to question.

It i i been slated that if the Government of the

United States would -.died Soviet Gov-

ernment. Russia would immediately export immense
quantities of lumber, llax. hemp, fur and other commo-
dities. The facts in regard to supplies in Ru
pletely refute such statements, l.'u la doei nut to-day
have on hand tV which might be

made the basis of immediately profitable trade with tho

I, Furthermore, tin- transportation
is utterly inadequate to move any large quant it.
goods either in the interior of Russia or !••

ts. The export of such commodities as exist in Rus-

CAMOUFLAGED TRADE AGITATION 219

sia at the present time would result merely in further
increasing the misery of the Russian people.

The issue of January 1, 1921 of "Economic Life," an
official organ of the so-called Soviet Government, reports
that the production of lumber amounted to seventy
million cubic feet in 1920, as compared with four hun-
dred million cubic feet in 1912. The production of
lumber is, therefore, less than one-fifth of the pre-war
level, even though the lumber industry is in far better
circumstances than other important Russian industries.
This same situation is further illustrated by the follow-
ing article appearing in the " Economic Life" of Feb-
ruary 6, 1921:

"By December 20 the following supplies were gath-
ered:

Horse hides 3,831 12 per cent of am 't expected

Colt hides 1,142 35 <

Cattle hides 22,701 20.6 <

Calf hides 15,679 14.6

Sheep hides 37,771 58

Flax poods 22,871 12

Hemp 6,863 18

Bristles 99 14

"The Government of Ekaterinburg, which occupies a
high place in furnishing food supplies, for several rea-
sons has proven to be very weak in furnishing raw
materials.

"During the past week the results of the work have
become still smaller, reaching zero in some places, in
spite of the extreme energy and intensity of the work."

Note is taken of the statement that if restriction on
trade with Russia were removed, many mills, shops and
factories in this country, which are now closed, would
resume operations, and unemployment would thereby be
diminished. Even before the war, trade with Russia,
including both exports and imports, constituted only
one and three-tenths per cent of the total trade of the
United States. In view of the fact that the purchasing

220 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

power of Russia is now greatly diminished, as compared
with pre-war years, it is evident Dial at ;
under ti favorable circumstances the trade of

Russia could have but a minor influence on the indus-
trial and agricultural prosperity of the I'nih-d States.
Under conditions actually prevailing in Kussia, that
trade is of even less importance; a statement amply
demonstrated by the fact that though n strict KM.
trade with Russia have been eliminated, no business of
consequence with that country has developed.

According to the reports of the Department of (
merce, our total trade with Russia for tin fi-.-al
ending June 30, 1913, was as folio.

Imports from European Russia $26,958,690

Import* from Asiatic Russia

$29,315,217

Exports to Kumppan Russia 795

ports to Asiatic Russia I. Id, 419

$26,465,214
Total trade between Russia and the United

States $55,780.

The total imports into the United States for the t
year ending June 30, 1913, were $1, 813,008 ;j:M. ami the
total export! for the same year \v< i,884,149, the

i "f hnih imports and exports amounting, tl
1.278,892.::

For the calendar year 1920, the total trade of the
1 States was:

. $8,228,000,000
Imports 5,279,000,000

Total . $13,507,000,000

udiiiK Finland, the Baltic States, Armenia, and
Georgia and Sil-rria for the periods when they have been

CAMOUFLAGED TRADE AGITATION 221

free of Soviet Domination, the trade of thr T'nitrd S-
with Russia during 1920 was absolutely negligible, prob-
ably amounted to less than $4,000,000.

Though figures for trade with Russia during that
period are not available, there is every reason to 1>< 1
that it was of far less relative importance than in I'JI'J.

It is unquestionably desirable that intimate and
mutually profitable commercial relations on an extensive
scale be established between the United States and 1;
sia, and it is the sincere hope of this Government that
there may be readjustments in Russia which will make
it possible for that country to resume its proper place
in the economic life of the world.

I am enclosing herewith as of possible interest to you
in this connection, copies of the Department 's announce-
ment of July 7, 1920, of the Treasury Department's
announcement of December 20, 1920, of a statement
made by Mr. Alfred W. Kliefoth, of the Foreign Trade
Adviser's Office of this Department, before the Com-
mittee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representa-
tives, and of an announcement made to the press by the
Secretary of State, dated March 25, 1921; also a brief
statement of the total trade with Russia for the fiscal
years ending June 30, 1911 and June 30, 1912.

I would also invite your attention to the recently
published hearings of the Committee on Foreign Affaire
of the House of Representatives, entitled ''Conditions in
Russia," and of the Committee on Foreign Relations of
the United States Senate, entitled "Relations with Ku
sia." The former was held in compliance with House
Resolution No. 635, and the latter in compliance with
Senate Joint Resolution No. 164.

I am, Sir,

Your obedient servant,

(Signed) Charles E. Hughes.
Enclosures :

(5) as stated above.

222 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUT

This disposes of the argument that a trade apn •
with So\ ia could materially aid American in-

dustry. Even if trad*- were resumed on a pre-war basis,
which is practically impossible, it would BOaroety inev
our exports by one per cent. But our fon ILMI trade
absorbs only one-tenth of the product of American in-
dustry. It is, therefore, practically impossible that the
reopening of Russian trade on this comparatively large
scale could keep American industry going for more than
three or four hours!

Secretary of State Hughes has given a conclusive
answer to the argument that a trade agreement might
be materially helpful to the Russian people as long as
they are still the helpless subjects of the present "gov-
ernment." In addition we may point out that two
efforts were recently made to help the Russian p«
one through the Norwegian statesman, Nansen, and the
other through the Russian cooperative organization!.
Tin- Soviet Government refused both offers because the
supplies to be sent were not to be left in the hand
the Bolshevists. Rather than to lose tit e of

strengthening their own hold over the Rn "pie

decided to let the suffering of their helpless subjects
continue.

It must also be remembered in this connection that
whatever the hidden objects of the Hritish

'. the position of the I'.rilish (lovernmeiit would be

i by a similar policy on the part of the

I'n i ted States. The p it out by Mos.-ow wn

on November 17th. lirjn, that "KiiLfland is carrying on

in the I'nited States agitation in favor e \val

with Soviet I .t least, plau-

CAMOUFLAGED TRADE AGITATION 223

sible. A number of well-known Englishmen have boon
agitating for that object by speeches and by articles
in the American press. Possibly the intention is that
America shall provide the credits without which the
British-Soviet agreement must remain an empty form.
This agitation certainly offers no reason why America
should fall in with the designs of the British Govern-
ment. The British Empire is threatened by the Soviet
military forces around the Black Sea and in Mesopo-
tamia, Persia, Afghanistan and the Pamir region and
by Bolshevist propaganda not only in these districts but
also in Turkey, Egypt, India, and China. The foreign
policies of the powerful British Labor Party as well as
the Independent Liberals are thoroughly pro-Soviet.
Certain groups of British capitalists fear they might get
less out of Russia from a democratic and patriotic
peasants' government than from the cynical diplomacy
of the Bolshevists — ready to give to foreigners the title
to everything in Russia, so far as this is necessary to
secure the means needed to hold their power and prevent
popular government. In the same way a certain school
of British diplomats note that Lenin is ready to alienate
Russian territory in the belief he can win it back or
at least control it by instigating revolutions. These
financiers and diplomatists have another view of future
probabilities. In the meanwhile they are ready to take
advantage, for the purposes of the British Empire, of
Lenin's willingness to sign away Russia's territory,
natural wealth, and industries. These are certainly
among the leading motives of British opinion on Russia
and so undoubtedly influence British policy — if, indeed,
they do not dominate it.

224 I OF THEIR OWN MOUT

America neither hopes to gain anything at the cost
of the Russian people, nor ha> tins nation anything to
fear at home or abroad from the band of insane fanatics
momentarily in control of that great country. We are
concerned with Bolshevism as a world evil, \v
operates in varying decrees in many countries. Hut we
regard it neither as an indomitable power whieh we are
forced to recognize and com- ilia to, nor as a n
with which honorable governments ean afford to co-
operate— as the beneficiaries of its unparalleled e rimes
against the Ku^ian people.

The danger that the pro-Soviet agitation may be
revived is not past. Krassin has boldly stated that the
British trade agreement was obtained not by any funda-
mental concessions of communism to capitalism but by
propaganda, and he plans to station himself now in
Canada, whence he says he hopes to return "via New
York." Provided only he will come "as an individi.
certain Senators say he will be welcome. But he eau
operate quite elTeetively from Canada.

What makes the 8 mpaign in America d:

ous to some extent is the curious espousal of the Soviet
cause by numerous so-called "liberals" and by :
eal minority grouped in various camps.

II will look hack upon this support of Sm

with a smile, a sardonic. grin at the pretenders of
to-day.

Liberalism, when it is tnw to its n
extension of democratic pi lavement of

the opportunities in democracy. It is the implacable
foe of autocracy and of all dictatorial pn The

diseased state of mind that calls itself liberalism in

CAMOUFLAGED TRADE AGITATION 225

America at the moment is guilty of betraying democracy
in the most portentous situation of our time. It sneers
at the democracy of America, turns up a supercilious
nose at the great American labor movement, and rushes
with abnormal appetite into the social and moral violence
of Moscow.

Perhaps some of this phenomenon is due to the fact
that the so-called liberals of America have fallen victim
to a mania for mysticism and Moscow is the small end
of the cornucopia from which is emitted the great haze
— the great narcotic supply of all the conglomeration of
mental morphia addicts.

What this condition makes necessary is that Americans
must distinguish between the true liberals and the false
liberals, the real liberalism and the pretense of liberalism.

The pretending liberalism is for Sovietism in Russia
and for American recognition of that reversion to bar-
baric type.

If, as we are told, all that now is required by the
Soviets is a de facto recognition, let there be no mis-
apprehension as to what that means. That means recog-
nition to the extent that we declare the Soviet Govern-
ment to be the government in fact — the government that
is. An official Soviet wireless on September 10 said:

The only thing which the Russian Government de-
mands is that de facto relations be resumed, as it is
obvious that otherwise trade relations are impossible;
therefore such resumption of de facto relations is in-
separable from trade relations.

Plain notice, this, to the world that Russia will pay

226 OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTIIS

in trado for recognition. It is an sup-

posedly gold-hungry Americans.

What the Soviets hope would follow such de facto
"-Tuition and free resumption of trade would be un-
limited opportunity to attempt corruption of the world
by propaganda.

The Tinted States has lifted all trade bans. This
government interposes no legal ban-in- to trade wiili
Soviet Russia. A treasury order signed on December
20 took down the last barrier, permitting exportation
of gold to Russia and allowing dealings in exchange.

This is surely enough. If it is too much may be a
fair subject for discussion. Hut we have gone that far.
Surely, democratic America will take no further
in compromise with an autocracy the like of which tho
world has never seen.

Information about Russia continues to accnmu
Only those who are determined not to be informed can
remain uninformed. Upon encountering a questioning
opponent the exponents of Sovietism say that we do not
know what are the conditions in K'u^ia and advise us
to "wait until we can get the truth."

This is subterfuge that dec. i\. > only the unthinking.
We do know the great, main truth about Kusjsia. and
we do have fairly accurate in format ion as to the material
Conditions of the people. It is perhaps no fault of the
rigid control of visitors' permits exercised by the Soviets
that numerous persons have tfone into Kussia as fervent
Soviet advocates only to come out running, hands over
their fa> iiritives from a scourge. That ardent

Socialist H. G. Wells found conditions so terrible that
for a defense of the he had to resort to the

CAMOUFLAGED TRADE AGITATION 227

plea that no other government could stand and that if
the Soviets fell we should have a nation of Asiatic hordes
running stark wild over the country.

The all important thing that Americans know about
Russia is that in every sense the Soviet Government and
the philosophy back of it are absolute in their denial
and repudiation of democracy. This is the principle
that has been at stake in all the history of the contest
between freedom and slavery, self-government and auto-
cratic government, light and darkness. This was the
issue in the struggle against Prussianism. It was the
issue when the first man, in answer to a spark that had
been lighted in his soul, struck the first blow against
imperial rule. It is the issue over which the agonies
of the world have rolled. It is an issue on which Ameri-
cans can not be deceived and from which they will not
be budged.

APPENDIX I
AMERICAN LABOR AND RUSSIA

THE friendship of American Labor for the Russian
people has been invariable stradfast, and unqualified.
In a series of cablegrams the American \-\ deration of
Labor and its President have expressed at length their
ardent interest in the permanent welfare of Ku
labor and of the Russian people generally. This meant
Uncompromising hostility to Czarism and it means un-
compromising repudiation of Soviet ism. These cable-
grams prove that American labor understands the ele-
ments of the Russian situation and takes its stand 1.
and soul with Russian labor and the Russian people.

CABLEGRAM

Trngton April 2, 1917.

Tstr-heid/e [President of the ''Soviet'*]

Petrograd
Representative, of working people of Russia. A

this message to the men of labor of J\

greeting. The newly established lib«-rtr of

aw;: nerica's workers. We

rejoice at the intelligence, courage and the eonvi

of a people who even while eoneent ratine :Vort

upon d'-fni^' against foiviirn aggression h.

their own institutions upon prim
and • lint it is impossible to achieve the

state immediately. When the right foundation has been

228

AMERICAN LABOR AND RUSSIA 229

established, the masses can daily utilize opportunities
for progress, more complete justice, and greater lil»
Freedom is achieved in meeting the problems of life aiid
work. It cannot be established by revolution only — it is
the product of evolution. Even in the Republic of
United States of America the highest ideals of freedom
are incomplete — but we have the will and the opportu-
nity. In the name of America's workers whose watch-
words are Justice Freedom and Humanity we plead that
Russia's workers and masses shall maintain what you
have already achieved and practically and rationally
solve the problems of today and safeguard the future
from the reactionary forces who would gladly take ad-
vantage of your lack of unity to reestablish the old
regime of royalty reaction tyranny and injustice. Our
best wishes are with Russia in her new opportunity.

SAMUEL GOMPERS

President
American Federation of Labor.

C/ABLEGRAM

Washington, D. C.,

April 23, 1917.
Tstcheidze,

Petrograd

Executive Council American Federation of Labor in
regular session here as representatives of the labor move-
ment of America send fraternal greetings to you and
through you to all who have aided in establishing liberty
in Russia. We know that liberty means opportunity for
the masses especially the workers. The best thought,
hopes and support of America's workers are with your
efforts to form a government that shall insure the per-
petuity of freedom and protect your rights and new
found liberty against the insidious forces and agent
reaction and despotism. May we not urge you to build

230 APPENDIX I

practically and constructively. Our heartfelt sympathy
ith you in the great opportunity and work that lie

before you.

SAMUEL GOMPERS
JAMES DUNCAN
JAMES O'CoNNi
Jos. P. VALENTINE

\ R. A i

H. B. PERHAM
FRANK Dri
WILLIAM GREEN
W. D. MAHON
»IniiN- B. LEN

Executive Council
American Federation of Labor

CABLEGRAM

Washington. May fi. 1017.
Workmen's and Soldiers' Council [Soviet] of Dcpu

IVtrograd, Kussia.

The gravest crisis in the world's history is now hang-
in tin- halance. and tin- OOOIW whicli Kussia will
pursue may have a determining inllueixv \\hetlier
democracy or autocracy shall prevail. That <1>
and freedom will finally j>revail there can he no dmiht
in the minds of in.-n who know, hut the cost, the time
and the sacrifices which would ei la«-k of

united action may be appalling. It is to avoid this that
I address you.

In view of the grave crisis through which tl

MIT w<- assure you 11

absolutely upon the whole hearted support and Oft
ntion of the D people in • ,iust

our common enemy. Kaiserism. hi the fulfillment of
that cause the present American Government has the

AMERICAN LABOR AND RUSSIA 231

support of 99 per cent, of the American people, including
the working class both of the cities and of the agricul-
tural sections.

In free America, as in free Russia, the agitators for
a peace favorable to Prussian militarism have been
allowed to express their opinions so that the conscious
and unconscious tools of the Kaiser appear more influ-
ential than they really are. You should realize the truth
of the situation. There are but few in America willing
to allow Kaiserism and its allies to continue their rule
over those non-German peoples who wish to be free from
their domination. Should we not protest against the
pro-Kaiser Socialist interpretation of the demand for no
annexation, namely, that all oppressed non-German
peoples shall be compelled to remain under the domina-
tion of Prussia and her lackeys — Austria and Turkey?
Should we not rather accept the better interpretation
that there must be no forcible annexations, but that
every people must be free to choose any allegiance it
desires, as demanded by the Council of Workmen's and
Soldiers' Deputies?

Like yourselves, we are opposed to all punitive ana
improper indemnities. We denounce the onerous puni-
tive indemnities already imposed by the Kaiser upon the
people of Serbia, Belgium and Poland.

America's workers share the view of the Council of
Workmen's and Soldiers' Deputies that the only way
in which the German people can bring the war to an
early end is by imitating the glorious example of the
Russian people, compelling the abdication of the Hohen-
zollerns and the Hapsburgs, and driving the tyrannous
nobility, bureaucracy and the military caste from power.

Let the German Socialists attend to this, and cease
their false pretenses and underground plotting to bring
about an abortive peace in the interest of Kaiserism and
the ruling class. Let them cease calling pretended "in-
ternational" conferences at the instigation or connivance
of the Kaiser. Let them cease their intrigues to cajole

232 APPENDIX I

the Russian and American working people to interpret
• demand, "no annexations, no indemnities," in a
way to leave undiininished the prestige and the power
of the (Jrrnian military ca

Now that Russian autocracy is overthrown, neither
the American ^oyernment nor tin- American peopl,

.end that the wisdom and experi- 'liivsia in

the coming constitutional assembly will adopt any I
of government other than the one best suited to your
needs. We feel confident that no message, no individual
emissary and no commission has been sent, or will be
sent, with authority to offer any advice whatever to
Russia as to the conduct of her internal affaii
commission that may be sent will help Russia in any
way that she desires to combat Kaiserism whercv.

ta or may manifest itself.

Word has reached us that t >rts of an American

purpose and of American opinions contrary to the above
statement have gained some circulation in Russia. We
denounce these reports as the criminal work of d
pro-Kaiser propagandists circulated with the inte?
deceive and to arouse hostile feelings between ihe two
great democracies of tin- world. The KY <>p]<»

should know that these activities are only addil:
mar MS of the "dark forces" with which Ri.

has been only too familial- in the unhappy ;

The American Government, the American peopl
rican labor movement are whole-heartedly with tin*
•an workers, the Russian masses, in the trrrat effort,
to maintain the freedom you 1 idy aehi.

'rave problems y«-t het'oiv you. \V, •
appeal to you to make common cause with us to }1b
all forms of autocracy and «!• ;>lish

and maintain for general unborn the priceless

treasures of justice, freedom, democracy and humanity.
American Federation of Labor,

SAMUEL GOMPER*, President.

AMERICAN LABOR AND RUSSIA 23.5

CABLEGRAM

Washington

September 13, 1917.

Kerensky Premier Russian Revolutionary Government
Petrograd Russia

At a tremendously important national conference
three days of representatives of labor and socialist
Minneapolis Minnesota September fifth sixth seventh
called to solidify working class and all people of United
States among other declarations the following was
adopted with great enthusiasm and without a dissent-
ing voice or vote. We address ourselves to the:

"Sons of liberty in all lands are now watching with
heavy hearts the desperate contest of their brothers in
spirit and arms now battling on the plains of Russia.
Born amidst the thunders of the greatest war of all
times, the great Russian democracy brought to all lovers
of man's freedom a new hope and inspiration. Assailed
on all sides by a terrible and insidious foe, now spread-
ing death and devastation in its ranks and now masquer-
ading as a friend and penetrating, under the guise of a
revolutionist into the very councils of the revolution,
the Russian democracy is now passing through the most
critical time in its struggle for existence.

The American Alliance for Labor and Democracy
sends greetings to the fighters for liberty in Russia as
brothers in the same cause. The aims of the Russian
democracy are our aims; its victory is our victory and
its defeat is our defeat; and even the traitors that assail
the Russian democracy likewise assail us. In the con-
flict for the liberty of Russia, the liberty of America is
likewise at stake. Every Russian soldier who faces un-
flinchingly the enemy in the field is striking a blow for
the liberty of America.

The American Alliance for Labor and Democracy,
representing every loyal thought of American Labor and

23-1 APPENDIX I

American Socialism, pledges and dedicates the Amor
working class to the support and service of the Ru-
democracy. It calls upon the working people an.l
Socialists of America and also upon the goven
the United S • and resour<

their command to the ai«l of tin Russian democracy."

SAMUEL GOMPERS,

President, American Federation of La'
President, American Alliance for Labor and Democracy.

CABLEGRAM

Washington March 12 1918.
All Russian Soviet, Moscow.

We address you in the name of world liberty. We
assure you that the people of the United States arc
pained by every blow at Russian freedom, as they would
be by a blow at their own. The American people d
to lie of service to the Russian people in their stru.
to safeguard freedom and realize its opportunities. We

re to be informed as to how we can help. \\
for a great organi/.ed movement of workm-/ who

are devoted to the cause of freedom and the idea!
democracy. We assure you also that the whole American
nation ardently d« be helpful to Russia and awaits

with eag' i indication from Russia as to how help

most effectively be extended. To all those who
strive f«.r t'nedom we say, Courage. .lustier must
'triumph if all free people stand united against autocracy.
We await your sugp<

American Alliance f" and Democracy.

SAMUEL GOMPERS, President.

This cablegram was sent 1»« fore the full news of the
overthrow of the Constitutional Assembly had rea*
rica.

APPENDIX II
THE SOVIET ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE

No better test can be found of any social sysn-m than
its administration of justice. When that is utterly dis-
orderly and without semblance of equity, the whole
regime, we may be certain, is chaotic to the core.

In an article in the Journal of the American Bar Asso-
ciation, Judge Fisher writes that agents of the Soviet's
supreme tribunal may combine in one person arresting
officer, prosecutor, judge and executioner. He found
secret courts engrossed in litigation to recover bribes
promised by tradesmen but not paid. A former Moscow
lawyer justified the system of wholesale bribery, he said,
on the ground that it had become impossible to live at
all without it. Judge Fisher found widespread trading
despite the abolition of private property. Such illegal
transactions were so general that they only could have
been carried on with the connivance of corrupted officials.

Judges, the writer of the article found, were snl>j< •< -t
to no restraint but the "Revolutionary conscience." An
effort was made to induce all workmen to act in that
capacity, and in Petrograd there already had been more
than 40,000 judges though there were only 40,000
workers.

Judges even in small villages had absolute power to
carry out their decrees and the Cheresvechaika — "the
All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for the Suppres-
sion of Counter Revolution, Speculation and Sabotage"
continues to employ capital punishment in parts of
Russia which were declared to be under military rule,

235

2M APPKNDIX 11

although the death penalty was abolished in 1
Offenders ii deaths were •

transferred to a military district !

Judge Fisher says that the accused are n<>;
to face their judges and are n«>t '"Id tin- natm
charge nor given a d - \plam. Many have

executed without even knowing that they had been con-
victed. The tribunal "has no regard for the B
any other departnu-nts nf the State." It Mble

to no one, and even the communist <>fti«
is provision for appeal from the local or depart in.
Cheresveehaika to the All-Russian, but ordinarily the
defendant has been executed b« -t'.in- the ai»p<al is
fected. Controlled by no law the tribunals, it is ^;)id.
openly ns« their power to avenge the wrongs attributed
to old-time ( -iii'inies.

Judge Fisher, who is Chairman of tin Kusxian and
Ukrainian Committee of the .Joint Distribution Commit-
tee, ends with a plea for the innocent

(Summari/ed by the New York Tinn

APPENDIX III

THE TURKO-BOLSHEVIST ATTACK ON THE
LABOR GOVERNMENT OF GEORGIA

AN APPEAL TO LABOR

THE Government of Georgia has issued from Constan-
tinople an appeal to all Socialist Parties and Labor
organizations "in the name of the Georgian people,
whose liberty and independence has just been destroyed
by the armies of the Russian Bolsheviks." The appeal
describes how the Moscow Government have striven to
extend their power over Georgia by "sovietixing" the
country through insurrections organized by its subsidized
agents. These efforts being unsuccessful, others were
tried, and military operations resorted to.

On November 28, 1920, Trotzky, in a long sport.
before the Commissars of the Communist Party as-
sembled at Moscow, pronounced the death sentence on
the Republic of Georgia. " Armenia being soviet! zed. it
is now the turn of Georgia," he said. "It will be suf-
ficient to tighten our hold in order to connect Baku with
Batum."

Bolshevist troops were massed at the frontiers despite
protests of the Georgian Government. After refusing to
discuss matters the Moscow Government launched the
attack in the middle of February. The attack on Tit! is
was at first repulsed. On February 21 a radio telegram

237

238 APPKXDIX III

was despatched by the President of the (Jroivinn
public requesting Tchitcherinc to "formulate tin- oh;-
of the war you are conducting against D& Perhaps we
can come to an understanding without l)ln.
Tchitcherine did not reply. Similar messages to Tro*
and Lenin shared the samo f;r

Finally, Georgia was surrounded by Bolshe\
aided by those of the Turks at Angora. "The tread
of the Angora Government deprived us «»f tin1 last pos-
sibility of continuing tho struggle on the line at Rion.
Our troops, surrounded on two sides by tho armies of
two great military powers — Soviet Russia and Turkey —
were condemned to perish without the smallest hop
success. On March 17 the Georgian Government «!«
to cease fighting, and to disband the army. This
laid open the road to Batum to the Bolsheviks.
March 18 the Government left Batum. and a few hours
later the Bolshevist troops entered the town."

The appeal concludes :

The Georgian people has the ri^ht to rely in this
struggle on the fraternal support of the international
proletariat. And it is to you, comrades, that \ve •
for this support! You have always condemned \va-

;uest. Are the authors of this war against (J.'or^ia
less culpable because they hide their imperialistic- char-
acteristics under the flag of Communism?

We ask you to stigmatize the crime of the invaders
nf HUT country, and the hypocrisy of those who h;i\<
MUM to bayonets to wipe out the influence of lOOfe]
ideas and to implant their own ideas.

Raise your voices, oomrad* I, and demand from tho
Government of Moscow that it withdraws its armies from
Georgia; that it gives the Georgian people tho right to

THE TURKO-BOLSHEVIST ATTACK 239

govern themselves, and to organize their life and their
State according to their own wishes.

NOE JORDANIA, President of the Govern-
ernment of Georgia, the Central Commit tr,«
of the Social-Democratic Party of Georgia,
and the Soviet of the Workmen of Tiflis.

NICHOLAS TCHEIDZE, President of the
Constituent Assembly, member of the C. C.
of the Social-Democratic Party.

EUGENE GUEGUETCHKORI, Minister of
Foreign Affairs, member of the C. C. of the
Social-Democratic Party.

NOE RAMISHVILI, Minister of the Interior,
member of the C. C. of the Social-Dejnocratic
Party.

The whole Labor and Socialist press of Europe, both
the moderates of the Right Wing and the orthodox
Marxists and revolutionists of the Center, with few ex-
ceptions, has denounced this conquest as an example
of the crudest imperialism. For example, Die Freiheit
of Berlin, organ of the Independent Socialists, condemns
the Soviet action against Georgia as "a brutal imperial-
istic coup d' etat" (Die Freiheit, April 28th, 1921.)

APPENDIX IV
LENIN'S "CONVERSION"

EXTRACTS from his Speech on the Tax in Kind before
the Congress of the Russian Communist Party, March 15,
1921. (Reproduced by Sovitt Itiusia, May 15, 1921.)

In Russia the induct Hal workers arc in the minority
and the small farnu rs overwhelmingly in 1h< mnj<
The social revolution in such a country may meet with
complete success only under two conditions:

1. It must he supported hy the social revolution in one
or more of the advanced count r > -. .K [i<m knmr, much
has been accomplished in this respect in recent days, as
compared with the pastf but this condition is still far
from fulfillment.

2. There must bo an understanding between the pro-
letariat, which is the executor of the dictatorship and
holds the state power in its hands, and the majority of
the population.

After thus admitting the dictatorship and reiterating
his faith in a steadily approaching world revolution,
Lenin continued :

The small peasant has aims that are not the same as

those of the worker. We kmnr thai <>nhj an understand-

"•iV/i the peasantry run sun the s»ci<il r<r»luti<>n

until the revolution is ready to break out in oth<r

countries.

240

LENIN'S "CONVERSION" 241

Now what is the nature of the proposed undf r
ing? The Communist chief first shows that there is to
be no fundamental economic concession, no restoration
either of private property in land or of free trade in
agricultural products:

We must say [to the peasants] : if you want to go
backward, if you want to restore private property and
"bring about free trade, this will mean that you are
handed over irrecoverably to the power of the landed
proprietors and capitalists.

The one great argument to produce an "understand-
ing" is that there is no choice for the peasant except
Bolshevism or Czarism. The very existence of agrarian
democracies is to be kept from him and, since his expe-
rience has been limited to Czarism and Bolshevism (ex-
cept a few months of the Kerensky regime) there is
some hope of success. On this point Lenin says :

A peasant who has even a modicum of class conscious-
ness cannot help understanding that we represent as a
government the working classes, those working classes
with whom the toiling peasant can agree (and the peas-
ants represent nine-tenths of our population). A class-
conscious peasant understands very well that every turn
for the worse means a return to the old Tsarist Govern-
ment.

Lenin understands that the peasants cannot be con-
verted to Bolshevism — at least for decades and genera-
tions, though he hopes that the process will be achieved
within a century — with the aid of certain illusory <
nomic and material benefits, such as electrification (!) of

242 APPENDIX IV

:a. In the meanwhile they are to be governed with-
out their consent by "the proletariat," or Communist
Party. He says:

The transformation of the entire psychology of the
pen ts is a labor that will re-quire gem-rations.

This question of stabilizing the ideology of the small
peasants can be solved only on a material l»a
application of tractors and machinery in agrieultup
a large scale, the electrification of the whole emintry,
would immediately produce a transformation of
thought of the small peasants. And when I speak of
generations, remember that generations do not in
sarily mean centuries. You know very well that UK-
obtaining of tractors and machinery and the carrying
out of the electrification of a gigantic country are a
matter of decades. Objectively considered, that i-
state of things . . .

Our problem in this Congress is to formulate the main
lines of the question. Our party is a governii
and the decision that the party congress adopts will be
binding for the whole Republic.

What now are the material concessions which are to
"satisfy" the agriculturists with a government over
which they have no control! Here is Lenin 's project :

If we go carefully into this question wo must at once
come to the conclusion that the small peasants can be

tied in two ways: in the first plape, by a certain
freedom of exchange of commodities, a certain freedom
for the smatt peasants, <mdt in the second place, we must
get commodities and product*; for what would 1»< tin-
use of a freedom to exchange commodities, if there are

'•mmodities to exchange!
If we were in a position to obtain cvrn n small quan-

of commodities and tl -hoi i Id take possession

LENIN'S "CONVERSION" 243

of these commodities, the proletariat now holding po-
litical power would receive, in addition to that political
power, the economic power also.

We cannot extricate ourselves from this difficulty
without resorting to freedom of local exchange of com-
modities. If this exchange of commodities gives to the
state a certain minimum quantity of grain, sufficiei
satisfy the needs of the cities, of the factories, and of
industry, this exchange of commodities will contribute
to soUdify and strengthen the political and national
power of the proletariat.

In a word "local" free trade is to be permitted within
narrow limits (see Chapter VII) in a manner to increase
both the political and the economic power of "the pro-
letariat, " i.e., the Communist Party, over the agricul-
tural majority.

Lenin then says: "We shall now be asked how and
where we are going to get the commodities?" For a
certain minimum of commodities are essential to "sat-
isfy" the peasants, just as beads are necessary to extract
valuables from the savages. The answer to this question
is simple indeed. The commodities are to be obtained
at the expense of the foreign and domestic enemy, the
big and little bourgeoisie, the capitalists and the peas-
ants. The patrimony of the Russian people — or a large
part of it — is to be offered to foreign concessionaires at
an enormous sacrifice, the argument of the concession-
aires being that the uncertainty of continued Bolshc
rule and the vagaries of their methods demand a huge
reward, while the Bolshevists' calculation is that they
will be released of the entire debt by world revolution.
Or, if the world revolt does not materialize the future
generation (90 per cent of it peasants) will pay.

244 APPENDIX IV

Hero is Lenin's answer to his question:

So long as the revolution has not yet broken out in
other countries, we must not grudge the hundred
millions and milliards, which our boundless resources
and our rich raw materials afford us, as a compensa
for the trade that the advanced capitalist count ri«s may
give us. We shall later recover all this with advantage
to ourselves.

There is no thought either for the future Russia or
for its population. The entire object — which may be

achieved if other nations lend themselves to this ma-
neuver— is to maintain the dictatorship of the Commu-
ni>t Party, which Lenin insists upon calling the dictator-
ship of the proletariat. As he himself sums up his

ion:

The situation is now this: either we must economically
satisfy the medium peasants and consent to a fn
commodity exchange, or it will he impossible to maintain
the power of the proletariat in Russia, in view of the
slowing down of the international revolution. (Our
italii

APPENDIX V
CAN THE SOVIETS BE SAVED BY CAPITAL!

THE OFFICIAL BRITISH WHITE PAPER ON ECONOMIC AND
POLITICAL CONDITIONS IN KUSSIA

THE British-Soviet Trade Treaty was signed in March,
1921, after nine months of intensive negotiations. In
May the British courts decided that this treaty amounted
to a de facto recognition of the Soviet Government. But
actual trading on any considerable scale depends not
upon paper documents but upon the granting of huge
credits. Without such credits the trade treaty will have
little if any economic results. The official British White
Paper on Russia, issued in that same month, shows that
there are no grounds whatever upon which any intelli-
gent investor would provide such funds.

When the British Government first began to consider
the trade treaty it appointed a special committee of
prominent business men to collect data on the subject.
Selected in May, 1920, this committee reported in Feb-
ruary, 1921, and a summary of its findings is now pub-
lished.

Its main conclusions may be stated as follows :

a. There can be no important Russian exports for a
considerable time to come.

6. There can be no economic regeneration of Russia
at all without foreign capitalist aid, i.e., credits.

c. It is highly questionable if there can be any regen-
245

246 APPENDIX V

on of Russia oven gradually and with capitalist aid
as long as Bolslii'vi 'Utilities.

As regards resumption of trade between Russia and
other countries the report says:

We are convinced that for the economic equilibrium
of the world the exports from Russia an- must imp<rrtant
factors to the European market. We do not, h»w
(••insider that Russia will he in a position to make its
contribution toward the relief of Europe for a consider-
ahle time to come. There can be no question of the
export of cereals in the immediate futuiv.

It is our conviction that there is no possihil
economic regeneration of Russia in the near future with-
out the assistance of capitalist countries. Our conclu-
sions with regard to the rendering of suvh assistance are
guided by the following considerations:

1. That the destruction of capitalism by violen
only in Russia, but in other countries, is the deli!"
aim and purpose of the Russian Communist Party, which
forms the Government of Soviet Russia at tin

time.

2. That, to this end, the Third or Communist Ii
natiniiale ha- .iblished at M< ad m believe
this has been don.- under the auspices of the Soviet Gov-

and with its financial and material support.
That the Russian Communist Party and the Third
'•nationale are actively endeavoring to the

•ruction by \ apifrilism in countries to

which the Soviet Government has addressed overtures for
trade.

4. That the Soviet Government, in destroying capital-

ing about a comj
collapse of industry in that country.

5. That, in face of this collap-e. the Sovi

ment invites capitalists to help to restore Russian in-
dustry.

CAN THE SOVIETS BE SAVED BY CAPITAL? W!

6. That the Soviet Government has carried on, up to
the present time, an active and widespread int«-ni:itional
propaganda, and that had that propaganda ad
object, international capital, to which the Soviet Govern-
ment now turns for aid in restoring economic prosperity
to Russia, would have disappeared.

7. That the credit and capital required for Russia's
urgent needs are large; that no Government can give
this credit and capital on the scale required, and that
such aid can only be furnished by individual capitalists
or financial groups who are willing to provide the neces-
sary supplies in money or goods.

8. That it is inconceivable that the credit and capital
required in Russia should be provided by foreign capi-
talists as long as the destruction of capitalism and the
violent overthrow of so-called bourgeois Governments
remain the main object of the Russian Government, or
of the political forces by which it is controlled.

9. That if the Soviet Government renounce and
abstain from propaganda directed to the destruction of
capitalism and the established order in other countries,
it still remains to be seen how far in the near future
they will be able to arrest the process of economic dis-
integration and to lay a foundation upon which it will
be possible for Russian industry and agriculture once
more to develop and expand.

The report specifies certain changes in home and
foreign policy that are indispensable before there can
be any trade: "the complete renunciation of the Third
Internationale/' safety of foreign business men in Rus-
sia, '-'the restoration of rail and river transport," "the
co-operation of the peasantry," and "the settlement of
the agrarian question."

The White Paper makes it more than doubtful, how-
ever, whether the Bolshevist regime could arrest "the

248 APPENDIX V

process of economic disintegration" even if foreign capi-
talists— encouraged ai rtrd by tlueir governments
— should come to its aid. One of its conclusions

That the state of admin istr.v <> and

corruption into which the departments ni' the S
Government have fallen militates against the proper
trilmtion of available supplies among the population and
must he remedied if tin- Russian worker is 1o he restored
to the standard of health and strength necessary to re-
establish the diminished productivity of his labor.

On the main industrial policy of the Soviets, the
nationalization of the leading industries — which, together
with the nationalization of import and export trade,
remains unaltered after the "reforms" of March (1921)
— the British report says:

The Soviet government, in a situation calling for the
exercise of the utmost discrimination and care, car
out the policy of nationalization in haste, without taking
account of the disorder already prevailing in Russia, of
the complex structure of modern industry, of tin
of expert technical assistance, and of tin- disabilities re-
sulting from the lack of knowledge and experience under
which they themselves labored.

The document further declares that, as a result of this
nationali/.ation, "the power of officialdom in Russia has
developed on a scale to which there is no parallel, ami
represents an attempt to control completely the condi-
tions of work and leisun*, of food and drink, of educa-
tion and aimiN«-ment. of t ravel, and even of the home life
of every individual in a nation whose population •
now exceeds 120,000,000." The report adds that r»

CAN THE SOVIETS BE SAVED BY CAPITAL? 249

evidence shows that the tendency toward State control
is increasing rather than diminishing.

"It would appear," says the report, in summing up
the persecution of labor and of the peasantry, "that th»>
Soviet Government must decide whether they are going
to maintain a policy of political repression at home and
aggressive Bolshevist propaganda abroad, which will in-
evitably, whatever international treaties they may make,
lead in practice to a continuance of their present eco-
nomic isolation, or whether they will accept and hon-
estly carry out the fundamental condition which can
alone obtain for them the outside aid they so urgently
need.

"If they decide to maintain the campaign for the
violent destruction of capitalism in other countries, and
the policy of ruthless repression which makes it impos-
sible for foreigners to live and to do business in Russia,
then Russia will of necessity be left to her own resources.
Then will the future show whether or not the combined
effect upon the worker of persuasion as to the merits
of communism, and of persuasion by payment for work
done with the shadow of imprisonment and the bayonet
ever presenty can restore the old productive power of
Russia within the short time available for the experi-
ment.

"If it does not Trotzky himself admits that the Rus-
sian Socialist Society is on its way to ruin, however it
may twist and turn."

Bolshevism or Sovietism consists in such nationaliza-
tion and State control and in the rule of a minority by
repression — the only way a minority can rule. The
moment this control is abandoned and the peasants and

250 -APPENDIX V

workmen arc freed and repression is discontinued
shevism will have ceased 1.. he. Hut till the evidence
shows that tin- B .rty and its

BT one moment c< : either the cessation

of repression, or tho abandonment of their dictatorship.

It must be noted that the parts of the Hri:
so far published in America do not deal "with weighty
political questions siidi as the commercial inlctm'
the Soviets or the probability that the succeeding
eminent will repudiate their transactions. Nor do
touch upon certain vital economic factors. Th>
propose to pay for the needed imports chiefly by

-since they have so little to export. Lomov, the
head of the confessions division of the Soviet govern-
ment, declares- that the Holslievists are i y to
tfrant concessions not only in forests and mines hut in
oil and in the iron and steel industry. ll< <
however, that a serious problem is created by the higher
wages the concessionaries would pay their skilled labor
when compared with Russian wa^cs, by the diflidilt

iiitf it, by the Soviet labor laws, •
missions surest another whole nest of addit:

IM to Hi.' ation of Kussia by C6l :>ital

and t'oreiirn trade. These are doubtless amonxr tin

why— as Loniov also admits not one concession of
importaii' d by for-

The White Paper. ts interesting condusi.

to the probable practical out- tent

into causes. Miple. the antagonism and

country is one of the most frightful of the existing
ditions. Aa to the 0
hides:

CAN THE SOVIETS BE SAVED BY CAPITAL? 251

That having due regard to the causes of economic dis-
organization antecedent to the rise of the 1
power, the attempts of the Bolsheviks to reuli/e tin- class
war in the towns by a precipitate nsuionali/atiou of
industry and in the villages by the eMablishment «>;'
dictatorship of the village poor w» rineipal con-

tributory causes of the gradual separation of town from
city.

The practical efforts of Bolshevism up to the pi
time, so far as they affect production, have b< •< -n u, dis-
astrous failure. The magnitude of the industrial col-
lapse in Russia and the consequent cessation of <
of products between town and country are the factors
that have forced themselves particularly on our atten-
tion. We know of no similar instance of a collapse so
complete, so sudden and so far-reaching, although a
similar tendency is to be observed in Central Europe,
and more especially in those countries which formerly
composed the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Want < \
jn Paris during the revolutionary period, but it was
submitted to for the sake of the political liberty sought
by the people, and there was no general economic
debacle such as has occurred in Russia.

The White Paper also points out that the financial
policy of the Soviets is leading rapidly to inevitable
bankruptcy. In 1918 and 1919 expenditure \s;us three
and two and one-half times income. In 1920 expendi-
ture was seven and one-half times income. The report
continues :

In spite therefore of wholesale confiscation of prop-
erty and repudiation of debt the three years of Soviet
rule have resulted in a deficit of enormous si/.e and
rapidly increasing magnitude. These deficits are being
met by issues of paper which, month by month
of less value. That the present state of things cannot
continue is certain.

252 APPENDIX V

That is, wholesale confiscation and debt repudiation
were but a drop in the bucket in view of the mad ;

. finance.

It might he supposed that this pep last, would

be enough to satisfy the pseudo-liU -nil pro-Bolshevists
as to the character of the Soviets. What is our ;u
ment to find it also being interpreted as a pro-S<
document ! The same leading Democratic n«
one of the chief supporters of President Wilson in this
country, already quoted in Chapter I, declares thai
White Paper shows that Lenin and Trot/.k;. been

doing their utmost since they were freed of //<
of invasion, 'to establish a system of individual control
in industry in place of the collective system which has
proved a failure.' to repair locomotives and rolli
to revive industry and avoid famine by conscripting
labor, to end bureaucratic control in local nffan
encourage trade with other nations. Tl not

succeeded even passably in any of these undcrtak;
but it is plain that they have endeavored In <//•/*/// n

irtive programme in the face of disorganixaiion and
disorder for which modern history has no parallel.

"Whether disorganization and disorder would have
struck so deep in Russia after the war wiih ami oth<-r
Government in power it is too /<//< HUH- /<> decide. I
to-day some of the countries of Central Knn»p«- arc <>nty
a little better off than l\ ussia; if //»<»/ hwl l>« n 0&j
to endure an AUied blockade tiny rni<iht hurt- been no
nearer recovery in //>;.'/ thun Ihtir )»i(ihl>»r t<> /

An unparalleled inversion of the facts. "Individual
Control" by Soviet bureaucrats is the control to which
the White Paper refers, and this was accomplish.

CAN THE SOVIETS BE SAVED BY CAPITAL? 253

year or two ago. Lenin and Trotzky have not done their

"utmost" because they are still working first, last, and
all the time for Bolshevism and Communism — as the
report demonstrates. It also .shows that the conditions
in Eastern Europe are not "only a little better," and
that the blockade can not be held as the sole or chief
cause of Russia's plight.

A leading Republican organ speaks of the new trad-
ing conditions established in March, 1921, as permitting
"the factory owners" (!) to begin making things they
believed could be traded to the Soviets for food. This
also betrays amazing ignorance. Factory owners in
Soviet Russia! The factories are all (except petty work-
shops) owned by the Soviets. This is the very essence
of Bolshevism. The real conditions introduced by the
March decree permitting restricted and local trade are
portrayed in a Washington dispatch to the New York
Times (May 28) — based on information from Soviet
sources :

The Moscow Soviet has issued licenses to trade to the
following: Bars in the theaters, tea houses, restaurant^,
gastronomic shops, dairy shops, butchers, ^n m ^r
and owners of kiosks. Lately many artisans' work
have been opened, hatters, shoemakers, etc.; big indus-
tries, however, are at a standstill, and the genera:
nomic life reminds one rather of the Middle Ages.

The only big or Sovietized industries "prospering"
are those engaged in the manufacture of arms.

INDEX

Agrarian Revolt, 126

Agriculturists (Peasants), 11, 14, 15, 29, 33, 41, 45,68,79, 104-

124,240-244
Alpine, 230
America :

(1) and the Soviets, 1-19, 26, 156, 157, 207/208, 224-

227

(2) Bolshevist Press on, 22, 23, 24, 25

(3) Gorapers-Hughes Correspondence, 212-221

(4) Lenin on, 22, 149, 208, 209

(5) American Press on Soviet Reforms, 10, 11, 14-16, 120,

153, 250-253

(6) Trotzky on> 150

American Bar Association, Journal of, 235

American Communist (Bolshevist) Party, 24, 185

American Federation of Labor, 1, 7, 25, 165, 170, 181, 185, 228-

236

American Socialist Party, 18, 19
American Socialists, Loyal, 230, 231
Amsterdam International, see International Federation of Trade

Unions

Australia, 174
Armenia, 190, 191
Art, 133

Assassination, see Terrorism.
Asia, 156, 157
Autocracy, Industrial and Political, 78, see also Dictators and

Dictatorship.
Avanti, 188

255

256 INDEX

Ballod, 189, 190

Bartuel, 183

Bavaria, 143, 149, 150

Belgium, 186, 231

Bidegaray, 183

Blockade, The, 06

Bondfield, Margaret, 63, 118

Boni, Albert, 85

Bonus System, 82, 83, 86

Bourgeoisie, see Middle Class, Capital, Democracy

Brailsford, 107

Brest-Li tovsk Treaty, 207, 211

British Labor Party, 4, 34, 52, 64-67, 138, 161, 162, 186, 188,

190, 198, 199, 201, 202, 223
British Socialists, see British Labor Party
British White Paper, see White Paper
Hrnusilloff, 100
Hukharin, 160
Bulgaria, 182
Bureaucracy, 126, 127, 189-191

Capital, Foreign, see Trade Agitation and Concessions

Chernov, 53, 64, 68

Children, 134r-141

China, 223

Chinese, 60

Civil War Advocated, 143, see also Class Struggle

Class-War, 46, 47, 106, 108

Code of Labor Laws, see Labor Laws

Colby, Secretary, 1, 2, 4, 10, 145

ununlst Labor, 84
Communist (or Third Intom.itionnlr), 18, 22, 23, 25, 31, 38, 44,

45, 46, 144, 146, 148, 150-168
"Communist Manifesto," 132

INDEX 257

Communist Party, Russian, 28, 30, 31-48, 67, 73, 85, 90, 91,

115, 118, 142
"Compromises" and "Reforms," 6, 14-16, 112-116, 121-124,

209,210

Compulsory Labor, 6, 66, 72-87
Concessions 170, 175, 182, 192, 203, 206, 226, 227, 243, 245-253,

see also Trade Agitation
"Conservative" Bolshevism, 12, 14
Conscription of Labor, see Compulsory Labor
Constitutional Assembly, 15, 28, 107
Cooperatives, 14, 117-120
Counter-Revolution, see Terrorism
Cossacks, 59

Credit, Foreign, see Trade Agitation and Concessions
Crispien, 18, 158, 188
Culture, 98, 133, 134-141

Dalin, 62, 64

D'Arragona, 160, 182, 183, 188

Dan, 64

De Brouckere, 190

Decrees, Government by, 128, 129

Democracy, Bolshevism vs., 28-48, 78, 104, 142, 188-190,

200

Desertion, Labor, 58, 74, 75, 86, 97
Dictators, Factory, 77
Dictatorship of the Proletariat, 7, 10, 19, 28, 30, 33, 37, 38,

91, 114, 122, 193
Disciplinary Labor Juries, 129
Disorganization, Economic, 126
Dittmann, 18, 189
Djerzinsky, 68, 98, 99
Duffy, 230
Dugoni, 188

258 INDEX

Dumoulin, 183, 194
Duncan, 230

Economic Coilapee, 125-133, 245-253
Economic Conference (Soviet), 42, 78
Education? 26, 107, 143-111
Egypt, 223

Elections, 35, 36, 71, 94
Electrification of Russia, Proposed, 241, 242
Extraordinary Commission for Fighting Counter-Revolution,
see Terrorism

Factory Soviets, 72

Family, The, see Home

Farbman, Michael, 10, 112

Faure, 192

Finmen, 194

Fisher, 235, 236

Food, Requisition of, see Taxation in Kind

France, 22, 149, 154, 157, 184, 206, 207

Freedom, see Terrorism

Freedom of Press, see Free Speech

Free Speech, 26, 34, 36, 104, 189, 193

"Free Trade," 14, 43, 113-118, 241-244

Freiheit, Die, 239

French Confederation of Labor (C. G. T.), 53, 169, 173, 180,

183, 191

French Revolution, 10, 164

I n-nrh Socialist Party (now Communist), 147, 155, 171, 188 .
Friss, 108

Georgia, 143, 190, 191, 237-240

German Socialists, 18, 63, 154, 172, 186, 188-190, 231, 239
Germany, 4, 22, 150, 154, 156, 158, 177-182, 184
Compere, 6, 25, 181, 211-215, 228-236

INDEX 2.=>o

Gorky, 130, 131

Goutor, 100

Great Britain, 3, 14, 32, 149, 156, 157, 181, 162, 173, 174, 184

203-205, 206, 208, 209, 223-224, 235-253 (see also Britiib

Labor Party)
"Green Annies, "59
Green, William, 230
Guest, Haden, 63

Harding, President, 3, 10

Hearst Newspapers, 9

Henderson, Arthur, 21, 170, 186

Herald, London Daily, 4, 166, 168

Holland, 186

Home, War against the, 135, 140

Home, Sir Robert, 204

Hostages, 52-55

Hours of Labor, see Overtime

Hughes, Secretary, 3, 4> 5, 6,<9, 10, 132, 203, 215-221

Hungary, 14£, 149, 195

Hungarians, 60

Huysmans, 186, 190, 191

Independent Labor Party (British), 161, 162

India, 184, 223

Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.), 175-182, 185

Inefficiency, 130, 131, 248

Intellectuals, 51, 128, 172, 189, 199, 214

International Federation of Trade Unions, 170, 171, 173, 184,

185, 190/194-197
Intervention, 66
Italy, 4, 149, 150, 154, 206, 210
Italan Confederation of Labor, 160, 171, 177
Italian Socialists, 18, 45, 63, 149, 150, 166, 188-190

260 INDEX

Japan, 22, 156, 206
Jugoslavia, 182
Justice, 235, 236
Jouhaux, 183, 191, 194

Kalinin, 70, 115, 116, 126,144

Kumoneff, 4, 155, 156, 206, 207

Kaplan, 55

Kautsky, 169, 190

Kofali, 92

Kerensky, 47, 52, 137, 164, 170, 241

Kliefoth, 221

Krassin, 94, 167, 198, 203, 204, 205, 208, 210, 224

Krestinsky, 109

Kronstadt Rebellion, 208

Kropotkin, 126, 127

Labor Army, Red, 77, 79, 85

Labor Conscription, see Compulsory Labor

Labor Delegations to Soviet Russia

"Labor Opposition," 97, 98

Labor Unions, see Trade Unions

Lansbury, 4

Lateis, 50, 55

Laws, Labor, 72-87

League of Nations, 142

l/'iiin (Lenin is quoted umlor noarly all the topics of the present
volume. Refer to topical titles)

b-nnon, 230

Letts, 60

Libby, F. J., 134, 135

.••rala," Pro-Bolshevist, 14, 19, 120, i:tt. 1 in. n;i. is-j, 199,
214, 223-227, see also Middle-Classes and Intellectuals

Liberty, see Terrorism

Licbknecht, 54

INDEX 2r,l

Lloyd George, 211
London Daily News, 21, 22
Longuet, 169
Losovsky, 104, 177, 182
Lunacharsky, 137, 138
Luxemburg, 54

MacDonald, 186, 190

Mahon, 230

Martens, "Ambassador," 7

Martoff, 55, 87

Marx, 32, 148, 206

Massacres, see Terrorism

McLean, 161

Menshevists, see Social Democratic Labor Party of Russia

Men-helm, 53, 183, 192

Metal Workers Union, Russian, 75, 76

Middle Glass, Bolshevist Success among, 153, 154

Militarism, see War

Militarization of Labor, 75, 79-81, 95

Minor, O. 6., 201, 202

"Moderates," Bolshevists, see "Conservatives," Bolshevist

Morrison, 230

Nansen, 222

Nationalization of Import and Export Trade, 248

Nationalization of Industry, 116-120, 248

New York World, 16

Non-partisans, 37, 48

Norwegian Socialists, 108

O'Connell, 230
Ossinsky, 42, 97, 112, 113
Oudegeest, 194
Overtime, 76, 83, 86

262 INDEX

Paris Commune, 29

Pacifism, 52

Paper and Printed Matter, Bolshevist Monopoly of, 26

Peasants, see Agriculturiste

Perham, 230

Pestana, 179, 182

Press, Freedom of, see Free Speech

Printers' Union, Russian, 93, 99-103

Prisons, 68-70

Propaganda, Bolshevist, 4, 9, 18, 20-27, 136-139, 173, see also

Trade Agitation

Political Education Conference, 39, 163
Purcell, 63

Radek, 159, 160

Railway Workers, 50, 94, 95, 98

Rakovsky, 66, 67

Rappaport, 192

Recht, Charts

Recognition of the Soviets, Agitation for, 1, 2, 203, 265, 225,

see also Trade Agitation
Reconstrucfton, see Reforms
Red Labor Union International (or Intornation.il Council of

Trade and Industrial Unions), 160-187, 194-197
Red Terror, see Terrorism
Reed, John, 161

-ins, Social, 134-141
Revolt of Trade Unions, 94-1 as
Revolutionary Agitation, see World Revolt
Rois, 193

Rote Fahne, Die, 158
Kudzutuk, 129
Knhlo, Otto, 188

Russian People, Voice of, 199-201
Russian Relief, 7, 8, 222

INDEX

Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, eee Social Democratic

Labor Party

Russian Socialist Revolutionary Party, see Socialist Revolution-
( ary Party

Russell, Bertrand, 18, 63, 107, 108
Rykov, 71, 149

Sabotage, 51, 52, 55, 58

Savinkov, 53

Schliapmkoff, 77, 97

Schools, see Education

Science, 133

Serbia, 2*1

Serrati, 45, 188

Shaw, Tom, 18, 63

Shop Stewards, 177-182

Slavery, see Compulsory Labor

Snowden, Philip, 21, 188

Snowden, Mrs., 18, 63

Social Democratic Labor party of Russia (Mensheviste), 35, 36,
52, 53-55, 56, 61-63, 64-67, 71, 137

Socialist (or Second) Internationale, 19, 31, 167, 168, 170, 174,
185-186, 192

Socialists on Sovietism (see Labor Delegations)

Social Revolutionary Party of Russia, 36, 62, 56, 137, 199-201

Socialist Review, 33

Soviet Elections, see Elections

Soviet Form of Government, 15, 33-36, 37, 42

.Soviet Russia, 84 -»

Spanish Socialists, 18, 45, 63; 179, 182, 193

State Capitalism, 16, 17

State Socialism, see State Capitalism, 36, 42
I Steklov, 59 '
I, Strikes, 76, 89
Syerdlov, 47

264 INDEX

Swedish Socialists, 18, 63, 186

Switzerland, 4

Syndicalists, 72, 97, 174, 177-183

Taxation in Kind, 14, 108-122

Tchitcherin, 206

Terrorism, 30, 31, 34, 43, 46, 49-71, 85, 96, 98, 106, 188, 189,

195, 235, 236, 249
Thomas, Albert, 170
Thomas, J. H., 194
Tomsky, 25, 177

Trade Agitation, 3-15, 203-227, 243, 245-253
Trade Treaties, see Trade Agitation
Trade Unions, 20, 25, 31, 33, 36, 37, 39, 63, 71, 74, 75, 83,

88-103, 169-187, 193
Transport Workers' Congress, 47
Troelstra, 186
Trotsky, 11, 12, 35, 36, 41, 50, 51, 60, 77, 79-82, 94, 95, 108,

143, 145, 148, 152, 165, 249
Tscheidze, 228, 229
Turks, 190, 191
Turkey, 223, 231, 238
Turner, Ben, 18, 63
Twenty-one Points, The (Communist Ultimatum to Socialist

Parties), 147, 155, 172, 192

Ukraine, 66, 67
Uriteky, 52, 54, 55

Vacirca, 188

Valentino, 230

Vanderveldc, 186

Versailles Treaty, 22, 207

Violence, see Terrorism

War, 45, 143, 155, 156, 237-239

INDEX 20.",

Watts, A. J., 135
Wells, H. G., 107, 207
Wels, Otto, 186
White Paper, British, 245-253
Williams, Robert, 63
Wilson, ex-President, 4, 10
Wilson, ex-Secretary, W. B., 7, 8, 148
Wrangel, 53, 148, 193

World Revolution, Movement for, 3, 8, 12, 142-168, 240, 244,
226,227

Yaroslav Prison, 68-70

Zemstvos, 133

Zinoviev, 31, 45, 89, 152, 159, 160, 166, 167, 194-197

Zorin, 90

Gompers, Samuel

59 Out of their own mouths

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