The following statement was made to me by Volsky, leader of the right
social revolutionaries, the largest opposition party:
"Intervention of any kind will prolong the régime of the Bolsheviki by
compelling us, like all honorable Russians, to drop opposition and
rally round the Soviet Government in defense of the revolution. With
regard to help to individual groups or governments fighting against
soviet Russia, we see no difference between such intervention and the
sending of troops. If the allies come to an agreement with the Soviet
Government, sooner or later the peasant masses will make their will
felt and they are alike against the bourgeoisie and the Bolsheviki.
"If by any chance Kolchak and Denikin were to win, they would have to
kill in tens of thousands where the Bolsheviki have had to kill in
hundreds and the result would be the complete ruin and collapse of
Russia into anarchy. Has not the Ukraine been enough to teach the
allies that occupation by non-Bolshevik troops merely turns into
Bolsheviki those of the population who were not Bolsheviki before? It
is clear to us that the Bolshiviki are really fighting against
bourgeois dictatorship, We are, therefore, prepared to help them in
every possible way.
"Grandmother Ekaterina Constantinovna Breshkovskaya has no sort of
authority, either from the assembly of members of the all Russian
constituent assembly or from the party of social revolutionaries. Her
utterances in America, if she is preaching intervention, represent her
personal opinions which are categorically repudiated by the party of
social revolutionaries, which has decisively expressed itself against
the permissibility of intervention, direct or indirect."
Volsky signed this latter statement: "V. Volsky, late president of the
assembly of members of the all Russian constituent assembly."
Martov, leader of the Menshiviki, stated: "The Menshiviki are against
every form of intervention, direct or indirect, because by providing
the incentive to militarization it is bound to emphasize the least
desirable qualities of the revolution. Further, the needs of the army
overwhelm all efforts at meeting the needs of social and economic
reconstruction. Agreement with the Soviet Government would lessen the
tension of defense and would unmuzzle the opposition, who, while the
Soviet Government is attacked, are prepared to help in its defense,
while reserving until peace their efforts to alter the Bolshevik
régime.
"The forces that would support intervention must be dominated by those
of extreme reaction because all but the reactionaries are prepared
temporarily to sink their differences with the Bolsheviki in order to
defend the revolution as a whole."
Martov finally expressed himself as convinced that, given peace, life
itself and the needs of the country will bring about the changes he
desires.