The Soviet form of government is firmly established. Perhaps the most
striking fact in Russia today is the general support which is given
the government by the people in spite of their starvation. Indeed, the
people lay the blame for their distress wholly on the blockade and on
the governments which maintain it. The Soviet form of government seems
to have become to the Russian people the symbol of their revolution.
Unquestionably it is a form of government which lends itself to gross
abuse and tyranny but it meets the demand of the moment in Russia and
it has acquired so great a hold on the imagination of the common
people that the women are ready to starve and the young men to die for
it.
The position of the communist party (formerly Bolsheviki) is also very
strong. Blockade and intervention have caused the chief opposition
parties, the right social revolutionaries and the menshiviki, to give
temporary support to the communists. These opposition parties have
both made formal statements against the blockade, intervention, and
the support of antisoviet governments by the allied and associated
governments. Their leaders, Volsky and Martov, are most vigorous in
their demands for the immediate raising of the blockade and peace.
(Appendix, p. 60.)
Indeed, the only ponderable opposition to the communists to-day comes
from more radical parties--the left social revolutionaries and the
anarchists. These parties, in published statements, call the
communists, and particularly Lenin and Tchitcherin, "the paid
bourgeois gendarmes of the Entente." They attack the communists
because the communists have encouraged scientists, engineers, and
industrial experts of the bourgeois class to take important posts
under the Soviet Government at high pay. They rage against the
employment of bourgeois officers in the army and against the efforts
of the communists to obtain peace. They demand the immediate massacre
of all the bourgeoisie and an immediate declaration of war on all
nonrevolutionary governments. They argue that the Entente Governments
should be forced to intervene more deeply in Russia, asserting that
such action would surely provoke the proletariat of all European
countries to immediate revolution.
Within the communist party itself there is a distinct division of
opinion in regard to foreign policy, but this disagreement has not
developed personal hostility or open breach in the ranks of the party.
Trotski, the generals, and many theorists believe the red army should
go forward everywhere until more vigorous intervention by the Entente
is provoked, which they, too, count upon to bring revolution in France
and England. Their attitude is not a little colored by pride in the
spirited young army. (Appendix, p. 62.) Lenin, Tchitcherin, and the
bulk of the communist party, on the other hand, insist that the
essential problem at present is to save the proletariat of Russia, in
particular, and the proletariat of Europe, in general, from
starvation, and assert that it will benefit the revolution but little
to conquer all Europe if the Government of the United States replies
by starving all Europe. They advocate, therefore, the conciliation of
the United States even at the cost of compromising with many of the
principles they hold most dear. And Lenin's prestige in Russia at
present is so overwhelming that the Trotski group is forced
reluctantly to follow him. (Appendix, p. 63.)
Lenin, indeed, as a practical matter, stands well to the right in the
existing political life of Russia. He recognizes the undesirability,
from the Socialist viewpoint, of the compromises he feels compelled to
make; but he is ready to make the compromises. Among the more notable
concessions he has already made are: The abandonment of his plan to
nationalize the land and the adoption of the policy of dividing it
among the peasants, the establishment of savings banks paying 3 per
cent interest, the decision to pay all foreign debts, and the decision
to give concessions if that shall prove to be necessary to obtain
credit abroad. (Appendix, p. 64.)
In a word, Lenin feels compelled to retreat from his theoretical
position all along the line. He is ready to meet the western
Governments half way.