BOLSHEVISM/
PAUL MILIUKOV LLD.
BOLSHEVISM
AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
BOLSHEVISM : AN
INTERNATIONAL
DANGER ITS DOCTRINE
AND ITS PRACTICE THROUGH
WAR AND REVOLUTION
PAUL MILIUKOV, LL.D.
Author of " Russia and its Crisis "
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
597-599 FIFTH AVENUE
1920
First published in 1920
(All rights reserved)
PREFACE
SOME time ago people who tried to prove to European
public opinion that Russian Bolshevism was an im-
minent danger to the whole of the world's civiliza-
tion invariably met with the ready objection, that
Bolshevism belonged entirely and exclusively to Russia,
and that it was no concern of any other country.
Since then reflection and experience have taught
people better, and we now often find that the word
" Bolshevism " is applied to purely European pheno-
mena which have little to do with Russian Bolshevism.
The truth is that Bolshevism has two aspects. One
is international ; the other is genuinely Russian.
The international aspect of Bolshevism is due to its
origin in a very advanced European theory. Its
purely Russian aspect is chiefly concerned with its
practice, which is deeply rooted in Russian reality
and, far from breaking with the " ancient regime,"
reasserts Russia's past in the present. As geological
upheavals bring the lower strata of the earth to the
surface as evidence of the early ages of our planet,
so Russian Bolshevism, by discarding the thin upper
social layer, has laid bare the uncultured and un-
organized substratum of Russian historical life. That
is why Mr. Lenin may be considered both as a sup-
porter of the Revolutionary Syndicalism of Georges
6 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
Sorel, so far as his international face is concerned, and
as an inheritor of the old tradition of the Russian
Pugachevs, Razins, and Bolotnikovs the great social
rebels of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
My object in this book is to study the international
aspect of Bolshevism. A few months ago I planned
a larger book, in which this subject was to enter as
a first chapter, to be closely followed by the study of
Russian Bolshevism from within, i.e. in its national
aspect. Three more chapters were to be devoted
to the study of anti-Bolshevist Russia, of the Russian
borderlands, and of the relations between dismembered
Russia and her former Allies. But now I see that
it will take much more time and space than I expected
to cover the whole ground. The first chapter has
grown into a small book, while I was writing it, and
I decided to publish it separately. The international
aspect of Bolshevism has been, up to now, far less often
treated as a whole than its purely Russian internal
aspect. That is why this little work may fill a gap
in the literature on Bolshevism until the appearance
of a better and more elaborate exposition.
It also proved not so difficult and inconvenient as
it might seem to detach the international side of Bol-
shevism from the Russian. In the first place, so far
as its theory is concerned, Bolshevism is not Russian,
but European, and international. This may not be uni-
versally known, and the first part of the book is written
in order to trace Bolshevism to its European source.
Secondly, the Russian practice of Bolshevism did
not enrich the European theory with any valuable
positive data. Mr. Lenin's renowned " Decrees," as
applied to Russian reality, were nothing but " scraps
PREFACE 7
of paper," and the purely political triumph of Bol-
shevism in Russia is no proof that its social teachings
can be applied at all. The apparent progress of Bol-
shevism can be only explained by the extraordinary
favourable conditions created, first by war, and then
by the Revolution. But these conditions are common
to Russia with all European countries. That is why
in the second part of the book Russia is treated only
as a particularly favourable background for the inter-
national development of Bolshevism. I trace this
development through five consecutive stages. After
a few unsuccessful attempts to graft the new Bolshevist
start on the former (the " Second ") International
Social-Democratic organization, the initiators of revo-
lutionary communism try to find for it a new form,
corresponding to their new doctrine. This is the
" Third Internationale." After these first two stages
of ideological incubation extremely favoured, how-
ever, by war conditions and by German war tactics
the Russian Revolution is the third stage of the
Bolshevist progress, representing the first embodiment
of the theory. I have had to explain just how
and why an economically backward country has
become a Promised Land of Revolutionary Socialism.
I have found the explanation both in historical
and national conditions, and in the uncertain and
wavering attitude of Moderate Socialism, which is
not a Russian, but an international feature. The
next the fourth stage is that of the inverted action
of Russian Bolshevism on the European Internation-
alism. It first takes the form of an international
mission of the Russian Revolution to finish the war
by a " Democratic peace." This mission is accepted
8 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
by the Allied national Socialism on the condition of
a decisive move of the Russian armies for final victory.
At that stage the influence of the Russian Extremism
is entirely dependent on the success of the Russian
offensive of 1917. The offensive fails, and the Russian
Soviet's scheme for an International Conference at
Stockholm is simply shelved. The fifth stage is that
of the Russian military collapse accompanied by the
growing success of the Bolshevist propaganda in Ger-
many. The Bolshevist Soviet's rule reveals itself
on that occasion, not as an efficient experiment in
Socialism, but as it really is a huge and powerful
machine for the propaganda of the World Revolution.
From the height of his Kremlin seat of power Lenin
now convokes the Third Internationale, as a prelimin-
ary measure to the conquest of the world. National
Socialism replies by convoking the Congress at Berne
of the " Second " Internationale. But the minutes
of this Congress, with its uncertain psychology and
wavering logic, clearly witness to the causes of the
growing international danger of Bolshevist propaganda.
Part III of the book undertakes to show what really
has been done by Bolshevist propaganda to prepare
the so-much-hoped-for World Revolution. People who
are inclined to underrate the Bolshevist danger, or
those who obstinately pretend that no reliable informa-
tion is available on the subject, will be startled by the
little selection of the first-hand evidence which even
at present is sufficiently abundant not only to prove
the general trend of the Bolshevist Internationalist
activity, but also to draw a more or less detailed picture
of the methods and results of this activity. Attempts
to revolutionize Germany and Austro-Hungary, and
PREFACE 9
thus to take possession of " the first link in the chain "
of the World Revolution, are here related in the first
place. Then follows a review of the Bolshevist pro-
paganda in neutral countries their first stepping-stone
to the World's Revolution. A short account of the
Bolshevist connections and deeds in the Allied countries,
in the colonies, and all the world over, completes the
picture. Detached features and facts of that general
outline are, of course, much better known at the places
to which they refer. This or that particular detail
may prove incorrect or untrue. New disclosures may
throw much better light on the secret springs behind
events. But all this can hardly alter the chief features
of the picture drawn, or change its general meaning.
At any rate, the first attempt to collect and co-ordinate
the matter more or less known to every newspaper
reader, and thus to corroborate the concordant
evidence by showing its place in the whole, seemed
to me worth trying, owing to the great importance of
the subject and to the political necessity of drawing
practical inferences in good time to prevent the worst.
My personal views of Bolshevism are sufficiently
clear, and need not be emphasized any further. But
I trust that the impartial reader will find my exposition
of facts unbiassed and unprejudiced by any personal
view. The partisans of Bolshevism will hardly find
the work done by their heroes minimized by me. But
I also hope that their enemies will not find that I have
purposely exaggerated the Bolshevist danger by paying
too much attention to it. The best way to win the
game is not to represent one's adversary as being too
stupid, or too dishonest and selfish, or too weak and
careless. I prefer to see my enemy at his best in order
10 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
the better to understand and the better to defeat
him.
One of the features of this book, which may provoke
criticism, is my exposure of the part unconsciously
or pusillanimously played in the temporary success
of Bolshevism by their party opponents, the Moderate
Socialists. I bear no grudge against such of them who
really preserved their faith which they have in common
with the Bolshevists. But such as understand that
false inferences drawn by Bolshevism are to a great ex-
tent due, not to the lack of logic, but to false premisses,
which are to be reconsidered and I think that they
are the great majority well, such people show the
lack of moral courage and of mental sincerity, when,
in their discussions with the Bolsheviks, they admit
the obviously inadmissible starting-points, and shift the
argument to the ground where they are easily beaten
by the Bolshevists' outward consistency and unswerving
logic. As long as this confusion of thought remains
unchanged, their influence on the popular mind will
be lost, and they will be doomed to fight demagogy
with another demagogy less convincing and less emo-
tional. While weakening themselves, they also weaken
their natural allies among the Democratic and Radical
parties, and they leave the decision with two political
extremes : aimless Revolution and baseless Reaction.
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE 5
PART I
THE INTERNATIONAL DOCTRINE OF BOLSHEVISM . 19-48
1. THE ORIGIN OF THE BOLSHEVIST DOCTRINE (1905-1914). . 19-33
Utopian and " scientific " elements in Marxism (19-20).
Lenin's negative attitude towards immediate Socialist Revolu-
tion in 1905 (20-21). The Revolution of 1905 gives a push
to Socialistic Utopianism (21-22). A new start in France, by
Georges Sorel (22). From " fatalism " of the " scientific "
Marxism to the proletarian " freedom " (23). " Class "
versus " party " (24). " Proletarian violence " versus Social
Peace (25). " International Revolution " versus Nation and
State (26-27). " Economic Organization " versus " Politi-
cal Society " (27-28). New step forward by Lenin (28).
The political role of the " conscious minority " (29-30). Syn-
thesis of Syndicalism and Bolshevism : " government by
minority" (30) ; Direct action versus Democracy (31). The
weakness of Moderate Socialism and patched-up resolutions
of 1904-1912 (31-33)-
2. THE PROMOTERS OF THE INTERNATIONALIST DOCTRINE IN
THE WORLD WAR 33-48
The chance of National and International currents in Social-
ism (33-34). Inconsistency of doctrine with tactics of
" National Defence " (34-35). Three fallacies shared by
National Socialists. " War unavoidable under Capitalism "
(35). " Every Capitalist State Imperialistic " (36). The
wrong use of " self-determination " principle (37). Inter-
nationalists' scheme for a new offensive (the " Third Inter-
national ") (38-39). Germany's use of Internationalist
slogans (39-41). Internationalists gain by being employed
as " agents " of trouble (41-42). The role of German Social
Democracy (42-43). The " secret diplomatists " of Inter-
nationalism (43). Parvus a typical " agent " (43-45).
M. Parvus' ring (45-48).
11
12 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
PART II
PAGE
THE PROGRESS OF BOLSHEVISM THROUGH WAR
AND REVOLUTION (1914-1919) 49-127
The five stages of progress (49-51).
1. THE ATTEMPTS TO USE THE " SECOND INTERNATIONAL "
(1914-1915) 51-53
Attempts to convoke International Socialists to discuss
peace conditions (51-52). A new start in Berne for the
International " proletarian class war " (52). The passage to
the second stage (53).
2. DOCTRINE OF THE " THIRD INTERNATIONAL " (ZIMMER-
WALD-KlENTHAL) AND ITS SPREAD IN igi6 . . . 53~63
The composition of the Zimmerwald Congress (53-54). The
Extremist doctrine formulated (55-56). Formal call to
mutiny waived (56-57). More outspoken language used
by the International Socialist Commission in Berne,
and by the Kienthal Conference (57). The success of
Revolutionary Socialism in Germany (58-59). Zimmerwald-
ism in France (59-62). Zimmerwaldism in Great Britain
under the cover of " Pacifism " (62-63).
3. THE FIRST VICTORY OF INTERNATIONAL EXTREMISM IN
THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION (1917) 63-83
The two Revolutions : the National and the Defeatist in
March and November, 1917 (63). Why Russia proved
particularly receptive to the Extremist propaganda (63-64).
Lenin's view on Russia's unpreparedness for Socialism (65).
Preparedness for practical Anarchism and " Class War " ;
lack of conscious Nationalism (65-66). War weariness and
desertion (66). The war popular in its initial stage
(66-67). Zimmerwaldism in Russia (67-68). The Tsar's
blindness and the Duma's failure to enforce moderate
concessions (68). Revolution unavoidable and uncon-
trollable (68-69). The Duma's part in maintaining the
" sacred national unity " for the first two months of Revolu-
tion (69-70). The part of the " Soviet " and the Extremist
anti-war propaganda (70-72). M. Goldenberg s crude
alternative : Kail the Army (and the War), or Kill the (Ex-
tremist) Revolution ? (72-73). The Soviet's new start in
foreign politics (73-74). Ambiguous attitude of Allied
Socialists (74-75). Allied Socialist Ministers' failure to
treat with the Soviet (75-76). Their unconscious help to
Extremist tendencies (76-77). Albert Thomas's effort to
bring about the " coalition " Government under Kerensky's
CONTENTS 18
PAGE
guidance, conditional upon the army's new offensive (77-78).
My personal attitude (78-79). A. Henderson's share in the
Russian Revolution's failure (79). Russia ripe for Bol-
shevism (79-80). Moderate Socialists' loss of popularity
(80-82). Lenin's demagogy (82-83). Pure Zimmerwaldism
wins the game (83).
4. INFLUENCE OF THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION ON EUROPEAN
INTERNATIONALISM, 1917 83-99
The failure of the Russian offensive makes the attitude of
the Allied Moderate Socialists untenable (83-84). The
chances of the " Democratic Peace " tested by the vicissitudes
of the scheme for convoking the International Socialist Con-
gress at Stockholm (84-85). German and neutral Socialists'
part in the scheme (85-86). The Soviet's attempt under the
Extremists' guidance to intercept the initiative (87-89).
The " Third International " Conference, or the General
Conference in Stockholm ? (89-90). The Allied Socialists'
conditional consent (90-91). The Russian delegation to
Stockholm in London and Paris (91-92). The Russian
retreat of July, its explanation by General Denikin (92-93).
The change of attitude toward the Russian delegation
(93-94). The Stockholm Conference shelved (94-96). The
recrudescence of " militarism " in Berlin and Paris (96-99).
5. THE BOLSHEVIST COLLAPSE IN WAR AND TRIUMPH IN PROPA-
GANDA, 1917-1919 99-127
No illusions as to the immediate results (99-100). " Direct
action " aim by itself (100-101). Tactics of reckless bluff
(101). Negotiations a means of propaganda (101-102).
Trotsky's astonishment at German realistic " impudence "
(103). Confident appeal to the " peoples " (103-104). Cre-
dulity as to the success of the coming Revolution in Germany
(105-106). " Neither peace nor war " tactics (106). Bol-
shevist pamphlets in German trenches (107-108). The Soviet
rule as a means of propaganda of a general conflagration
(108-109). Germany's apparent success (109-110). The pro-
gress of Bolshevist propaganda in Germany (110-112). The
German collapse (112). " The universal Revolution in sight ' '
(112-113). "Soviets" or "The League of Nations":
Lenin or Wilson ? (113-114). The " Holy Alliance," or
.... the Prinkipo proposal ? (114-115). Prinkipo to be
used for propaganda (115-116). Lenin's " sound strategy "
to postpone operations until the moral disintegration of the
enemy (117). Lenin's invitation to the First Congress
of the Thinl International (118-119). A review of the Bol-
shevist parties in the world (119-120). Their programme
(120-121). The Congress of the Second International at
14 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
PAGE
Berne on February 3-8, 1919 (121). Hjalmar Branting's
resolution (121-123). Concessions to Bolshevism in other
drafts of Resolutions (123-124). The pro-Bolshevist opposi-
tion at the Congress (124-125). The vote pro and contra
Bran ting (125). The International danger of Bolshevism
increased by that vacillation (125-127).
PART III
BOLSHEVISM OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION
(1918 ) 128-294
The existence of an organized conspiracy for a World Revolu-
tion (128-131).
1. THE " FIRST LINK IN THE CHAIN " GERMANY AND CENTRAL
EUROPE 131-147
M. Joffe's propaganda in Berlin (131-134). M. Joffe's
legacy (134). Bolshevik's alliance with Liebknecht
against Scheidemann, as represented by Radek's mission
(134-138). Their part in the January rising (138-139). Pre-
paration for the Third Revolution (139-140). The Bol-
sheviks on the Rhine (140-141), and in other provinces
of Germany (141). The part played by Bolsheviks in
the March rising in Berlin (141-143). The Bolsheviks in
Munich (143-144). The part played by Russian prisoners
(145). The Bolsheviks' failure in Germany (146-147).
2. THE BOLSHEVIST SCHEME FOR FEEDING AND CONQUERING
GERMANY 147-159
The grain fund for the World Revolution (147-148). The Red
Army (148-149). The scheme for the Revolutionary spring
offensive (149-150). Preparations in East Prussia (150-151).
Germans help Bolsheviks in occupied provinces of Russia
(151-152). The tactics of the German Government (153-
155). Negotiations with the Ukraine (155). Bolshevist
propaganda in Poland (155-156). Bolsheviks and German
public opinion (156-158). The wavering policy of the Allies
and the part played by Kolchak and Denikin's offensive
in the failure of the Bolshevist spring military action (158-159).
3. THE BOLSHEVIKS IN HUNGARY AND IN GERMAN AUSTRIA . 160-177
A Revolution backed by national feeling (159-160). The
influence of the,Belgrade Armistice and of the Peace Confer-
ence Policy (160-162) Count Karolyi in touch with the
CONTENTS 15
PAGE
Bolsheviks (162-163). The false Red Cross Delegates
and the Hungarian prisoners of war (164-165). The Bol-
shevist bloodless victory in Budapest (165-166). Wireless
communications with Lenin (166-167). The Treaty between
Bela Kun and Lenin (168-169). Self-confidence enhanced
by General Smuts' mission (169). Hungarian Bolsheviks'
counter-proposals (169-170). A start for the World Revolu-
tion (170-171). The moment of despondency (171-172).
Bolshevism in the Austro-German Republic (172-173). Riot-
ing in Vienna (173-174). A temporary success in Slovakia
(175). Lenin's reliance on his methods (176). Forged
banknotes (177).
4. THE BOLSHEVIST PROPAGANDA IN NEUTRAL COUNTRIES . 178-189
The meeting of the Third International on March 2-5, 1919,
in Moscow (178-179). A Socialist mission to Russia (179-
180). The Moscow Conference an answer to it (180-181).
Bolshevist preparation for world propaganda (181-182).
Neutral countries the first stepping-stone (182-183).
The Russian Bolshevist mission in Switzerland (183-184).
Mr. Vorovsky's activity in Sweden (184-186). Bolsheviks
in Norway (186). In Denmark (187). In Holland (187-188).
The part played by Russian Red Cross institutions in Bol-
shevist propaganda (188-189).
5. BOLSHEVIST CONNECTIONS AND AIMS IN THE ALLIED
COUNTRIES 189-243
The Russian aim of the Bolshevist propaganda : " Hands-
off Russia " (189-191). The German aim : mitigating the
Peace Treaty conditions (191-192). A larger circle of propa-
ganda (192-193). Two measures of judgment (193-194).
The narrower circle of properly Bolshevist organized action
(194). The Revolutionary Great Britain (194-195). Bol-
shevist pamphlets and manifestoes reach England (195-197).
British Socialist organizations endorse " Communism "
(197-200). The self-confident stage of the movement (200-
202). " Direct (industrial) Action " versus " Parliamentary
(political) Action " (202-204). Mr. A. Henderson's com-
promise (204-206). The more consistent attitude of the pro-
Bolsheviks (206). Bolshevist influences in the British
industrial unrest (206-207). The Glasgow agitators (207-208).
Programmes of the Clyde Workers' Committee and the Sparta-
cist Union compared (208-212). Appeals to violence (212-
213). The Parliamentary Committee's opposition to Ex-
tremism (213-214). Labour leaders' wavering attitude (214-
215). The " Triple Alliance " at work (215-216). The
Southport resolutions (216-219). The Trade Unions' Con-
gress at Glasgow (219-221). Vorvi&rts on the results of the
16 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
PAGE
British Extremist movement (221-222). Bolshevism in
France (222). The elements of difference from Eng-
land (222-223). The elements of similarity (223-224).
Albert Thomas and Bolshevism (224-225). France and
Internationalism (226-227). The Lucerne Congress (227-
229). Extremism victorious (229). The International
strike of July 21 (229-231). The failure explained by
Jouhaux (231-233). The Syndicalist Congress at Lyon
(233-235). Extremist elements in the Syndicalist resolu-
tion (235-237). Bolshevism in Italy checked by National-
ism (237-238). Attempts at strikes defeated (238-240). The
November General Elections in France, Belgium, and Italy
(240-243).
6. THE BOLSHEVIST PROPAGANDA OUTSIDE EUROPE. . . 243-294
The Bolshevist propaganda in Non-European languages
(243-244). The Bolshevist propaganda in Ireland (244-245).
Connections with Germany and with the British Extremists
(245-247). The " Soviets " for Ireland (247). Govern-
ment's action (247-248). The Extremist propaganda in
India (248-249). German connections (249). Bolshe-
vist agents in India (250). A correspondence between
Petrograd and Delhi (250-251). Road to India kept open
(252). Who is "professor" Baranatulla ? (253). Nego-
tiations with Afghanistan (253-255). Preparations for
the last refuge of Bolshevism in China or in Turkestan
(255-258). Extremist influences in the Egyptian unrest
(259-260). The Bolsheviks in South Africa (260-261).
In Australia (261-262). Bolshevist " literature " for
America (263). Bolshevist " aliens " in Canada (263-
265). Resolutions of the Calgary Conference (265-266).
Attempts at general strikes in Winnipeg, Toronto,
etc. (266-268). Opposition of soldiers and citizens (268).
Strong action by the Government (268-269). Bol-
shevism in the United States (269). Pro-German and
Pacifist propaganda before the war (269-270). Revolu-
tionary Socialism victorious at the St. Louis Convention
(270-271). The part of aliens (271-272). Trotsky's per-
sonal influence (272-273). American " commissaries "
sail for Russia (273). Their part in Bolshevist adminis-
tration (273-275). Raymond Robins' Bolshevist secretary
(275-276). Robins favours the " World Revolution " : his
excuse (276). Ambassador Francis, Colonel Thompson,
Captain Sadoul influenced by Robins (277-278). President
Wilson's message to the Bolshevist Congress and the " slap
in the face " (278). Bolshevist agitators sail for America:
Gumberg, Reinstein, John Reed, Albert Rhys Williams (279-
281). The success of the Bolshevist propaganda (281-282).
Co-operation with Anarchists : the bomb plots (282-283).
CONTENTS 17
Connections with I.W.W. (283). " I.W.W.'s " pro-
gramme of Revolution (283-285). Revolutionary elements
in the Labour movement (285). America's peculiarity
(286). Failure of the Industrial Conference makes
trade-unionism join the National Strike movement (286
287). The miners' strike as differentiated from the steel
strike (287-288). The Government's firm stand (288-289).
Raid on Extremist organizations and disclosures on the
" Union of Russian Workers " (289-290). The Russian
manifesto planning a Bolshevist Revolution (290-291).
Measures against the aliens (291). Deadlock in negotia-
tions with Labour (292). National Socialism, trade-
unionism (293). Farmers as anti-Bolshevist agents (293-
294)-
CONCLUSION.
Lenin's prophesies (295). Will the Russian Revolu-
tion fail ? (295-296). Will the " World Revolution "
succeed ? (296). International danger of Bolshevism
diminishing ; its catchwords still alive (296-297). " Non-
intervention " movement consistently Bolshevistic (297-298).
EPILOGUE.
A new wave of Bolshevism in Europe as a result of changed
policy toward Russia (299-300). The Third International
meets in Amsterdam (300-301). The Strassburg Con-
ference's attempt at a reconstruction on a larger basis
(302). Last symptoms (303).
PART I
i. THE ORIGIN OF THE BOLSHEVIST DOCTRINE
(1905-1914).
IT is a moot question whether Bolshevism and its
European counterpart, " Revolutionary Syndicalism,"
can be called Socialism at all. Mr. Lenin, in his very
first speech after returning to Revolutionary Russia
through Germany in the famous " sealed railway
carriage " (April 1917), exhorted his followers to throw
away Socialism as " dirty linen," and to unfold the
banner of " Communism."
It comes practically to the same thing when Georges
Sorel classifies his " Revolutionary " Syndicalism, not
as a breach with Marxian Socialism, but rather as a
return to the true, the initial reading of Karl :Marx's
doctrine. The distinction between " Revolutionary "
and " Reformist " Socialism exists in Marxism itself,
and it develops into a patent contradiction in its history.
While the Marxism of 1848 is predominantly Revolu-
tionary and Utopian, its application to the Parlia-
mentary life of German Social Democracy is essentially
reformist and scientific. Marx's followers had to choose
between the Utopian " Communist Manifesto " of 1847
19
20 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
and the Reformist " Erfurt Programme " of 1891,
between Karl Marx and Ferdinand Lassalle. 1
The majority of the party at the Hanover Congress
of 1899 chose the reformist reading, and thus the largest
Socialist party of the world, under a constitutional
regime, although a very imperfect one, took the line
of peaceful Parliamentary work for social reform,
while relegating " social revolution " to some
obscure future, as nothing but its final goal, there-
by renouncing the Revolutionary tactics of a direct
" class war."
Russian Social Democracy, confined under Tsarism
to a few conspirative circles of intellectuals and some
intelligent workmen, and led by political refugees
from abroad, could not possibly go that way. Party
leaders had no choice between Parliamentary work
there being no Parliament under the Autocracy and
social revolution, which they thought Russia was not
ripe for. Unwillingly they had to accept the especi-
ally Russian watchword of " political revolution," as a
preliminary and unavoidable condition to any further
social struggle. Lenin himself, at the time of the first
Russian Revolution in 1905, had written the following
lines in a leaflet entitled Two Tactics : " The low
degree of economic development in Russia, as well as
the low degree of the conscious class organization of
the workman, i.e. both objective and subjective agents,
do not permit in any way of an immediate and complete
liberation of the working class. One must be quite
1 The practical proposals of the " Erfurt Programme,"
which are not revolutionary but reformist, were first formulated
in the " Chemnitz/' " Eisenach," and " Gotha " programmes
in 1866, 1869, and 1875, chiefly under the influence of the
followers of Ferdinand Lassalle.
THE INTERNATIONAL DOCTRINE 21
ignorant in order not to see that the democratic over-
throw which is being achieved under our eyes presents
a bourgeois character. One must possess a most
naive optimism in order to forget just how little the
working masses are informed as to the aims and methods
of Socialism. Therefore, so long as the working class
lacks a conscious organization, so long as it does not
possess the necessary education to carry on the class
struggle against the bourgeoisie, there can be no question
about a socialist revolution."
In full contradiction to this remarkable statement,
now so completely forgotten, that very Revolution of
1905 gave a strong push to Socialistic Utopianism.
The " dictatorship of the proletariat," organized into
" Soviets," had already been tried in the autumn of
1905 by the same leaders, Parvus and Trotsky, who
repeated the experiment, under better conditions,
in 1917. They were responsible for the failure of the
first Revolution, which collapsed as soon as " class
war " and " social revolution " were substituted for
political and bourgeois revolution, the only possibly
types according even to the view of Lenin. That
the autocracy has not surrendered since 1905, and that
a kind of sham constitutionalism existed between 1905
and 1917, thus paving the way for the second Revolu-
tion, we owe to the Bolsheviks of 1905. They bore
that name even then. It means " those in the majority,"
because at the Congress of the " Russian Democratic
Social Party," held in London in 1903, this group had
outvoted the others on a question of tactics and in-
ternal organization. Their ultimate aim then was the
same as it is now. Economically backward Russia,
brought to a state of effervescence by an unsuccessful
22 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
war of 1904, was to be used as fuel for a universal
conflagration in countries better prepared to experi-
ment in Socialism.
It is particularly noticeable after 1905 that Revolu-
tionary and Utopian tendencies revived also in Inter-
national Socialism. And it is neither half-autocratic
Russia, nor the country of Junkerdom Germany
but the accomplished democracy of France, which
serves as a basis for a new and bolder start. The
spirit of the new movement is best characterized by
the titles of the two leading productions of its chief
spokesman, Georges Sorel : Reflections on Violence '
(first published in Mouvement Socialiste at the beginning
of 1906), and The Illusions of Progress. Despair of
Democracy, despair of Science : such are the pessi-
mistic backgrounds upon which a new generation in
France was weaving the tangled web of their political
super-optimism. No positivism of the older genera-
tion of Taine and Renan. No belief in rationalism
and intellectualism. Les Mefaits des Intellectuels is
the title of the book of Sorel's colleague, Eduard Berth.
Oh, the " little " science la petite science which " feigns
to attain the truth by attaining the lucidity of exposi-
tion " and shirks the " obscurities." Let us go back
to the darkness of the subconscious, the psychological
source of every inspiration ; back to the integral phil-
osophy of Bergson, the new maitre (who disdainfully
disclaims the honour of having served as a teacher of
Syndicalism) ; back to the " myth " of the general
strike. One is tempted to say : " Back to the famous
formula : Credo, quia absurdum."
The practical aim and result of this protest against
1 London : George Allen and Unwin, Ltd.
THE INTERNATIONAL DOCTRINE 23
" rationalism," in the name of the " integral intuition,"
is to shift the ground from theory to practice, from
scientific law to conscious volition. " Syndicalism,"
says Eduard Berth (Mouvement Socialiste, 1907),
" transfers the idea of catastrophe from the pole of
fatalism to the opposite pole of the workmen's freedom.
Its principal object is to rouse the proletariat from
passiveness to activity." " Direct action " is thus
substituted for a slow development of a Socialist over-
throw in the future. The " myth " of a general strike
is the immediate aim of such direct action, and it is
quite unnecessary nay, even dangerous to go beyond
that aim and " to argue learnedly about the future."
" We are not obliged to indulge in lofty reflections
about philosophy, history, or enonomics," Sorel says.
" A general strike is indeed the myth in which Socialism
is wholly comprised, i.e. a body of images capable of
invoking instinctively all the sentiments which corre-
spond to the different manifestations of the Socialist
war against modern society. Strikes have engendered
in the proletariat the noblest, deepest, and most moving
sentiments that they possess. We thus obtain the
intuition of Socialism such as no language can give us
with perfect clearness, and we obtain it as a whole,
it is perceived instantaneously." From this point of
view an " inspiring struggle " for the struggle's sake
is an aim in itself, says Pouget (Le Parti du Travail) :
" Revolution is a work of all moments, of to-day as
well as of to-morrow : it is a continuous action, an every
day fight without truce or delay against the powers
of aggression and extortion." Such a direct action,
affirms Lagardelle (1906), demonstrating the conscious-
ness and the will of workmen, is " self-sufficient " ; it
24 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
demonstrates " the beginning and the end of Syndi-
calism."
This is where Revolutionary Syndicalism differen-
tiates itself from Socialism. " Socialism, like any
other party organism," M. Lagardelle goes on to say,
" touches the workman only as an elector, as a member
of the political society mixed together with citizens
belonging to other classes. On the contrary, the class
organization considers him exclusively in his quality
of working man as a member of the economic society,
i.e. at the moment of his dissociation from all other
classes and his opposition to them. Party and class
thus find themselves at opposite points of view, and their
tactics can only be antagonistic." Of the two notions,
" class " is a natural combination, while " party "
is artificial and intellectual, whether it be " Radical,"
" Socialist," or " Labour."
Here it is also that Revolutionary Syndicalism ab-
jures the basic idea of Democracy : the political equality
of all members of human society held under common
obligation to adapt their individual benefits to the
interests of the whole. " The working class," M.
Lagardelle writes, " makes use of political Democracy
only the better to destroy it." It does not recognize
any other law or obligation but the law of " class war."
Says M. Merrheim (Mouvement Socialiste, February
1910) : " Syndicalism does not confine itself to any
legal boundaries ; it would contradict its very substance
if it did. It breaks through every barrier, legal or illegal,
which would stem its tide. Moreover, it does this not
by fits and starts, not through mediation, but every
day." There is only one thing which may indeed
retard this rapid course toward the unknown, to the
THE INTERNATIONAL DOCTRINE 25
" mythic " Social Revolution. This is readiness on
the part of the " middle classes " to yield and to make
peace, combined with readiness to negotiate on the
part of the " working class aristocracy," their acknow-
ledged leaders. This is the only issue that Georges
Sorel is particularly afraid of, as it is likely to soften
the warlike spirit of the working class, and thus to post-
pone their victory in the struggle. " To repay with
black ingratitude the benevolence of those who would
_
protect the worker, to meet with insults the speeches
of those who advocate human fraternity, and to reply
by blows at the advocates of those who would propagate
social peace all this is assuredly not in conformity
with the rules of fashionable Socialism . . . but it
is a very practical method of showing the bourgeois
that they must mind their own business." The " Re-
formists " of Socialism and of Syndicalism were coming
to the conclusion that Marx's prediction about the
widening chasm between the " expropriators " and the
" expropriated " did not correspond to reality, which
consisted rather in the " blunting " of social contra-
dictions, thus verging towards social peace. But just
here Revolutionary Syndicalism steps in. " Marx
thought," Sorel goes on to say, " that the bourgeoisie
need not be excited by the use of force. Now we are in
the presence of a new and unforeseen fact : a bourgeoisie
which tries to attenuate the force it possesses. Shall
we believe that the Marxist conception is dead ? By
no means, because proletarian violence appears on the
stage at the very time when attempts are being made
to mitigate conflicts by social peace. The proletarian
violence hedges the employers within their role of pro-
ducers, and thus tries to restore the structure of classes
26 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
which were going to mix themselves in the democratic
bog. Violence gives back to the proletariat their
natural weapon of the class struggle, by means of
frightening the bourgeoisie and " profiting by the
bourgeois dastardness (la Idchete bourgeoise) in order to
impose on them the will of the proletariat."
Before we proceed further it is very important to
state that this point of view is substantially international.
In order to fight out their class war successfully, the
working class must rid itself not only from party obli-
gations and from solidarity with Democracy, but also
from all pledges to Nation and State. " For a Revolu-
tionary Syndicalist," says M. Brouilhet (Le Conflict des
Doctrines), " the idea of native country is not necessary.
It seems rather artificial, and does not correspond
to his interests. On the contrary, it associates groups
whose interests are conflicting, and it directs that
loosely connected aggregate, called patriotism, against
classes, whose interests are identical." The Enquete of
the Mouvement Socialiste into the idea of " fatherland "
in 1905 gave the result foreshadowing the attitude
taken by the internationalist currents of Socialism
ten years later. " The Workmen's Fatherland," M. T.
Bled says, " is their class ; their internationalism knows
no boundaries. Capitalism is for them the only enemy
to fight with." M. Bousquet says : " All wars are
the work of capitalists, and serve their interests."
" The only legitimate war," in M. Challaye's opinion,
" is the revolt of all proletarians against all capitalists."
And M. Lagardelle draws from his Enquete the conclu-
sion that " anti-militarist and anti-patriotic proga-
ganda has no other meaning but the destruction of
State. Its aim is to unsettle the army and to destroy
THE INTERNATIONAL DOCTRINE 27
the fatherland, because the institution of the army and
the idea of fatherland help to maintain the existence
of the State." This sentence, preceding by ten years
Zimmerwald and Kienthal, is quite seriously meant.
" The Syndicalists," affirms M. Lagardelle, " fight the
State for the same reason as they fight the employers :
both are joint forces which play into the hands of each
other. The destruction of State is a preliminary con-
dition to the truimph of the proletariat."
Revolutionary Syndicalism verges here into Anarchism.
And, indeed, genuine Anarchists have tried to represent
Syndicalists as " Anarchists who are unconscious of
themselves " (les Anarchistes qui s'ignorent). The whole
current is sometimes classified as " Anarcho-syndical-
ism." This is, however, quite wrong, and the Italian
Syndicalist, Labriola, was right in stating that the
Syndicalists' anti-Statehood is very different to the
Anarchists'. "The first strives to transfer the authority
of the State to the Syndicate it is thus for discipline
and organization ; while the Anarchist's anti-Statehood
abolishes all authority and repudiates every kind of
government." One might add that as the destruction
of the State was supposed to follow the advent of the
" mythical " general strike, it was relegated to the
obscure sphere of the future where no predictions were
to be attempted, and towards which an attitude of
mere class enthusiasm was to be fomented among the
masses. Every time that Lagardelle or Berth try to
elucidate this question, they fall back upon old Proud-
honian formulas and demonstrate that they are not
quite clear on the subject themselves. Says Lagardelle,
while protesting against Rousseau's political atomism
and equality fiction : " The existence of the State is
28 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
possible only as long as it bases itself on the fiction
of general ' citizenship ' and throws into the shade
the difference between working men, capitalists, landed
proprietors, etc. The State will disappear the very
day when it will no more represent general interest
as opposed to the interests of individuals. Should
political parties be composed exclusively of workmen,
capitalists, and agriculturists, and should they pursue
their material aims alone, without minding such general
tasks which political society is expected to solve, the
State machinery thus left to work in the vacuum will
run down by itself." Economic organization will
take the place of political society, and it will take the
form of a federation of autonomous syndicates and
professional unions.
An important change in this attitude toward the
State has since taken place. With the advent of Mr.
Lenin's millennium in Russia, the obscure transitional
stage from the general strike to the Social Revolution
was filled up with new " inspiring " images much
more in harmony with the " violence " theory. Of
course, Mr. Lenin, too, is sure of the final destruction
of the State institutions. But meantime he is quite
determined to use them for " the dictatorship of
the proletariat." A few weeks before his triumph
in Petrograd Mr. Lenin wrote his leaflet entitled :
Shall the Bolsheviks remain in Power ? Here he bluntly
states his attitude toward the State. Of course, he
says, we preached the destruction of the State as
long as it was in possession of our enemies. But why
should we do it after having ourselves taken the helm ?
The State is, indeed, an organized rule by a minority
. . . of privileged classes. Let us in our turn
THE INTERNATIONAL DOCTRINE 29
substitute our minority for theirs, and let us run the
machinery !
Here we come to the central point of the tactics
of Revolutionary Syndicalism. It was called the
tactics of " impatience." In order for this tactics to
be efficient it was not enough to rid the class from its
obligations towards party, nation, and State. It was
quite consistent and necessary to rid the " impatient "
ones within the class itself of the inertia of its passive
members. For direct action to become possible, a
minority within the minority was to be organized,
namely, the " conscious minority " in the midst of the
unconscious throng. Says Lagardelle : " Direct action
presupposes an active interference by a daring minority.
The mass, unwieldy and clumsy as it is, must not here
speak out its mind in order to start the struggle, as
happens in Democracy. Figures do not make law, and
numbers do not rule. A select group (une elite) is
formed, and owing to its qualities it allures the masses
and directs them on the path of combat." ' The
most conscious and brave lead . . . the mass, seeing
their action, instinctively follows." According to M.
Pouget (1907), the " conscious minority " is even
obliged to act, if it is unwilling to surrender its demands
and its strivings to the inertia of the mass, which revels
in the state of economic slavery. The minority, con-
scious of its aim, acts without heeding the amorphous
or the refractory mass ; as opposed to Democracy,
which through the machinery of universal suffrage
gives the lead to the unconscious and lazy, or rather to
their elected representatives, thus stifling the minority
which looks to the future. This method is fully
justified by the attitude of the masses themselves
30 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
Says Brouilhet (Les Conflicts) : " The masses expect
to be treated with violence, and not to be persuaded.
They always obediently follow when a single man
or a clique shows the way. Such is the law of collec-
tive psychology." One might suggest that it is not the
best way to educate the masses in political conscious-
ness, and that the " law of collective psychology " is
here used in the same manner as in Macchiavelli's
theory or in the practice of Autocracy. But Revolu-
tionary Syndicalism does not shirk the comparison.
Its political romanticism, its excursions in the sphere
of the subconscious, its repudiation of democratic
principles, its hero-worship in short, all its psychology
it shares in common with the opposite, the reactionary
pole of that generation of French writers and politicians.
The observation has been more than once made, that
over the head of Democracy Syndicalism stretches
forth its hand to Royalism. Sorel and Berth, indeed,
fight the same enemy as Charles Maurras, and very often
they use the same weapon.
Government by minority : This is the last word of
Syndicalism which it has in common with Bolshevism,
not only in theory, but also in practice. That is why
there exists such a strong undercurrent of sympathy
with the Bolshevist experiment in Russia amongst
all partisans of a direct social revolution the world
over. The negative side of the Revolutionary Syndi-
calist doctrine, its repudiation of Democracy, is also
common to Bolshevism. Both are against Parliamen-
tary action, against universal suffrage, against every-
thing which provides for equal rights to every " citizen,"
and thus, quite consistently, against guarantees of
political freedom for all. Under the regime of class
THE INTERNATIONAL DOCTRINE 31
war there can exist no rules of clemency and humanity,
not even such minima as are established by the Hague
Conventions. No mediation or arbitration is possible
between relentless foes the international proletariat,
and its " coward " enemy, the " capitalist." No com-
pact is admissible even with those " traitors " among
the Socialists who wish to join hands with " political
Democracy."
It must be pointed out that we do not meet with the
same state of mind on the side of Moderate Socialism.
Far from denouncing the extreme tendencies ol Revolu-
tionary Syndicalism, Moderate Syndicalists and Socia-
lists, the " Reformists," always tried to keep in contact
with the Extremists while preserving their own atti-
tude of " political action." As a result of this, at
every clash of opinion, the Revolutionary Syndicalists
always won in the debates, while their opponents with
difficulty carried patched-up conciliatory resolutions
in Socialist Congresses. The tactics of " direct action "
were approved by a great majority of 825 against 369
at the Syndicalist (C.G.T.). Congress at Bourges (1904).
At the next Congress at Amiens (1906), in compliance
with the demands of the Revolutionaries, such as
Merrheim, the Syndicalist tactics were proclaimed
independent from party discipline : Syndicalists were
left free to carry on a "a ceaseless fight against every
legality, every power, and all enemy forces," while the
party was kindly permitted to " strive for social reform."
The Socialist Congress at Limoges, two weeks after the
Amiens decision, under Jaures' influence, endorsed this
decision by admitting a " combined action " of both
Syndicalists and politicians, as equally necessary for
fully enfranchising the working class. It "invited the'
82 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
militants to do their best to dissipate all misunderstanding
between the C.G.T. (Confederation Generate du Travail)
and the Socialist party." In vain Guesde tried to prove
(next year, 1907, at the Congress of Nancy) how artificial
and contradictory this decision was. In vain he at-
tempted again and again to subordinate Syndicalist
tactics to those of the Socialist party. The " disease
of unity," to use Herve's expression, again had the upper
hand, and a new conciliatory resolution by Jaures was
carried .by an insignificant majority. The debate was
reopened at Toulouse in 1908, the question being
discussed thoroughly. But the resolution was the
same : all differences of opinion, important as they
were, were drowned in the benevolent utterances of
Jaures' concluding speech. The conciliation achieved
was merely that of phrase and style. Every practical
issue discussed at the Nismes Congress of 1910, at the
St.Quentin Congress of 1911, or at the Lyons Congress of
1912, repeatedly revealed the incompatibility of the two
tendencies within the party. The Syndicalist Congress
of 1912 reaffirmed the decision of Amiens and severely
criticized the " salon Socialism," while pointing out
the difference between true proletarians and intellectuals
belonging to the Bar and the engineering professions.
Moderate Socialism even then persisted in its con-
ciliatory attitude. " Why does this tyrannic minority
lead the Socialist party in the way it is not willing
to go ? " M. Fourniere asks in his book on The Socialist
Crisis (1908), and he gave a scathing answer. " All
of us, beginning with extreme Anarchists and ending
with genuine Parliamentary Socialists, drag along the
same chain, the chain of fear, lest we should appear
not so advanced as people who lead. Pale and dis-
THE INTERNATIONAL DOCTRINE 33
concerted, we all press forward in a state of revolu
tionary panic which would be ridiculous were not the
abyss so close. How shall we keep clear of it when
the tail carries the head with it ? " It is very interesting
to remark that this was in 1911 the opinion of M.
Albert Thomas, the prominent Reformist Syndicalist,
who has since played such an important part in organiz-
ing the munition work of his country. " The party has
not the courage," says he, " explicitly to oppose ideas
to ideas, tactics to tactics, doctrine to doctrine : it
sticks to ' unanimity formulas,' which, owing to their
fatally uncertain character, can have neither the value
nor the fecundity of a rule of action." We shall
see later on that Albert Thomas himself succumbed
to the same deficiency of Moderate Socialism.
2. THE PROMOTERS OF THE INTERNATIONALIST
DOCTRINE IN THE WORLD WAR.
The World War thus found the World Socialism in
a state of confusion and helplessness. It looked, though,
as if war in itself might bring about a stoppage on the
edge of the " abyss." Had not Sorel himself in his
book On Violence foreseen that a great war might
stiffen the energy of the bourgeoisie, and bring to power
men possessing the will to govern ? On the other hand,
was it not more likely that a war of exhaustion would
give a new chance for a revival of anti-militarist and
anti-patriotic propaganda, having the avowed aim of
dissolving the army, ruining the " fatherland," dis-
carding the State institutions, and thus helping enor-
mously towards some attempts on a larger scale at a
proletarian upheaval ?
34 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
Both hopes and fears have been realized. The
bracing influence of war, as well as its relaxing influence,
have proved equally efficient ; the former chiefly at
the beginning of the war, the latter, unhappily, as the
end approached, and particularly after the Armistice.
The issue between Reformist and Revolutionary
Socialism and Syndicalism has, accordingly, remained
unsettled. It is being waged to-day. But one con-
clusion at least might be drawn from the new experiences
of war-time : that of the incompatibility of national
and patriotic tendencies of Socialist thought and tactics
with international class war strivings. Whether the
lesson has been really learnt, I dare not say. I mean,
of course, learnt by the national side, because on the
international side the incompatibility of class war and
social revolution with " political Democracy " and
Moderate Socialism always has served as a starting-
point for further argument and action. And even
now, while the Reformist and National Socialists
were very slow to admit the criminality of the tactics
of the Internationalist Extremists, the latter have
not wavered a moment in proclaiming the Reformists
and Nationalists " traitors " to the proletarian cause.
The attitude on both sides has remained the same as
at pre-war Congresses : conciliatory and evasive on
the part of the Moderates, militant and self-reliant on
the part of the Extremists.
We need not dwell long upon the activity of the
Socialists who made " sacred union " with the bourgeois
parties. Everybody knows how important their con-
tribution was, both in material and moral prepara-
tion, for the allied victory. But it is equally im-
portant to point out that their doctrine was and
THE INTERNATIONAL DOCTRINE 35
remained inconsistent with their new tactics of " national
defence." Even now and perhaps now less than ever
they have not found the " courage " to oppose
" ideas to ideas, tactics to tactics, doctrine to doctrine."
Practically they stuck to many internationalist doctrines
on which, quite consistently, their opponents have based
their Extremist tactics. That is why, strong as their
national policy was, they have always been powerless
to reconcile it with their own international theory.
That is also why they were gradually losing their hold
over the masses, while their opponents were gaining
ground. One cannot lead if he does not know whither
he goes.
I must particularly mention three leading ideas
which have helped the Extremists to gain the lead
while they perplexed the Moderates and threw them off
the scent. The first is that wars are unavoidable in
a world of capitalist production, and they can only be
stopped by the international victory of Socialism. 1
The second idea is that all capitalist societies are
1 This point is often mentioned in the resolutions of patriotic
Socialists. E.g., that is how the Allied Socialists who met in
London in February 1916 expressed this idea in their reso-
lution. " The conference does not fail to recognize the exist-
ence of general and deep causes of the European conflict, which
is a monstrous product of antagonisms that rend asunder the
capitalist society, and of a policy of aggressive colonialism and
imperialism, which International Socialism has never ceased
to combat, and for which all Governments bear their portion
of responsibility." ..." Remaining true to the principles of
the International," they expressed their hope that soon the
proletarians of all countries, recognizing the identity of their
fundamental interests, will find themselves united against
capitalist militarism and imperialism. The manifesto of the
first National Congress of the French Socialist party during
the war (December 29, 1915) declares : " The Socialist party
knows that as long as the iniquity of capitalism lasts . . . the
dangers of war will co-exist with capitalism."
86 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
imperialistic, i.e. they strive for annexations. The third
is that the " self-determination " principle must be
given free play for all " oppressed " nationalities.
There is a good deal of truth in all these ideas, but not
one of them can be accepted without strong reserva-
tions. Capitalism is an international factor working
not for, but against military conflicts. If there is
truth in Mr. Norman Angell's assertions, that war in
modern times is useless and futile, because " conquest
(extension of territory) is not necessary for the welfare
of an expanding people in the modern world," it is
chiefly based on the growing international influence
of the world's industrialism. Not capitalism in itself,
but the exclusively " national " system of capitalist
production is dangerous, and if carried to extremes is
likely to become incompatible with the peace of the
world. But this is just the case in Germany, a newly
industrialized state which has preserved its mediaeval
militarist tradition. This is, of course, " imperialism "
in the offensive sense of the word. But it is too far-
fetched to draw the inference that every " capitalistic "
Government is bound to be " imperialistic." For an
Internationalist Socialist this inference is important,
because he directly draws from it a further conclusion :
that " peoples " which are supposed to be generally
Pacifist must " impose their will " upon the " Govern-
ments " which are generally accused of being " imperial-
istic " and " Never Endians " (jusqu'au-boutistes). To
be sure, under Democracy " Governments " represent
" peoples," and particularly so in the state of war ;
the German " people " as represented by its Social
Democracy has backed even its semi-autocratic Govern-
ment, which was doubtless " imperialistic." But an
THE INTERNATIONAL DOCTRINE 87
Internationalist Socialist of the Entente pretends not
to make war on the " German people " ; he only fights
the German " Government," while he also preserves
the right, which is also his duty, of fighting his own
Government for being "imperialistic." 1
The " self-determination " principle, if applied in its
larger and more general sense, may, of course, apparently
justify such a universal use of the term " imperialism."
Great Britain may well accept as its slogan Imperium
et libertas. And Russia may claim not to be " im-
perialistic " at all, but self-sufficient within her immense
space of one-sixth of the world's surface. Neither
one nor the other may ask for annexations. Never-
theless, both Great Britain and Russia possess some
" oppressed " nationalities " annexed " many centuries
ago. Such is the law of the growth in any large state.
Well, this is sufficient for them to be declared " im-
perialistic," and for " oppressed " nationalities, such
as Ireland, Egypt, India, the Baltic Provinces,
Ukraine, Georgia, to be taught to ask for " dis-
annexation."
This is a state of mind or, rather, the state of doc-
trine which was bound to bring patriotic and national
Socialists into trouble, while depriving them of any
firm basis in their quarrel with the Internationalists.
1 Cf. the declaration of the Parliamentary Socialist Group
in France on the occasion of the vote of war credits, on June 15,
1917 : " The Socialist party affirms that it considers it to be
its right and even its direct duty to seek, with the Socialists
of other countries, for the means of bringing the governed to
impose their will on the governors, to use Mr. Wilson's ex-
pression." Cf. the Daily News of January 29, 1918 : " The
people of Germany, like every other peaceful people, are the
victims of a system which places the control of mankind in
the hands of military castes."
88 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
The latter only were consistent with their common
doctrine, while opposing the idea of the solidarity of
classes to that of the solidarity of the nation, in war
time. The tactics of August 4, 1914, were certainly
inconsistent with this international doctrine of
Socialism. That is why Mr. Lenin's argument was
irrefutable, when, quite a year and a half before the
Bolshevist victory in Russia, he was speaking in his
customary style on the subject of the French and
other national Socialists : and he said, " Not only
capitalists are lying, but also people like Renaudel,
Sembat, Longuet (Longuet, too !), Scheidemann, Hynd-
man, Kautsky, Plekhanov and Co. Powerless diplo-
matists, they greatly injure the workmen's movement
by their defence of a fiction of unity, because thus
they impede the necessary union between the opposition
groups in all countries, in order to create the Third Inter-
nationale." *
The immediate aim of Bolshevism is here quite
clearly stated. The " Second International " was to
be proclaimed dissolved and non-existent, because of
the " treason " of national Socialists, who voted war
credits in all belligerent countries, thus forsaking the
ground of International Socialism. Instead of that
" Second International," the headquarters of which had
been transferred during the war from Brussels to
the Hague, a new " International " was to be created,
which should include only the revolutionary minorities
of International Socialism, excluding the Parliamentary
and Reformist majorities. " One must start a move-
1 N. Lenin. On the task of the opposition in France.
A letter to Comrade Sarafoff, published on February 10,
1916.
THE INTERNATIONAL DOCTRINE 39
ment," says the Bulletin of the Socialist International
Committee, created in Berne for this very purpose,
" which will have strength enough to eliminate at once
the leading social-patriotic organizations. ... A new
International can only be built on the basis of the
unfaltering principles of Revolutionary Socialism. The
allies of Governments, Ministers, domesticated Deputies,
advocates of Imperialism, agents of capitalist diplomacy,
grave-diggers of the Second International, cannot take
part in its creation."
It was here that Germany saw her chance. Among
the documents published by the " Committee on
Public Information " in Washington there is one which
is worth remembering : *
CIRCULAR.
February 13, 1915.
PRESS DIVISION OF THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS,
BERLIN,
TO
ALL AMBASSADORS, MINISTERS AND CONSULAR OFFICIALS
IN NEUTRAL COUNTRIES.
You are hereby advised that in the country to which you are
accredited special offices are to be established for the organi-
zation of propaganda in the countries of the Powers which are
in a state of war with Germany. The propaganda will be con-
nected with the stirring up of social unrest and strikes resulting
therefrom ; of revolutionary outbreaks ; of separatism among
the component parts of the States ; of civil war ; and will also
comprise agitation in favour of disarmament and the discon-
1 The German Bolshevik Conspiracy, War Information Series,
No. 20, October 1918. Signed by the Committee on Public
Information, George Creel, Chairman. The document quoted
is published in the Appendix I, under the heading " Documents
circulated by the anti-Bolsheviks in Russia." These documents
were sent from Petrograd to the Volunteer Army Staff in
Novocherkassk in December 1917.
40 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
tinuance of the war butchery. You are requested to co-operate
and to favour in every way the managers of the said offices.
These persons will present to you proper credentials.
(Signed) BARTHELM.
The whole set of these documents was declared to
be a forgery, for reasons which may be conclusive only
for some of them. But even if they were all forgeries,
the document quoted is only a good abstract of what
is generally known from other sources. Archibald's
papers presented to Parliament are known to every-
body. I personally heard of such an office as is men-
tioned in the document quoted from a Russian revolu-
tionary, who, when he had made his appearance in it
(in Stockholm), had been asked whether he came from
Mr. Lenin, and following upon his embarrassed answer,
it had been proposed as a test that he should blow up
a railway bridge or smuggle arms into Finland for a
remuneration of some thousand roubles. The Russian
Intelligence Office had quite a dossier of such informa-
tion regarding the Bolshevik leaders, and the Bolsheviks'
first concern during all the Bolshevist risings in Petro-
grad was to take possession of it and to destroy the docu-
ments. But a portion of this information was published
with the consent of the Provisional Government during
the first Bolshevik rising in July, and I know from an
absolutely reliable source that a part of the documents
published in the appendix of the American leaflet also
comes from the Government offices. So far as the
quoted statement of the aims of German propaganda
and its destruction policy in war-time is concerned,
we find full confirmation of it in another document
published in the French Yellow Book and dated
Berlin, March 19, 1913. Under Point II, " Aims and
THE INTERNATIONAL DOCTRINE 41
Duties of our National Policy," in case of a continental
war, the German report, received " from a trustworthy
source," says : " There need be no anxiety about the
fate of our colonies. The final result in Europe will
settle that. On the other hand, disturbances must be
stirred up in N. Africa and in Russia. This is a means
for absorbing forces of the enemy. It is, therefore,
vitally necessary that through well-chosen agents we
should get into contact with influential people in Egypt,
Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco [in 1917 the Report might
rather mention Turkey and the Caucasus] in order
to prepare the necessary measures in case of a European
War. ... A first attempt made a few years ago gave
us the necessary contact. Unfortunately, the rela-
tions established then have not been sufficiently
consolidated. Whether we like it or not, we shall
have to resort to preparations of this sort in order
rapidly to bring the campaign to an end. Risings
in time of war created by political agents require
careful preparation by material means. They must
break out simultaneously with the destruction of
means of communication. They should be directed
by those to be found amongst influential religious, or
political chiefs."
When the long-looked-for and " carefully-prepared "
war finally broke out in the following year, " political
chiefs " had been found amongst the Russian refugees
of the " Defeatist " type, while " well-chosen agents "
among the German Social Democracy had done what
they could in order to secure " influential people " in
neutral and, if possible, even in the enemy countries.
There is no doubt that " material means " have been
spent in profusion. It is unnecessary to say that not
42 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
every " head " or " chief " was to be bought by money ;
but when aims coincided and lines of action ran parallel,
why not use all means to come as soon as possible to
the universal outbreak which will destroy even such
" capitalists " as were shortsighted enough to help
their enemies with money ?
The point is that, owing to these tactics of supporting
extremists in enemy countries the demarcation line
between Parliamentary and Revolutionary Socialism,
which, as we have seen already, has not been very
distinctly drawn in doctrine, was bound to be finally
obliterated in a search for internal enemies in conflicting
States. French and British Moderate Socialists used
to send congratulations to German Spartacists, while
German " Majority " Socialists, through the inter-
mediacy of neutrals, encouraged French and British
Defeatists, Bourderons and Marrheims, Lansburys and
Morels. 1
Of course, it is chiefly German Social Democracy
which is especially responsible for fanning into flame
the extreme internationalist doctrine, for giving it a
new body and setting astir its spirit. German Social
Democracy was also rent in twain by two opposite cur-
rents. One was ready to support the State in every war,
on the principle, " My country, right or wrong." The
other ready to oppose the State also in every war, on
the principle of the " class war " against all " capitalist "
Governments. There were between the two extremes
the same intermediate shades of opinion : one ready
1 George Lansbury wrote in the then Daily Herald : " To
make our protest effective the working men on whom transport
and communication depends ought to oppose its use ; they
must strike against war ! " I find this quotation in Larkin's
book on National Socialism.
THE INTERNATIONAL DOCTRINE 43
to support the State in a defensive war, the other ready
to fight it in an aggressive war. In order to decide
whether the war was aggressive or defensive intermin-
able discussions were also carried on regarding the
responsibility for the origin of the war and about war
aims, " Imperialistic " or otherwise (Schuldfrage and
Kriegsziele). But so far as propaganda in enemy
countries was concerned, every difference of opinion
disappeared. Noske, together with Liebknecht, was
carrying on propaganda amongst the workmen in
Brussels, while Bernstein, according to his own avowal,
was helping Scheidemann, Sudekum, and Richard
Fisher " to create sentiments favourable to Germany
amongst the Socialists of neutral countries." These
exertions, supported by " material means," proved very
successful. Quite a number of neutral Socialists have
made themselves commis-voyageurs or rather " secret
diplomatists " of extreme Internationalism in their
dealings with public opinion within the Entente Powers.
Such were, e.g., the Swiss Socialists, Greulich, Flatten,
Robert Grimm, the Italian Morgari, the Dane Borgbjerg,
the Bulgar- Rumanian Rakovsky, and, in a less offensive
way, the Dutch Troelstra, etc. A particularly instruc-
tive case is that of the Russian, Parvus, if not the
initiator, in any case the best and most efficient promoter
of Russian Bolshevism. Who is Parvus, or, as his real
name is, Alexander Helfant ? Let me answer by quoting
a page by a thorough connoisseur of the Bolshevist
" secret diplomacy," the Swiss Socialist Grumbach.
" A Russian by birth, he had to leave his country as
a revolutionary a long time ago. In Prussia he belonged
to Social Democracy, and proved so radical that the
Prussian Government exiled him as an undesirable
44 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
alien. He fled to Munich, the German Capua, but he
did not remain there. Turkey attracts him. After
the Young Turk Revolution, he emerges in Constanti-
nople. He is at home in the Ministry of Finance, and
he also is at home in the harem. He frequently con-
tributed to Tanin, the organ of the Young Turks, and
he acts as correspondent at the Bosphorus for the
German Social Democratic Press, in order to defend
the Young Turkish regime. The war breaks out, and
Parvus' activity becomes marvellous. He buys grain,
he sells grain. He writes articles always for the
' sacred cause ' of Europe, which he finds well served,
because it is the German armies which defend it.
' Turkey must fight on the side of Germany, for Euro-
pean civilization and for Russian freedom.' That is
what he says and writes. ' Bulgaria must fight on
the side of Turkey and Germany for European civiliza-
tion and for Russian freedom.' That is what he is
never tired of repeating. He goes to Sofia, he makes
a great speech wherein he asks Bulgarian Socialists
to recognize that Germany is a champion of Right.
The Socialists of Sofia, although they are Bulgarian
patriots, find his argument strange, but they keep
silent. Our man goes farther, to other countries, to
Germany, to Prussia. The formerly ' undesirable
alien,' exiled from the hospitable soil of Prussia, has
now got into favour in Berlin. Supreme authorities
appreciate very much the new feathers of this bird of
passage with whose doings they are well acquainted.
They recognize in these small, wily eyes and flat nose
of the new Young Turk, formerly Russian (Jew), coming
from Stambul in a halo of highest introductions, a glare
of the pure patriotism of a Prussian neophyte ; and all
THE INTERNATIONAL DOCTRINE 45
doors open themselves before Parvus all doors, and
perhaps a certain number of hands (pockets) into
which this beneficent genius pours his gifts, to the great
pleasure of such as receive and also to the great satis-
faction of the Treasury. He who had had nothing, now
possesses, as a Prussian citizen, a fortune of one million. 1
He buys houses in Berlin for himself and for his satellites,
he founds periodicals in order theoretically to justify
militarist Socialism and to make propaganda for German
Messianism, and he pays well he pays very well.
Men of mark who, before the war, enjoyed an undis-
puted reputation as untractable Social Democrats,
Heinrich Cunow, the late editor of Vorwdrts, Conrad
Hanisch, a most sympathetic man and a member of
the Prussian Diet, Dr. Paul Lensch, formerly editor
of the Leipziger Volkszeitung, and a member of
the Reichstag, all receive fixed salaries for regu-
larly expressing their views in Parvus' organ, the
Bell (Die Glocke}. Heilmann, the prominent braillard,
formerly chief editor of the Chemnitzer Volksstimme,
is put at the head of the International Correspondence
just acquired by Parvus. Along with them some
gentlemen of less importance and some distinguished
nonentities enter into the same ring of Parvus.' But
the patron himself, who commands and supplies funds,
only rarely condescends to write articles. How could
he find time for it? He travels too often to Switzerland,
to Denmark, to Sweden, to Norway, and, in order to
do it with more comfort, he has flats in Copenhagen,
in Stockholm, in Constantinople, and in Berlin. In some
1 At a later date (July 30, 1919) Mr. Bourtsev's newspaper
La Cause Commune communicated that Parvus' savings, con-
fiscated at the Copenhagen banks, amount to five million crowns.
46 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
cities he possesses automobiles. All owned by a man
who before the war had nothing. Nowadays he writes,
he receives, he speaks for the Governments of Turkey,
of Germany, of Bulgaria. He creates connections
everywhere ; he carries on a coal business with Danish
and Norwegian syndicates." Mr. Grumbach might add
that Parvus has very cleverly entangled the whole
Danish Social Democracy in his profiteering coal busi-
ness. He knew from the German Government the
exact moment when the blockade was to be enforced
and English coal was to disappear from the market.
He got permission, equivalent to a monopoly, to import,
in advance, a great quantity of German coal, and
thus, with a capital of 25,000 crowns, during one year
and a half he made net profits for his shareholders
(of whom he was the most important) amounting to
1,900,000 crowns. Parvus also carried on business
with Russia, through the intermediary of his agent
in Stockholm, Ganetsky-Furstenberg, and under cover
of business transactions he subsidized his Russian friends
with money. At the same time in the Bell he pro-
pagated Imperialistic Socialism, while in Russia he
helped to promote Revolutionary Extremism. Mr.
Grumbach mentions a conversation he had had with
Lenin, in order to show that this side of Parvus' activity
was no mystery to the Bolshevist leader. When one
day Grumbach told Lenin that Parvus intended to
visit him at Berne, Lenin grinned maliciously and
said : " Let the scoundrel come, and I'll throw him
downstairs." Very little time passed, and the
" scoundrel " became a " comrade," who was sent by
the Central Committee of the German Social Democrats
to congratulate the Bolshevist delegation in Stockholm
THE INTERNATIONAL DOCTRINE 47
with the full success of Parvus' propaganda. On
November 17, 1917, the delegation, composed of
" scoundrels " of the same type (Karl Radek, popu-
larly called " Kradek," i.e. the " thief," Ganetsky and
Orlowsky), announced in its official organ that " Com-
rade Parvus conveyed to them the greetings of the
German Social Democrat Majority, which declares its
solidarity with the Russian proletariat in its demands
for a direct armistice and immediate peace negotiations
on the basis of democratic peace without annexations
and indemnities."
German Social Democrats, indeed, had good reasons
to rejoice. The great success of Revolutionary Ex-
tremism in Petrograd has crowned their two years'
exertions. It is true that the German Moderate Majority,
while greeting the Russian Spartacists, forgot the French
proverb, " tel qui rit vendredi, dimanche pleurera."
" I recollect," Mr. Grumbach says, " a discussion
I had one day with Lenin, on the probability of a revolu-
tion in Germany. Lenin had told me that he /irmly believed
in a revolution in Germany, if only revolution could be
first victorious in Russia." Of the two, Lenin and
Scheidemann, it was Lenin who was right. What
had been meant initially by Germans to be nothing
but a ruse de guerre against the Entente has since
become a very effective means for bringing about the
international conflagration. Of course, this result has
been achieved, not owing to some intrinsic value of
the mischievous doctrine, used as an explosive, but
chiefly owing to the exceptional state of mind of the
European nations, produced by a protracted war.
The only people who really knew what they were
driving at were Mr. Lenin's partisans. They used
48 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
the war-time psychology of masses, conflicting Govern-
ments' and peoples' enmities, the inconsistencies of
Moderate Socialists, and last, but not least, the
" scoundrels " espionage and secret diplomatists'
unrelenting activity for their own unvarying purpose
of spreading Bolshevism all over Europe.
PART II
THE PROGRESS OF BOLSHEVISM THROUGH
WAR AND REVOLUTION
I CANNOT tell the long story in detail here, but it
is important to bear in mind at least the general out-
lines of it, in order that the connection of events might
not be forgotten too soon. The first step consisted in
preparatory attempts to use the whole of International
Socialism against such national fractions of it as had
contracted a " sacred union " or burgfrieden with the
bourgeois parties and Governments. When this attempt
failed, the second step was immediately set in motion.
It was to detach " revolutionary " fractions of Inter-
national Socialism from patriotic " majorities," to
connect them together, to work out their common
doctrine and tactics, based on the general weariness of
the masses, and, finally, to use their growing disaffection
for revolutionary experiments in " Communist " Social-
ism. The third step was reached as soon as one of
these attempts had succeeded at the point of least
resistance, which was Russia. Its chief aim and meaning
was to transform the national revolution which broke
out against the Tsarist Autocracy into a social revolution
against the bourgeois and " capitalist " classes. With
German help and with a kind of half-conscious con-
4 *9
50 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
nivance of Moderate Socialism, this aim has also been
attained. Then a fourth step followed which consisted
in an attempt to substitute civil war amongst the classes
for international war in the trenches. At least two
countries, Russia and Germany, were to be implicated,
in order that this attempt might succeed and that inter-
national strikes might be stopped. But in Germany
social revolution was late in coming, and it was Russia
alone that had meantime to suffer from the consequences
of her military breakdown in the trenches and the
internal social war. The fifth step was taken after
the Armistice. It consisted in an attempt to use the
Bolshevist dictatorship of the proletariat on a larger
scale as a fuel to kindle a similar fire amongst the
peoples of both Central Empires and the Entente
Powers indiscriminately. Whether this will be the
last and the least successful step of the Bolshevist
scheme, or the first one in some new series of coming
events, it is impossible to foresee and useless to foretell.
But for anyone who wishes clearly to trace consecutive
events, it is necessary to keep firmly in mind their
development by way of the five stages mentioned.
They may be classified as follows :
(1) The disruption of the Second " Inter-
national " ;
(2) The Zimmerwald-Kienthal doctrine as a
basis for the Third, the " revolutionary " Inter-
national ;
(3) The Bolshevist advent in Russia ;
(4) Brest-Litovsk a temporary eclipse of Bol-
shevist schemes for Europe ; and
(5) A renewed Bolshevist attack on the hour-
PROGRESS THROUGH WAR 51
geoisie and democracy in Europe, through the inter-
mediary of European " Spartacists."
The international aspect of Bolshevism can be clearly
seen in this connection.
It is necessary to write a book in order to collect
the overwhelming evidence which may be adduced as
a proof of the statements made. Lacking the space, I
may be permitted to give a few hints and illustrations
as to the chief points of the whole story.
i. THE ATTEMPTS TO USE THE " SECOND
INTERNATIONAL " (1914-15).
It begins, in 1914, with a series of unsuccessful
attempts, backed by the German Social Democrats, to
organize a meeting of Socialist representatives of all
countries, in order to discuss the question of peace,
on the basis of the status quo (all these attempts are
posterior to the battle of the Marne). The Italian and
Swiss Socialists, Turati and Greulich, were first to
formulate a proposal to this effect at their Congress,
at Lugano, on September 22, 1914. The Dutch Socialist,
Troelstra, succeeded in moving the International Socialist
Bureau to Amsterdam, in place of Brussels, and the
reorganized Bureau, with the full approval of the German
Government, proposed to convoke an International
Socialist Congress at the Hague. The French Adminis-
trative Committee of the party refused to attend ;
the Independent Labour Party nominated Mr. A.
Henderson as its representative. The Congress did
not meet. At that time a meeting of Revolutionary
Syndicalists in France proposed to remove the centre
52 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
of the Syndicalist International from Berlin to Berne
(" as Germany might object to the choice of a purely
Latin centre " Geneva is meant). The President of
this centre, Legien, proposed to summon an Inter-
national Congress of Syndicalists in Amsterdam. This
time it was the turn of the English Syndicalists to
refuse. In January 1915 the Internationalists scored
a partial success. A conference of neutral Socialists
met on January I2th in Copenhagen ; English and
French Socialists were also asked to come, but not the
Belgians, who were reputed to be irrevocably national.
There was a tinge of international extremism in the
resolutions voted by this Congress, so far as general
statements were concerned, but no decisions on tactics
were taken. A new tournee by the Italian Morgari
(May 1915) to Berne, Paris, and London was again a
failure, with the exception that the existence of Ex-
tremist minorities was proved in France and Belgium.
After an equally unsuccessful attempt by the Swiss
party administration to convoke, not a Congress, but
a meeting of the International Socialist Bureau repre-
sentative of all countries, the Swiss tried to summon a
Conference in Zurich for May 3oth. The greater maj ority
of Socialist parties invited did not reply at all or sent
negative answers. Then a new start was made by the
Central Committee of the Italian party, which, on May 15,
1915, decided to address itself exclusively to such
groups and parties as were likely to adopt the views
of extreme internationalism, namely to " oppose the
policy of internal peace and to promote a combined
and simultaneous movement of the Socialists of different
countries against the war, on the basis of the proletarian
class war." A preliminary meeting of the initiators,
PROGRESS THROUGH WAR 53
held in Berne on July nth, determined more precisely
the aims and the methods to be approved by the pro-
posed Conference. The Labour Leader endorsed the
opinion of this particular group, and thus has marked
for England the passage from the first stage of the
Extremist propaganda to the second. " We should
prefer by far to see the old International reconstituted,"
the organ of the Independent Labour Party says on
August 12, 1915 ; " but if it is impossible, we agree with
the Italian comrades that direct efforts must be tried
in order to build a new International representing neutral
parties and anti-war Socialists of belligerent countries."
This, indeed, had been attempted on September 5-8,
1915, at Zimmerwald (a Swiss village near Berne), and
which was nearly achieved half a year later, on April
27-30, 1916, at Kienthal (another Swiss village). The
initiators had good reason to conceal their conferences
from a too close observation by Governments and
public opinion, and they purposely avoided meeting
in larger centres. They attained their aim. The
mysterious names of Zimmerwald and Kienthal have
since become slogans of Extremist revolutionary pro-
paganda the world over, modest and insignificant as
the beginning had been.
2. DOCTRINE OF THE " THIRD INTERNATIONAL " AND
ITS SPREAD IN 1916.
Only the Italian and Rumanian Socialist parties were
officially represented at Zimmerwald. The Independent
Labour Party as well as the British Socialist party
accepted the invitation, but were prevented from attend-
ing by the Government, which refused passports to
54 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
Messrs. Jowett and Bruce Glasier. The Swiss party
permitted its members to be present personally, but
only later, at the Congress of Aarau, identified itself
with the decisions taken at Zimmerwald. The French,
German, and Belgian Majority Socialists were not even
asked to participate, " owing to their present attitude."
Individual French and German Socialists were present :
the former without the permission, the latter with the
permission of their Governments. They even published,
while at the Congress, a joint declaration, in order to
state publicly that " this war was not their war."
The renowned formula of a " peace without annexations
on the basis of self-determination of peoples " first
made its appearance in this declaration. But the chief
feature of the Zimmerwald Conference was the pre-
dominance in it of Eastern-European Socialists :
Russians, Poles, Letts, Rumanians, and Bulgarians.
These were also the elements representing the " left
wing " of Zimmerwald. Such notorious Bolsheviks as
Lenin, Rakovsky, Ganetsky, and Radek were among
the chief promoters of the Zimmerwald resolutions,
along with Martov (Zederbaum), P. Axelrod, Chernov,
and Lapinsky. They did not succeed, however, in
inducing the Conference straightway to accept in its
whole purport their revolutionary doctrine. The
amendments of the extreme wing were rejected, on the
ground that the new tactics proposed had not been
put on the programme and previously discussed ; while
their acceptance by the Conference might disrupt
internationalist elements which otherwise would cling
together. But even the statements made unanimously
by the Conference were sufficient to stamp its resolu-
tions as extremist and revolutionary, and to differentiate
PROGRESS THROUGH WAR 55
its members not only from " Socialist patriots," but
even from the so-called " centre " (Kautsky, Haase,
and the group of " Arbeitsgemeinschaft " in Germany
all of them belonging to the " Minority," as well as
Longuet and Pressemane in France). The " right
wing " of the Zimmerwald Conference, in fact, did
gravitate to this " centre," but it was overawed by the
exponents of extreme tendencies.
The three salient points in the " Zimmerwald Mani-
festo " are as follows :
1. The responsibility for the war is not to be thrown
upon Germany, but upon
the ruling forces of the capitalist society in whose hands
the destinies of peoples have rested monarchical as well as
republican Governments, secret diplomacy, powerful combines
of employers, bourgeois parties, capitalist Press, Churches all
these agents bear the full burden of responsibility for this war,
which has originated in the social order preserved by them
and nourishing them, and which is being now carried on in their
interests.
2. The war aims : not national victory, but
the struggle for " Socialism," for peace without annexations
and contributions, which is possible only on the condition of
the repudiation of all desire for violating the rights and liberties
of peoples. (Then follows the formula of the declaration isued
by the French and German members of the Conference.)
3. The aim of the Conference is not only to bring
about peace, but
in view of the intolerable situation (created by the suspension
of the class war by the Socialist patriots, who not only vote
war credits, but take part in the Governments' propaganda
amongst the neutrals, and even become " hostages of national
unity," as Ministers in War Cabinets), we who have put our-
56 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
selves not on the ground of national solidarity with the class
of employers, but on the ground of the international solidarity
of the proletariat and of class war, met in order to re-establish
international bonds torn asunder, and to call the working class
to recollect their duty towards themselves. . . . Proletarians !
At the beginning of the war we gave our working power, our
courage, our endurance to the service of the ruling classes.
Now we must begin a struggle for our own cause, for the sacred
aim of Socialism, for the liberation of oppressed peoples and
enslaved classes by means of an uncompromising proletarian
class war. .
What remained, then, for the " left wing " to sub-
scribe to more than that ? The Russians, the Poles, and
" comrade " Radek wished the manifesto to state in a
more outspoken way that no real peace was possible
unless the very basis of the social structure is changed,
and that one must accordingly " attack the very
foundations of society " without waiting any longer
for the results of the " imperialistic stage " to develop
in full. ' The struggle for peace must simultaneously
be a revolutionary struggle against capitalism."
Owing to the indecision of the more judicious section
of the Conference, the formal call to mutiny was omitted
from the text of the manifesto ; but it still remained
there so far as the spirit of the manifesto is concerned.
The members of the Conference did not wish, for the
same reason, to make a show of organizing a new
International ; but they left behind them a nucleus of
the new organization, the " International Socialist Com-
mission at Berne," whose President was to be the notori-
ous Robert Grimm, a man who knew how to combine
" extremely Radical declarations with an entirely
opportunist practice." As, for the time being, " ex-
tremely Radical declarations " were all that were wanted
for the Extremist propaganda, Grimm was the right
PROGRESS THROUGH WAR 57
man, particularly if led by one of the Oriental
throng, the " Italian " of Russian descent, Angelica
Balabanova.
The I.S.C. at Berne has complete! everything that
was missed by Lenin in Zimmerwald, while speaking
always in the name of the " second Zimmerwald Con-
ference " at Kienthal which was even more mysterious
than the first one. The amendment of the first Con-
ference was expanded into the glowing appeal of May i,
1916, to the " conquest of political power and abro-
gation of private property by the working class " as
the " only means to prevent war in future," and to
the struggle by " all means at their disposal " for
" immediate peace without annexations."
The resolution of the Kienthal Conference declared
that all demands of the " bourgeois or Socialist pacifism,"
such as limitation of armaments, obligatory arbitration,
and even the building up of " small nations " into
States, are nothing but " new illusions," and that
the only " durable " peace can be attained by the
Socialist upheaval. Moreover, the Kienthal Conference
or the I.S.C. at Berne in its name declared the former
Executive Committee of the I.S.B. at the Hague guilty
of " National Socialism," and put it under the close
supervision of the " organizations which joined the
I.S.C. at Berne." For these a special " discipline "
was proclaimed necessary, which put them " above all
other party duties." " The nationalist sections of the
internationalist proletariat who have forgotten their
supreme duty, by this very fact, set free their members
from every obligation towards them."
Here was the " Third International " in a nutshell.
Its doctrine and the nucleus of its organization were
58 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
now ready. It was the time to put its propaganda in
hand and for its practical application.
There is no doubt that during 1916 a great success
was scored by that propaganda in all the countries of
Europe. Curiously enough, this success was particularly
obvious and strong in the very country which tried to
use Revolutionary Socialism as a war weapon, i.e.
Germany. As a sequel to the Kienthal decisions
typewritten letters, composed by different authors,
but signed by the same pseudonym of " Spartacus "
(especially ascribed to Liebknecht), began to be secretly
circulated within a carefully chosen circle of confidential
correspondents. They were chiefly directed, not against
the " Socialist patriots," but against the more Radical
group which formed the " right wing " at Zimmerwald,
the so-called " centre." Such attacks quite coincide
with Lenin's advice in his memorandum to the Swiss
Party (end 1916). Lenin qualifies there the conciliatory
attitude of Kautsky and Haase, and even of the seven-
teen Extreme members of the Reichstag, as being an
" obstacle to the Revolutionary Social Democracy,"
" which ties their hands, impedes the free display of
their action, and thus discourages the masses by a
lack of consistency between principles and practice."
At that very time the question had been raised
in the Reichstag and in the country about the coming
split between Parliamentary and Revolutionary Social-
ism, and the " central " elements were thwarting the
decision. The split was finally achieved in January
1917, owing to the aggressive attitude of the Majority
Socialists, who ejected from the party such members
and local organizations as agreed with the resolutions
of a Minority Conference of January 7th, held in Berlin.
PROGRESS THROUGH WAR 59
The new Minority Conference at Gotha, April 6-8,
had decided to organize a new " Independent S.D.
Party." The " Spartacus " group took part in it, while
the other Extremist section, the " International Social-
ists," remained outside. The influence of the Russian
Revolution on the organization and activity of the new
party is quite obvious. Its popularity among the
masses may be inferred from the fact that while the
membership of the old party decreased in the six months
following the creation of the new party from 243,061
to 150,000, the numbers of the paying members of the
Independent Party amounted at the same date (Sep-
tember 1917) to 120,000.
Serious attempts at propagating the Zimmerwald-
Kienthal doctrine and tactics were also made in the
Entente countries. Here also they have not achieved
the complete victory of revolutionary extremism, but
they have strengthened extreme tendencies, and thus
have made necessary a move to the left in the general
attitude of the parties. Bourderon one of the two
French representatives at Zimmerwald on his return
to France, proceeded to ask the Seine Federation to
recall Socialist Ministers from the Cabinet, to dissolve
the " sacred union," to refuse war credits, and to blame
the Parliamentary fraction and the administrative organ
of the party for their tactics. Then M. Longuet, the
leader of the Minority, who, too, had visited Switzer-
land and had seen Bernstein and Kautsky, declared
that " without Internationalism there can be no Social-
ism," and demanded the re-establishment of relations
with all sections of the International, including German
Social Democracy. The number of mandates to the
National Congress received by the representatives of
60 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
the three currents of French Socialism represented in
figures their comparative strength :
Mandates. Votes.
Majority (Renaudel) .. .. 26 6,121
Minority (Longuet) . . . . 16 3,826
Extremists (Bourderon) . . . . 2 545
At the Congress, in order to prevent disunion, the
Majority had to accept a conciliatory formula (Renaudel-
Longuet), which was then carried by an overwhelming
majority ; but the Minority was not satisfied with the
concessions given. The opposition to the initial attitude
of " sacred union " with the bourgeoisie for the aims of
" national defence " was increasing throughout 1916,
and at the beginning of 1917, under the influence of
the propaganda directed by the new " travellers " to
Kienthal members of the House Brizon, Raffin-
Dugens and Al. Blanc. Attempts had been made to
disseminate anti-war views in the army. The National
Congress at the end of 1916 was to be held behind closed
doors, and this precautionary measure proved opportune,
if one may judge by an incident which leaked out and
produced the impression of a scandal when it appeared
in the Press. When M. Goude, himself a member of
the Minority, pronounced from the tribune the words :
" I am an eager partisan of national defence, we all
agree to it," somebody cried out : " No ! " The great
majority of the audience supported the protest with
frantic applause. All the resolutions of the party in
1916 reflect this growing spirit of criticism and oppo-
sition. French Socialists grew more impatient to learn
from the Government its " war aims," in order that
the war might not " be protracted " owing to some
aggressive aims. They now wanted the war to be
PROGRESS THROUGH WAR 61
finished " as soon as possible." They do not wish to
crush Germany or to ruin her economically. They
asked the Government to be " on the watch, and not
to let pass any serious possibility of making peace."
They even appeal to " representatives of all belligerent
countries to bring pressure to bear upon their Govern-
ments " in order to force them to renounce " annexa-
tionist tendencies." To be sure, they repudiate the
Zimmerwald-Kienthal doctrine, and they persist in
asking German Socialists for preliminary explanations
of principles before any personal meeting and discussion
with them at some international gathering. But they
prepare for the possibility of such a meeting on Inter-
nationalist lines, while breaking one by one the ties
of the " sacred union." Their unwillingness to share
in ministerial responsibility steadily grows ; they give
notice to the Government of their intention to withdraw
their representatives from the Cabinet ; and, indeed,
Sembat did not enter the new Cabinet of Briand
(November 1916). Albert Thomas remained, but the
decision of the National Congress of December 1916
to this effect was adopted only by 1,637 votes against
1,282 given to two other motions. Thomas is asked
" vigorously to ensure the national defence," but . . .
" in order to obtain the rapid end of the war for a peace
which must be a triumph of justice." In short, to
state it in the words of their political opponent, Maurras,
the French Majority Socialists " have yielded to the
menaces of their dissenters in everything that was asked
for by these imperious schismatics, and the official
organ of the patriotic majority has, in fact, served to
propagate the ideas of the Minority. One dreamt of
disarming them with concessions, but one was simply
62 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
recruiting for them their adepts, their adherents, their
zealous followers."
Thus the Majority paved the way to the final vic-
tory of the Minority, which actually took place later,
under the influence of the Russian Revolution.
It is unnecessary for me to expatiate upon the fact
that the same conversion has taken place in public
opinion of England. The only difference was perhaps
that, owing to the comparative weakness of Socialism
proper in this country, the anti-war and pro-" Inter-
national " propaganda here took to the less offensive
watchword of " Pacifism," and that its teaching,
primarily confined to a small group of idealists, only
lately and slowly has evolved into a demagogic campaign
by class war protagonists. Of course, at the very
beginning of the war even here there was no lack of
direct German influences, together with idealistic and
religious motives, working for socialistic solutions and
" conscientious objections " to war.
As early as April 1915, at the Congress of Norwich,
Messrs. Keir Hardie, Jowett, Bruce Glasier, and others
had already spoken for the benefit of German
" comrades " against . . . British . . . imperialism and
militarism ; they already advocated direct international
socialistic action for immediate peace. The Congress
decided that Socialists must renounce fighting, even in
case of enemy invasion, and by 243 votes to 9 they
carried a vote of condemnation of the Labour party
for its participation in the recruiting campaign. But
it is particularly in the second half of 1916 that the
so-called (unjustly) " Pacifist " propaganda began to
influence larger circles of public opinion. Anyhow,
when the Russian Revolution broke out in March 1917
PROGRESS THROUGH WAR 68
there existed a ready current of sympathy for its most
extreme achievements.
3. THE FIRST VICTORY OF INTERNATIONAL EXTREMISM
IN THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION.
There were two Russian Revolutions which were
quite dissimilar : that of March and that of November
1917. The first was national and patriotic, and was
led by the Duma representatives. The second was
due to the Internationalist propaganda, introduced
into Russia from the outside. It was led by the group
of Russian refugees we know, and it was strongly
supported by International Socialists, not only of
extreme, but also of more moderate description. The
national Revolution of March originated in a strong
pro-war sentiment which had brought Russian public
opinion to the conclusion that no victory could be won
under autocratic rule, suspected of pro-Germanism.
The Extremist (Bolshevist) Revolution of November
was " Defeatist " in its origin, and it won the victory
in Russia for the Zimmerwald and Kienthal International
doctrine.
Why is it that Russia of all countries has become
a field for social experiment ? Many causes peculiar
to Russia combine to make this country particularly
receptive of the Extremist international propaganda.
" Defeatism " was in Russia not the result of recent
anti-militarist and anti-patriotic propaganda, but an
old tradition amongst intellectuals, contracted during
many decades of years of struggle against the Auto-
cracy. Lenin only tried to make use of that old habit
when at the beginning of the war he began his Defeatist
64 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
propaganda. " As things actually are," he says, in
October 1914, in his organ published at Geneva, "it is
impossible, from the point of view of the international
proletariat, to say which would be the lesser evil for
Socialism, an Austro-German defeat or a Franco-Russo-
English defeat. But for us, Russian Social Democrats,
there can be no doubt that, from the point of view of
the working classes and of the toiling masses of all the
Russian peoples, the lesser evil would be a defeat of
the Tsarist monarchy. . . . We cannot ignore the fact
that this or that issue of the military operations will
facilitate or render more difficult our work of liberation
in Russia. And we say : ' Yes, we hope for the defeat
of Russia because it will facilitate the internal victory
of Russia the abolition of her slavery, her liberation
from the chains of Tsarism.' ' Thus the particularly
Russian Extremist point of view seemed to coincide
with " the point of view of the international prole-
tariat." To be sure, the aims of the international
proletariat namely, " Revolutionary Socialism " had
been formulated, as we have just pointed out, under
the strong influence of Russian abstract dogmatism.
The doctrine of pure " class war " developed particularly
and took a refined shape in hotbeds of Russian emigres
circles, in the atmosphere of the endless disputes of
a few intellectuals specially trained in Marx's teachings.
In a sense, Bolshevism was the peculiar product of
Russian culture, grafted on International Socialism,
before it was reimported to Russia. According to
Marxists themselves, the Russian soil was not prepared
for an early experiment in Socialism. To state it in
Lenin's own terms (in his leaflet on Two Tactics, published
in Geneva 1905) : " Whoever wants to try any path
65
to Socialism other than political Democracy, he will
inevitably come to absurd and reactionary conclusions
both in an economical and a political sense. If some
workmen ask us, ' Why not achieve the maximum
programme ? ' we shall answer them by pointing out just
how alien to Socialism the democratic masses are, how
undeveloped the class contradictions, how unorganized
the proletarians. Just try to organize hundreds of
thousands of workmen all over Russia ! Try to teach
millions to sympathize with your programme ! Try
to do that without limiting yourself to sonorous but
empty anarchical phrases, and you will see at once
that the largest possible realization of democratic
reforms is necessary and requisite for the spreading
of socialistic enlightenment, and for introducing appro-
priate organization."
This is all very wise, but this sound reasoning was
invariably thrown overboard at the moment of revo-
lutionary outbreaks. Were not, indeed, these outbreaks
chiefly due to that very unpreparedness of the masses,
which precluded in advance the possibility of any last-
ing result ? Was it not that very lack of organization
and of the political education of the masses which made
them blindly believe in the Bolshevists' promises and
follow their demagogical lead ? Revolutionary Social-
ism repudiated State institutions ; but the Russian
peasants have never learnt to defer to the State. They
were, so to say, born anarchists, and Tolstoy reflects
very adequately the soul of the Russian peasant.
Revolutionary Socialism preached class war and hatred
of superior social strata. But in Russia the upper
social layers were of comparatively recent origin ; to
a large extent they owed their privileged position to
5
66 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
the State, and were bound to yield even to a gentle
pressure from below. Revolutionary Socialism exe-
crated " imperialism " and " nationalism " ; but the
Russian masses simply did not know anything about
the international situation. They were unable to
consider the interests of the State as a whole, and as
opposed to the interests of other State units. They
practically had not yet reached the stage of conscious
nationalism and patriotism.
To speak to these masses about " war aims " was
labour lost ; but they understood the weariness of
war exertions and the hardships of life in the trenches.
They did not understand a word of the so-called " demo-
cratic " formula about " annexations " and " contri-
butions " and " self-determination," but they only too
well understood what " immediate peace " meant ;
while " fraternization " with the enemy in the trenches
was quite easy for men who had learnt to hate the name
of " German," but proved unable to connect that
abstract idea with people who, after a laborious day of
warfare, treated them to vodka and schnapps and called
them " brethren." When, into the bargain, they were
promised the long-hoped-for " partition " of the land
as soon as as they returned home, it was easy to under-
stand that desertion from the ranks, in order to reach
home first, was not at all considered to be a disgrace
and a crime.
After all, in spite of what is said, the war perhaps
for the first time in Russian history was, at the be-
ginning widely popular, and Russian Socialists were
forced to acknowledge the fact. Berlin newspapers
were publishing telegrams about " Revolution in
Russia " during the first days of the war. Far from
PROGRESS THROUGH WAR 67
this being true, a strike which perhaps not without
German " material help " was about to start was at
once stopped by the workmen themselves as soon as
war broke out. " Unlike the Russo-Japanese War, the
present war has become popular among the masses,"
a Social Democratic report stated to the Conference in
Copenhagen. " A great majority of Russian citizens,"
says the Russian correspondent of a German Socialist
newspaper (Leipziger Volkszeitung), " and among them
many Social Democrats, are convinced that Germany
is waging an aggressive war . . . the war is becoming
more and more popular in Russia . . . the present
situation bears no resemblance to that which existed
ten years ago. The war was then a dynastic
war, while to-day we are witnessing a people's
war."
" There is no desire that Russia should be defeated
to be observed among the working classes," states
another correspondent of the Russian Social Democratic
newspaper in Paris.
However, the socialistic fractions of the Duma at
once differentiated themselves from their European
comrades by abstaining from the vote of war credits.
Later on, the idea of Zimmerwald was accepted by all
Russian Socialists : Kerensky, Tsereteli, and Tshkeidse
called themselves Zimmerwaldians. Five working men
deputies of the Social Democratic fraction of the Duma
were found in possession of a draft of a Defeatist reso-
lution drawn up by Lenin. They were put on their
trial and condemned to deportation to Siberia. This
only made things worse. As early as 1916 a Defeatist
propaganda was rife among workmen and in the army,
as well as among the prisoners of war in Germany.
68 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
A Russian newspaper, the Russian Messenger, published
in Berlin, was regularly smuggled into the Russian
trenches. I personally, as a member of the Duma,
received many letters from soldiers at the front which
proved that the demoralization of the army had already
begun before the Revolution of March 1917.
Revolution became unavoidable in Russia after the
autumn of 1915, when the Tsar ignored the last attempt
of the Duma majority to bridge the chasm between
him and public opinion by working out a moderately
progressive programme and nominating a Ministry
" enjoying the confidence of the country." Moreover,
he dismissed, one by one, the eight members of the
Cabinet (among them Mr. Sazonov) who were inclined
to adopt a conciliatory attitude, and he put in their
place unswerving reactionaries. On the other hand,
public opinion became more radical, and would not
be satisfied with anything less than a Parliamentary
regime. Revolutionary and republican tendencies began
to take root.
A revolutionary overthrow during the war was by
itself almost equivalent to a catastrophe. It is easy
to understand that the more experienced politicians
could not at once decide to join hands with the revolu-
tionaries ; but the Tsarist regime has proved itself
incapable of organizing national defence, and it was
strongly suspected of the wish to prevent revolution
by a speedy end of the war which would be to the benefit
of the Germans. Revolution was now becoming
necessary for patriotic reasons. The more advanced
groups begun to plan a dynastic overthrow. The
scandals of Court life under the influence of the famous
Rasputin served to endorse the decision. The assas-
PROGRESS THROUGH WAR 69
sination of Rasputin by aristocratic conspirators gave
two months' respite to the Tsar, but he was blind to
the coming danger. The Tsarina dissuaded him from
making any concessions, and quoted the example of
the French Revolution. The Duma leaders prepared
to take the power which was bound to fall from the
hands of the mad Autocrat into the hands of popular
politicians. The Tsar decided to dissolve the Duma.
At that very moment, but without any connection with
the dissolution of the Duma, a real Revolution broke
out, starting from different sources and basing itself
on forces differing from such as had been confidently
expected by the Duma. The Duma was prepared to
deal with a dynastic overthrow ; it was taken unawares,
as everybody was, including the Socialist leaders, by
the soldiers' outbreak of March I2th. Yet the Duma
took the lead, and by taking sides with the Revolu-
tion decided its success. All Russia knew the names
of the first revolutionary Ministers and believed in
them. The " bloodless " victory of the Revolution, the
direct submission of the army commanders, and the
hurried resignation of the Tsar who had signed
the Act already prepared in 1905 all this was due to
the Duma's participation in the movement. Thus the
Russian Revolution, as a whole, has nothing to do
with any kind of international propaganda. Such
German propaganda among the workmen, or Socialist
and Radical propaganda amongst soldiers, as may
be traced, cannot account either for its deeper causes
or for its speedy success. But after success had been
achieved, internationalist propaganda immediately set
to work in order to steer the course of the patriotic
Revolution into the anti-militarist channel. It took
70 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
eight months and four consecutive changes of Govern-
ment to make the change complete.
During the first two months the First Provisional
Government set up by the Duma Executive Committee
succeeded in maintaining the " sacred national unity."
Its first act was to declare that far from weakening
the military forces of Russia the Revolution would
inspire them with new enthusiasm, and that the war
would be prosecuted in complete harmony with the
Allies, on the basis of the existing accords and treaties.
But on the very first day of the Revolution a new force
appeared on the stage which worked in the opposite
direction. " The Council (Soviet) of Workmen and
Soldiers " met at once in the Taurida Palace. The
Soviet represented Revolutionary Socialism, though it
disguised itself under the name of " Revolutionary "
Democracy. At first the Soviet did not claim formal
power, but it pretended to " push " the Provisional
Government, chiefly in regard to its military tactics
and its foreign policy. At the same time it profited
by the complete political freedom given by the Revolu-
tion, in order to make propaganda and to organize the
masses.
The whole movement was led by men who evidently
were familiar with the ideas of Extremist international-
ism and who fully shared its aims. Through a Special
" Committee for the Contact " of the Soviet with the
Government they, from the very beginning, tried to
wring from the Government decisions necessary for
the weakening of discipline in the army, the grant of
funds for propaganda, and, finally, urged the acceptance
of the Zimmerwald doctrine in foreign politics. When
they met with resistance they started an agitation
PROGRESS THROUGH WAR 71
against the Ministers of War and Foreign Affairs
(Mr. Guchkov and myself). Bolshevism at that first
period of the Revolution had not yet differentiated
itself from the more moderate socialistic currents,
and it was so much the easier for it to keep the
whole movement in hand. Without knowing it, the
official Socialist leaders of the Soviet, who had won
their popularity as Duma delegates, Kerensky,
Tchkeidse, Skobelev, etc., submitted themselves to
the guidance of more obscure people, who were
hurriedly coming back to Petrograd from their
Siberian exile, from Paris, Geneva, London, and New
York, and who were far better informed regarding the
tactics of an Internationalist Revolution.
Already before their arrival the first decisive steps had
been taken in the name of the Soviet against military
discipline and against the further prosecution of war,
steps which bear witness to the initial confusion of
Extremist and Moderate ideas in the Russian Revo-
lution. I mean the famous " Prikaz (Order) No. i,"
of March I7th, and the " Appeal of the Soviet to the
Peoples of the Whole World," of March 27, .1917.
" Prikaz No. i " gave a signal by introducing into
all army units elected committees of soldiers, abolishing
outward marks of respect due to officers, and controlling
by the Soviets the possession of arms and all " political
manifestations " by the army. The draft of the Order
made its appearance, nobody knew where from, on the
second day of the Revolution. The Provisional Govern-
ment rejected its contents and refused to accept it as
one of the conditions of its support by the Soviet.
On the following morning the Soviet published it in
its name, and although the publication had no legal
72 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
character, in spite of the opposition of the military
commanders, its dispositions were enacted first in
Petrograd, then in Moscow, and finally at the Front,
in the ranks of the fighting army. A special committee,
presided over by General Polivanov, the former War
Minister, expanded it into what was called " The
Soldiers' Charter," and although the War Minister of
the Revolution, Mr. Guchkov, would not sign it and
resigned, " The Soldiers' Charter " was signed by his
successor in office, Mr. Kerensky, in May. It thus
became " the last nail in the coffin of the army,"
according to General Alexiev, the then Commander-
in-Chief's telling expression.
" Prikaz No. i," a representative of the Soviet,
Joseph Goldenberg, explained to M. Claude Anet in
July, " was not a mistake, but a necessity. The day
we made the Revolution, we understood that the army
would crush it if it was not destroyed itself. We had
to choose between the army and the Revolution, and
we did not hesitate."
This is a crude, but true statement. In a sense Mr.
Goldenberg was right. The army, if left to itself, would
stifle the kind of Extremist Revolution he had in view,
while for the first two months it was sure to protect
the National Revolution headed by the First Provisional
Government. Evidently Mr. Goldenberg's friends knew
very well what they were driving at. The Moderate
Socialists did not yet realize it, but they followed the
lead of the Extremists.
Mr. Goldenberg's reasoning was also extended to
the problem of war and peace in general. " If the
Revolution does not kill the war, the war will kill the
Revolution " ; so ran the current formula, not as yet
PROGRESS THROUGH WAR 73
adorned with arguments borrowed from the Zimmerwald
ideology. To stop the war on the front from the inside
a new and more systematic propaganda was started
in the trenches, in addition to that from Berlin, as
soon as the opposition on the part of commanding
officers to the free admission of agitators and periodicals
from Petrograd was disposed of. The increasing in-
fluence of Extremist newspapers in the trenches will
be seen from the following figures of copies, sent from
Moscow only :
r, March a4 -April. Mayi-Junen.
(The Truth) .. 7,972 copies 6,999 copies
Soldatskaya Pravda (The
Soldiers' Truth) .. 2 ,ooo 61,525
Social Democrat . . .. 30,375 32,711
Then means had to be provided for stopping the
war from the outside. Within a fortnight from the
beginning of the Revolution the attention of the Soviet
was drawn from military questions to those of foreign
politics and diplomacy. A special Committee for
Foreign Affairs was started within the Soviet, and it
was allowed to have free telegraphic communications
and its own service of diplomatic couriers with Stock-
holm. The whole machinery of extreme internationalist
propaganda as herein described was now at the disposal
of the Soviets or rather had secured a chance of
profiting by the Soviet inexperience, in order to make
a tool of it. However, at the beginning, the Soviet
leaders had the illusion of leading, and they were very
proud to start on a new world mission for a " democratic
peace and the fraternity of nations."
In their appeal of March 2 ;th they proclaimed a
new era of a "decisive struggle with the predatory
74 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
tendencies of the Governments of all countries."
" Conscious of her revolutionary strength, Russian
Democracy (the Soviet leaders were careful to speak,
not in the name of " Socialism," but in the name of
" Democracy ") declares that it will in every way
counteract the predatory politics of its own ruling
classes, and it invites all the peoples of Europe to
collective and decisive action for the benefit of peace."
" Workmen of all countries, we fraternally tender our
hands to you over the mountains of fraternal corpses
. . . and we entreat you to restore and to corroborate
international unity. ..."
This was indeed a new factor and a new test in
the struggle of the conflicting tendencies in Socialism.
The National Socialists of the Entente countries at once
felt their position extremely endangered by the blow
which came from an Allied country. Their chief
concern now was to know whether the Russian Revolu-
tion would increase or diminish the chances of victory
over the Central Empires. But they were exceedingly
embarrassed in stating this point in the terms of their
own socialistic terminology. We have seen how am-
biguous it was : this ambiguity now served the cause
of the enemy. Anyhow, they now hurried to Russia
in order to see for themselves what was to be done to
ward oft the danger. The Deputies of Parliaments
and political parties, French, British, Italian, were
followed by Socialist Ministers of Allied countries :
Albert Thomas, Arthur Henderson, Emile Vander-
velde. They came with the optimistic idea that a
good talk with their Russian " comrades " would be
sufficient to edify them and to put them on the right
path of wisdom, while the bourgeois leaders, too much
PROGRESS THROUGH WAR 75
steeped in their " old regime " tradition, would be
easily made to understand the necessity of concessions
to the coming " Democracy " in order to take the wind
out of the Extremists' sails.
Directly they arrrived in Russia they saw at once
the intrinsic falsehood of their attitude. It was no
use talking a different language to the Extremists, the
Soviet, the Duma, or the Government. The Socialist
Ministers' arrival was immediately followed by an article
in the Stockholm Politiken, which classified them as
contaminated by the " sacred union " with bourgeois
parties, as sharing their " imperialism," and as coming
to Russia in order to force her to protract the war and
to stifle her Revolution. In the Soviet they met at
once with insidious questions : " What about India,
and Ireland, and Morocco ? Why have no representa-
tives of your Minorities come with you ? What is
your attitude toward your ' Capitalist ' Governments ? "
And when the turn of the delegates came to put questions
about the exact meaning of " contributions " and
" annexations " and " self-determination," and how to
conciliate all these slogans of the "sacred democratic"
formula with war indemnities, with the disannexation
of Alsace-Lorraine, and so on, they were hardly listened
to ; they invariably met with subterfuge and reticence,
and were politely refused any definite promise. They
might have seen at once that their mission had failed.
Instead of that they remained week after week carrying
on negotiations with the Soviet, " throwing out the
ballast " of their convictions, and seemingly making
the Soviet's ideology their own. They finally won
nothing, and on the eve of their departure the three
Socialist Ministers were obliged to state, in very strong
76 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
language, that they were not satisfied with the result
of their protracted negotiations. Without even waiting
for that, the Soviet Committee for its part published a
statement to the effect that their pourparlers with the
National Socialist Ministers did not in the least prejudice
their general standpoint, which was against any com-
promise with the Governments, and was entirely for
changing the war with the enemy into a class war with
capitalism.
Unhappily, while not succeeding in their own mission,
the Socialist Ministers very seriously compromised the
success of the Russian Revolution. They came to
Russia at the moment when the Revolution was at the
cross-roads, and no fatal decisions had yet been taken
by the Provisional Government. The Soviet at least
formally recognized the Government as the sole legal
power, and promised it conditional support. There
was, as yet, no question of the formal responsibility
of the Government to the Soviet or to the political
parties. The policy of the First Provisional Government
was weak and vacillating, but its moral influence in
the country was still strong much stronger than that
of any subsequent Government. Representatives of
the troops from the Front came daily to the Maryinsky
Palace, where the Cabinet held its meetings, and they
implored the Government not to yield and not to
share its power with the Soviet. The leaders of the
Soviet themselves were persuaded that nothing but a
bourgeois Republic was possible in Russia. Their only
wish was to " push " the Government in their direction,
while influencing it and criticizing it from the outside.
They understood particularly Mr. Tsereteli that every
attempt to share power with the Government would
PROGRESS THROUGH WAR 77
only weaken their hold upon the working masses without
giving more power either to themselves or to the
Cabinet. " Why do you want us to enter the Cabinet ? "
Mr. Tsereteli said to the partisans of the idea of a
" Coalition " Ministry. " We shall only impede your
action while dictating to you uncompromising decisions
in the form of ' ultimatums/ and in case you do
not consent to them, we shall be obliged to leave the
Ministry, thus rousing comment."
The only alternative was for themselves to share in
a policy of compromise but this seemed impossible
to a Russian Socialist. However, French and British
Socialists had come from countries where compromise
was for the last three years particularly the rule of
socialistic activity. They measured Russia by their
own political standard, and as they came to Russia
at the moment when they were obliged to compromise
with their minorities, led by Longuet and Henderson,
why not arrange for a compromise with Tsereteli and
Tchkeidse, the Georgian Socialists who had become
Russian leaders ? Their mistaken idea was that by
arranging for a " Coalition " they would strengthen
the Government, and that by yielding to the Soviet's
Pacifism they would strengthen the enthusiasm of the
army. It was M. Albert Thomas, in particular, who
dealt the final blow to the First Provisional Government,
while energetically working to bring about the first
Coalition.
The only Socialist in the First Government, Mr.
Kerensky, who has just declared the former foreign
policy of Russia to be only a " personal opinion " of
the Foreign Minister, was about to go to the War
Office on the condition that he should try to overcome
78 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
with his personal influence the growing demoralization
of the army and to force it, by the power of his oratory,
to an offensive movement. The kind of official op-
timism which was then predominant, along with growing
uneasiness, among the Allied Socialist Ministers, is
characterized in M. Vandervelde's book on Three
Aspects of the Russian Revolution. 1
Even people like M. Claude Anet were singing the
praises of Mr. Kerensky's " juvenile courage." In
Russia people knew Mr. Kerensky's deficiencies, but
Mr. Kerensky had now become the national hero, and
one began to hope against hope that everything would
be all right. Only specialists knew that under the state
of mind then existent in the army no offensive was
possible, that any offensive movement was bound to
rouse opposition among the soldiers and would end in
a disaster. It is enough to say that women's " shock
battalions " were to be formed as one of the measures
to inspire self-confidence and courage in the regular
troops, in order to understand just how desperate the
situation was already.
Personally, as Foreign Minister in the First Provisional
Government, I was unable to agree to the so-called
policy of " peace without annexations and contributions,
on the self-determination principle," because I knew
there was German intrigue and the spirit of Zimmerwald
behind it. I knew it was the first step to a separate
peace, because no general peace on that basis was
possible, and no war was possible in Russia after the
promulgation of a formula which would be understood
by the soldiers as a promise of immediate peace. Neither
could I accept the idea of a Coalition with Moderate
1 London : George Allen & Unwin, Ltd.
PROGRESS THROUGH WAR 79
Socialists, because I knew how uncertain their tactics
were, and how much their popularity depended on
their sticking to Extremist solutions. When asked
for advice by the Premier, Prince Lvov, I told him that
we had to choose between two courses : that of a strong
power, necessary to save the Revolution from its
excesses, which would necessitate a policy like that
of Noske's to-day, and the course of compromise
with Zimmerwaldism, which would bring about chaos,
anarchy, civil war, and a separate peace. I must state
it again that the second alternative was chosen under
the strong influence of M. Albert Thomas, whose
authority seemed beyond dispute to our inexperienced
politicans. Then Mr. Henderson came to tell us that
the workmen's control of factories had nothing incon-
venient about it, because there was already a precedent
for it in the State control introduced in England during
war-time. The parallel was incomplete and utterly
misleading ; but here, as in the case of the Coalition
Ministry and the coming offensive, it helped very much
to push the Russian Revolution along the way which
could not but prove fatal to it.
The result is known to everybody. In two months
there came the collapse of the Russian offensive, in
half a year the complete victory of the internationalist
current in the Revolution, and in nine months Brest-
Litovsk. As a consequence of the demoralization of
the army and of its retreat, hundreds of thousands of
deserters flooded the country, which they found deprived
of all its former administrative authorities. They brought
trouble and disorders to towns and villages, and they
entirely blocked all means of communication. It was
under their influence that the peasants, who until then
80 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
had kept comparatively quiet, started the distribution
of land the burning of landowners' houses, and the
" creating of the new Law," as was the current expression
of the Socialist Revolutionaries, the predominating
agrarian party. The cities had already, by that time,
become isolated from the villages. All commerce was
stopped, factories were closed. No manufactured goods
were sent to villages. No grain was sold in exchange
to the cities, unemployment speedily grew, the first
symptoms of famine and disease already made their
appearance. Bolshevism was promising peace, food,
land, and workmen's control of the factories. Russia
was ripe for Bolshevism.
The story of its increasing success was only recently
told by one of its leaders, Mr. Trotsky. 1 Of course,
Mr. Trotsky tells it from his own point of view, and
he states the facts in terms of his own ideology, while
very often distorting them or in ignorance of their
full meaning. But substantially he is right in his
explanations of the loss of popularity by the Moderate
Socialist leaders of the Soviet, as also in his statements
regarding the growing Bolshevist success among the
Petrograd workmen and soldiers. Mr. Tsereteli was
also right in his forebodings as to the result of his
and his friends taking part in the Government. The
opinion of the man in the street, a workman or a soldier
of Petrograd, was, in April, as M. Anet states it in his
diary under the dates April I3~26th, that war must
be stopped at once, and the only obstacle was that
" Germany would not make peace with Guchkov and
Miliukov : accordingly they must go. As soon as a
1 History of the Russian Revolution to Brest Litovsk (George
Allen & Unwin, Ltd.).
PROGRESS THROUGH WAR 81
true Democracy assumes power, the German Socialists
will overthrow William and will unite with us."
Meantime, the Moderate Socialists were entering
the Cabinet with a firm decision, which became nearly
a moral obligation, to start an offensive, which could
not but be explained as prolonging the war and making
common cause with " British and French capitalists."
Says Mr. Trotsky : "At that time they spoke of the
offensive in exactly the same terms in which Social
Patriots of all countries had spoken at the beginning
of the war about the necessity of supporting the
cause of national defence, of strengthening the sacred
unity of the nation, etc. All their Zimmerwaldian
Internationalism vanished as if by magic." Moreover,
although they never wished to take any coercive
measures against Leninite open appeals to mutiny, they
had to share the responsibility for such half-hearted
measures as were finally taken by the Government
after the first Bolshevist rising of July I4~i6th. On
taking the helm they soon learnt the appalling in-
sufficiency of the vanishing State resources to cope
with increased social demands, and they tried to impart
to the masses some of their new knowledge, warning
them against demagogic exaggerations and explaining
to them the unachievable character of Bolshevist
promises. They were practically now speaking the
same language as the bourgeois politicians, but they
were using it in complete contradiction to what was
considered to be the true socialistic doctrine and the
true tactics of " Revolutionary Democracy." That is
why they quickly lost ground and why the Bolshevik
leaders gained ground amongst the Petrograd masses.
Amongst the uncertain and the wavering the Bolsheviks
6
82 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
were the only people who knew what they wished to
do, and who were ready to use force in order to achieve
their aims. On the day after his arrival in Russia,
on April I7th, Mr. Lenin made public his " personal "
points, which started with the assertion that " no con-
cessions, not even the smallest ones, to revolutionary
defencism (i.e. the point of view of national defence)
are possible, because war remains predatory and im-
perialistic, owing to the capitalistic character of this
Government."
Moderate Socialists are " cheated by the bourgeoisie,"
and they are to be taught that " no truly democratic
peace, no peace without violence is possible without
the overthrow of capitalism." " This view must be
largely propagated in the army," which must be
taught to " fraternize." The first stage of the
Revolution which is characterized by the bourgeois
possession of power owing to the lack of con-
sciousness and organization of the proletariat must
yield to the second stage, which must give power to
the proletarians and poorest peasants. " The first
step towards it is to protest against the parliamentary
republic, and to insist on the handing over the power
to the Soviets. Police, army, and officials are to be
abolished, proprietors' estates confiscated, all land
and all banks are to be " nationalized."
It will not be, as yet, equivalent to " introducing
Socialism," but it will make an immediate transition
to control by the Soviet, to collective production and
the distribution of produce. ' The initiative must
be taken for organizing a new International against
Social Chauvinists and against the Centre." It is
explained that International Socialists give that name
PROGRESS THROUGH WAR 83
of the Centre to " the current that vacillates between
Chauvinism (" Defencism ") and Internationalism, e.g.
Kautsky and Co., in Germany ; Longuet and Co., in
France ; Tchkeidse and Co., in Russia ; Turati and Co.,
in Italy ; Ramsay Macdonald and Co., in England,
etc."
Pure Zimmerwaldism was to be opposed to " un-
principled nebulousness and political servility " of
Zimmerwaldian renegades the " lower middle-class
Democrats," as Mr. Trotsky misleadingly calls the
Moderate Socialists. And pure Zimmerwaldism has
won the game. It is impossible to state here in detail
just how it happened, but Mr. Trotsky has told his
version of the story, and I told mine in another place. 1
The reader may be referred to both. The point is
the same in both readings, namely, that International
Socialism has gained the upper hand over the National
Revolution. Whatever be the result of this change
for Russia, in Europe it is a most important episode
and a link in the chain in the history of rising Inter-
nationalism.
4. INFLUENCE OF THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION ON
EUROPEAN INTERNATIONALISM.
We have now seen the kind of influence that European
Internationalism has had upon the course of the Russian
Revolution. Let us trace the inverse influence which
the internationalized Russian Revolution has had upon
European Internationalism.
Had M, Albert Thomas's exertions been successful,
1 See my History of the Second Russian Revolution, now in
process of publication in Russia,
84 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
and had Mr. Kerensky's speeches been able to regenerate
the " democratized " Russian Army, the flexible socialis-
tic majorities in the Entente countries might have been
stiffened. The inevitable failure of the Russian offen-
sive was bound, on the contrary, to make their immediate
position untenable and to strengthen both extremes
at their expense : the " bourgeois militarism " and the
Extremist Internationalism. After all, the vicissitudes
and the final issue of the war, not parliamentary dis-
cussions and the resolutions of congresses, decided the
fate of all three currents. Whether it was to be the
peace " without victory " of President Wilson of 1916,
or a " peace of understanding " (Verstandigungsfriederi)
of the German Reichstag of July 1917, or a " peace
of violence," in case of the complete defeat of either
one side, had to be determined on the battlefield.
The Russian Revolution was also considered as a
new factor, but not so much owing to the exalted
mission assumed by its socialist leaders, as because
of the changes likely to result from the state of mind
of the Russian fighting forces. The chances of a
" democratic peace " as proposed by the Soviet being
enforced were rising and falling in exact proportion
with the number of enemy troops which the Russian
front was able to detain.
We can easily trace the seemingly complicated story
of these fluctuations to the above mentioned cause,
when studying the rise and fall of a new international
enterprise started under the auspices of the Russian
Revolution. I mean the renewed attempt to convoke
a Conference of Socialists of all countries in Stockholm.
The two first stages of this story follow the beaten track.
Suggested by Germans, the idea was taken up by pro-
PROGRESS THROUGH WAR 85
German neutrals. It is the third stage that is new :
that where the customary participation of neutrals is
intercepted by that unforeseen agent the indiscrirni-
nating Zimmerwaldians of the Russian Soviet. It is
here that fluctuations begin.
To start at the beginning. The Soviet's Appeal of
March 27th " to the peoples of the whole world " set
Internationalist Socialists of all countries to work. It
directly invited Germany to take up the Zimmerwald
and Kienthal scheme. Lenin himself might be entirely
satisfied with the Soviet's proposal to Germany to
imitate the Russian example and " to overthrow the
yoke of the autocratic regime, to desist from serving
an instrument of rapine and violence for kings, land-
owners, and bankers, and with united effort to stop
the fearful slaughter dishonouring humanity and ob-
fuscating the great days of Russia's era of freedom."
This invitation elicited only a very reserved and
dry response on the part of the German Social Demo-
crats. They were against interference in any one's
internal affairs ; so far as Germany was concerned, the
great majority of Germans were Monarchists, and they
would be quite satisfied with democratic reform, without
asking for a Republic. Of course, the German Minority,
which had just, under the influence of the Russian
Revolution, separated itself from the old party, and had
at the Congress of Gotha (April 6-8th) assumed a new
organization and the new name of the " Independent
S.D. Party," did not agree to that view.
During the debate following Bethmann-Hollweg's
resignation (July I4th) the Independent Socialists pro-
posed an amendment including the " pure " Russian
formula for " democratic peace," and they wound up
86 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
by a demand for " democratization which will cul-
minate in the creation of a Socialist Republic."
Far from sharing such views at home, the Majority
Socialists were busily aiding in importing them into
revolutionized Russia. A lively interchange of views
and journeys to and from Berlin had begun. Already
at the beginning of April, not only a batch of Russian
Bolsheviks with Mr. Lenin at the head, was hurriedly
forwarded to Russia via Germany from Switzerland,
with the active help of Swiss Internationalists, but
signals were given to the Austrians, Adler, Renner,
and Seitz, who followed directly on Mr. Lenin's heels
via Berlin to Copenhagen, and there discussed matters
with Scheidemann and Stauding, after having discussed
them previously with Count Czernin. A few days
later the same route, Berlin-Copenhagen-Stockholm,
was pursued by Dutch members of the old Socialist
International Bureau (transferred to the Hague from
Brussels), Troelstra, Albarda, Van Kol, followed by
the Secretary, M. Camille Huysmans. While in
Berlin Troelstra secured the official consent of the
German Majority Socialists not to object to the par-
ticipation of the Minority at the Conference. The
Minority, to be sure, was less conciliatory. Franz
Mehring wrote to the Petrograd Soviet " protesting
energetically against the admission," of the Majority
and " refusing to take part " in a Conference whose
only purpose evidently was " to promote the interests
of the German Government." The admission of such
" faithful slaves of the German Government," as
" Scheidemann and Siidecum and all the other so-
called Socialists . . . would be a severe blow to Inter-
national Socialism."
PROGRESS THROUGH WAR 87
Such an appeal, of course, did not go unheeded by
the Soviet Zimmerwaldians. They looked askance
at National Socialist Deputies and Ministers coming
to Russia. How could they allow them to appropriate
for themselves the initiative of a Conference towards
which their own attitude was, as M. Vandervelde very
well stated, that of "a kind of Messianic faith ? "
" They believe," M. Vandervelde goes on saying,
" that the prestige of their Revolution would put them
in a position to impose their peace formula on the other
Socialist parties, including the German Majority
Socialists."
The Entente Socialists might find it rather " para-
doxical to suppose that to induce the Russian soldiers
to fight, one must put before them the idea of a Con-
ference in favour of peace." It was, of course, para-
doxical and utterly false, but the idea had become
current, as we saw it, already in 1916 among European
Socialist minorities. Mr. Tsereteli and Mr. Kerensky
were repeating to MM. Albert Thomas and Emile
Vandervelde what they might have learnt from M.
Longuet and Mr. Ramsay Macdonald, had they not
been taught in a more direct way by the Zimmerwald
and Kienthal resolutions. The chief point is, though,
that Tsereteli and Kerensky were led by people who
understood the gist of the Zimmerwald doctrine better
than they did, and they only repeated words which
from their own point of view had no other meaning
than that of gaining them the favour of the " revolu-
tionary " Democracy. It was the real leaders of
International Extremism who prepared the draft of
a new appeal issued by the Soviet on June 3, 1917.
Here we find the entire doctrine of Zimmerwald
88 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
embodied, without any compromise or misguiding
comment.
After having told the story of their having " forced "
the Government to accept the " democratic " formula
of peace, they gave motives for their decisions of
May 9-i5th to take the initiative in convoking the
International Conference at Stockholm :
The Soviet of Working Men and Soldiers thinks that the
cessation of war and the establishment of international peace
. . . can only be attained by a united international effort of
workmen's parties and syndicates of belligerent and neutral
countries for an energetic and tenacious struggle against universal
slaughter. The first necessary and decisive step in order to
organize such an international movement is the convocation of
an International Conference. Its principal task must be to bring
about an agreement between the representatives of the Socialist
proletariat on the subject of liquidating the policy of the sacred
union with the Governments and with imperialist classes which
precludes all struggle for peace, and also on the subject of the
methods of such a struggle. . . . Are invited parties and
organizations of working classes which share in these
opinions and are ready to unite their efforts for the sake of
their realization.
The Soviet is also firmly persuaded that parties and organi-
zations which do accept this invitation will also accept the
inflexible obligation to apply in reality all decisions of that
Conference.
It is now easy to understand why the Soviet
particularly emphasized the necessity for all socialistic
minorities to be present at Stockholm. They were the
only parties capable of sharing in the programme,
tactics, and the discipline of Zimmerwald-Kienthal. On
May gth the Executive Committee of the Soviet sent
special telegrams to England, France, Italy, Switzer-
land, and Sweden in order to " invite comrades Brizon,
Longuet, and other representatives of the French
Socialistic Opposition, representatives of the Inde-
PROGRESS THROUGH WAR 89
pendent Labour Party, the British Socialist party,
and the Italian Social Democratic party to send their
delegates to Petrograd."
This was not very much different from Robert
Grimm's invitation to Stockholm, extended in the name
of the Berne I.S.C. to " parties and organizations
sharing the watchwords : war against the conciliation
of parties, renewal of the class war, demand for an
immediate armistice, and the conclusion of peace with-
out contributions and annexations on the basis of free
self-determination of peoples."
This " third Zimmerwald Conference " was to meet
on May i8th, ten days before the date initially fixed
by the " Dutch-Scandinavian Committee " for a general
Socialistic Conference, in order " to work out a uniform
platform " and to control the latter (cf. supra, p. 57).
It is worth while enumerating the socialistic organiza-
tions which received Robert Grimm's invitation : the
list will show at once the sphere of the influence of
Zimmerwald-Kienthal doctrine and tactics. They
are :
The Soviet of Working Men and Soldiers.
The Central Committee and the Organization Committee of
The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party.
The Central Committee of Russian Social Revolutionary Party
of an Internationalist Tendency.
The Central Committee of Jewish Labour " Bunds " in Poland,
Lithuania and Prussia.
The German Independent Social Democratic Labour Party.
The French Social Democratic Minority of Zimmerwald
Tendency.
The Italian Social Democratic Party.
The Polish Socialistic Party.
The Bulgarian Social Democratic Party (the " Left "
one).
Rumanian Social Democratic Party.
British Independent Labour Party.
90 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
Swedish, Danish and Norwegian Social Democratic Unions
ol Young Men.
Norwegian Social Democratic Party.
Serbian Social Democratic Party.
Attempts of the Entente Socialists to change that
state of mind of the Soviet were quite hopeless. The
Belgians decidedly refused to confer with the Germans.
The French Deputies (Moutet, Cachin, Lafont) were
so strongly impressed by the Soviet's extremism that
on their return to France they advocated a policy of
the largest concessions.
Arthur Henderson, after having agreed with his
colleagues in a common refusal to participate in a
full conference, finally consented to a consultative con-
ference. Albert Thomas, who was particularly re-
sponsible for the first Coalition compromise, was also
especially eager to help the Russian Socialistic Govern-
ment to the anticipated military success. However,
he consented to accept the Conference with certain
reservations, which were practically equivalent to a
refusal. The French party, as represented by its
Permanent Administrative Commission, had just
(April 27th) denied the right of the Dutch Socialists to
speak in the name of the International, and had refused
to go to a Conference convoked under an obvious incite-
ment of the Austro-German Socialists who had not
yet repudiated their guilt of complicity with their
aggressive Government, and who now hoped that an
amnesty would be extended to them by the Russian
Revolution. But as soon as the National Congress
of the party (May 29th) learnt from Messrs. Cachin
and Moutet of the initiative of the Soviet, the draft
of a resolution strongly denouncing the International's
PROGRESS THROUGH WAR 91
powerlessness was withdrawn, and was replaced by one
accepting " the initiative of the Russian comrades,"
and consenting to send a delegation to Stockholm in
order " to prepare for peace according to the principles
formulated by the Revolutionary Government and by
the Socialists in Russia."
A Russian delegation, sent by the Soviet, was also
hurrying to Stockholm, and National Socialists of the
Allied countries were happy to elicit at least one con-
cession from the Soviet, to wit, a consent to discuss
matters previously at an inter-Allied Socialist Con-
ference in London. On their arrival in London the
Russian delegates were met by Messrs. Jowett, Ramsay
Macdonald, Roberts, and Wardle, in the name of the
I.L.P., whose guests they were considered to be. This
was quite sufficient to classify them truly with the
Extremists of this country and to warn the great majority
of real Workmen's organizations against them. A
manifesto issued by the " League of British Workmen "
severely criticized their declaration, asked the Russian
" comrades " to mind their own business, and expressed
an " earnest hope that neither the Parliament nor
the nation will permit itself to be lulled by words,"
while ignoring the fact that " the ideas of the Russian
Revolutionaries run counter to British national sover-
eignty." In vain Arthur Henderson tried to conciliate
Labour opinion and to persuade it to reconsider the
decision, taken half a year before by the Trade Union
Congress, not to go to the Conference. In Paris the
Russian delegates also met with difficulties concerning
the composition of the proposed Conference : the
French would not admit the newly-formed minorities
and their central organ in Berne ; while the Russians,
92 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
as we have seen, were making of it a leading feature
and an unalterable condition of the renascence of the
International.
Whether or not Russian Zimmerwaldism would
succeed in wringing involuntary concessions from the
socialistic majorities of the Allied countries, entirely
depended on the success or failure of that enterprise
which forced Allied Socialists to coax the Russian
tovarischi (comrades) of the Soviet the Russian
offensive.
In the third week of July news came to hand reporting
that after the first brilliant successes of the Russian
offensive, exclusively due to newly-organized " shock
battalions " and to the personal gallantry of the officers,
the body of the army, without being defeated in battle,
turned their backs to the enemy. Before the end of
July it became clear that the retreat was not accidental,
and that it was not to be stopped by Mr. Kerensky's
means of persuasion.
On July zgth General Denikin told it to the Revolu-
tionary War Minister in the same plain and outspoken
manner as he was wont to use when addressing the
authorities of the ancient regime. He quoted a number
of instances in order to show just how inadequate and
transient the impression of Mr. Kerensky's speeches
was on the army, and, on the other hand, how thoroughly
destructive was the process of the so-called " democrat-
ization " of the army for preserving its discipline and
its loyalty to the commanding staff. Among other
things General Denikin quoted a report of the Com-
mander of the ist Corps of the Siberian Army, which
I reproduce here in order to show how utterly unjust
and misleading it is to explain the Russian defeat
PROGRESS THROUGH WAR 93
by anything else than the state of mind of soldiers
depraved by an extremist propaganda :
Everything promised the success of the operations : a care-
fully-worked-out scheme, powerful artillery which worked
admirably, favourable weather which hindered the Germans'
use of the superiority of their aviation, our numerical prepon-
derance, facilities for moving reserves at any chosen moment,
the abundance of munitions, a happy choice of the sector for
attack, permitting us to place our artillery in the vicinity of
the enemy's trenches without observation, a large number of
guns well hidden owing to the configuration of the ground, the
short distance between the two lines, an absence of natural
obstacles which would force us to attack under enemy fire. . . .
A success, a brilliant success crowned our effort with compara-
tively small losses on our side. Three fortified lines were taken.
There remained before us only a few fortifications, and the battle
might soon have taken the character of a complete destruction
of the enemy, whose artillery was silenced ; more than 1,400
were taken prisoners, a great number of machine guns were
captured. Besides, the enemy suffered great losses in dead
and wounded, and one might, with certainty, say that ere long
the units before us would have been entirely disabled. . . .
Barely three or four batteries kept firing on our front, and,
now and then, as many machine guns. Rifle shots were scarce.
. . . But night came. ... I immediately began to receive
disquieting news from commanders. Quite a mass of soldiers,
by whole companies, began of their own will to retreat from
the first line which remained unattacked. In certain regiments
only commanders with their staffs and a few soldiers stayed
within the zone of fire. . . . Having thus, within the space
of one day, passed from the joy of approaching victory wrung
from the enemy under most favourable circumstances to the
horror of seeing the fruits of this victory voluntarily abandoned
by the combating masses, at the moment when victory was as
much a necessity to our native country as air and water are
to man, I was brought to understand that we, the chiefs, were
quite powerless to change the fatal psychology of the masses,
and I wept long and bitterly. . . .
On the receipt of news of the Russian military
collapse, readiness to defer to the wishes of the Soviet
at once disappeared. " Let us not shut our eyes to
reality," one of the Russian delegates, Mr. Rubanovitch,
94 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
said to the Executive Committee of Peasants' Deputies
on September gth. " If the appeal to Revolutionary
Democracy on behalf of peace is to be heeded, the
fighting force of the Russian Revolutionary Army
must be reconstituted. Failing this, there is no sal-
vation, and no struggle for peace is possible."
Indeed, all leading Socialists who committed them-
selves to the Soviet proposal now hastily withdrew
their consent, on the plausible pretext that the Russian
Government themselves no longer insisted on backing
the Stockholm Conference. Arthur Henderson, who
still favoured it, at the end of July had to resign his
place in the Cabinet (July 29th) ; a month later
(August 22nd) he was disavowed by the Trade Union
Congress in Blackpool, which, by an overwhelming
majority of 2,049,000 against 91,000, carried a resolu-
tion to the effect that, " At present a Conference in
Stockholm has no chance of success."
Albert Thomas proved more flexible and farseeing.
Already on August 2nd, in his speech delivered at
Champial, he declared that the Conference was " un-
timely," and that the chief reason for consenting to it
namely, " the feeling of admiration for the Russian
Revolution, and the desire to help it in an active way "
no longer existed, because " the effort we were willing
to make is not considered desirable by the Russian
Government."
As a consequence of that change, differences of
opinion among Moderate Socialists on the subject of
Stockholm so much increased, that the preliminary
inter-Allied Conference in London (August 29th to
September 2nd) proved unable to come to unanimous
conclusions. The declaration of the majority, in slightly
PROGRESS THROUGH WAR 95
veiled expressions, acknowledged the failure of the
Russian Revolution " to rouse popular energy against
the militarism of the Central Empires," and formally
limited the meaning of all three principles of the
Russian " democratic " formula : " without contribu-
tions," " without annexations," and " self-determina-
tion."
Even Mr. Henderson had now to declare that, owing
to " the inability of the inter- Allied Conference to come
to any even approximate agreement," the International
Conference " would be not merely harmful, but disas-
trous." " We cannot meet in an International Con-
ference so long as no common ground of understanding
between the working classes of the Allied nations has
been discovered."
The only " common ground " was, indeed, that of
Zimmerwald-Kienthal ; and as soon as it appeared
useless to seek for it any longer, even such hypocritical
and half-hearted concessions as had been made to the
Russian Revolution were withdrawn. Even the
" optimist," M. Vandervelde, discussing the new
situation a little later, made some melancholy remarks
which may serve for drawing the veil over the past.
" Riga is taken ; Courland is conquered ; the lines
in the north are broken, and, which is infinitely more
grave than the worst defeats, the question is being
asked if the Revolutionary armies are still capable,
not of a great offensive, but simply of holding out
against the attacks of the enemy. Meanwhile, in the
interior the authority of the Provisional Government
is tottering. The Soviets are discussing when they
should be acting, party and class antagonisms are
dominating the preoccupations of public safety, and
96 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
in this immense country, where so many nationalities
meet, one looks in vain for any sign of a national spirit.
We must expect in these conditions that in Paris, as
in London, the Conservatives, who have been forced to
keep silence during the first successes of the Revolution,
will to-day open their mouths to judge and to condemn."
M. Vandervelde was perfectly right in his forebodings,
with the exception that, perhaps, he, too, might open
his mouth in order " to judge and to condemn " the
kind of help given by his colleagues to bring about
that lamentable result. In London, in Paris and in
Berlin, too the greater part of public opinion, Par-
liaments, and Government resumed an uncompromising
attitude : the period of concessions to Internationalism
had passed with the passing success of the Russian
Revolution.
In Berlin the parliamentary bloc which carried the
Reichstag resolution of July igth (on " a peace of
understanding," with which " forced acquisitions of
territory are inconsistent ") was dissolved in October :
the " Independents " were isolated, and while they
were carrying on a criminal propaganda in the Navy,
the old party declared itself at the Wiirzburg Congress
(October i4th-2Oth) ready to change their irrespon-
sible attitude towards the State. The new Chancellor
Michaelis, whose nomination was intended to conciliate
the parliamentary bloc without making them any sub-
stantial concessions, told the Budget Committee of
the Reichstag that the Government reserved for them-
selves full liberty of action so far as war aims were
concerned, and the Foreign Minister, Kiihlmann,
finally declared (October gth) that Germany will never
yield on the Alsace-Lorraine question.
PROGRESS THROUGH WAR 97
The newly-built Jingo " party of the Fatherland "
had won the ascendancy, and, as a result, Michaelis
had to go (October 28th), his place being taken by a
still more conservative politician, Count Hertling,
nominated by the Emperor without previously consulting
the Reichstag, as had been the case with Michaelis.
In France the drift of events was in the same direction.
At the Congress of Bordeaux (October 6th-gth) the
Socialist Majority reasserted its predominance. The
resolution of the Congress is a curious mixture of former
internationalist illusions still retained, at least so far
as terminology is concerned, and a dawning consciousness
of " the meaning of events and the pressure of realities,"
which " oblige the Allies to bring up to the maximum
their military, diplomatic, and economical action," and
" not to neglect any form of action (i.e. including par-
ticipation in the Cabinet and the voting of credits)."
They still asserted their willingness to participate in the
International Conference (which had been postponed
on the pretext of the refusal of passports to the Ex-
tremists by the Governments) ; but having grown
suspicious, they now wanted " all " Socialist parties
(i.e. the Zinimerwaldian minorities included) and
" particularly and fraternally " the Russians of the
Soviet to speak their mind fully and openly and to
present a " detailed " answer to the Dutch-Norwegian
" Questionnaire " as they themselves had done. The
resolution was carried by 1,552 votes against two dis-
sentient groups of the minority, one of which was
ready to vote war credits (about 400), and another which
was against any help to the Government (about 120).
Partisans of the Russian compromise preached by
Messrs. Lafont and Moutet had lost ground and abstained
7
98 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
from voting, but they were few (85). Mr. Alexander
Varenne was right when he summed up the final result
as extremely favourable, " the majority for sharing in
the Government having reached two-thirds, and the
majority for voting credits four-sixths."
That is why the Government felt strengthened and
unswervingly repudiated internationalist views on
" secret diplomacy " and on " war aims." Ribot and
Painleve could answer Kuhlmann's " Never " : " We
shall have both victory and Alsace-Lorraine." To be
sure, the composition of the Government, owing to
the combined attacks from both extreme wings, Royalist
and Socialist, had been twice modified. After Painleve
(August 3oth), Clemenceau took up the presidency
(November I3th). But the spirit of national resistance
was only strengthened by the change. " I shall make
no promises, I shall make war," M. Clemenceau was
heard saying in his declaration.
Interrupted by a Deputy, " What about your war
aims ? " M. Clemenceau gave a plain answer : " My
aim is victory ! We will try to be a Government.
I share many of your (Extreme Left) prejudices, but I
differentiate from you when you wish to introduce
perspectives of pure reasoning into the world of reality."
And he proudly concluded : "If we see the dawn of
the day when we can hail victory, I wish you on that
day to inflict the vote of censure on me. I will then
retire satisfied." M. Clemenceau has lived up to the
day he so confidently predicted.
Internationalism was on the wane all over Europe
just at the moment when it carried its decisive victory
in Petrograd. It seemed as if the advent of Bolshevism
in Russia was to mark the end of Bolshevism as an
99
international peril. Far from that being the case, the
danger was only beginning to develop.
5. THE BOLSHEVIST COLLAPSE IN WAR AND TRIUMPH
IN PROPAGANDA.
Not only in order to be fair to the Bolshevist leaders,
but simply to understand them, one must not judge
them by the immediate results of their " direct action "
Did not Lenin himself say (supra, pp. 20 and 65) that
one must be naive and ignorant to think that a backward
country like Russia is capable of becoming a Socialistic
Community over night ? And did not the Bolsheviks
always protest against the supposition that, while
destroying the Russian Army and putting their country
at the mercy of Germany, they really expected the
German " imperialists " to favour Russia with a " demo-
cratic peace."
A few days after the Bolshevist trial revolt in July,
Mr. Lenin repeated what he said twelve years earlier,
namely, that Russia was not ripe for an immediate
socialistic overthrow. And Mr. Trotsky, in his published
account on his part in the Brest-Litovsk negotiations,
says, of course, a little post factum : " When the will
of history summoned revolutionary Russia to initiate
peace negotiations, we had no doubt whatever that,
failing the intervention of the decisive power of the
world's revolutionary proletariat, we should have to
pay in full for over three and a half years of war. We
knew perfectly well that German Imperialism was an
enemy imbued with the consciousness of its own colossal
strength, as manifested so glaringly in the present
war."
100 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
No, the Bolshevik leaders were neither " naive "
nor " ignorant." They " perfectly well knew " what
the immediate result of their tactics was bound to be.
If, in full consciousness of their ominous conduct, they
were determined to disregard this result, it was because
of the final aim they pursued, which is known to us
as the aim and the tactics of Revolutionary Syndicalism.
According to those tactics " direct action " was the
aim in itself, quite independently from its practical
results, owing to its intrinsic educational value. Was
not the Revolution, in the view of the Syndicalists,
the work of " every day and every hour ? "
The result will come sooner or later : that was the
firm belief of that revolutionary doctrine, but the only
means to hasten its advent was to go on fighting for it.
Mr. Lenin states it in utterances which might be signed
by Georges Sorel. " If Socialism," he says to the
Congress of the Peasants a fortnight after his triumph
in Petrograd (November 1917), " can only be enacted
when the intellectual development of all will permit
it, we shall not see the advent of Socialism even after
500 years. But more advanced elements such as the
Bolshevist Party in the present case must carry with
them the masses without letting themselves be stopped
by the fact that the average mentality of the masses
is not what it ought to be. We must lead the
masses by using the Soviets as organs of popular
initiative."
Mr. Trotsky repeats the same refrain in his book.
" One must always remember that the masses of the
people have never been in possession of power, that
they have always been under the heel of other classes,
and that therefore they lack political self-confidence
PROGRESS THROUGH WAR 101
Any hesitation shown in revolutionary centres has an
immediate deteriorating effect upon them. Only
when the revolutionary party firmly and unflinchingly
speeds to its goal can it help the working masses to
overcome all the slavish instincts inherited from
centuries, and lead the masses to victory. Only a
resolute offensive secures victory with a minimum ex-
penditure of strength and with the fewest losses."
It is only when we consider in this light the " resolute
offensive " now begun by the Bolsheviks for the
" democratic peace " that we can understand why
people who were not at all stupid, and some of whom
were clever, were unable to foresee the results obvious
to everybody. Theirs was a method of unswerving
bluff, almost grandiose in its unattainable cynicism.
" Soldiers ! Workmen ! Peasants ! " the new Minister
of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Trotsky, shouted four days after
the Bolshevist victory : " Your Soviet Government will
not permit your despatch anew to slaughter under
the cudgels of a foreign bourgeoisie. Do not be afraid
of menaces. The peoples of Europe, attenuated by
suffering, are with us. They all want an immediate
peace. Our prcposal of an armistice will resound as
a bell of salvation. The peoples of Europe will not
permit the bourgeois Governments to strike at the
Russian people, whose only fault was to wish for peace
and the fraternity of peoples." That very day (Novem-
ber nth) Lenin explains to the Central Executive
Committee that it was in consequence of the same
system that the Russians were not going to address
themselves for opening negotiations with the enemy
to supreme military authorities, but that " it was
necessary to address the soldiers directly, because
102 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
peace was to be concluded not from above, but from below,
thanks to the activity of the soldiers themselves."
" That is why," Lenin said, " we addressed our appeal
to fraternize not to the army, but to every single
regiment." Could that self-reliance be abashed by
severe lessons administered to Bolshevist negotiators
by German generals ? Of course not. The more
insolent the Germans were, the worse the conditions
of peace they proposed the best for the aims of the
world's propaganda of Bolshevism. Well, Mr. Trotsky
says in his inimitable slang (November igth), the
representatives of the Kaiser have consented " to pass
under the yoke " of the great Bolshevist power. " While
sitting with them at the same table (instead of discussing
peace with the ' peoples ') we shall put to them un-
equivocal questions, and we shall admit no subterfuges.
The whole trend of negotiations, every word uttered
by us and by them, will be recorded and sent by wireless
to all the peoples who will be judges of our negotiations.
The German and the Austrian Governments, under
the pressure of their lower strata, have already consented
to be subpoenaed to sit on the defendants' bench.
Be sure, comrades, that the Public Prosecutor,
in the person of the Russian revolutionary dele-
gation, will prove the right man in the right
place ! "
Moreover, " France and England will be obliged to
join in peace negotiations. If they do not join, then
their peoples, after having been informed of the trend
of the negotiations, will drive them there with lashes,
and the Russian representative will make their accu-
sations at the bar of justice " (November 2ist).
A few days later Mr. Trotsky is a little aston-
PROGRESS THROUGH WAR 108
ished. The Germans, past masters in bluff, easily
outran their inexperienced pupils. " It must be can-
didly admitted," Mr. Trotsky states, " that we did
not anticipate that the actual proposals of the German
Imperialists would be separated by such a wide gulf
from the formulae presented to us by Kiihlmann on
December 25th as a sort of plagiarism of the Russian
Revolution (no annexations, etc.). We, indeed, did
not expect such an acme of impudence." But, of
course, General Hoffmann was no match for Leo
Trotsky.
What is the use of proposing " predatory conditions
of peace " on the part of the Germans ? what is the
reason for fear on the part of the Bolsheviks ? Anyhow,
these are " no negotiations. We shall have to carry on
other negotiations with Germany, when Liebknecht is
at the head of the revolutionary proletariat of Germany,
and together with him we shall readjust the map of Europe."
To attain that aim one single thing is necessary :
time to edify the European masses. Propaganda is
the chief point, and the very negotiations present an
interest for the Bolsheviks only so far as they give
opportunities for propaganda and protract the con-
clusion of peace. " We do not take into consideration
that it is peace negotiations we carry on with Germany.
We speak to them our customary revolutionary lan-
guage." " Other negotiations, a true diplomacy of the
trenches " will be carried in the ranks of the Austro-
German Army through a special newspaper, the Torch,
published in German. " We declared that on this point
we shall not enter into discussion with German generals,
but we will only talk with the German people."
It is true that already in October the German
104 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
" Independents " wished their Russian comrades to
know that " we cannot expect a Revolutionary move-
ment in Germany to come soon : our Russian comrades
must not count upon it." But the Russian comrades
were bound to count upon it, because otherwise their
game of hazard was lost. Even if they were wrong,
and failed, it would not matter. Anyhow, it would
be a new and better record for the future. They were
really lost only in one case : if they became untrue to
their final aim.
" We made it the aim and purpose of our diplomacy,"
Mr. Trotsky says in his book, not to win a good peace
for Russia which was impossible but to " enlighten
the popular masses, to open their eyes as to the nature
of the policy of their respective Governments, and to
fuse them in one common struggle against, and hatred
of, the bourgeois-capitalist regime." "In so far as
we could not pledge ourselves to change the balance
and correlation of the world's powers in a very short
period of time, we openly and honestly declared that
the Revolutionary Government might, under certain
circumstances, be compelled to accept an annexationist
peace. For not the acceptance of a peace forced upon
us by the course of events, but an attempt to hide its
predatory character from our own people, would have
been the beginning of the end of the Revolutionary
Government."
It was, as one may see, quite an easy game : one
had only to oppose to every step of German diplomacy
a renewed appeal to the " peoples," without heeding
any practical consequences. Even if Germany had
to win, to dismember Russia, to defeat her Allies, to
establish its domination over Europe, what did it
PROGRESS THROUGH WAR 105
matter ? The " common struggle against, and hatred
of, the bourgeois-capitalist regime " was bound to come
anyhow. Measured by that supreme criterion, every-
thing else dwindled down to insignificance, and it was
quite immaterial whether that final result was attained
by victory or by temporary compromise, by promises
given and not fulfilled, by any kind of " predatory
peace " extorted by the " capitalists " and forcibly
acceded to by the Internationalists. Anything that
might hasten the final upshot was to be resorted to,
while no promise and no obligation could be con-
sidered binding towards " sworn enemies of the ' pro-
letariat.' "
Of course, it is not only the Messianic idea of a Com-
munist millennium to come that makes the Bolsheviks
believe in the infallibility of their tactics. It is also
their reading of current events, in which they display
extreme credulity in regard to the signs of approaching
catastrophe. It was not mere bluff when the Pravda
stated on November 13, 1917 : " William knows that
in case he gives an unsatisfactory answer German
proletarians and peasants will reply by an outburst
of indignation, a cry of revolt which will prove fatal
to him." This also was the state of mind of Trotsky
during the Brest - Litovsk negotiations. " In the
interval, which lasted ten days," he says in his book,
" serious disturbances broke out in Austria, and strikes
took place among the labouring class there." This he
describes as " the first act of recognition on the part
of proletariat of the Central Powers of our methods
of conducting the peace negotiations, in the face of the
annexationist demands of German Imperialism."
Later on, the official Isvestia will agree, to be sure :
106 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
" we were deceived by the Austro-German strike, which
made us to use Herzen's expression mistake the
second month of pregnancy for the ninth." But
directly they console themselves with a new manifes-
tation of their self-conceit. " In our turn we repaid
the German Imperialists a hundredfold when we induced
them fatally to believe that on the fields of Champagne
they might look forward to as speedy successes as they
reaped on the snowy plains of Russia." The Bolsheviks
thus even construe the military successes of the Allies
as one more proof of the intrinsic merits of their inter-
nationalist method of fighting with words !
Pursuing that course, after many more deceptions
and disillusions, Mr. Trotsky finally recurred to means
" unused in the world's history," to use his grandilo-
quent style. He declared that he would neither sign,
nor fight. To confound the guilty conscience of the
" imperialist " enemy Government, the Russian Army
was to be formally demobilized. The Russian front,
thus left without defence, was " handed over to the
protection of German workmen." That was, of course,
consistent with the doctrine, but not in the least
convincing. " Imperialistic " Germany immediately
made use of that charitable decision and . . . started
on the occupation and subsequent dismemberment of
Russia. This, too, was explained by the Bolsheviks as
the very pitch of Russian success ! Mr. Zinoviev, the
dictator of Petrograd, on January 30, 1918, wrote in
his Red Journal : " We dealt a terrible blow to the
world's Imperialism, when, three months ago, we began
our peace negotiations. Now we deal to that Imperial-
ism a deadly blow by our new formula < " He meant
Mr. Trotsky's formula : Neither peace nor war.
PROGRESS THROUGH WAR 107
There was a system in this madness. And it was
this system which, in a sense, revealed its strength.
Both German and Bolshevist plenipotentiaries at Brest-
Litovsk understood very well where that strength lay.
Mr. Kamenev, one of the negotiators, stated quite
frankly to a French journalist (Robert Vaucher) :
" We protracted negotiations for three months," he
said, " in order to give time for our propaganda to
pervade Germany . . . and as soon as the Germans
saw that we were dragging out discussion they at once
changed their tone. . . . They became arrogant as
soon as they heard Trotsky speak of the revolution
in Germany. ' These people,' they said to themselves,
' have come here not to make peace, but to foment
revolution.' And indeed we had many opportunities
of meeting soldiers who were disaffected. ..." As a
matter of fact, during the negotiations Mr. Kamenev
was particularly anxious to extract from the German
military command a direct permission to send Bolshevist
incendiary pamphlets to the German trenches, and
through Germany to the French and British front.
He candidly avowed that this was an integral part of
" the system of the revolutionary struggle for peace."
Moreover, the Bolsheviks did not even wait for per-
mission. A pamphlet signed by Lenin and Trotsky
was spread " in millions of copies " among the German
soldiers at the very time when negotiations were being
carried on. The secretary of the Russian delegation,
Mr. Karahan, had a serious talk on this subject with
the German delegates. They drew his attention to
the " disloyalty " of the method under which the Russian
Government was openly preaching rebellion against
the very Government with whose representatives it
108 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
was treating. " It looks as if the Russians do not
mean it seriously and are not sincere in their desire to
conclude peace. . . ."
Of course, they were sincere in that they considered
the peace negotiations as one of the means for making
propaganda and for preparing the international con-
flagration. And the worse this peace was for their
country, the better it suited their purpose. They did
not make any secret of their point of view. They were
quite outspoken and candid. In hundreds of speeches,
newspaper articles, formal declarations, they were
never tired of repeating the same basic idea. The
Revolution in Russia did not aim at making Russia
a Socialistic State. It was to last as long as it was
necessary to kindle the fire elsewhere. That is why
propaganda was an essential feature of the whole
scheme : and this in a double sense. In the first place,
the new Soviet organization, by the very fact of its
existence, was to work as a sample, a living means of
propaganda. In the second place, the Communist
Government had to make use of its power in order to
apply to other countries the system used by the Germans
towards the Bolsheviks. It has now become possible
for them to use for international propaganda the
financial resources of the Russian State. The only
leading idea, the beginning and the end of the Bolshevist
political wisdom, was to remain long enough in possession
of that power to see the results of their international
work. They had no doubt as to the fruition of these
results. Their only apprehension was lest Bolshevism
in Russia should be stifled beforehand by foreign
" capitalists " and " imperialists."
But, according to a new version of Bolshevist
PROGRESS THROUGH WAR 109
optimism, " capitalists " were themselves doing Bolshe-
vist business. Three weeks after the signing of the
Brest-Litovsk peace, and a week after its ratification
by the All-Russian Soviet, the Petrograd correspondent
of the Daily News formulated Mr. Lenin's theory as
follows (March 22, 1918) : " The task of the Soviets
is to hold on until the mutual exhaustion of the fighting
groups of European capital brings about revolution
in all countries." Meantime, Mr. Trotsky, who ex-
changed the Foreign Office for the War Office, would
prepare his voluntary and democratic " Red Army "
in order to impose his Communist law on a revolu-
tionized world.
The events which followed Brest-Litovsk did not
seem to justify these sanguine forecasts. The German
armies flooded the South Russian plain. Count Mirbach
played the master in Moscow and treated the Bolshevik
authorities in a high-handed way. Puffed up with
their victory in the East, the German armies were
preparing for a final blow in the West. In Germany
itself and in the Reichstag there was no more talk of
" peace by negotiation." The peace that was to follow
the successful offensive of April and May had to be
a " German peace." The democratic formula of the
parliamentary bloc of July igth was no more spoken
about, or it was even openly repudiated. The Allied
countries France particularly lived through what was
called their " darkest hour." If the spirit was un
daunted, human material was becoming exhausted
while the Americans were only just beginning to cross
and their military value was as yet unknown. The
hour seemed to have struck for the German victory
on the continent. Was it within the limits of human
110 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
foresight to surmise that before a half-year elapsed all
that glory would pass away like a summer dream ?
The Bolsheviks knew it better than anybody else.
A curious mixture of crazy dreamers in their aims,
and cynical realists in their methods of action, they
learnt by Russian experience just how exceptionally
favourable the conditions of wartime and war weariness
were for their revolutionary propaganda. The only
doubtful point was whether Germany, so famous for
her civic discipline, would dissolve as easily as the
country of Tolstoy had done. They were quite confident
that Germany would. They knew that the same
process of dissolution of the army which brought them
to power in Russia was at the same time going on in
the ranks of the German soldiers. Doubtless they were
in contact with " Spartacists." Rosa Luxembourg had
written to a Russian Socialist as early as July 1917
(quoted by John Reed in his leaflet Red Russia) :
" The Russian Revolution was everything to us, too.
Everything in Germany was tottering, falling. . . .
For months the soldiers of the two armies fraternized,
and our officers were powerless to stop it." Since
November, after the Bolshevist victory, the contact
with German (and foreign, in general) revolutionaries
had become much more regular. New means of action
were now available. One of them, and a very efficient
one, was the teaching of internationalist doctrines
to German and Austrian prisoners in Russia, and then
sending them home. This was just what the Germans
had been doing and the effect was similar.
During the summer months of 1918 Germany more
than once acknowledged the success of that propaganda
by repeatedly protesting against it. On May loth
PROGRESS THROUGH WAR 111
Count Mirbach addressed his ultimatum to the Soviet
Government, enjoining them to stop their revolutionary
propaganda amongst the war prisoners. On June 6th
Kiihlmann sent a note to the Soviet demanding the
immediate dissolution of committees for war prisoners
and the arrest of their presidents. Austria, also,
insisted that revolutionary propaganda among the
Austro-Hungarian prisoners should be discontinued.
A week later the Viennese Press deplored the Bolshevist
epidemics let loose in Austria by prisoners back from
Russia.
The agitation had become still easier since the day
(May 2nd) when Mr. Joffe unfolded the Red Banner on
the Bolshevist Embassy in Berlin. Berlin was shocked
by the fact that the new Ambassador, instead of
starting on a round of official visits, entered directly
into contact with the German Socialist Minority.
The systematic financing of the " Spartacists " evidently
dated from this time. It was now fair to state that
the Bolsheviks were " repaying " the German " capital-
ists " who had supplied them with money for their
original propaganda and " direct action." Curiously
enough, for a time, both the old and the new tactics
of working with the Germans for " peace propaganda "
in Allied countries, and working against the Germans
for a revolution in their own country, went together.
Up to the last detail the Bolsheviks used all the methods
of German agitation and " destruction." A special
" Bureau of International Revolutionary Propaganda "
was " attached to the Commissariat for Foreign Affairs."
They printed pamphlets and periodicals in every
foreign language, and they used diplomatic couriers
and friendly Legations in order to spread that literature
112 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
in and outside Europe. A Weltr evolution (World
Revolution) was published for the Germans. The
Troisieme Internationale " (The Third International) was
issued by the " French section " in French. Series of
" Russian Revolutionary Pamphlets " by Lenin, Philips
Price, etc., had been published in English in Petrograd
and in Moscow, before they began to be printed by the
I.L.P., B.S.P., or W.S.F. in London.
It is easy to understand the exultation of the Bol-
sheviks at the first symptoms of the real German
collapse. Was not it the beginning of the realization
of their prophecies, and did not it strengthen enormously
the probability of their forecasts for a World Revolution
to follow ? Vorwarts was the first to recognize their
part in it, in an editorial which was prohibited by the
German censor, but as a sign and a proof of mutual
contact appeared in the Bolshevist Pravda (Truth)
on October igth. " The cause of that complete change
in the situation," Vorwarts asserted, " must not be
sought in military success or defeat, but in the fact
that the hopes of the Russian Bolsheviks begin to
accomplish themselves. The Universal Revolution is
already in sight. Bolshevism is not confined to Russian
frontiers. Conditions necessary for its existence obtain
in all countries. In all countries the spirit of Bol-
shevism has made immense progress, and it becomes a
danger for the bourgeoisie. From this point of view
the armistice and the peace negotiations were considered
as a subterfuge used by the international bourgeoisie
in order to save their cause from the social revolution."
And the editorial of the Truth on the subject was
boldly entitled: "League of Nations or ... the
Third International." " The Government of the
PROGRESS THROUGH WAR 113
working class alone can liberate Germany from an
inevitable smash and can fearlessly reject the judgment
of the international bigot (Wilson), while giving over
the cause of peace to the new Third International."
" We must recollect," Lenin said at the solemn meeting
of the Moscow Soviet Central Executive Committee,
on October 22nd, " that in the chain of revolutions
the chief link is the German one. The success of the
World Revolution depends on it much more than on
any other." But " the same force that has destroyed
Germany is also at work in England and in America."
And he reviewed the state of internationalist propaganda
in Bulgaria and Serbia, in the small States of Austria,
in Germany, in Italy, in France, and in England. His
conclusion was : " That is how a universal phenomenon
reveals itself before us : Bolshevism has become the
universal theory and practice of the world's proletariat."
" Never before was the universal proletarian revolution
as close as it is now." A few days later the Petrograd
dictator, Zinoviev, developed the same subject at a
meeting of the Petrograd Soviet. " Let them laugh
at the fact that there will be a working men's revolution
in Berlin. The bourgeoisie is so blind as to say : let
the revolution come wherever it likes, but not in our
country. Well, the advent of a revolution in Berlin
means its simultaneous growth in Paris. . . . The
bankers of France and of London will soon learn that
the revolution in Berlin was not a feast, but a memento
won', which had to remind them of their coming per-
dition." At that very time Liebknecht was set free
from his prison (October 23rd), and the Russian work-
men's organizations greeted him as a leader of the
World Revolution. " We know it for sure that you
8
114 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
will put yourself at the head of German workmen,
soldiers, and peasants, and after having helped them
to the victory over their own bourgeoisie, you will,
shoulder to shoulder with the Russian proletariat,
advance on the last and decisive struggle with the
expiring world's imperialism, and build on its ruins
the world's social Republic of the Soviets." Trotsky, in
his turn, at a popular meeting in Petrograd on October
igth, ventures to " prophesy " : " Let only the ring
of German militarism be disjointed, and a revolution
will be kindled in France. The barricades in Berlin
will the very next day bring forth barricades in Paris.
In full confidence we now say to Poincare, Clemenceau,
and to the bigot Wilson : ' You will not frighten us ;
you will have your revolution, and we must only wait
and keep in being.' '
Of course, the Bolsheviks were very far from adopting
" wait and see " tactics. They proved extremely
active in coming into contact with kindred Extremist
Internationalist elements all over the world, sending
them money, leaflets, and instructions through the
agents of their foreign propaganda. After the Armistice,
in a still larger degree than during the war, they
considered written and oral propaganda to be their
chief aim and weapon. And they made everything
else subservient to it. They expected the opposite side,
the bourgeoisie and the Governments, to be as keen and
to become as active in defending their interests as they
themselves were. That is why Lenin declared that,
in spite of the proximity of the World Revolution,
" the situation was never so dangerous for Bolshevism
as it has become now." After the Armistice they
expected the Allies to pass through the Straits to
PROGRESS THROUGH WAR 115
Southern Russia, and they, in Trotsky's speech on
October I2th, beforehand declared that the Southern
Front, and particularly the Don region, will now " become
the wedge of the World Revolution." Events have
since proved that they strongly overrated the cleverness
and the capability of the Allies for large scale initiative.
The new " Holy Alliance " of the bourgeois Governments
was late in coming. Moderate Socialism and Labour
opinion strongly favoured the Russian Soviet experi-
ment. And instead of an Allied armed force, there
finally came to Moscow from the Paris Peace Conference,
the " Prinkipo " proposal of January 22, 1919. The
" bigot " Wilson, far from taking up the part assigned
to him by the Bolsheviks, namely, that of " the leader
of the common bourgeois front " as opposed to " Lenin's
front of the World Revolution," has shown an un-
mistakable leaning towards recognizing the Bolshevik
Government as representing the real will of the Russian
people.
After the first moments of astonishment and in-
credulity, the Bolsheviks at once saw their chance and
tried to use it. They never refused a proposal to
come and to discuss matters not even at Brest-
Litovsk. Discussion meant propaganda. We have
an interesting account of an extraordinary meeting of
a Bolshevist War Council at the Kremlin, in Moscow,
upon the reception of the Entente invitation. The
story is told by a Bolshevik official, who enjoyed Lenin's
confidence, but who served the Bolsheviks against his
will and convictions. 1 All the leading Bolsheviks
1 See Daily Chronicle of March 6th, a telegram from Geneva, re-
producing a correspondence from Kiel, whither the said official flew
from Moscow.
116 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
were present : Lenin, Trotsky, Chicherin, Lunachar-
sky, Rakovsky, Kamenev, Karakhan, and Zinoviev,
Trotsky reported on the military and political situation.
Although the Soviet armies were able to hold their
own, he said, they would hardly prove capable of
withstanding an attack by disciplined, well-equipped
troops with heavy artillery. The internal situation
was very critical, almost desperate, as the Soviet
Republic was being dangerously undermined by famine,
plague, crime, and the utter moral disintegration of
the Russian people. Accordingly, Trotsky insisted on
sending delegates to Prinkipo in order to obtain a
truce a new " breathing space," to use Lenin's utter-
ance in Brest-Litovsk days and, if possible, recognition
from the Allies. The chief objection of Zinoviev and
Kamenev was, that the character of the Soviet Republic
would be altered and eventually destroyed by nego-
tiations with bourgeois Governments. But Chicherin,
Trotsky's successor in the Foreign Office, retorted that,
on the contrary, such negotiations would give them
new means of struggle. Recognition would enable
the Soviet to send Ambassadors to all European capitals ;
the Ambassadors would enjoy the usual prerogatives
of diplomatic secrecy, and thus ideal opportunities
would be given for effective propaganda and the pre-
paration of a World Revolution. The method had
been already successfully used by Joffe in Berlin, and
by Lit vino v in London. And then Lenin developed
his theory of using that method. ' The successful
development of the Bolshevik doctrine throughout the
world," he declared, " can only be effected by means
of periods of rest during which we may recuperate and
gather new strength for further exertions. We are
PROGRESS THROUGH WAR 117
to-day in the position of a victorious army, which has
conquered two-thirds of the enemy's territory, but is
forced to interrupt its offensive in order to establish
new lines of communication, organize new depots, and
bring up more heavy guns, ammunition, and fresh
reserves. I have never hesitated," he asserted, " to
come to terms with bourgeois Governments, when by so
doing I thought I could weaken the bourgeoisie and
strengthen the proletariat in all countries. It is sound
strategy in war to postpone operations until the moral
disintegration of the enemy renders the delivery of a
mortal blow possible. This was the policy we adopted
towards the German Empire, and it has proved success-
ful. The time has now come for us to conclude a second
Brest-Litovsk Treaty, this time with the Entente.
We must make peace not only with the Entente, but
also with Poland, Lithuania, and the Ukraine, and all
the other forces which are opposing us in Russia. We
must be prepared to make every concession, promise,
and sacrifice in order to entice our foes into the conclusion
of this peace. They will proclaim to the world that
they have subdued us, and that the Soviet Republic
has capitulated unconditionally. Let them ! We shall
know that we have but concluded a truce, permitting
us to complete our preparations for a decisive onslaught
which will assure our triumph." A decision was here-
upon adopted, which has since greatly served pro-
Bolsheviks in the Allied countries to confound public
opinion and really to entice a part of it to pass
to the side of the Bolsheviks : namely, it was
decided not only to accept the Entente's proposal
to come to Prinkipo, but even to offer financial
guarantees and economic concessions to the " greedy
118 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
capitalists " in such regions of Russia as were not
possessed by the Bolsheviks, such as the Urals or
Siberia.
Did the Soviet really mean to be false to the prole-
tarian " character of the Soviet republic," and thus
to sap its moral and theoretical foundations ? Of
course, not in the least. Just a couple of weeks before
the Kremlin decision was taken on January 23rd
Lenin had in his turn sent by invitation a wireless :
not to discuss matters with the bourgeois Governments,
but to convene the first Congress of the new (the
" Third ") International, whose origins in Zimmerwald
and Kienthal we already know. The full doctrine of
" Revolutionary " Communism is here restated. The
wireless states the dangers which menace the World
Revolution, namely : (i) the " complete bankruptcy of
the two Socialist and Social Democratic parties since
the war and the Revolution " ; and (2) the " coalition
of the capitalist States in order to stifle the Revolution,
under the hypocritical banner of the League of Nations."
The very reason for convoking the Third International
was that the " traitor " Socialists were convoking the
Second, in order to " aid once more their Governments
and their bourgeoisie to cheat the working class."
The Moscow invitation reminded the pro-Bolsheviks
in Europe that " the old International divided itself
in three principal currents : (i) That of Socialists
" openly patriots," against whom " only a fight without
mercy is possible " ; (2) " Minoritarians," led by
Kautsky, always wavering and incapable of taking a
decisive line of action : towards such the right tactics
consist in " severely criticizing their leaders, detaching
from them truly revolutionary elements, and syste-
PROGRESS THROUGH WAR 119
matically disjoining their followers " ; (3) in the third
place, the " left revolutionary wing." The invitation
to take part in the Congress was addressed to this last
category : to Revolutionary " Socialists and Com-
munists of Zimmerwald and Kienthal colouring." It
is important to point out just which were the parties
invited from different countries and classified with the
Bolsheviks. Here is the list in full, as it is given in
the telegram :
1. The " Spartacus " League (Germany).
2. The Bolsheviks, or the Communist party (Russia).
The Communist parties of
3. German Austria.
4. Hungary.
5. Finland.
6. Poland.
7. Esthonia.
8. Latvia.
g. Lithuania.
10. White Russia.
11. Ukrainia.
12. The revolutionary elements of the Czechs.
13. The Socialist Democratic party of Bulgaria.
14. The Socialist Democratic party of Rumania.
15. The left wing of the Social Democratic party in Serbia.
16. The left wing of the Social Democratic party in Sweden.
17. The Socialist Democratic party in Norway.
1 8. The groups recognizing the principle of class struggle in
Denmark.
19. The Communist party in Holland.
20. The revolutionary elements of the Workmen's party in
Belgium.
21 and 22. Groups and organizations belonging to the
Socialist and Syndicalist movement in France, which are, in
general, united.
23. The left wing of the Social Democratic party in Switzer-
land.
24. The Socialist party in Italy.
25. The elements of the left wing of the Socialist party in
Spain.
120 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
26. The elements of the left wing of the Socialist party in
Portugal.
27. The British Socialist Party (the elements closest to us
are represented by MacLean).
28. I.S.P.K. (England).
29. I.W.W.K. (England).
30. I.W.W. (Great Britain).
31. The revolutionary elements of the working organizations
in Ireland.
32. The revolutionary elements of the Shop Stewards (Great
Britain) .
33. S.L.P. (America).
34. The elements of the left wing of the Socialist party in
America (tendencies represented by Debs and by the League
of the Socialist propaganda).
35. American W.W. (Workers of the World ?)
36. W.W. in Australia.
37. American Workers' International Industrial Union.
38. The Socialist groups of Tokio and of Samoa, represented
by Genkkayma ; and
39. The Socialist International youth.
These were the elements likely to represent the
' Third International," the " revolutionary," according
to Lenin. His views as to the common platform uniting
all these groups are also settled. The following is an
abstract of principles to be laid down as the basis of
the new " organ of combat," which was to be started
by the proposed Congress :
1. The present period is that of the dissolution and the break-
down of the whole capitalist system of the world.
2. The task of the proletariat to-day consists in immediately
taking possession of the power of government, in order to sub-
stitute for it the apparatus of the proletarian power.
3. This new apparatus of government must incorporate the
dictatorship of the working class, and in some places also that
of petty peasants and agricultural workers, i.e. the weapon of
a systematic overthrow of the exploiting classes.
4. The dictatorship of the proletariat must pursue the direct
expropriation of capitalism and the abolition of private owner-
ship of the means of production, which implies under the name
of Socialism the suppression of private property and its transfer
PROGRESS THROUGH WAR 121
to the proletarian State, under the Socialist administration of
the working class . . . the abolition of capitalist agricultural
production, monopolization of great commercial firms. . . .
5. In order to secure the Socialist Revolution, the disarmament
of the bourgeoisie and of its agents, as well as the general arming
of the proletariat, are necessary. 1
We see that Lenin was right while asserting that
the only aim of his proposals to the Entente was to
secure a longer life for the existence of the Russian
Bolshevist experiment, in order that he might prepare
the "mortal blow" to its enemy, "capitalism." Before
we proceed further, it is important to learn what
was, then, the answer of the " central " and
the " patriotic " Socialists to that attempt to
organize international Zimmerwaldism and to make
war on the old organization of the " Second " Inter-
national.
This answer has been given by the Congress of the
Second International, which really took place in Berne
on February 3-8, 1919. It is couched in terms of the
resolution proposed by Hjalmar Branting, and voted
by the great majority of the Conference. Taken as
a whole, particularly if one does not know anything
about the debates, the resolution sounds very sa<is-
factory. As the text of Branting's resolution is
not sufficiently known, I reproduce it here in
extenso :
The Conference welcomes the great political revolutions in
Russia, in Austria-Hungary, and in Germany, which have
broken the old Imperialist and militarist regimes and overthrown
their Governments.
The Conference invites the Socialist working masses of
1 I take the text of the wireless from the cho de Paris,
January 25, 1919.
122 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
these countries to develop the Democratic and Republican
institutions, within whose framework the work of the Socialist
transformation may be accomplished. Pending these decisive
hours, when the problem of the Socialist refounding of the
world assumes the character of burning actuality which it never
has had before, the working masses must unanimously arrive
at a clear insight as to the paths which will lead them to their
emancipation.
In complete accord with all Congresses of the International,
the Berne Conference immovably stands upon the soil of
Democracy. A social reorganization, more and more deeply
imbued with Socialism, cannot be achieved, and particularly can-
not keep firm, if it does not rest upon the conquests of Democracy,
and if it does not strike roots in the principles of freedom.
These constituent elements of every Democracy are : liberty
of speech and of the Press, the right of union, universal suffrage,
a parliamentary system with such institutions as guarantee the
co-operation and the expression of the will of the people. The
right of coalition, etc., are, at the same time, for the proletariat,
the weapon of their class struggle. In relation to certain events
which have recently happened, the Conference is anxious to
emphasize the constructive character of the Socialist programme.
True socialization implies a methodic development of different
branches of economic activity under the control of a demo-
cratized nation. Arbitrarily to take possession of some concerns
by small groups of workmen does not mean introducing
Socialism. It is nothing else than capitalism with numerous
shareholders.
The idea of the Conference being that no efficient socialistic
development is possible except under the law of Democracy,
it follows that from the very beginning one must eliminate all
methods of socialization which can have no chance of winning the
adherence of the majority of the people. The danger would still
increase, if such a dictatorship leaned upon only a part of the
proletariat. The unavoidable consequence of such a regime would
be the paralyzing of all forces of the proletariat by a fratricidal
war. The end will be a dictatorship of reaction.
The Russian delegates have proposed to send to Russia a
mission composed of representatives of all Socialist currents
and nominated by the Conference, in order impartially to report
on the economic and political situation in Russia. The Con-
ference is fully conscious of the difficulties inherent in such a
task. Nevertheless, considering the general interest which
exact knowledge of all facts connected with these movements
of popular unrest presents to the Socialist proletariat of all
countries, the Conference gives a mandate to the permanent
PROGRESS THROUGH WAR 128
Commission to organize a delegation charged with this mission
to Russia.
The Conference decides to put Bolshevism on the order of
the day for the next Congress, and gives a mandate to the Per-
manent Commission to prepare the question.
But the Conference wants forthwith to draw attention to
the fact that famine and distress let loose by the war in all the
world, and particularly in vanquished countries, were bound to
generate social disorganization. The Governments had better
realize their own responsibility in these cases instead of using
Bolshevism as a bugbear, and under this name denouncing
all risings of proletarians brought to despair. Counter-revolu-
tionary forces are already everywhere at work. The Conference
warns those who at this hour hold the fate of the world in their
hands against the dangers of a policy of Imperialism as well
as that of the military and economic enslavement of peoples.
The Conference invites the Socialists of the whole world to
close their ranks, in order not to deliver the peoples to inter-
national reaction and to do everything for Socialism and
Democracy united to triumph everywhere.
All this is excellent. But if one knows the precedents
and the consequences of this admirable product of
Mr. Branting's statesmanlike wisdom, one cannot help
seeing in it the case of
Video meliora, proboque,
Deteriora sequor.
(" I see and approve better things: I follow the worse.")
Mr. Branting's resolution was a successful and happy
attempt to achieve a compromise on five other resolu-
tions : by Wells (the delegate of the German Majority),
Kurt Eisner, Ramsay Macdonald, Renaudel, and
Branting himself. The first four contained elements
which remind one of Lenin's characteristics of the
wavering " Centre." Either they predicted the direct
and imminent advent of Socialism, or they engaged
the proletariat of the whole world to organize themselves
in a " practical " way to start an immediate struggle
124 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
against capitalism, or they wished the Conference to
demand the socialization of production and the seizure
of power by the working class, or they made it the aim
of the Russian Mission " to study thoroughly the Russian
essay in social revolution," thus implying the possibility
of using it as an example and a precedent, and from
that point of view they naturally condemned " every
intervention, military or other, by the Governments,
whose purpose would be to destroy the Socialist regime
of other countries." Adler and Longuet introduced a
counter-resolution which wound up with a protest
against Branting's resolution. They represented it as
a danger and an obstacle which it really was in
order to secure the adhesion of the pro-Bolshevist groups
and parties mentioned in Lenin's appeal. They
wanted to " reconstitute the international front,"
including the " revolutionary and conscious proletariat,"
i.e. the Zimmerwaldians. So far as Russian Bolshevism
is concerned, they did not wish to base themselves on
evidence given by the Russian " Mensheviks " (" Minori-
tarians ") present, as being one-sided and biased.
They insisted on both sides being given a hearing
before any decision was taken. They also drew attention
to the fact that " the whole parties, like those of Italy,
Serbia, Rumania, Switzerland (all ' Bolshevist ' in
their majority) absented themselves from the Congress
of the Second International." Some others, they said,
" submitted repugnantly." It was evidently these
latter which made every effort in order to prevent the
Conference judging and sentencing the Bolshevist theory
and practice. Fritz Adler even menaced the Com-
mission by stating that if the discussion on Bolshevism
was opened in plenum, thirty-three delegates (they
PROGRESS THROUGH WAR 125
were ninety-seven in all) would leave the Conference.
Someone else proposed to adjourn the decision. And,
indeed, the majority consented not to count the votes
given, but to ask the parties present to give their views
and their motives for adhering to this or that resolution,
Branting's or Adler-Longuet's. The result was never-
theless very instructive. The following section sup-
ported Branting :
Germany (Majority and Mi- France (the former Majority)
nority) Finland
Alsace Georgia
German Austria (half of the Hungary
Delegation) Italy (Socialist Reformists)
Argentina Latvia
Armenia Palestine
Bohemia Poland
Bulgaria Russia
Great Britain Sweden
Denmark Ukrainia
Esthonia
The following supported Adler-Longuet :
France (the new Majority) Spain
German Austria (the other half) Greece
Norway Holland
Now, Lenin was evidently right in stating that the
probability of Bolshevism winning its cause before
the International Socialist tribunal consisted in the
vacillation and uncertainty of the aims and methods
of the so-called " Centre." But even such Socialists
as Albert Thomas, Renaudel, and other delegates of
the former Majority, were wavering. One should
read their written declaration on the subject of
their participation in the Berne Conference in order
to see the contrast between the clearness and con-
126 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
sistency of their negative attitude towards Bolshevism
and the internal contradictions and confusion in
their positive statements as to the policy and
doctrine of International Socialism. Now, as ten
and fifteen years before, we see them again " affirm
the legitimacy of resorting to revolutionary means,
but," at the same time, " recommend legal action,
political and parliamentary, which originates in
universal suffrage." They " know that the triumph
of Socialism depends on the evolution of capitalism
itself," and they " eliminate the destructive methods."
But, on the other hand, they find it possible to assert
that " the war has opened all brains ... to the con-
ception that the hour of the wholesale transformation
is close at hand, if the people knew how to act." They
thus think " intimately to connect revolutionary ideal-
ism, having a clear view of total emancipation, with a
plea for patient and co-ordinate action." In fact, they
do not go beyond a purely mechanical juxtaposition
of conflicting terms. The psychological reason for this
aberration of logic is evident : il faut hurler avec les
loups.
This also enormously increases the international
danger of Bolshevism. The Bolsheviks were winning
not so much by their own strength as by the weak-
ness and inconsistency of their antagonists within
the sphere of doctrine shared by both. They were
winning in the common audience by simplicity and
consistency of action, following upon that doctrine.
The Socialist opponents of Bolshevism, instead of
repudiating the very doctrine whose inferences clash
with reality, preferred to resort to sophistic explana-
tions which are easily used as convincing proofs of
PROGRESS THROUGH WAR 127
their hypocrisy and selfishness, which are intended
to " cheat " the proletariat. Thus real demagogues
go for honest men, while sincere Democrats, not
without plausible reasons, become suspected of
demagogy.
PART III
BOLSHEVISM OUT FOR A WORLD
REVOLUTION
HOWEVER it be, one cannot deny that the atmosphere
created by war was favourable to Bolshevist propaganda.
And the Bolsheviks used their chance to the full. There
is an element of secrecy and conspiracy in their doings
which, of course, cannot now be completely revealed.
But it is sufficient to register the facts of outbreaks
and strikes whose connection with Bolshevism was
made known during the eight months that separate
the Armistice of November n, 1918, from the Peace
of June 29, 1919, in order to see how widespread their
propaganda really is, which are the elements that share
in it, what was their chance of success in the past,
and what may become of it in the future. One need
not impute to Bolshevism what, as a matter of fact,
can be explained by the spirit of time or by a natural
upshot of some long process of struggle But if even
one confines oneself to the specific elements of the
Soviet doctrine and practice, one must realize that
their influence is being felt very largely, if even not
very deeply, all over the world. I do not mean the
Bolshevist programme only, which is the substitution of
a rule by the Soviets' selected rings basing their power
128
129
on the allegiance of the " conscious minority " of the
working class, accompanied by the disarming of the
bourgeoisie and the arming of the proletariat, for the
parliamentary rule by democratic majorities. I mean
also the direct and often personal connection of and
intercourse between the organized units of the Bolshevist
propaganda in the chief centres of the Old and the
New World. No international inquest has been started
so far in order to detect all the meshes of that largely
ramified network of the " direct action " policy. Such
knowledge of it as is possessed by departments of
political intelligence in different countries is naturally
kept to themselves. But even the piecemeal evidence
which has oozed out through the Press, although subject
to verification and correction, is already ample enough
to permit of important cross-examination and corre-
sponding inferences.
Let us begin with quoting in full an important docu-
ment published by the Gazette de Hollande at the end
of March 1919. It contains detailed instructions to
Bolshevist agents abroad, drawn up at a Council held
at the Kremlin in November 1918, at which Lenin
presided, and Trotsky, Radek, and Chicherin were
present. A copy of this document fell into the hands
of the Ukrainian General Staff. It is as follows :
REVOLUTIONARY WORK OF THE BOLSHEVIST
(COMMUNIST) PARTY.
The work of the Bolshevist organizations in foreign countries
is denned as follows :
i . In the domain of international politics :
(a) To support Chauvinist movements and national
conflicts.
9
130 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
(b) To provoke agitation in order to bring about national
conflicts.
(c) To make attempts on the representatives of foreign
Powers.
By these means internal disturbances and coups d'etat will
be brought about, and there will be increased Social Democratic
agitation.
2. In the domain of internal politics :
(a) To compromise by all possible means the influential
men in the country, to make attempts on the men in power,
and to provoke agitation against the Government.
(b) To provoke general and partial strikes, to damage
machinery and boilers, and to spread propagandist litera-
ture.
By these means coups d'etat will be facilitated, and it will
be possible to seize the supreme power.
3. In the economic domain :
(a) To provoke and support railway strikes, to blow
up bridges and railway lines, and do everything to dis-
organize transport.
(b) To impede and prevent the provisioning of the towns
with corn, to create financial difficulties and inundate the
market with forged banknotes. Special Committees should
be formed.
In this way an economic upheaval will bring about the in-
evitable collapse, and the coup d'etat will receive the sympathy
of the masses.
4. In the military domain :
(a) To conduct a vigorous propaganda among the troops.
To excite conflicts between officers and men, and to insti-
gate attempts on superior officers.
(b) To blow up arsenals, bridges, railways, and powder
magazines, and to seize consignments of raw materials
destined for factories and workshops.
The complete annihilation of the army will be effected, and
the soldiers will adopt the Social Democratic labour programme.
5. Investigations and espionage for use in war-time.
(a) Investigations and espionage of a strategic nature :
in the army, in the fortresses, in the workshops, exact
estimate of armed forces, information as to their moral.
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 181
(b) Investigations and espionage of a tactical nature, at
the front and behind the lines.
(c) Investigations and espionage in naval matters :
information regarding location of squadrons, dockyards,
naval bases.
One may remark that, although composed a year
after the Bolshevist conquest of Russia, these instructions
very faithfully represent the German pattern, more
suitable for the World War than for the World
Revolution. But the programme is obviously revised
and enlarged with such details added as were gained
as the result of a year's experience of Bolshevist propa-
ganda abroad. It is to be seen that if considered
from this point of view nearly all the methods
indicated in the instructions find their counterpart in
the real propaganda work achieved by the Bolshevist
emissaries.
i. THE " FIRST LINK IN THE CHAIN " GERMANY
AND CENTRAL EUROPE.
The " first link in the chain " of the coming World
Revolution, according to Lenin's statement, was to
be furnished by Germany. It was to be expected that
the utmost exertions of the Bolsheviks immediately
after their gaming possession of political power, would
be directed this way. We have already mentioned
their early relations with the German " Spartacists."
We saw also that, since M. Joffe settled in Berlin as a
" Russian " Ambassador, in May 1918, these relations
have become systematic to the great offence of the then
official Germany. But while preparing a revolution in
Germany M. Joffe had to deal not only with Spartacists,
132 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
who were a small and uninfluential political group.
We even learn " from an absolutely reliable source "
(via Geneva, see Daily Chronicle, April 5th) that at
that time " the Spartacists were by no means on
intimate terms with the Bolsheviks, whom they dis-
trusted on account of their secret relations with Count
Hertling's Government." " Admiral von Hinze, then
Foreign Secretary, and Herr Streseman, the notorious
National Liberal leader, were daily guests at Joffe's
well-supplied table, from which even Independent
Socialist leaders like Haase were rigidly excluded."
M. Joffe, of course, had good reasons for not letting
Haase appear at his table, because he was working with
the Independents in secret, preparing for an armed
rising. Preparations were made, not by the recognized
leaders of the party, but by the members of its left
wing, including such local leaders of the Independent
Socialists as Emil Barth, who secured a considerable
quantity of arms and munitions which were distributed
secretly to trusted adherents, and kept in concealment
in expectation of the moment to strike. Barth asserted
that the money for this purpose was given to him by
" wealthy sympathizers with the Independent Socialist
movement." But a special correspondent of the
Daily Telegraph who gave the first detailed account of
the German outbreak (Daily Telegraph, January i, 1919),
found it " more probable that hie (Barth) obtained the
money from Joffe." " However that may be," he
adds, "it is certain that Joffe gave large sums of
money to the Spartacus group, so that the preparations
for the Berlin Revolution were financed mainly by the
Russian Bolshevists."
The Government knew that very well, and towards
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 183
the end of October, when everything was ready for a
rising, they decided to act. They discovered Bolshevist
literature in a diplomatic courier's bag which burst
open in the street, and used that proof of M. Joffe's
guilt in order to " say him farewell."
Vorwarts itself was finding at that time that " the
position of Joffe has become untenable." After his
departure from Berlin the Wolf Agency, controlled by
the new Socialist Government, published on December
3rd (1918) the following disclosure :
The Bolshevist Embassy at Berlin did not satisfy itself with
distributing leaflets for propaganda, but were also buying arms
and munitions. In a compartment occupied by the " departed "
Embassy a bundle of papers was found containing certain bills
bearing dates from September 2ist to October 3ist, 1918, and
referring to 150 Mauser revolvers, 28 Brownings, 23 parabellum,
and 27,000 cartridges. Thus once more the declaration of
Radek is confirmed, according to which Article 2 of the Brest-
Litovsk Treaty did not prevent the Russian Government from
making Revolution propaganda.
Far from being offended by this disclosure, Joffe
used that opportunity to compliment himself upon his
real part in the German Revolution which he vauntingly
asserted to have been much greater than is admitted
in Wolff's revelations. He answered by a wireless sent
to the address of Haase (Frankfurter Zeitung, December
loth) as follows :
It was through the intermediary of the Independent Social
Democratic Party that I was able to extend my propaganda
by leaflets. As to the purchase of arms, the figures published
are not exact. The bills discovered referred only to the arms
destined for Russia. The quantity of arms bought and delivered
to the Acting People's Commissary, Mr. Barth, is, as you know,
far larger. Also the published item of money given does not corre-
spond to reality : it was not 150,000 marks which ivere handed
over to Mr. Barth for the purchase of arms, but many hundreds
134 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
of thousands of marks. I am anxious to emphasize these two
points ; I congratulate myself and I rejoice on having person-
ally, in accord with the Independent Ministers, contributed to
the victory of the German Revolution.
But this is not all. M. Joffe did not mention that
even after his departure (on November 5th) he left with
his friends in Berlin considerable sums for fomenting
further trouble in Germany. This was formally avowed
by Herr Oscar Cohn, the Independent Socialist leader
and solicitor to the Bolshevik Embassy in Berlin, at
that time Under-Secretary of State, on the occasion of
a new outbreak at Christmas 1918. M. Cohn declared
that M. Joffe had 4,000,000 marks placed at his disposal
by the Soviet for propaganda purposes. The day before
he left Berlin M. Joffe attempted to draw out the
balance, but failed to do so, purely through a technical
mistake on the part of the bank officials (Central News,
via Amsterdam ; see Daily Telegraph, January 2nd).
The Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung even stated that the
agents of the Russian Bolshevik Government still had
12,000,000 marks available for further propaganda
in Berlin. It may be that this was a new influx of
money brought to Berlin by Radek, the unofficial envoy
of Mr. Lenin accredited this time not to the German
Socialist Government, but to the Spartacus Group,, who
passed the frontier at the end of December without
the permission of the German Government. 1
1 A further disclosure by M. Cohn (see The Times, March 7,
1919) may account for the difference between the two state-
ments quoted. I render it in the authentic text of The Times
Special Correspondent from the Hague, March 2nd : " Con-
siderable alarm has been excited in German political circles by
Thursday's (February 27th) proceedings in the debate on the
new Army Bill at Weimar (at the Constituent Assembly), when
Herr Noske extracted from the Independent Deputy Cohn the
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 135
A few remarks are necessary to explain this new stage
of the Bolshevik policy, drifting from Kaiser to Barth,
and from Barth to Liebknecht. After the November
victory over William by a united Socialist front, there
followed the process of disassociation among the Socialist
parties. The Ebert-Scheidemann Government was
that of the Majority Socialists, and the " Asrath "
(Arbeiterund Soldatenrath, the Workers' and Soldiers'
Council) was composed almost exclusively of the re-
presentatives of that party. The Independents took
part in the Ministry, but at the same time, in connection
with the Spartacists, they planned a new outbreak
against the Moderate Socialists. The latter were not
able entirely to throw overboard their relations with
the radical bourgeois parties, and were vehemently
accused by the Independents of drifting to the Right.
They thought it their duty to convoke the Constituent
Assembly, while the Spartacists and even the left wing
of the Independents were quite determined, following
the Russian example, not to permit its meeting. The
part of the Bolshevist agents in that struggle was a
foregone conclusion.
That part has also been revealed by the Bolsheviks
astounding confession of his financial relations with Joffe when
that individual was the Russian Soviet Envoy at Berlin. Herr
Cohn said that he acted as a ' legal adviser ' to the Soviet
Mission at Berlin, and that Joffe, on leaving the German
capital on November 5th, transferred to him a ' round million '
for continuing payments to ' the 300 officials of the
Mission,' together with the control of a balance of 10,500,000
roubles standing to Russian credit at Mendelsohn's Bank in
Berlin. The latter sum was ostensibly designed for the support
of Russian civilian prisoners in Germany. Heir Cohn, who
said he regarded these balances as ' party funds,' openly
admitted having applied certain sums out of them to subsi-
dizing two needy party journals."
136 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
themselves. The Bolshevist theorician and journalist,
M. Bucharin, told us in his organ, Severnaya Communa,
how Liebknecht had gone to the Russian Embassy in
Berlin for support when the Government first tried to
prevent his agitation in the factories, etc. Bucharin
says that Liebknecht came to the Embassy in the
greatest excitement, asking for advice and support.
It was then unanimously decided that Liebknecht
should be supported on condition that he declared the
following policy : dissolution of the Reichstag, terror
against the bourgeoisie, army officers, and against all
who opposed him. Liebknecht agreed to the terms,
and, says Bucharin, he was at once furnished with
material and means for his campaign against the
Government (see the telegram from Amsterdam,
January nth, in the Sunday Times, January I2th).
It is obvious that then it was decided in Moscow to
send to Berlin the new unofficial envoy, M. Radek.
In his speech to the crowd on November gth M. Radek
declared that himself and his friends were " invited
to Berlin," and that he was leaving to-morrow to
"help his brethren." His arrival was, however, post-
poned ; but another Russian agent, Herr Eichorn, who had
been employed at the Russian Embassy in propaganda
before the first Revolution, for a monthly salary of
1,500 marks, in his new quality of Berlin Police Presi-
dent, was strenuously preparing the second Revolution
this time against Scheidemann. On the Christmas
Eve 1918 the sailors from Wilhelmshaven, who had
been quartered at the Royal Palace, began heavy street-
fighting. Provoked by that mutiny, the Government
decided to apply strong measures, which, in a very
short space of time, quelled the insurrection, but brought
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 137
about open conflict between the Moderate and the
Independent Socialist members of the Government.
Three Independent Ministers left the Cabinet. The
place of one of them was taken by Noske, the " blood-
hound." At that moment M. Radek suddenly appeared
in Berlin at the opening of the Workmen's Congress on
December 3oth. Liebknecht proposed the organization
of a new " Revolutionary Communistic Labour Party
of the German Spartacus-bund." " Comrade " Radek
seconded in an address delivered in the name of the
Russian Soviet. A few days later, on January 5th,
1919, according to a revelation " from an absolutely
reliable source," by the Geneva correspondent of the
Daily Chronicle (April 5th), a formal treaty was concluded
between Liebknecht and Radek, as " Plenipotentiary
of the Russian Soviet Republic." The act of signing
took place in a little bare room of Rosa Luxembourg's
on the top floor of a tenement in the proletarian quarter
of the city. By the terms of the treaty Lenin under-
took to
1. Recognize Liebknecht as President of the German Soviet
Republic.
2. Furnish important funds for Spartacist propaganda.
3. Place specially trained agents at the disposal of the
Spartacists.
4. Order Soviet armies to take the offensive and cross the German
frontier in support of a simultaneous Spartacist rising in Berlin. 1
Liebknecht, on his part, pledged himself to
1. Establish a Soviet Government in Germany immediately
upon his advent to power.
2. Observe faithfully and put into practice all the teachings
of Lenin's doctrine.
1 On that very day, January 5th, Vilna was taken and the
Bolshevists were seriously threatening the Polish frontier.
138 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
3. Raise a Red Army of 500,000 men to be placed under
the supreme command of the Commissary for War at
Moscow.
Such was to be the beginning of the World Revolu-
tion ; and, indeed, a rising in Berlin was once more
started the very next day after the alleged date of the
signature of the treaty. In Vorwarts of January 5th
an interesting article appeared, signed by the Socialist
journalist Friedrich Stampfer, which opened with a
vigorous denunciation of the Bolshevists' attempt to
bring the Russian Red Army to Berlin. Meanwhile
the three promoters of the World Revolution, Eichorn,
Liebknecht, and Radek, directed the military operations
on the streets of Berlin from their headquarters in a
great brewery in the Prenzlauerallee.
The results are well known. After receiving strong
reinforcements of Government troops, Noske again
suppressed the rising. It took about ten days (January
6th-i5th) to stifle it. The last day Liebknecht and
Rosa Luxembourg were murdered. Eichorn and Radek
went into hiding in Berlin. The Berlin Government
" in view of the support given by Russian Bolsheviks
to the Spartacus mutiny," sent (January 2Oth) a
wireless, " lodging the strongest protest against this
inadmissible and criminal interference in the internal
affairs of Germany."
" There are irrefutable proofs to hand that the move-
ment was supported by Russian official personages,
who took part in the movement," says the message.
It winds up with a menace, " that the sharpest measures
will be taken against all those Russians who have been
guilty of supporting the revolutionary movement."
And, indeed, at the Russian Legation " large stores of
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 139
arms and ammunition were found. Much of the
ammunition found bore Russian marks. On a
Russian woman arrested 16,500 marks were found."
(The Times correspondent, Copenhagen, January
I 5 th.)
Nevertheless, neither the Spartacists nor their
Russian friends were willing to stop their underground
activity. They were busy preparing for the third
Revolution. By that time they had already spread
their propaganda all over Germany, and for a time they
transferred their leading centres from Berlin to Wil-
helmshaven the German " Kronstadt " to Brunswick,
Dusseldorf, Munich, etc. Their avowed aim was flbw
not to permit the meeting of the Constituent Assembly
in Weimar. For that purpose they first boycotted
the elections, and then, when the elections gave a
relative majority to the Old Party (" Majority," which
received 39*3 per cent, of the votes cast), and strongly
increased the bourgeois parties of " Democrats " and
the " popular Christian " Centre (iQ'5 per cent, and i8'9
per cent, of the vote), they decided to follow the Russian
example and to disperse the Assembly on the day of
its meeting, on February 6th, with the help of a new
rising. It was to start from different centres and
converge on Weimar. Beside the navy, they now had
the support of some groups in the army, and a section
of the Independents joined them. The Government,
on their part, sent troops to Weimar, in order to protect
the Assembly.
At that stage of the struggle there is also no lack of
evidence of the part played by the Bolshevist propa-
gandists and revolutionaries. Already, on January gth,
H. E. Bailey, the correspondent of the Daily Telegraph
140 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
(see January I3th), communicated r that " Bolshevism
is on the Rhine," and he goes on to say : " The leader
of the rising is one Ochel, who was before the war a
marriage broker, during the war a deserter, and who
has lately published in Holland a violent pamphlet
of his own. A Russian Jewess called Feuerstein, who
came to Dusseldorf in some capacity connected with
the Bolshevik news agency in Germany, is believed
to provide a link with Petrograd." Fighting went on
for many weeks in Dusseldorf.
There was similar news from Duisburg, the important
Rhine manufacturing town at the outlet of the Ruhr
Valley, on the edge of the then neutral territory facing
the Belgian zone (Morning Post, February 2ist).
" Here, too, a general strike has been proclaimed by the
Spartacists as a protest against the advance of Govern-
ment troops from Minister. Mulheim, Hamborn (?), and
Dusseldorf contain a large number of revolutionaries.
The attack on Duisburg was a Bolshevist movement
engineered by ex-soldiers formerly serving on the
Eastern Front, and a number of Russians who have been
drifting about the towns in the neutral zone. Russian
money has been in evidence among the discontented miners,
ironworkers, and bargemen, and a Russian is one of the
most active members of the Soldiers' Council." A few
days later (February 24th) The Times correspondent
communicates, via Stockholm, that " in the Ruhr
district the situation has improved since February 2ist,
1 The same news is given by M. W. Nevinson in the Daily
News on January I3th. According to him, Mr. Ochel was
formerly a matrimonial agent, and during the war editor of
the Kampf in Holland, supported by a Russian Jewess named
Feuerstein, who has arrived from Russia as agent of the
Bolshevists, apparently with money.
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 141
and one of the reasons for the collapse " of the Spartacist
attempt, he suggests, is " that the funds of the revolu-
tionary committees have been exhausted since Radek's
arrest and imprisonment " (see p. 142).
We meet with the same thing in Northern, Eastern
and Southern Germany. Dr. Schroder, " with the aid
of a German-Russian Bolshevist, named Sturm, has
both organized and financed the Spartacist movement
in Hamburg since November loth ; most of the funds
are provided by Sturm." This is stated by The Times
special correspondent from Berlin (March 22nd). At
Dantzig, according to the same witness, " a Spartacist
outbreak had been arranged for a certain day, and
reports of the secret police showed that the adherents
were many thousands." The argument used is the
same as in M. Sturm's propaganda shortage of food.
The attempted dispersal of the Weimar Assembly
on February 8th did not succeed, owing to the strong
measures taken by Noske. But in Berlin at the same
time a new rising took place, and again the evidence
proves the participation of the Russian Bolsheviks in
this third outbreak, carefully prepared in advance. Says
the correspondent of the Daily Chronicle (March loth)
about the " inner story " of that movement : ' The
most striking piece of information and it is incon-
trovertible is, that the real leadership is in the hands
of Russians. With Spartacist rebels as their lieutenants,
they have their headquarters in Berlin, and a secret
organization whose tentacles stretch northwards to
Bremen, westwards to Dusseldorf, and southwards to
Munich. Preparations for the latest coup began
immediately after the murder of Liebknecht and
Rosa Luxembourg. The loss of the Spartacist
142 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
leaders is ... turned to profit by the Bolshevik
chiefs. It gave to the authorities a sense of false
security, and made it easier for the Russians to
carry out their secret preparations for the next move.
Radek was soon arrested by the Government (about
January 2oth), with his secretary Gutemann, upon
whom " highly important documents were found,"
according to the Berliner Tageblatt. But his prepara-
tions for a new outbreak in Berlin were so well made
that the arrest did not prevent its coming, on March 4th
and the following week. The Geneva correspondent
of the Daily Chronicle (March I3th) emphasizes a new
feature in that recurring mutiny. It may, he states,
" be fitly described as a revolt of the underworld. It
was chiefly among the criminal classes that Radek
recruited his fighting force. So minutely had the
insurrection been prepared, that, in spite of the arrest,
some week before, of Radek and eighty-six Spartacist
leaders, the remaining Communist chiefs were able to
execute the plans without difficulty. The Spartacist
forces amounted to about 10,000 men, mostly deserters,
apaches, and escaped convicts, reinforced by sailors
of the Naval Division. Emerging suddenly from their
haunts in the cellars and slums of Berlin's East End,
this army of criminals directed its attack against police
stations, and spent its fury on policemen, its hereditary
foes."
The insurrection was finally stifled. Their last
stand was in the Lichtenberg quarter. When one of
the Spartacists' nests was here denounced and thirty
rebels were arrested, it appeared, according to The Times
correspondent, via Stockholm (March I5th), that they
were " under the leadership of a Russian Bolshevik,
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 143
who on December iSth had come from Russia and
obtained provisional Prussian citizenship."
The position of the Government in Prussia, in spite
of all ominous predictions, was now strengthened, owing
to the decried policy of Noske. But at that time the
Bolshevists had the upper hand in Bavaria. The signal
here was given by the murder (on February 2ist)
of the Munich Prime Minister, Kurt Eisner. On the
following day the Munich Women's, Peasants', and
Soldiers' Council in a stormy meeting proclaimed a
Soviet Republic in Bavaria. The part of the Russian
Bolshevists in that move can be guessed from the fact
that the Russian Bolshevist, Dr. Levien, had been
made a member of the Executive Committee. When,
a few days later, the Congress of the Councils met in
the Diet building, it had to receive a deputation of
workmen, which asked for the institution of relations
with Russia and the occupation of the Russian Legation
by a representative of the Russian Soviet Republic.
Dr. Levien declared in advance to a correspondent
(The Times, March ist) that his party was out to establish
a proletarian dictatorship in Bavaria ; the Diet would
cease to exist. " If, however," he said, " the Congress
(of the Councils) thinks fit to decide that the Diet
should be maintained, we shall oppose that decision."
The Congress began by ordering the Munich newspapers
to publish a proclamation " to Prussia and Scheide-
mann," whose slogan was : " Whatever the next few
days may bring in Munich, no intervention by the
State : hands off Bavaria." At the same time, measures
were taken to extend the movement for proclaiming
" Soviet republics " all over Germany. For that aim,
a general strike and a simultaneous rising was announced
144 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
for March 5th. " The most alarming feature in the whole
situation " a Berlin correspondent states, " is the
similarity of the proceedings to the methods of the
Bolshevists in Russia " (The Times, March 3rd). The
observation is completed by a correspondent from
Berne (the same day) : the Communist current " gains
much under the able leadership of Levien." On
February 27th Levien declared that nothing less than
the annihilation of the bourgeoisie could safeguard
Socialism. " On February 28th Levien's proposal
for the establishment of a Soviet Republic in Bavaria
was lost, though, by an overwhelming majority of the
Council's Congress (234 votes against 70). But then
a compromise was unanimously accepted to the effect
of building a National Soviet, as a sort of First Chamber
with powers to initiate legislation, to refer parliamentary
decisions to a vote of the whole people, and to co-operate
in the administration. On March 3rd the ordered
general strikes began in different parts of Germany,
in order to second M. Levien's rejected proposal. 1
It is unnecessary to say how the strike movement
fell flat and quiet has been restored. But for our purpose
it is important to register The Times correspondent's
1 The precedents of Max Levien, the virtual dictator of
Munich, told by the Frdnkische Tagespost, are as follows : Max
Levien was the son of a prosperous Moscow merchant. He
took part in the Russian Revolution of 1905 and was arrested,
but escaped to Munich, where he made the acquaintance of
Lenin and became a Bolshevist. On the outbreak of the war
he served in a Munich regiment, but was soon sent back from
the front to a military camp. In November 1918 he joined
Eisner in Munich, and after the murder of the latter came into
prominence. After the second Revolution Levien was invari-
ably accompanied by an armed bodyguard. In spite of his
extraordinary brutality, he had a large following, especially in
decadent literary circles of Swabians.
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 145
news (March nth) that as a last refuge the Spartacists
" succeeded in conveying some arms to Russian prisoners
encamped at Ruhleben," and that " some or all the
5,000 Russians there got away during the night." The
Munich authorities later on (see Morning Post, April 2ist)
recurred to the same measure : they " have liberated
the Russian prisoners of war at Buchheim Camp and
armed them." We must add that after the insurrection
was stifled fifty-two Russian prisoners were shot who
had participated in the fighting and who were dressed
in German uniforms (see Morning Post, May Qth). In
Saxony, after order had been restored by the Govern-
ment troops, among the arrested eighteen Russians were
found. Detailed plans had been discovered in the
possession of the ring-leader, for the murder of the
War Minister and others, also for the union of Saxony
with the Russian Soviet Republic (The Times, April I7th,
correspondence from Berne).
The March (6th-i3th) Insurrection in Berlin was
not brought to a close by a compromise which the
Independents were proposing ; Noske insisted on an
" unconditional surrender " after the movement had
been crushed with arms. The Government has not
become weaker for that. On the contrary, this time
the Bolshevist attempts at introducing a Soviet Republic
in Germany were definitely disposed of. The complicity
of the Independents, and the open alliance of the
Spartacists with the Russian Bolsheviks, have helped
very much to discredit both groups in public opinion.
The confident predictions of a new " June Revolution "
did not materialize. The programme for this Revolution
was now ready : the recognition of the Council's system,
the establishment of direct economic and political
10
146 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
relations with the Soviet Russia, the disbandment
of Government forces, the disarmament of the police,
and the establishment of a revolutionary workmen's
army. More than once this programme has been pro-
claimed in resolutions of working men's meetings,
conferences, and congresses. A general strike was
repeatedly tried to carry the programme. But the good
common sense of the great majority of the population
and the sound feeling for self-preservation amidst what
may be described the most dangerous crisis in Germany's
history have preserved her from chaos and serious civil
war. The apparent exception, such as a temporary
triumph of the extremist tendencies in Munich, only
serves to confirm the rule. The whole of Bavaria
finally proclaimed itself against the small throng of
Levien's followers. The Constitutional Bavarian
Ministry, that of Hofmann, has been reconstituted.
The overthrow of the Soviet Government (on April nth)
in Munich passed off extremely quietly, nearly without
resistance. ' The house of cards of the foreign intriguers
has collapsed," the Premier's proclamation ran. " All
decrees of the Soviet Government are annulled."
It is true that within forty-eight hours the Soviet
was again in power, but the Communist leaders them-
selves admitted that the maintenance of their regime
was " in any circumstances unlikely," and that " the
movement was premature." On May ist Munich was
captured by Government troops Bavarian, Wiirtem-
berg, and Prussian. This time the Communists defended
themselves desperately, as it was their last chance.
Their leaders were arrested, sentenced to death or killed
by the crowd, for having had in their turn murdered
and mutilated the hostages. The execution of Levine
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 147
(not to be confounded with the Russian Bolshevik
leader) a month later provoked strong protests on
the part of all Socialist parties, but all their appeals
to a new general strike were of no consequence. They
were unable to undermine the power of Scheidemann-
Noske's Government, and only demonstrated their own
weakness.
2. THE BOLSHEVIST SCHEME FOR FEEDING AND
CONQUERING GERMANY.
The chief trump of Russian Bolsheviks was thus
beaten. Germany was evidently unwilling to serve as a
" first link in the chain " of the World Revolution.
It may have come out otherwise, if promises given by
the Bolsheviks to Spartacists and Independents could
be fulfilled. They were two : feeding Germany and
sending a Red Army to help German revolutionaries.
It sounded rather queer that starving Russia should
seriously think of feeding Germany ; but the idea
of it was conceived very early as a constitutive part
of the whole scheme of the World Revolution. A few
days after the release of Liebknecht from his prison,
on October 27, 1918, the Petrograd Truth (Pravda)
states : " We must directly and in a business-like
manner attend to it in order that we shall have a pro-
vision of grain for German revolutionaries, and forward
that supply to help Liebknecht and Adler." At the
same time, a meeting of different Soviet organizations
in a provincial town of Kostroma resolved " to build
the grain fund of the World Revolution, to assign
for it one-tenth of all grain stores in the province,
and to oblige every landowner to deliver for that fund
148 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
one-hundredth of grain at his disposal. . . . All
provinces must carry the same decision . . . the fund
must be called ' The Grain Fund of Karl Lieb-
knecht and Frederic Adler.' This will show that food
is not destined for Imperialists and compromisers of
Germany and Austria, but for revolutionary working
people who follow Liebknecht and Adler." It is
known that " compromisers " of the Scheidemann
type have contemptuously refused the Bolshevist
proposal to send food for German Revolution, and
preferred to address themselves to Americans. In their
turn they used the Brussels Agreement with the Allies
on the delivery of provisions for political purpose
of defeating strikes. A stipulation was introduced
in the Agreement that no share of the provisions shall
reach workmen on strike, or those unemployed who are
unwilling to accept work. Revolutionary organizations
were perfectly right to denounce that measure as a
weapon specially aimed at them, and while trying to
impede the import of food from the Allies they never
stopped promising their adherents that " grain will come
from the Russian Bolsheviks." x
Anyhow, grain could come from Russia only with the
Bolshevist Army, and there was already a " Red Army "
in existence. By the spring of 1919 it made out
about 500,000 bayonets. The " democratization " which
helped to dissolve the Russian Army of 1917 has been
since long thrown overboard by Trotsky. The dis-
ciplinary power of the commanding staff was nearly
completely restored. The officers were closely watched
1 See e.g. The Times, March igth and March 22nd (the
Hamburg strike against the sailing of ships to fetch food), the
Morning Post, March 6th, the Daily News, March
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 149
by " Communist " commissaries, and shot at the
slightest suspicion. The newly-conscripted soldiers
fought unwillingly, and were always ready to desert, or
to go to the other side. But they were, too, threatened
by summary executions of their comrades at the first
attempt to treason. Last, not least, if there was any
motive which was likely to arouse the patriotic feeling
of that rather heterogeneous mass, it was, to be sure,
the idea of still fighting the Germans -no matter
whether they were " Imperialists " or " Communists."
There existed also a scheme for fighting German
" Imperialists " from outside, all along with preparing
a revolutionary outbreak from within. When, on
February I2th, Karl Radek, who was busy preparing
the " third Revolution " in Germany, was arrested in his
Spartacist-Bolshevik propaganda bureau in Wilmersdorf
(Berlin), letters, pamphlets, and lists were discovered
at his office, which proved that " a great Bolshevik
revolutionary stroke throughout Germany had been
planned to take place in the spring, whilst at the same
time a Bolshevik army was to attack Germany on the
Eastern frontier." (Wireless Press from Berlin, Daily
Telegraph, February I5th.) Another German Govern-
ment wireless message, sent a week later (Daily Telegraph,
February 22nd), says : " Stockholm reports that the
Bolshevik troops have planned a great spring offensive.
Revolution is to be carried to Bohemia, Slavonia,
Hungary, and Austria. The offensive is to start
simultaneously against Poland and against Eastern
Prussia. The munition factories are working feverishly.
The telegram of The Times correspondent from Helsing-
fors (from February I7th) states that an offensive
movement was at that very time started against the
150 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
Baltic Provinces. " Trotsky, on February I5th, ordered
the Bolshevist Army in Esthonia and Livonia to attack
on all sectors of the Narva, Pskofl, and Wolmar
fronts. . . . The order to attack was given in
accordance with a resolution passed at a secret
meeting of the Petrograd Soviet on February I2th." *
Another telegram from Helsingfors (The Times,
March 3rd) communicates that on February 25th, at
the Pan-Russian Soviet Congress, Trotsky made a
speech on foreign policy, in which he reviewed the
military situation. He said : " We have four tasks
to achieve : to advance to the coasts of Murman and
Archangel ; to take possession of the river exits to
the Black Sea ; to reach the former frontiers of East
Prussia ; and to chase the enemy from the Urals.
We shall achieve them, cost what it may."
Preparations were being made, too, in East Prussia
at that time in order to meet the coming Red Army.
Reuter sent news from Basle on February 27th that,
" according to the Frankfurter Zeitung throughout
East Russia, pamphlets are being distributed calling
on the people to destroy the railways ' in order to hasten
the victory of the Communists in Germany.' Russian
Bolsheviks are also reported to be in East Prussia in
large numbers." Very interesting and much more
1 Mr. Ransome states that most of the Soviet leaders have
at that very time (February loth) " in spite of themselves,
acquired a national domestic point of view " namely, that
" they were thinking less about World Revolution than about
getting bread to Moscow. Only continued warfare forced
upon them could turn their desire for peace into desperate,
resentful aggression " (Six Weeks in Russia, p. 33). Whatever
the motive, or their psychology, the " World Revolution "
continued to be on the day order. It was, moreover, the only
justification and guarantee for further existence of Bolshevism
(see pp. 54-6, his talk with Mr. Bucharin).
151
detailed intelligence on the subject has been wired to
The Times by their Special Correspondent from the
Hague (on March I7th). It runs as follows ;
According to the advices from Berlin, Otto Petz, President
of the German Soviet in Petrograd, has reported to Lenin and
to Trotsky that Radek has succeeded in forming twenty-eight
separate Bolshevist organizations in Germany. The ultimate
purpose of these organizations is " to spread the idea of a World
Revolution of the proletariat deep into the heart of the occupied
regions of Western Germany." The same report estimates
that up to January 2oth no less than 11,000,000 roubles
(nominally {i, 100,000) had been expended for Radek's " mission
to Germany."
The German Soviet in Petrograd publishes the news-sheets,
all of which are printed in German and are largely smuggled
into East Prussia. The greater part of East Prussia, and several
districts in West Prussia, are now under martial law. In
Petrograd the German Soviet has also established a Bolshevist
school for German war prisoners. About 10,000 of these men
are expected to pass through the school, and as soon as they
have completed their training they are sent across the frontier
to assist in the work of propaganda. At Nijny Novgorod and
Samara there are collecting centres for German prisoners who
have returned from Siberia, and these are being formed into
the so-called " Western Communist Division," which is to be
20,000 strong. This division is being drilled for service in the
event of a Bolshevist invasion of Germany, but will also be
available for propaganda work. In Petrograd, moreover, the
likeliest recruits are being drafted to a so-called " Liebknecht
Brigade," which is now about 3,000 strong. The whole system
is so arranged that German prisoners have no desire but to
join these fighting formations or starve.
The use of war prisoners for Communist aims is here
the same as had been made by the Germans of the
Ukrainian prisoners for the invasion of the non-
Bolshevist Russia, or, as we have just seen, having
been made by the Spartacists of the Russian prisoners
to support the Communist uprisings. A very ambiguous
part in the game was played by German military units
in the occupied provinces of Russia. Whatever be
152 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
the opinion of their Government and it hardly could
remain pro-Bolshevist facing the Spartacist danger
inside they very often quite openly helped the
Bolsheviks in their offensive movement towards
the German frontier. In an official communique
issued by the Provisional Governmet of Latvia (see
Morning Post, January i, 1919) we meet with a
formal complaint that " the German Authorities are
acting in conjunction with the Bolsheviks." As
proofs are given that the Germans
(i) Inform the Bolsheviks of the precise date of the evacua-
tion of every place ;
(ii) Leave to the Bolsheviks railway material (Dorpat, Dvinsk,
Rezekhne), armoured trains (Walk), arms, ammunition,
food, and clothing ;
iii) Prepare systematically the handing over of the country
to the Bolsheviks (Riga) ;
(iv) Often give up the authority to the Bolsheviks even before
the evacuation of the place by military forces (Dvinsk,
Vilna, Minsk) ; and
(v) Share food^and other goods with the Bolsheviks.
One need not put in doubt the veracity of all these
statements, which I might confirm from personal
observation in the South of Russia. But the motive
of the tactics mentioned may not always be a desire
to help the Bolsheviks. A Riga telegram to the
Localanzeiger (The Times, January 3rd) is perfectly
right in its assertion that " the obvious desire of the
German troops is to be sent home as quickly as possible.
They do not wish to be involved in any conflicts with
the Bolshevists." The same reason has been shared
by the great majority of the Allied troops worn out by
the protracted war. We do not know whether the
Bolshevist spring offensive against Poland had been
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 153
really planned " some months ago (i.e. at the end of
1918)," as a result of " a secret agreement " between the
German General Staff, represented by Hindenburg and
the Soviet rulers in Moscow (see Daily Chronicle, March
8th, correspondence from Geneva). But we also cannot
dismiss the official denial by the German Government
of any " secret understanding " with the Soviet Republic,
and its assertion that, on the contrary, it " has broken
off relations with the Soviet Republic, following upon
its having been ascertained that the latter had used
its political representative in Berlin (evidently Radek)
for the purpose of bringing about a continuation of
the war by means of propaganda against the Entente "
(Daily News, January 7th). We learn the same from
Herr Barth. Speaking at a meeting of Independent
Socialists, he said : " The Independents prevented
the Government from declaring war on Russia,
which it intended to do some weeks ago, and again
five days ago, when the Poles requested us to supply
them with arms." Herr Barth even expressly men-
tioned, as " M. Radek's view," the opinion " that the
German and Russian States should offer united re-
sistance to the Entente " (Daily Telegraph, January
6th). The fact is, that the traditional policy of
Germany toward Bolshevism consisted in supporting
it and using it for their own aims ; but just at that
time, owing to the acute struggle of the Spartacists
in conjunction with the Bolsheviks, against the
Scheidemann-Noske Government, this latter was
shifting the ground and was really on the verge of
declaring war on Bolshevist Russia. The Spartacists
and the Bolsheviks tried to join hands in East Prussia ;
the Government ; was obliged to do something in order
154 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
to prevent their union. The situation is made quite
clear by the following correspondence from Berlin
(on March 29th) in the Daily Chronicle :
It is ominous that it is in the eastern parts of the country
that the greatest efforts are being made (by the Spartacists) .
In East Prussia the Spartacist movement takes on more and
more the definite character of the Russian Bolshevism. The
Spartacists are endeavouring to get into and preserve definite
touch with the Russian Bolsheviks, and the hope is entertained
of bringing about a move of Russian Bolshevik troops towards
and into Germany. . . . Some sort of connection has been
already achieved with the Russian " comrades," and it is obvious
that there is considerable activity on both sides to achieve this
end. Recent events in Konigsberg, for example, have not
received a great deal of attention. The world heard of the
occupation of the city by German Government troops, and of
some street fighting, etc., without attributing great importance
to the matter. The Russian Bolsheviks boast of their close
alliance with the German Spartacists, and the action in Konigs-
berg was undoubtedly undertaken to combat the establishment of
communications by way of Kovno and Konigsberg between the
Spartacists and the Bolsheviks.
I may add a quotation from the speech of Mr. Zinoviev,
the Petrograd dictator, on the occasion of the festivities
on March ist to celebrate the assassination of Alex-
ander II in 1881. Speaking at an official assembly
of the Soviet, the President of the Petrograd
" Commune " said (see The Times, March 6th) :
Our heroic army is destined to fight not only here in Russia,
but also in the streets and squares of London, Paris, and Rome,
for the great ideal of Communism. Recently, by concentrating
a considerable number of troops near the Finnish frontier under
the guise of manoeuvres, we have said to all Europe : " Beware,
bourgeoisies, before you touch the Red Lion. You shall not
take Petrograd except by passing over our dead bodies." Thanks
to our efforts, we find ourselves to-day in direct communication
with the German Spartacists, and soon our actions will be co-ordin-
ated. Unfortunately, during the last days of the war, Hindenburg
succeeded in seizing on our eastern Prussian frontier wagons
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 155
and arms destined for the Red Army ; but we shall soon replace
them, and then the bourgeoisies of London and Paris will tremble
anew.
According to a telegram from Stockholm (Daily Telegraph,
March loth), Trotsky also at that time boasted in a
speech that " the Red Army will soon march victoriously
over the whole world, and Russian Bolsheviks will
fight on the barricades soon to be erected in the streets
of London, Berlin, Rome, and Paris."
It would be too long to dwell upon all preparatory
measures taken by the Bolsheviks for their invasion
in the spring into newly-built border States of Russia.
But we must still mention their negotiations in February
and March with the Ukraine directorate in order to
conclude an alliance " against attack, in particular
by the Entente, Poland and Rumania," to last " until
the moment when every nation in Europe declares in
favour of the revolution " (a proposal by the extreme
Ukrainian parties despatched to Lenin via Budapest,
see the Daily Telegraph, April gth, a telegram from
Warsaw). It is also important to touch upon the
Bolshevist activity in Poland, for which a vote of
27,000,000 roubles per month is said by Reuter (Paris,
March 26th) to have been without discussion passed
by the Central Executive of the Soviets. The account
of this propaganda given by the Warsaw correspondent
of the Morning Post (March 27th) is so typical, that
we may be permitted to quote that evidence in full :
About the middle of December there appeared in Warsaw
a Russian representing himself as the agent of an important
Russian charity interested in relieving the distress of the thou-
sands of Russians who were at that time, and still are, swarming
through Poland homeward bound from Germany. This man,
who from the first professed the strongest sort of Monarchist
156 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
views, was amply financed, and asserted that he had succeeded
in bringing a large amount in Tsar roubles across the border
by bribing a Bolshevist official.
Almost coincident with his arrival there appeared in Warsaw
four other men, who travelled with neutral passports, and also
claimed to represent a charitable organization, though not the
same as that mentioned by the first man. They proposed to
be interested in destitute Poles. I have seen these individuals,
who were stylishly dressed and had cultivated cosmopolitan
manners. On the strength of their representation that supplies
were actually on their way for the relief of Polish sufferers, the
Government granted them certain facilities. The first sus-
picions attached to them when it was found that the promised
relief was not forthcoming. The situation was becoming acute
when the four men appeared at the Polish Foreign Office, accom-
panied by the Russian who was earlier on the scene, and
announced that they had made an arrangement whereby the
charitable organization represented by the quartette would
undertake the work which the Russian originally planned to
do, and that this would involve large disbursements from a
fund ostensibly for the benefit of Russian prisoners of war.
Nothing more was said then of the promised assistance to the Poles.
Accordingly, at a large concentration camp for Russians
established at Povonsky, on the outskirts of Warsaw, active
work was apparently begun, and thus the matter stood for
some time, during which the four alleged neutrals travelled
quietly about the country a good deal. Then came a sudden
development. No fewer than 436 prisoners in the concen-
tration camp simply disappeared in one night. An investi-
gation was begun by the Polish authorities, and it was soon
ascertained that the fugitives had scattered themselves all
over Poland, a fair number, however, remaining in Warsaw
and its vicinity. Not a few, it was found, had gone to Lublin,
where trouble was anticipated, as was the case also in Warsaw.
These men, who were either agents of the Germans, or during
the period of their internment had been thoroughly inocu-
lated with Bolshevist doctrines and methods of propaganda,
were being regularly supplied with considerable sums of money
by the four alleged charity workers. Also, it was finally discovered
that the Russian who arrived first was the former head of a Bolshevist
seminary in Petrograd.
In the face of the Bolshevist menace from the East
the German opinion stood divided. The Government
inclined to a sincere rapprochement to the Entente,
from which side food was expected to come soon. In
an appeal to the troops issued by Hindenburg on
February I4th the aim of the German army under his
command was described as " defence of our territory
against our new enemy, Bolshevism, which threatens
civilization."
On the contrary, the opponents to the Government
from the extreme parties wished to fight the Entente
in alliance with the Bolsheviks. The objection that in
this case the Entente army will start on an invasion
of Germany was met with a self-confident assertion
that the invasion of the revolutionary Germany
will present a new chance for bringing about a
World Revolution. " The Entente soldiers, they
answered, will become infected with revolutionary
spirit, and thus the Revolution will be carried
into the West, and the World Revolution will be
set loose." There existed also an intermediate
current of opinion, represented, e.g., by Erzberger, who
tried to use Bolshevism not as a weapon to fight with,
but as a threat looming in the eyes of the Entente, in
order to get more concessions and better conditions
of peace. Erzberger himself told a correspondent of
the Morning Post (February I4th) that he already
earned a certain success with the Allies owing
to this argument. " During the first Armistice
negotiations," he said, " the Entente refused to believe
in the reality of the Bolshevism menace altogether.
During the second Armistice negotiations, in December,
they admitted that it represented a real danger to
Germany. Finally, in the last Armistice negotiations
they could no longer deny that Bolshevism had become
a menace to the Entente itself." According to Erzberger,
158 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
it was even agreed " not to allow Russian prisoners of
war to return to Russia, where they might be impressed
into the Bolshevist army (which was regularly the case) ,
but to keep them in German internment camps under
the discipline of Russian volunteer officers, to the
exclusion of Soldiers' Councils, and under the super-
vision of the Entente." It may be also that, on the
other hand, the use drawn from the argument of
Bolshevist menace was the reason why the secret
machinery of German-Bolshevik relations was kept in
existence. The double-minded argument thus continued
to be based on double-minded policy. While propos-
ing to the Entente to "' prevent the world from being
flooded with Bolshevism," the Germans at the same time
may have used the Bolshevist advance from the East,
particularly to Poland, in order to improve their own
strategic position on the Eastern Marches.
Here, as well as in other questions touching Russia,
the Allies have not evolved any scheme for consistent
policy. They did not intend and practically were
not strong enough to take the place of the retiring
Germans. Their military help at that time was quite
inadequate. The small borderland States now in pro-
cess of making were to all purposes left to themselves.
At some other place I shall describe the state of things
that ensued more in detail. The point to be emphasized
here is, first, that the Bolshevist military invasion under
the conditions of a systematic Bolshevist propaganda,
strongly supported with money, on one hand, and of
no Allied policy, tortuous German tactics and internal
weakness of local populations, on the other hand,
might easily succeed, if the invasion of Prussia were
the one and the single military action planned by the
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 159
Bolsheviks in the spring of 1919. But we already saw
that as a matter of fact this was to be only the one of
the four actions to be enterprised during the summer
campaign of 1919. The other three were to be conducted
against three other fronts, the Northern (Murmansk
and Archangel), the Eastern (Kolchak), and the Southern
(Denikin and the Ukraine). It is particularly Kolchak's
and Denikin's offensive operations which were to be
warded off, and it is fair to say that if the Bolshevist
military contribution to the World Revolution had
completely failed in 1919, it was chiefly due to the
non-Bolshevist Russia's relentless fight against the
Bolsheviks. This is also the answer to the question,
Where was loyal Russia at the end of the World
War ? and what the war still going on in the east of
Europe meant for the whole of the world ?
It is owing to the necessity of dividing their newly-
built Red Army into four bodies that the Bolshevist
aggression failed to accomplish Mr. Trotsky's schemes,
and had in the first half of the year no success at all in
the North and in the East. However, it partly and
temporarily succeeded in the South because of the
transient collapse of the Don Cossacks and the half-
hearted policy of the Allies on the Black Sea shore and
in the Ukraine. Busy with struggle for existence on
all these fronts, the Bolsheviks had no possibility to
develop their own offensive towards Germany. That
is why even the insufficiently equipped national troops
of the borderlands proved capable to stop their military
advance. 1
1 Since these lines had been written, Mr. Winston Churchill
confirmed the argument adduced by some very interesting
statements in his speech at the House ot Commons on
November 5th.
160 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
3. THE BOLSHEVIKS IN HUNGARY.
The Bolsheviks did not succeed in breaking through
the girdle of the frontier States of the West, such as
Esthonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland. They were more
successful in the South- West, owing not to their arms,
but to their propaganda. The same local agent, the
national feeling, which made out the chief obstacle to
their penetration to borderlands, turned to be their
ally in Hungary.
From the very beginning of 1918 circumstances in
Hungary were particularly favourable for an extremist
propaganda. According to Mr. Ashmead-Bartlett's
illuminating evidence in the Daily Telegraph, 1 the
" National Council " that overthrew the Government
on October 3ist, and declared Hungary a Republic on
November i6th, had been formed in January 1918 of
the leaders of the Radical Wing of the old Independent
party, the Jewish Mama, and the Social Democrats.
" The Government," Mr. Ashmead-Bartlett states,
" since the declaration of the Republic may be described
as half a Cabinet and half a Soviet." A few lines from
a speech by Mr. Pogany, delivered on March 2, 1919,
in Szatmar, may illustrate that characteristic. Mr.
Pogany was the representative of the Soldiers' Council
at the War Office, and he spoke from the same platform
with the Minister President Count Karolyi.
I came here to preach rebellion ... to preach revolution,
to set fire . . . against those great landowners, capitalists,
army contractors, bankers, and high clergy, who sweat the
labouring population of this country. But I came here also
to incite sedition against Czech bourgeoisie and the Rumanian
1 His correspondence have been published on March 8th,
nth, 25th, 26th, 27th, April ist, 4th, 7th, I7th, 22nd.
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 161
proprietory Bojars . . . against those who destroy the unity
of the Hungarian people. We cannot allow that Hungary and
Czecho-Slovakia should organize on different lines. Hungary
can only be saved by the International Social Democratic idea,
by the united front of the World Revolution. We must stick
together, because Rumanian peasants, the Hungarian prole-
tariat, Russian, French, and English workmen are all one.
Thus nationalist idea was welded together with the
Bolshevist one, as they already had been in the Bolshe-
vist " Imperialism " of Lenin. Count Karolyi, who
was not a Socialist, but a Pacifist, at the same occasion
came out on the same strongly-nationalist lines. He
declared that " unless the Conference of Paris safe-
guarded the integrity and independence of the Hungarian
people they would never lay down their arms until they
had driven their enemies from their native soil."
Unhappily, the Armistice at Belgrade, concluded by
Count Karolyi with General Franchet d'Esperay on
November 8, 1918, did not secure to Count Karolyi
the support upon which to lean. It was followed by
territorial encroachments from all nationalities allied
with the Entente, Czechs, Rumanians, and Serbs, at
the expense of the Hungarian " integrity." According
to The Times correspondent (March 24th), " it greatly
strengthened the hands of the Bolshevist elements
who were working to stir up an ill-feeling against the
Entente." At the same time, it brought together the
most opposite political groups in one feeling of national
offence, and thus prepared a very large national basis
for a Bolshevik overthrow. Such statesmen as Count
Andrassy declared that " rather than suffer the amputa-
tion of half of their territories, the Magyars would make
common cause with the Bolsheviks (see his interview in
Le Journal by a correspondent from Berne on April 3rd) .
11
162 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
The connection between the policy of the Conference
of Paris and the Bolshevist Revolution in Budapest
is very eloquently stated by Mr. Ashmead-Bartlett
in a correspondence written three weeks before that
Revolution (on March 6th see the Daily Telegraph,
March nth) :
It would be impossible to exaggerate the dangers of the
present situation in Hungary in regard to its external affairs.
The delays of the Conference of Paris in fixing the ultimate
boundaries of the nation, the failure to listen to any official
expression of Hungarian public opinion up to this time, and
the permitting of the armed occupation of more than half her
former territory, before the Conference has given its decision,
by the Rumanians, Czecho-Slovaks and Jugo-Slavs, is having
a deplorable effect on the Hungarian people, and is endangering
once again the peace of Europe. It has had the effect of creating
a national feeling throughout the country amongst all classes,
and however much the nation may seem divided in regard to
internal affairs, it stands absolutely solid in its determination
to insist on President Wilson's formula that every people has
the right to live under the flag of its own choosing. From the
ultra-Conservatives to the most extreme Social Democrats, you only
hear the same expressions of opinion, namely, that there will
be no peace in this part of Europe if Hungarian territory is
taken from her. . . . Every day the feeling is growing in strength.
1 have talked with elder statesmen like Count Apponyi, with
President Karolyi, with Moderate Socialists like Bohm, the
Minister of War, with the extreme wing of Social Democrats
led by Pogany . . . the most powerful man in Hungary to-day,
with the working classes, and with leaders of all shades of public
opinion. All declare that the people will never lay down their
arms if their richest districts, on which they are dependent for
food and coal, are taken from them, leaving them at the mercy
of their neighbours.
This is the soil on which the Bolshevist propaganda
thrived, and this time attained its aim. The head of
the Government, Count Karolyi, took it under his
protection so far as this propaganda was directed against
the neighbouring nations. M. Vaida Voevod, the
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 168
Rumanian Minister for Transylvania, in his long inter-
view published by Le Matin (March 25th), has stated
that " as soon as he came into power, Count Karolyi
founded a Bolshevist propaganda bureau at Budapest,
whence were issued proclamations in Czech, Serbian,
and Rumanian, which were disseminated in Croatia,
Transylvania and Slovakia by agents or from aero-
planes. This bureau was in close touch with the Russian
Bolshevists. When the Rumanian troops occupied
Marmaros Sziget, in Northern Hungary, they made
prisoner 800 armed Bolshevists who had come from
Russia, via Eastern Galicia. Karolyi and Lenin were
in constant communication through the wireless station
at Budapest." Dr. Harold Williams also confirms
in the Daily Chronicle (March 26th) that " Lenin
saw the possibilities of Budapest long ago, and just
after the Armistice he sent there his friend Rakovsky,
who was received by the Karolyi Government and
permitted to carry on propaganda among Slovaks,
Serbs, and Transylvanian Rumanians. He also worked
among the Magyars, and when he returned to Russia
left behind him a band of trained agents well supplied
with funds and having a nucleus among returned
prisoners of war, who had been subjected to intense
propaganda in Russia." On February 23, 1919,
the Communists tried their first stroke in Gratz (Styria).
On that occasion the Hungarian Government proceeded
to arrests. Seventy-six Communists were arrested,
and at the judicial examination they admitted that
they worked with Russian gold and spent 300,000
kronen (about 17,000) monthly. The correspondent
of the Daily Telegraph, Mr. Leonard Spray, has received
further interesting details on that subject from a corre-
164 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
spondent at Budapest, before the outbreak (see March
26th). According to it, " so long ago as last January
the police at Vienna and at Budapest discovered that
delegates from the Russian Red Cross, who were supposed
to have been sent to assist the repatriation of Russian
prisoners "just as we saw it in Poland "were nothing
other than Bolshevik agents, and that they were dis-
pensing large sums of Russian and Austrian money
in order to gain adherents in Vienna and Budapest
The leader of the movement was found to be Bela Kun. 1
He was arrested, and acknowledged that he had received
all the money he required from Russia, and that it was
brought by private couriers. ... A few days ago the
Hungarian police received information which led them
to suspect the real character of the party of 100 supposed
Red Cross delegates, whose arrival had been announced.
They were stopped at the frontier, and were found to
be in possession of 2,000,000 roubles. On cross-
examination, they admitted that their true purpose
for coming was to support the movement in Hungary."
At the same day, another correspondent of the same
newspaper, Mr. Beaumont, telegraphed from Milan
* Bela Kun, born in 1886 at Szilagycseh, in Transylvania,
formerly a Hungarian journalist, secretary and treasurer of
the Workmen's Association at Temesvar, became a lieutenant,
and was taken prisoner by the Russians at Przemsl. Kerensky
is said to have appointed him chief of propaganda among the
prisoners, but he worked for the Bolsheviks, made friends with
Lenin, and when the latter gained power he organized the
first Bolshevik Mission formed from prisoners of war returning
to Hungary after Brest-Litovsk. It is said that Lenin fur-
nished him with money to found a Communist paper, the Voros
Nysag, which he edited for a time after his return from captivity.
He was inclined to go a little too fast for Karolyi, and was
arrested for organizing a Communist demonstration in Buda-
pest and assaulting the police (February). After the Revolution
of March 2ist he became Foreign Minister.
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 165
that the ground for the Hungarian Bolsheviks " was
prepared by a large influx of Hungarian prisoners of
war from Russia. It may be safely estimated," he
asserts, " that more than 100,000 of these prisoners,
all tainted with Bolshevism, Communist, and Anarchist
ideas, and scientifically instructed by the Russian leaders,
have entered Hungary within the last four months.
It is no impossible boast, therefore, of the new revolu-
tionary Government in Budapest that it can get up,
or has already at hand, an army of 70,000 former
prisoners of war." It was coupled with another boast,
that " a Bolshevik army of 300,000 men is waiting on
the borders of the Bukovina and in the Ukraine to come
to the aid of Hungary." The Deutsches Volksblatt of
Vienna, which communicated that news, claimed also
to be informed by one who had just (before March 24th)
arrived from the north of Hungary, that Hungarian
troops are already being concentrated according to
plans made in common understanding between Moscow
and Budapest.
Hungary was thus quite ripe for a Bolshevist revolu-
tion, when a new Note by the Entente on the establish-
ment on the frontier of a neutral zone, which the
Hungarians understood to be identical with the future
political boundary of Hungary, 1 gave signal for the
outbreak. Karolyi resigned on March 2ist. A " Soviet
Government " took his place. Everything was achieved
in a bloodless way. Next day the following dialogue
by wireless ensued between Budapest and Moscow :
1 Colonel Vix formally denied that interpretation. He stated
that the President of the Republic was informed that the aim
of the Entente is to separate the " Hungarian troops from the
Rumanians by means of a sharply-defined neutral zone."
166 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
" The Hungarian Soviet Republic requests Comrade Lenin
to come to the telegraph apparatus." Twenty minutes later
Moscow replied : " Lenin is at the apparatus. I request Comrade
Bela Kun, Commissary for Foreign Affairs, to come to the tele-
graph apparatus." Budapest replied : " Instead of Bela Kun,
who is at present attending a Council sitting, Ernst For, a
member of the Central Committee of the Hungarian Communist
party, is at the apparatus. The Hungarian proletariat, which
yesterday took the entire State power into its hands, has intro-
duced the dictatorship of the proletariat into the country, and
greets you as the leader of the international proletariat. We express
to you our revolutionary solidarity, and tender our greetings
to the entire revolutionary Russian proletariat." Lenin sub-
sequently replied ; " Your message to the Congress of the
Communist party of Bolshevist Russia was received with tremen-
dous enthusiasm. In order to communicate the decisions of
the Moscow Congress, and likewise to report on the military
situation, it is necessary to maintain permanent wireless com-
munication between Budapest and Moscow. With Communist
greetings and handshake." LENIN.
We have many specimens of that interchange of
wireless communications which followed that advice.
It apparently began by a note of doubt on the part of
Moscow whether what existed in Budapest was really
a Communist Republic. " Please inform me," Lenin
asked Bela Kun, " what real guarantees you have
that the new Hungarian Government is really Com-
munistic and not merely Socialistic ; THAT is, Social-
traitorous (socialverratherisch}. It is quite certain that
owing to peculiar circumstances it would be a mistake
for the Hungarian revolution to imitate our Russian
tactics in its detail. I must warn you against this
mistake." Bela Kun sends a detailed reply to his
master. He states that within three days a decree
for the nationalization of all land, as well as a decree
for the annulment of loans, will be issued in Hungary.
He claims that the power is fully in the hands of the
Soviets. He says that his influence upon the masses
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 167
is very great, and that the shaping of the Soviets depends
entirely upon him. The regulations for the elections
of the Soviets are on the Russian model. . . . Soviets
have been formed already in every village. Concerning
the military situation, Bela Kun answers that no serious
operations affecting Hungary have so far been under-
taken by the Entente Powers ; also that the organization
of the Red Army makes progress and that Russian
prisoners have been enrolled in the Red Army. He
takes care to add that there is great unrest in
Austria and in Southern Germany, and that decisive
events are expected to occur within a few days. In
his speech before the delegates of the old Communist
party Bela Kun repeats conscientiously Lenin's lesson.
" The Soviet constitution is being worked out at
present on the basis of Lenin's instructions. It is
not necessary, however, literally to copy the Russian
constitution. We must learn from the mistakes of
the Russian Revolution. The dictatorship does not in
every case signify terrorism " and so on.
Measures which were not considered to be " mistakes,"
but obviously were thought to be the very substance
of Communist legislation and which have been, accord-
ingly, immediately realized in Hungary were the
" socialization " of all banking institutions and safes, of
all dwelling-houses, the sanction of " illegal " marriages
and illegitimate children, etc. Subsequently, the
Hungarian reformers asked for further inspiration
from Moscow. An intercepted wireless message to
Chicherin requests the despatch of all Russian Bolshevist
decrees and regulations, together with other Bolshevist
literature, to Proskurov (Podolia), thence to be fetched
by an aerial messenger.
168 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
The hopes ran high at that first real achievement in
the line of the World Revolution. In an interview
published by the Berliner Tageblatt a few days after
the Revolution the Hungarian Ambassador at Vienna
said : " We are joined to the Russian Soviet Republic
by a very strong military and political treaty. . . .
I do not believe the Governments of the Entente will
venture into war against a world's movement such as
Bolshevism, for the revolution in Hungary is only a
step on the way to a World Revolution. . . . We
are inspired by the same ideas which guide the Russian
Soviet Government." Later on (April 24th) The Times
correspondent published the contents of the agreement
between Bela Kun and Lenin, referred to by the
Hungarian Ambassador. It was as follows :
1. An Alliance is agreed upon between the Soviets of
Hungary, Ukrainia, and Russia.
2. Up to the time of the other European States going over
to the Soviet regime, they will give each other military and
material assistance.
3. Movements of troops will be made only after a preliminary
understanding among the different Soviet States.
4. They will attack the Entente, and especially Poland and
Rumania.
On April i6th Pogany, while on a trip to Vienna,
confirmed these hopes and expectations. Interviewed
by a representative of Der Neue Tag, he said : " In
one week we shall be in direct relations with Russia
and the Ukraine, and shall obtain the foodstuffs as
well as the raw materials necessary for our industries,
so that the hopes of the bourgeoisie that we shall be
defeated by hunger and want are destroyed. I admit
that Communism cannot win only a partial victory.
But the Soviet block, consisting of Russia, the
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 169
Ukraine, Germany, and Serbia, would easily be able
to deal with the industrial opposition of the capitalist
States."
This state of self-confidence was still enhanced by
General Smuts' Mission to Budapest. To use Mr.
Ashmead-Bartlett's judicious expression, " the Entente,
by its error in sending General Srrmts on his Mission, has
put a premium on Bolshevism." " The Soviet Govern-
ment expected force," he states on April loth, " and,
to their amazement, they found recognition. The
only satisfaction to be got out of this miserable business
is the fact that the Soviet Government are now so
confident that they have laid all their cards on the
table."
And, indeed, General Smuts has come to propose
the raising of the blockade, and an invitation of the
Hungarian delegates to the Peace Conference before
the final frontiers should be decided. In exchange,
he demanded the formal recognition of the Note on
the neutral zone.
On the morning of Saturday, April 5tb, Bela Kun was
ready to accept these advantageous proposals. But
subsequently he conferred with Lenin by wireless,
and, on Lenin's advice, on the afternoon he rejected
the proposals. On Saturday night General Smuts
steamed out of Budapest.
What the Hungarian Bolsheviks now asked for was
complete freedom to exploit Bolshevism throughout the
world. " We request the convocation of the Con-
ference proposed by us," they said, " to consist of the
representatives of the Hungarian Soviet Republic,
Bohemia, Rumania, Serbia, Jugo-Slavia and German
Austria, to meet as quickly as possible in Prague or
170 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
Vienna, and to proceed on parallel lines with the
negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference." They
also wished "to be enabled to maintain, both in the
countries enumerated and in other countries, economic
representatives." That is how even the moderate
Socialist leaders, interviewed by Mr. Ashmead-Bartlett,
explained their demands and their expectations (the
Daily Telegraph, April 8th).
The Entente is now utterly powerless and dare not send
troops anywhere, through fear of the infection of Bolshevism,
and therefore are willing to negotiate with the Bolshevik leaders.
... If they came here, they would join the ranks of our
" International " regiments within a week. ... In reality we
Bolsheviks of the world have won the victory. We shall sweep
over Europe, and every one will have to join us. ... Now all
cards are in our hands. . . .
So far as their further plans were concerned,
Bohm, Pogany and other leaders explained them as
follows :
In three weeks we shall have 150,000 perfectly equipped,
trained men. In six weeks we expect to have 500,000 men
trained or partly trained. The Entente will not be able to
interfere, as they have no troops. We carry on the real war-
fare by propaganda. . . . Don't you realize what a wonderful
position geographically Hungary has as a starting-place of
Bolshevism ? We are surrounded with discontented peoples,
all ready to accept our principles. For the moment we shall
not bother with Austria. They are already Bolsheviks, but
they are dependent on Allies' food, and say they must wait
before joining us. We shall start with Czecho-Slovakia. After
Czecho-Slovakia comes the turn of Rumania, but that country
may adopt Bolshevism at any moment. Bulgaria also is quite
ready to throw in her lot with us. Jugo-Slavia will follow as
a matter of course, and then we shall arrive as a solid body at
the frontiers of Italy. You will see that in three months Italy
will come over to us. Then, on April 8th, there will be a com-
bined meeting of Workmen's and Soldiers' Councils in Berlin.
We have absolutely certain information that Germany will
adopt Bolshevism. . . . How long do you think France will
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 171
hold out ? Why, we will eat her up in a few months, and then
will come the turn of England. Do you realize that all the
English propaganda is already printed ? r None of you seem
to understand how well organized the forces of Bolshevism are.
We have every scrap of paper ready for Czecho-Slovakia,
Rumania, Bulgaria, Italy, France, and England. No country
will be able to hold out against us. a
Before the end of April, however, this magniloquence
gave way to blank despondency. Russian troops,
grain, and raw materials, so lavishly promised, were not
forthcoming. The Hungarian Red Army proved in-
capable to cope with the advancing forces of Rumanians,
Czechs, and Slovaks. Finally, news has come from
Vienna that the Entente has given France a free hand
to deal with Hungary and occupy Budapest. For
a time the Soviet Government in Budapest thought that
their days were numbered. Colonel Wedgwood spoke
in the House of Commons about the " assassination
of the revolution in Hungary " (May 5th). Much
more appropriately, Bela Kun uttered the supposition
that " the Entente has condemned us to the fate of the
Paris Commune." As April passed while Europe had
not turned Communist, there was a talk in the Cabinet
1 See Ransome, Six Weeks in Russia, p. 24.
* See also the correspondence from Helsingfors to The Times
on March I7th. " The Executive Committee at Moscow, on
the initiative of Trotsky, has ordered the Red General Staff
to prepare with all haste a scheme for the formation of an army
of 150,000 men to invade Germany at the end of April or the
middle of May, via Poland and Courland. The principal object
of this army will be to support the Spartacists in Germany and
to put on a war footing several hundred thousand Russian
prisoners for a defensive OK offensive movement on the line
of the Elbe in the event of the Entente Governments still refusing
to conclude a peace with the Bolshevists. The general idea
of this plan is attributed to a certain Major Busch, a former
German prisoner who is playing a prominent role in Moscow,
declaring himself a Communist and a Spartacist."
172 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
Council of resigning and handing over power to a purely
or predominantly Socialist Government.
Having received some new wireless councils from
Lenin, and having won some military success over
Rumanians, the Communist Government decided to
hold on up to the last. The purely Leninite argument
preferred by Kun was : " Even if we fall, we should
fall in such a way that we benefit and strengthen the
cause of the international proletariat."
Under circumstances obtaining it meant that one
shall use the " breathing space " left to them by the
indecision and procrastination policy of the Allies
in order to expand their propaganda to the neighbouring
States of the former Austria-Hungary. " I will speak
frankly," Bela Kun is reported in the Pester Lloyd to
have said. " My personal opinion (in advocating des-
perate resistance) is in no way based upon military con-
siderations, perhaps not even upon political groups, but
derived from my past career (as a chief of propaganda) .
It is that, if it be possible, we should not defend
Budapest here, but at the Wiener Neustadt " (on the
Austrian frontier, near Vienna).
However, as a contrast to Germany, the newly-born
Austro-German Republic, led by a temporary Executive
composed of moderate Socialists (Dr. Seitz, Renner,
and Bauer) succeeded to keep the country quiet and to
preserve it from Bolshevik and Spartacist excesses
up to the day of February 16, 1919, when general
elections were held. They passed under the double
flag, national and red, of union with Germany and
Socialism. The Social Democrats had the relative
majority of 70 members ; the Clerical Socialists 62 ;
the other parties, mostly German Nationalists, 27.
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 178
The outstanding fact which dominated all politics was
the desperate financial, economic, and food position.
The population, particularly the lower middle and the
labouring classes, were brought to the very verge of
starvation, and their life and death question was
that of the smooth transportation of foodstuffs by
Inter-Allied commission, which might be interrupted
by political disturbances. Coupled with the cheerful
character of the Viennese, this motive led to calm,
patient, half -apathetic endurance.
Of course, all this did not suit at all Lenin and his
Hungarian followers. Bohm and Pogany have visited
Vienna, already on the first days of their revolution,
obviously, not in order to negotiate with the " traitor
Socialists " of Dr. Seitz, Renner, and Bauer's type.
It was then they made their boastful declarations
to Mr. Ashmead-Bartlett (see above). The results were
not slow to follow. On March 30th there were already
held mass meetings in Vienna. At one such meeting,
convoked by the Council of Sailors, and attended by
representatives of soldiers an4 the Danube seamen
and delegates of German Councils, it was announced
that a dictatorship was imminent, and the proletariat
were exhorted to hold themselves in readiness. The
Communist delegate Kovacz, of Budapest, declared that
Hungary was prepared to feed Vienna when the latter
proclaimed a Soviet Republic. A resolution was passed
urging the immediate arming of the people, to enable
them to become masters of the situation, and another
declaring the union, military and political, of the Austrian
Republic with the Hungarian was also adopted. (See
the Daily Telegraph, April 2ist, a correspondence
from Berne, April 4th.) There were more serious
174 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
disturbances on April i7th, when the unemployed,
the repatriated prisoners and war invalids tried to
establish barricades and to assault the Parliament House.
However, the rioting was severely condemned by the
Social Democratic party. The Social Democratic
" Volkswehr " (People's Militia) proved faithful to the
Government. The number of actual demonstrators
was found to be only about 1,500. Their leaders were
arrested, and the participation of Hungarian and Russian
agitators in the demonstrations has been firmly estab-
lished. One notorious Hungarian agitator, named
Steiner, was found to have in three trunks, which he had
just brought from Budapest, 2,000,000 crowns' worth
of gold, silver objects, and jewellery, all stolen by the
Soviet Government in Budapest, and of 600,000 crowns
in bonds and share certificates, taken from the
Budapest Commercial Bank. Steiner intended to sell
the securities and jewels, and use the proceeds for
Communist propaganda. A quantity of propagandist
literature was also seized by the police in his room in
the hotel. In spite of the arrests, the agitation has
not ceased. A man speaking in Russian was heard to
declare on April igth that if by April 22nd the Govern-
ment did not accede to the demands of the unemployed
and the war invalids it had to be swept away by force
of arms, in spite of the threat of the Entente to cut
off food supplies. Far from their doing so, a raid was
performed on the Hungarian Legation, in the Bankgasse,
by the anti-Bolsheviks on May 2nd. Close on
150,000,000 crowns, obviously intended for further
Bolshevist propaganda, were discovered and removed
from the Legation.
The Bolsheviks of Budapest reaped success in
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 175
Austria-Hungary only in the measure of the advance
of their troops. Thus, e.g., Soviet rule was declared
at the beginning of June in part of Slovakia as soon
as it was reconquered by the Red Army. Kassa
(Kaschau) has been evacuated by the Czechs owing to an
uprising organized by armed Hungarian workmen. On
June i6th a Communist Government was proclaimed
in Slovakia under the presidency of Anton Yanousek.
It was directly followed by a declaration of alliance
concluded with Soviet Russia. On June 22nd the Slovak
Press Bureau announced to the world that the socializa-
tion of all industries, banks, and larger business concerns
was in progress, and that a Red Guard, to which Kas-
chau has contributed 15,000 volunteers, was being
organized. Both the contents of measures fulfilled and
the extreme haste with which they were made public,
are typical for Lenin and Trotsky's general scheme.
They had good reasons to be in a hurry. Only a week
later (June 22nd) the same Slovak Bureau was forced to
announce that the Communist Government at Kaschau
has decided to resist the Czech advance. A few
days later Slovakia was reoccupied, and the ephemeral
Government of Anton Yanousek in Kaschau ceased
to exist. But for the Allies' mistaken policy, the same
should have been long since the case with Bela Kun's
Government in Budapest.
Anyhow, even with that non-interference policy on
their side, the Bolsheviks have not succeeded in sweeping
Austria-Hungary, just as they had not succeeded in
overthrowing the Scheidemann-Noske " traitorous "
Government. Moscow and Budapest remained the only
samples of the Soviet rule to edify the world. But,
as long as they existed, the cause of Bolshevism was not
176 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
thought lost by their initiators. Lenin's view at that
time is made known through an interview with him, sent
by the Geneva correspondent of the Daily Chronicle (see
the Daily Chronicle, April 23rd). It is always the same
alternative of Bolshevism carrying the world with it
or perishing, and the same firm belief in the final upshot.
" A Communist State cannot exist in a world of
capitalist States. This is politically and economically
impossible. The Communist State must either convert
the capitalist States to Communism, or succumb itself to
capitalism. An apparent compromise between the two is
conceivable for a short time, but it can never be real and
lasting. . . . But it is with ideas, not with armies, that
we shall conquer the world. Capitalism carries on a more
effective propaganda for us amongst the masses than
we ourselves could ever hope to achieve by our own
efforts." However, in this very interview two methods
of active effort are mentioned by Lenin. One is finding
their allies wherever they are to be found. " We
shook hands with the French Monarchists (a French
officer de Lubersac) : . . . thus we merely adopted the
perfectly legal and approved method of manoeuvring,
resting, and biding our time until the rapidly ripening
proletarian revolution should break out in all countries."
The other method, whose theoretical justification is
revealed to us in the same interview by Mr. Lenin, is
falsifying money. The Bolsheviks are known to have
done that very cleverly on the international scale, by
preparing falsified German marks, British pounds
sterling, French francs, and American dollars. They
really succeeded in bringing down the currency.
Here we have a " scientific " explanation of that
method, as applied to Russia itself :
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 177
Hundreds of thousands of rouble notes are being issued daily
by our Treasury. This is done not in order to fill the coffers
of the State with practically worthless paper r but with the
deliberate intention of destroying the value of money as a means
of payment. There is no justification for the existence of money
in the Bolshevik State where the necessities of life shall be paid
for by work alone. Experience has taught us that it is impossible
to root out the evils of capitalism merely by confiscation and
expropriation. For however ruthlessly such measures may be
applied, astute speculators and obstinate survivors of the
capitalist classes will always manage to evade them and continue
to corrupt life of the community. The simplest way to
exterminate the very spirit of capitalism is, therefore, to
flood the country with notes of a high face-value without
financial guarantees of any sort. . . . But this simple process
must, like all the measures, be applied all over the world
in order to render it effective. Fortunately, the frantic finan-
cial debauch in which all Governments have indulged
during the war has paved the way everywhere for its appli-
cation.
Thus the lavish expense of paper money for the
aim of propagating the " ideas " of a rebellion of
paupers against the increased cost of living (ascribed
this time to the " lust of gain of the interna-
tional exploiters ") might at once pursue the double
object of increasing propaganda and creating new
cause of disaffection for its better success. This
also explains the enormous pecuniary resources
deliberately spent by the Soviet Government for
the expansion of their propaganda " all over the
world." We now come to this last chapter of our
inquiry on the international aspect of Russian
Bolshevism.
1 This is untrue, of course, as the Soviet regime could
not possibly exist without supplying their officials, their
army, and their unemployed working men in the " nation-
alized " concerns with that " worthless " money on the
increasing scale, proportionately with the fall of its
value.
12
178 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
4. THE BOLSHEVIST PROPAGANDA IN NEUTRAL
COUNTRIES.
On March 2nd, in great secret even from Mr.
Ransome a queer kind of gathering met at
the Kremlin, Moscow. " Everybody of importance
was there," so runs Mr. Ransome's description :
" Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Chicherin, Bukharin,
Karakhan, Litvinov, Vorovsky, Steklov, Rakovsky,
representing here the Balkan Socialist Party,
Skripnik, representing the Ukraine. Then came
Stang (Norwegian Left Socialists), Grimlund
(Swedish Left), Sadoul (France), Finberg (British
Socialist Party), Reinstein (American Socialist Labour
Party), a Turk, a German- Austrian, a Chinese, and so
on." " The meeting was in a smallish room, with a
dais at one end, in the old Courts of Justice. The
Presidium was on the raised dais at the end of the room,
Lenin sitting in the middle behind a long, red-covered
table, with Albrecht, a young German Spartacist,
on the right, and Flatten, the Swiss, on the left."
" Speeches were made in all languages, though, where
possible, German was used, because more of the foreigners
knew German than knew French." " There was a
make-believe side to the whole affair," Mr. Ransome
ironically remarked, " in which the English Left Social-
ists were represented by Finberg and the Americans by
Reinstein, neither of whom had, or was likely to have,
any means of communicating with their constituents."
Of course, Fritz Flatten cut a really " vital figure "
at the Conference. One must bear in mind that Flatten,
together with Grimm, had been the most active in
plotting the German-Bolshevik conspiracy ; that as
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION
early as 1915 they had started separating the " revolu-
tionary " International from the old one the " Third "
from the " Second " through Zimmerwald and
Kienthal, and that when the time had come to intro-
duce the new plant into Russia, they easily got
permission from Germany to let Lenin pass through
Germany to Petrograd, then in a state of revolution.
Everything progressed favourably for the " Third
International " idea : the Bolsheviks were out for a
World Revolution, and, as we have seen, were preparing
to realize the " first link in the chain " a Communist
revolution in the Central Empires as early as the spring
of 1919. They were not in the least afraid of military
reverses : on the contrary, they courted the danger o f
the Allied troops coming as they were sure they woul d
to help the Russian counter-revolution. They were
busy preparing to meet them with the only weapon they
possessed with " hundredweight upon hundredweight
of propaganda " in all possible languages, printed in
Petrograd. But it was a different thing if, instead of
armed soldiers, another kind of Socialist propaganda had
opposed their own. That is why they heard with
consternation that their chief enemy in the world of
ideas, the " Second International " of the Social patriots
and Social traitors, was resuscitated in Berne. Moreover,
the " Second International " seemed to start on an
offensive, while deciding to send a delegation to study
the political situation in Bolshevist Russia. Mr. Ran-
some tells us that since February 2Oth the question
of how to meet the " Commission of Inquiry " " was
the most debated of all political subjects." Chicherin
had immediately replied to Berne, saying that, " though
they did not consider the Berne Conference either
180 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
socialistic or in any degree representative of the working
class, they nevertheless would permit the Commission
to go to Russia, and would give it every opportunity
of becoming thoroughly acquainted with the state of
affairs, just as they would any bourgeois Commission
directly or indirectly connected with any of the bourgeois
Governments, even with those then attacking Russia."
We know that the proposal to send a Commission
to Russia was made at the Berne Conference by the
sympathizers with the Bolsheviks. The latter took it,
instead, as a most insidious trick on the part of the
" Imperialist " Governments. Litvinov was heard to
say that " sending the Commission from Berne was the
most dangerous weapon yet conceived by their
opponents."
Many Communists severely criticized Chicherin's
reply, and it was then that the idea was born " to counter
any ill effects that might result from the expected visit "
of the official representatives of the Second International
by speedily founding in Moscow the " Third Inter-
national." The idea might be suggested by Flatten,
who hurried up to Lenin directly after the Swiss party
refused to take part in the Berne Conference. Mr.
Lansbury actually saw Flatten in Berne openly declaring
himself for Soviet rule. " Flatten agrees that he and
his friends are anti-democratic. . . . The people are too
ignorant, too stupid. The clear-headed, class-conscious
Minority, he thinks, must now use the same methods
as those of the governing classes, and must assume
control by violence and force " (the Herald, February
I5th). Three weeks after these purely Leninite sen-
tences had been uttered, we find Flatten in Moscow,
sitting at the table on the left hand of Lenin, presiding
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 181
at the founding of the " Third International " in
Moscow.
Of course, Flatten was not the only intermediary
between Berne and Moscow. Mr. Ransome informs
us that " many letters had been received from members
of that Conference, Longuet, for example, wishing that
the Communists had been represented there." " The
view taken in Moscow," he adds, " was that the left
wing at Berne was feeling uncomfortable at sitting
down with Scheidemann and Co. ; let them definitely
break with them, finish with the Second International
and join the Third. It was clear that this gathering
in the Kremlin was meant to be the nucleus of a new
International opposed to that which had split into
national groups, each supporting its own Government
in the prosecution of war. That was the leit motif
of the whole affair." " If the Berne delegates had come,
as they were expected, they would have been told by
the Communists that they were welcome visitors, but
that they were not regarded as representing the Inter-
national." The great danger of the " social-traitorous "
propaganda was thus averted, and an official point
d'appui was acquired which buttressed the Bolshevist
propaganda in the name of the " Third International "
all over the world. The work begun at Zimmerwald
was thus achieved in the Kremlin.
Just because it was not a new departure, but rather
a completion of the old, the Bolsheviks did not wait
for Platten's announcement (on March 5th) of the
foundation of the Third International in the Kremlin, in
order to start their propaganda on a much larger scale
than was necessary for preparing the immediate out-
break of a Communist revolution in the Central Empire
182 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
(" the first link in the chain "). Already, as early as
January 1919, the Danish diplomatist, Mr. Scavenins,
in an interview with the correspondent of the National
Tidende, gives a general outline of the Bolshevist world
propaganda. " The Bolshevists," he states, " are masters
of the art of propaganda. This work is directed by
Radek (Mr. Ransome says Reinstein was at the head
of the department, which he condescendingly, but
hardly sincerely, qualifies as ' quite futile '), who has
under him representatives of most nationalities. He
(Radek) supplies the idea, and the other think it into
their own idiom, with their French, English, or German
brains. They are very clever in understanding how
to attack every country at its most sensitive point ;
for example, England in India. They have Russians
taught the Indian languages and send them to India
(according to Mr. Ransome, in February a certain
Mr. Eliava was going to Turkestan). They have sent
others to China and to Japan. They have won adherents
among the Chinese residents in Russia."
Mr. Scavenins, as a Danish resident, was just the man
to know what was going on behind the screen. It was,
indeed, the neighbouring neutral countries which served
the Bolsheviks as the first stepping-stone for their
propaganda at large. It was chiefly through Sweden,
Denmark, Switzerland, and Holland that they com-
municated with their adherents all over the world.
There they had their old connections prepared for them
by Germans in pre-revolutionary time : very often
they only had to step into the shoes of the German
propagandists. The best proof that the old tradition
of co-operation has been inherited by Republican
from the Imperial Germany is the nomination of German
183
Ministers to the neutral Governments. Thus, for instance,
when Baron von Romberg's Bolshevik intrigues had
become intolerable to the Federal Council in Berne,
he was replaced by the Socialist Adolf Miiller, who had
been constantly on the move between Berlin and Berne,
serving as an important link between the Swiss and
the German Majority Socialists, and intimately connected
with people like Grimm, Nobs, Parvus, and Angelica
Balabanova. The work of the Russian Bolshevist
Mission in Switzerland is very well characterized from
within, as it were, by an official report of the chief
of the Mission, Mr. Berzin, after his expulsion from
this country. 1 Says Mr. Berzin : " Our expulsion
from Switzerland proves that to a certain extent we
succeeded in our work. Our most important task
was intelligence work. We undertook to abstain from
any political propaganda, and that is how we kept it ;
we took no part in public meetings, and we did not
publish newspaper articles signed with our names ;
in short, we carried on no open propaganda. But,
on the other hand, we did what we had a right to do :
we sent information on the Russian situation and on
the Bolshevist policy to other countries. We could
not do otherwise, because this was the chief aim of
our mission in Switzerland." " During the war-time
Switzerland had been an admirably well-located obser-
vation point, and our aim was to keep our Russian
comrades well informed about what was going on in
Western Europe, particularly in the Allied countries,
on which they had only a scanty information through
1 The minute of the sitting of the Central Committee, where
the report had been read, appeared in the official Izvestia,
November 27, 1919.
184 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
the channel of Germany." That the Swiss Mission
did much more than that is shown by the following
avowal of Mr. Berzin : " The existence of the Soviet
Mission in Berne and the enormous activity it displayed
in the work of propaganda, not only in Switzerland, but
also in the neighbouring and in more remote countries,
has become a danger for the bourgeois classes in Western
Europe." That is how Mr. Berzin explains his well-
deserved expulsion from Switzerland.
On the occasion of a similar expulsion of Mr. Vorovsky,
the Soviet's diplomatic representative in Sweden,
the Swedish papers published on December 10, 1918,
the following news (from the official Finnish source) :
On the steamer Polhem, chartered to transport the Bol-
shevist Minister Vorovsky to Petrograd, a number of important
documents were found, proving that the Bolsheviks are making
energetic preparations to let loose the World Revolution. The
headquarters of the movement are in Stockholm. Sweden
now has broken its diplomatic relations with (Bolshevist) Russia.
According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the motive for
that measure was the Bolshevist propaganda in Sweden. Mr.
Vorovsky was at once deprived of the right to send telegrams
in cipher.
And, indeed, Mr. Vorovsky's sumptuous residence
in Stockholm had become a centre round which local
Bolsheviks were gathering, and from which a well-
organized movement, liberally supported by Russian
money, was spread all over the Scandinavian countries
and beyond. More than once Mr. Vorovsky was
asked to leave Sweden : but owing to the support of
local " Left Socialists " he always contrived to receive
a respite. The Socialdemocraten stated that in
December, at a conference of " Bolshevist representatives
and Scandinavian delegates," a plan had been concerted
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 185
for systematic propaganda by means of starting clubs
in the larger centres and disorganizing the trades
unions. ' Workers were to be instigated to make
demands which could not be conceded, thereby causing
strikes and leading up to a general strike. By means
of unlimited Russian money put at their disposal,
it was hoped that the agitators would in the end cause
a revolution, resulting in a Bolshevist dictatorship."
(See telegram from Copenhagen, February 2nd, by The
Times correspondent.) At a meeting of the " action
committee " of the " Left Socialists " with the repre-
sentatives of the trade and political unions in January
it was decided to arrange for a congress of workmen
to vote a protest against eventual Swedish intervention
in the internal affairs of other countries (" hands off
Russia " namely, Bolshevist Russia). At last, on
January 3ist, Mr. Vorovsky was obliged to leave.
On that occasion his sympathizers in Sweden gave
an impressive farewell banquet, thanking him for
" the valuable support he had given their Swedish
Bolshevik movement." The Daily Telegraph corre-
spondent from Stockholm (from February ist) says ;
" Vorovsky answered by a would-be pathetic speech,
in the course of which he blasphemously introduced
the saying of the ^Saviour : ' A little while and ye shall
not see me, and again, a while and ye shall see me.' . . .
The Bolshevik waves were rolling forwards from East
to West, and would soon attain their lofty object."
Mr. Vorovsky was so far right that, with his disappear-
ance, the Russian Bolshevist activity in Sweden has
not been stopped. If the Swedish comrades did " not
see him again," they went on working with his substitute,
a certain Mr. Frederic Stroem, whom Vorovsky left
186 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
behind him as a " Consul." In April 1919 Mr. Stroem
was implicated in an unpleasant affair. A considerable
store of Mauser rifles, costing 11,000 crowns, was
discovered in the house of a " Left Socialist." In the
official report the discovery was brought into connection
with Mr. Stroem. He was one of the two Bolshevik
members in the Swedish First Chamber against 19
Moderate Socialists, while there were n Bolsheviks
against 86 Moderate Socialists in the Second Chamber.
But this small Minority somehow contrived to overawe
the Moderate Majority, and even forced them into
making some concessions to their purely revolu-
tionary programme.
To a still greater extent this was the case with
Norwegian Socialists. One of their leaders, Mr. Egede
Nissen, while in Russia, had, in a speech reported by
the Bolshevist newspapers, guaranteed to Lenin that
Norwegian comrades would go over to Bolshevism
within a month. This did not actually take place,
but here, too, from fear of losing popularity, more
Moderate Socialists, like M. Lian, gave way. The
Norwegian Socialist electorate is not Bolshevist,
but all party offices are run by Bolsheviks. The
Bolshevik Tranmael became the party secretary ; the
Bolshevik Scheflo became editor of the party organ
Social Democrat ; both represented the party at the
Berne Conference and voted with the Bolshevist
Minority. On the occasion of a Cabinet crisis in February
the party sent out circulars ordering the formation of
Soviets by all men liable to army service ; they were to
seize power from the officers and to enforce disarma-
ment. During the negotiations with the Cabinet the
party threatened a purely political general strike, and
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 187
Mr. Tranmael suggested the " socialization by mass
action," i.e. by seizing factories and workshops. But
here he was defeated by a small majority. 1
There was no lack of attempt to extend the Bolshevist
activity to Denmark ; but here the Bolsheviks utterly
failed. As early as August 1918 Denmark made
representations to Sweden on the subject of preventing
the incursion of the Russian Bolsheviks. As nothing
had been done, and Swedish Bolsheviks were in the
meantime carrying on propaganda in Denmark,
the Danish Government was compelled to make
stringent passport regulations (see The Times,
February i8th).
In order to show that Holland, too, made no exception
from the general rule, let me quote a telegram of The
Times correspondent from the Hague, on January
22, 1919 :
Bolshevist activities are creating very considerable uneasiness
among thoughtful people in Holland. Meetings to commemorate
Liebknecht and Rosa Luxembourg and to honour their memory
are being held throughout the country. Behind these meetings
are Bolshevist wirepullers. A few days ago at Oldenzaal the
police arrested a German, in the lining of whose cap was con-
cealed the sum of 60,000 marks, destined for David Wynkop,
who is credited with controlling the Bolshevist propaganda in
Holland. He is now said to be nursing the Bolshevist move-
ment among the numerous foreigners in Holland, especially
escaped Russian prisoners of war.
To prevent any further Bolshevist agents from entering
Holland, the frontier guard has been reinforced and the frontier
is very strictly watched. The Germans, too, have also lately
strengthened the watch on their side of the frontier. The Dutch
Government has temporarily interned some hundreds of miscel-
laneous foreigners whom it is impossible to expel. The Bolshe-
vist propagandists here appear to be provided with plenty
of money, which is brought to Holland by couriers from Russia.
1 See the Morning Post, April 23rd.
188 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
It is said, apparently with truth, that several millions of marks
stolen from Russia have been received in this country, while
German and Russian newspapers are being extensively smuggled
into and circulated throughout the country.
All these news, coming from different European
centres, but coincident and practically identical, far
from being exaggerated, may rather be considered
incomplete. We learn from them much more about
the internal activity of the Bolshevist propaganda in
neutral countries than about the chief object of that
propaganda, which was to use neutral countries as
many starting-points for the propaganda abroad. One
single instance may explain what I mean. We have
seen what extensive use was made of Russian war
prisoners under the cover of charity institutions. The
reader may have inferred that at the basis of uniform
practice equally applied in Germany, Austria-Hungary,
Poland, etc., lay a uniform system. But it is only
by studying the history of the seizure of Russian
Red Cross institutions and funds by the Bolsheviks
in neutral countries that one may learn what that
system was. It happened somehow that, at a given
moment, Bolshevik agents took possession of Russian
Red Cross offices, particularly in Stockholm and in
Copenhagen (also under Joffe in Berlin). They were
able quite legally to use Red Cross funds for subven-
tioning Russian prisoners. But it meant practically
that they were organizing new contingents for the
Bolshevik Red Army. There were certain difficulties
in sending them across the frontier to Russia, but
somehow or other, as time went on, the enormous
number of over two million Russian prisoners, originally
kept in enemy countries, was dwindling down to less
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 189
than one million, a few hundred thousand, and
finally to an insignificant figure of two to three
hundred thousand. If even we take into consider-
ation the severe treatment of prisoners in concen-
tration camps and the resulting abnormal mortality,
it can hardly account for more than the loss of
half a million. The remainder, as we know from
the agreement between Foch and Hindenburg, was
not permitted to return to Russia, on the reason
of the supposed Bolshevik proclivities of a great
number of them. The one explanation of their dis-
appearance from the enemy territories is that the order
to stay was not always obeyed. As the number of tres-
passers seems too large to be explained by individual
initiative or by personal motives, there may have been
some general scheme for sending them away, and the
whole work could hardly be done without the connivance
of the enemy Governments. We are fully entitled to
add the new feature the exodus of the Russian
prisoners, partly previously trained for Bolshevism
to the general picture of Germano-Bolshevist plot
carried through neutral countries.
5. BOLSHEVIST CONNECTIONS AND AIMS IN THE
ALLIED COUNTRIES.
A revolution " in the streets of London, Paris, and
Rome " was sure to come in its turn, according to the
Bolshevist ideology. But it was to be the result of
a previous outbreak in Central Europe. The chief and
immediate aim of the Bolshevist propaganda in the
Allied countries was, therefore, not so much a direct
revolutionary overthrow as a weakening and paralysing
190 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
of forces which might interfere with the success of revo-
lution in the Eastern and Central Europe. " Trotsky
asked us to do two things," a British Bolshevist
agitator, Jack Tanner, was heard saying on February 2,
1919, at a gathering in London l : " The first was to
organize agitations to stop the British Government
sending troops to Russia ; the second was to bring
about a revolution in Great Britain." " If we manage
the second," Jack Tanner added, " it will please
Trotsky and Lenin much more than the first." But
the first was more realizable, and in order to show
at once how and who in this country took to
the task to " please " Lenin and to satisfy the
demands of Trotsky I submit the following in-
vitation to a Mass Meeting at the Memorial Hall in
London :
HANDS OFF RUSSIA COMMITTEE.
7, FEATHERSTONE BUILDINGS, HOLBORN, W.C. i.
Hon. President :
N. LENIN.
Hon. Vice-Presidents :
KARL LIEBKNECHT, LEO TROTSKY, CLARA ZETKIN.
N.B. Owing to the bad postal and telegraphic arrangements
we may not get the formal consent of our Russian and
German comrades. We will take it for granted.
Acting President : Secretary :
W. F. Watsom T. F. Knight.
1 At 400, Old Ford Road, Bow (see Sunday Times, February 9,
1919). Tanner is the editor of the revolutionary sheet Solidarity,
published by the I.W.W. (Industrial Workers of the World).
Mr. David Ramsay, an organizer of the S.L.P. (Socialist Labour
Party), was on the platform.
OUR FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 191
A MASS MEETING
To demand the IMMEDIATE withdrawal of the British Expe-
ditionary Forces from Russia
will be held at the
MEMORIAL HALL,
Farringdon Street, London, E.G. (near Ludgate Circus),
on
Saturday, January 18, 1919.
Doors open at 6.30 p.m. Chair will be taken at 7.30 by
ARTHUR MACMANUS.
Music 6.30 to 7.30 by MURIEL DAVENPORT, Pianist ; EDWARD
SOERMTJS, Violinist ; CEDAR PAUL, Vocalist.
Speakers :
G. A. K. LUHANI, I.W.W. DAVID RAMSAY, N.A.C., S.S.,
W. Paul, S.L.P. and W.C.
E. Sylvia Pankhurst, W.S.F. Ellen Wilkenson. A.U.C.E.
W. F. Watson, L.W.C.
All Seats Free. No Tickets required.
Seats will be reserved until 7.15 for Conference delegates.
T. KEELEY & Co., Printers (T.U.), 47, Darnley Rd., Hackney, E.g.
(7.319)
On the part of the " German comrades," another
aim was put forward after the Armistice and made the
subject of propaganda in the Allied countries. Every-
thing was to be done in order to influence public opinion
to mitigate the conditions of peace. The French
Nationalist organ, L' Action Franfaise, had made on
that subject very interesting disclosures, which were
not refuted. I enclose the full text : x
' L' Action Franfaise. The quoted text was published by
Maurice Pujo three times, on June 2ist, June 23rd, and June 25th,
1919, without eliciting any comment on the part of the Extreme
Left Wing Press. The explanations given by M. Pichon in the
Chamber were very evasive : he spoke of " rumours, telegrams,"
etc., being insufficient to undertake any legal prosecution.
192 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
On November 19, 1918, the German naval attache at Madrid
informs his principal at Berlin that his steps taken with Spanish
mariners and working men, especially with Socialists, have
already brought about certain useful results. Several telegrams
asking for a " peace of right " have been already sent to Mr.
Wilson and to the Socialists of different belligerent countries.
The naval attache declares himself able at any time to approach
" the French Socialists, Longuet in particular," in order to give
financial support to their efforts, and he urgently asks whether
he shall continue that propaganda and approach (toucher] French
Socialists, to obtain an undertaking that conditions of peace
shall be made supportable.
On November 2ist the German naval attache at Madrid pro-
poses a scheme of action to leading men at Berlin, in order to
provoke an outburst of Bolshevism in France, or, "if it is true
that one cannot count upon the victory of Bolshevism in
France," at least in some corner of that country. This would
be sufficient to frighten the Government and to let them take
into consideration the wishes expressed by Socialists concerning
the conditions of peace.
On November 2gth the Admiralty accepts the proposals of
the naval attache to act on Spanish working men through
agents and upon French Socialists through the intermediary
of Longuet, in order to obtain " supportable " conditions of
peace. " Do everything possible in accordance with your pro-
posal in agreement with your Ambassador."
On December loth the naval attache declares that the time
is too short for any favourable results to be obtained by propa-
ganda among the Spanish Socialists with the object of their
subsequent action on their French comrades. Nevertheless, the
naval attache continues this pacifist propaganda : he will send
tracts and other propaganda leaflets to France, to England, and
to Italy. But his chief object is to assist French Socialists with
money through the intermediary of the Spanish, who will serve
as men of straw. Means to get at it is open to him, but it is
necessary for him to know what are the sums he can make use
of for that purpose.
Both theses thus indicated for the Bolshevist and
the German propaganda in Allied countries, the non-
intervention in revolutionary Russia, and the lenient
treatment of vanquished Germany, were particularly
convenient in the sense that they might appeal to
larger masses if defended by purely humane and
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 193
democratic arguments. Every counter-propaganda was
doomed in advance to appear as " counter-revolu-
tionary " and " imperialistic." That is why Bolshevist
and German agents had an easy time of it as long as
public opinion was kept uninformed on the real subject
of contest. Periodicals like the New Statesman, daily
papers like the Manchester Guardian, without having
anything in common with Bolshevism or pro-Germanism,
did yeoman service to the Bolshevist and the German
cause, while stubbornly defending flagrant misstate-
ments profitable for both causes, and availing themselves
of sentimental and abstract arguments, very popular,
but very one-sided. Without noticing, perhaps,
there were always two measures for appreciating the
same sets of facts, coming from different sides. One
was ready, without proofs, to believe the worst about
Kolchak and Denikin, the " counter-revolutionaries,"
while the best evidence was rejected and disposed of,
without discussion, as a " pack of lies " if it was likely
to discredit the Bolshevist rule. As a last resource,
when nothing could be said against overwhelming
evidence of Bolshevist misrule, there was the pretence
of not knowing anything positive and wrapping oneself
in silence. Former allies were treated as " traitors,"
while the real traitors to the allied cause and German
agents were warmly recommended as possible allies.
The very term of " non-intervention " under such condi-
tions received a very queer and ambiguous sense. To
help people who never stopped fighting for the allied
cause, who thought their war to be a part of the World's
War, and who fanatically and, one might say, nearly
superstitiously, stuck to the allies to help them not
with men, but even with munitions meant " inter-
13
194 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
ference." To help by the very fact of abstention
from this interference the other side, which was out
for a World Revolution, and which openly declared war
on all democratic " Governments," as opposed to their
" peoples," upon which they ruled according to peoples'
own consent and election that meant " non-inter-
ference." " Non-interference " in the choice of any
future form of government was wisely proclaimed as
an axiom by most influential popular leaders. But as
facts stood it meant nothing else than supporting the
" Soviet " rule which was no form of government at
all. As soon as tendencies were suspected to exist
for a form of government classified as undemocratic
all talk of non-interference ceased at once, and the
same people asked their Governments to interfere
immediately. The example of Hungary during and
after Bela Kun's ascendancy shows how distorted, in-
consistent, senseless, and inexpedient the governmental
line of action was bound to be under such contradictory
influences of a misguided public opinion. How much
harm has thus been done to the Russo-Allied relations
will be seen later.
I must emphasize once more that no necessary
connection exists between that state of mind produced
in masses and the Bolshevist conspiracy in a narrower
sense. The allied intellectuals, who served as inter-
mediaries between the few criminal initiators of a
conscious propaganda and the natural idealism of
democratic masses, cannot be accused of being moved
by mean motives. But it does not change anything
in the fact that they allowed themselves to be used for
the cause which is as far as possible from their lofty
inspirations, if considered from the merely realistic side.
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 195
Whatever be the construction put upon it, the
Bolsheviks might be fully satisfied with the result
obtained. Jack Tanner was right in stating that
" revolution " would give Trotsky much more pleasure
than " non-interference." But the " non-interference "
propaganda created an environment most suitable for
a subsequent revolutionary propaganda. It was a
first step which led to the second. Let us now follow
the same trend of ideas and come to what is my proper
subject in this chapter : to state the narrower circle
of direct relations between Bolshevist Russia and
Spartacist Germany on the one hand and revolutionary
groups of Great Britain on the other. I begin with
Great Britain, not only because, living in this country,
I was able to follow more closely the developments,
but also, as I believe, because, owing to greater freedom
(" unbridled licence " is Mr. Winston Churchill's expres-
sion in the House of Commons) of public opinion and
action, the whole process may be much more easily
traced here than in other Allied countries, under the
conditions created by war.
Mr. Ransome, who tries in his description of the
Bolshevist doings to be as euphemistic as he possibly
can, assures us that " none " out of the " hundred-
weight of propaganda in English," printed at the
" quite futile departments " of a certain M. Reinstein
in Moscow, " by any chance ever reaches these shores."
I do not know whether Mr. Ransome thinks it good
or bad, but I can assure him that as a matter of fact
he is entirely mistaken. I personally possess copies
of English Bolshevist pamphlets, bought here, but
printed in Russia and bearing Russian inscriptions,
such as, e.g., The Typography of Ryabushinsky's
196 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
Comp., Strastnoy, Boulevard, Putnikovsky Lane, 3
Moscow, 1918. That is why I fully believe that the
editor of the Socialist, the official organ of the S.L.P.,
Glasgow, is right in his objection to Mr. Ransome's
statements. " We would mention," he says, " that
Reinstein's department is not so futile as it might
seem. Literature does reach these shores of England
from Russia, and most of the leaflets and manifestoes
printed in England are delivered, by various means,
to the British troops on the Russian front. Our
Government will find that out when the troops return
to this country." But then the Socialist proves too
impatient to wait until its insolent prediction is fulfilled.
In the middle of July it prints a special " Bolshevist
Supplement," which is widely circulated at the
" Hands Off Russia " demonstrations. Here all these
appeals to British soldiers, sailors, and workers, said to
be written by Mr. Philips Price in Russia, and intended
for use on the Murmansk and the Archangel front,
are reproduced for the benefit of the London population.
One of these appeals declares, in the name of Bolshevist
Russia : " Ours is a real Labour Republic, and when
you come against us to overthrow the Soviets and
establish the kind of Democracy that exists in your
(i.e. Allied) countries, you are attempting to overthrow
the rule of the workers and re-establish the rule of
kings and capitalists." Another manifesto tells British
soldiers and sailors : " Your duty, as working men,
is to support Bolshevist Russia, not to fight it. Refuse
to be the tools of capitalists to crush your own class,
the workers of Russia. Demand to be sent home,
and when you get there, take your reckoning of the
gang of plunderers who have devastated the world for
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 197
their own profit. Sweep capitalism from England, as
we have done in Russia, and join with the workers of
all countries in a League of Republics of Labour."
Thus, out of the " Hands Off Russia " slogan a pure
and complete Zimmerwald programme, that of the
" Third International," is evolved. British revolu-
tionaries are being asked " to spread these appeals
broadcast " : "by these means we feel we can best
assist our Russian comrades and also carry forward
the fight in this country to obtain all power for the
workers. We must now sacrifice the national interest
of our rulers in order to achieve the international emancipa-
tion of the masses of the world."
If for purely humane and pacifist propaganda
circles and organizations could be used which previously
had been opposing war and conscription, other group-
ings and methods have now become necessary to carry
the avowedly revolutionary propaganda of the Third
International. We saw five British organizations of
that kind mentioned in Mr. Lenin's appeal convoking
the Third International (p. 120). But independently of
Mr. Lenin's qualification, we have their own avowals,
amply confirmed by the character of their present
activity. They vie with each other for the first place
in the new " Communist " movement. The old British
Socialist Party (founded 1911), in a leader of their
official organ the Call (August 1919), makes some
fresh disclosures on the subject of Russian money sent
to help British Bolshevism : " We, of the B.S.P.,
conceive it to be a high honour to be called Bolsheviks,
because the Bolsheviks are our noble Russian comrades
who have overthrown the hideous tyranny of
Tsardom " (exact knowledge of facts is not considered
198 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
obligatory at these quarters), " and who are slowly but
surely laying the foundations of the new civilization.
. . . And we would welcome any assistance they could
give us : either in the way of ideas, literature, or
money." But the B.S.P. is already behind the times,
as it admits of a certain usefulness for the revolution-
aries to control Parliament. On the occasion of the
Clyde strike movement the Call tries to explain to
the adherents of the new doctrine the advantages of
taking the political power.
It would have been much better to have captured the civil
government of Glasgow, for instance, as the control of the
police would then have been in the workers' hands, and they
would not have been ordered out to baton the workers on strike.
It would have been well for the workers to have captured
Parliament and the Government, as the latter have the control
of the military, and in that case the workers would not have
had the military called out to complete the policemen's job.
For the " Socialist Labour Party," with headquarters
in Glasgow, this is not at all a true rendering of Mr.
Lenin's teaching. They declare in the Socialist
(February I3th) that " the S.L.P. was the first Socialist
party in this country to direct the attention of the
working class to the impossibility of achieving the
Social Revolution through Parliament." It is true that
the S.L.P. ran three candidates at the last General Elec-
tion (Messrs. MacManus, W. Paul, and J. T. Murphy).
" But these candidates," the Socialist goes on explain-
ing, " two of whom fought Labour Party nominees
(Messrs. Hodge and Walsh), repudiated Parliamentary
action. They stated frankly that they had entered
the political field for the deliberate purpose of revolu-
tionary agitation, and with the intention of seeking to
destroy the Parliamentary institution." ' The S L.P.
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 199
participated in the elections with a destructive mission :
it made an onslaught upon the political state, a part
of its revolutionary policy." And, indeed, the leaders
of the party have created the Clyde Workers' Committee,
and printed its official organ, the Worker, as well as
the Clyde Strike Bulletin ; they controlled the Shop
Stewards' movement of Scotland and England. Their
profession de foi is as follows : " The S.L.P. is a revolu-
tionary political organization seeking to build up a
Communist movement in this country . . . which will
not look to Parliament for redress ; . . . which sees
that the future society can only be built upon the
industrial field ; a movement which realizes that its
political work is to sweep away the mass of debris
which was once known as the Parliament institutions."
In its electoral number of the Socialist (December 12,
1918) the S.L.P. is still more explicit : it publishes a
long article recommending " A Soviet Republic for
Britain," and signed by the name of " Spartacus."
But in its turn the S.L.P. appears for some other
people to come a little too late. Miss Sylvia Pankhurst
claims the priority because " at our last annual confer-
ence at Whitsuntide, 1918, we adopted resolutions in
support of the Soviet form of government, and decided
against Parliamentary action." " We " means the
" Workers' Socialist Federation " (W.S.F.). But in
that long title the word " Socialist " begins to sound
rather objectionable to a Communist ear. And a new
" national organization " appears, which calls itself
simply ' The Communist League," and pretends
again " the first " to represent the Bolshevist doctrine
in its purest form. " Why not unite ? " Miss Sylvia
Pankhurst asks. And she decides, at a new annual
200 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
conference on Whit-Sunday, 1919, to change the name
of the " Workers' Socialist Union " to that of " Commu-
nist Party," " in order to emphasize its agreement with
the aims and tactics of the Bolsheviks." " The newly-
appointed Executive Committee is instructed to ap-
proach other organizations of like tendencies with a
view to the formation of a ' United Communist Party.' '
Too late, again. The " National Secretary of ' The
Communist League ' ' superciliously states that Miss
Pankhurst's organization " differs from the Communist
League in that the former favours palliatives, and does
not grip the need for the conquest of political power
by the workers by revolutionary social action, before
they can take effective measures for coping with problems
of social expediency." And if even the newborn
" Communist Party " has repudiated palliatives well,
" why did not our comrades find all these wonderful
things out before ? " J
A movement often becomes all the more doctrinaire
and sectarian as the chances of realizing its aims de-
crease. At the beginning of 1918 the movement
was by far more self-confident than it is now. At
that time people did not know much about real
Bolshevism, and greatly exaggerated its chances of
success. It was then that Mr. Williams and Mr. Smillie
openly advocated the " Soviet system " as the best
form of " dictatorship of the proletariat " suitable for
this country. Mr. Maxim Litvinov, the unrecognized
Bolshevist Ambassador in London, recommended Mr.
1 See the Communist, organ of the Communist League, vol. i,
No. 2, June-July 1919. It seems that, owing to this criticism,
the use of the name " Communist Party " was a little postponed
by Miss Sylvia Pankhurs
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 201
Robert Smillie as " the most outstanding figure in the
British Labour movement," which was, as a whole,
to be taken advantage of for the advent of Bolshevism
in Great Britain. 1 " We should have a responsible and
authoritative body," Mr. Smillie said, " which could
occupy a position in this country comparable to the
all-Russian Soviet meeting and shaping policy in
Petrograd." Whether Mr. Smillie meant here something
like the " Triple Alliance of railwaymen, miners, and
transport workers," whose chairman he was, remains
to be elucidated. But the fact is, that attempts have
been made to use the " Triple Alliance " as a weapon
to bring about political strikes, whose aim may have
been to " render Russia the best assistance we could,"
and " at once to form a Soviet Workers' Government,
as the time is now arriving for the workers to control
their own destiny " (Mr. Smillie's letter to Reunion of
Rebels, November 9, 1918). In that connection the
Press recently reminded its readers 2 that as early as
June 3, 1917, Mr. Smillie presided at the " most bogus,
the most dishonest, and most corrupt conference at
Leeds, where he approved of the proposal to form
Workers' and Soldiers' Councils, and that after the
Conference the Provisional Committee, of which Mr.
Smillie was a member, proceeded to organize district
conferences (the country was divided into thirteen
districts) for the purpose of setting up Workers' and
Soldiers' Councils. The secretary was Mr. Tom Quelch,
who wrote in the Call, June 28, 1917 : " After thirty
years of persistent Socialist propaganda in this country
1 See the interview with Smillie in the Herald, January 19,
1918.
2 The Morning Post, August 22nd, Mr. R. Smillie, III.
202 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
we believe there is sufficient Socialist consciousness
among the workers to accomplish the revolution if
means can be found to give it complete and definite
expression. The Workers' and Soldiers' Councils will
provide the means."
Coming back to the present time, we may judge of
the aims of extreme leaders of the Labour movement,
like Mr. Tom Williams, in threatening the general
strike by the " Triple Alliance " from his article in the
Call on February 20, 1919 :
The industrial kings will reel on their thrones ere this struggle
ends. Mr. Bonar Law will find that long before March 3ist,
when his Committee is due to report, the miners and their
colleagues of the Triple Alliance have shaken the Government
to its foundations. . . . One thing is certain. With the con-
certed action of miners, railwaymen, and transport workers,
justice can be wrung from their oppressors and a clear lead
given not only to the workers of Great Britain, but to the workers
of the World.
In a more definite way the Call declared that the
" Triple Alliance is taking the place of the Government,"
and that " the Triple Alliance is compelling Parliament
to use its authority for an industrial purpose."
" That way," it stated, " lies the emancipation of
Labour. To-day, miners, railwaymen, transport
workers are leagued together : to-morrow, their alli-
ance will spread until it is a league of all the working
class. Then we shall not knock at the doors of
Parliament. We shall command it."
We know that others wished not to " command,"
but to " destroy," the Parliament, and not to " knock
at its doors," but at once to use " direct action."
This was the chief point in dispute between different
currents of the Labour opinion. The alternative was
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 203
quite clearly stated in a controversy between Mr.
Vernon Hartshorn, one of the promoters of the new
tactics, and Professor Hearnshaw, the author of a
very remarkable book on Democracy at the Cross-ways
(see the Observer, June 8th and June I5th). Mr.
Hartshorn's contention was, that " industrial action "
(which is a technical term for direct action) can be
resorted to as soon as Labour leaders find that the
Government exceeds its " mandate," given by the
sovereign people at the last elections to the majority
of the House. In particular, Mr. Hartshorn found that
no " mandate " was given to the Government " for the
wicked and wanton capitalistic war on Russia " and
" for the attitude of hostility which the British
Government is displaying towards any attempt
to set up a Socialist Government on the Continent
(Bolshevist Russia and Hungary are evidently
meant)." Guilty of " political treachery," such a
house of representatives can have no moral claim
to the obedience of the people, and the " direct
action " of the Triple Alliance against them is fully
justified.
Of course, Professor Hearnshaw's answer was, that
" the principle of the specific mandate is one which no
believer in representative democracy can accept without
demur." " Members of Parliament are representatives,
and not delegates." " The remedy for a Parliament
which (in the opinion of some) has ceased to represent
the electorate truly, is not the ' direct action,' but
rather a reform of the electoral system. . . . Direct
action means the abandonment of the force of argument
for the argument of force. It means the coercion of
the majority by an organized minority. It means the
204 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
substitution of violence for reason. ... It means the
dictatorship of a small and extreme oligarchy of doc-
trinaire Socialists and Syndicalists who have captured
the machinery of the great industrial unions and are
using it for political ends. It means, of course, the
negation of Democracy." " Mr. Hartshorn is wrong,"
is Professor Hearnshaw's just conclusion, " and I am
convinced that if the views which he advocates should
prevail, this country would sink into an anarchy of
civil war and revolution, out of which it would ulti-
mately emerge in a state of ruin comparable only to
that now exhibited by Russia."
It is very characteristic of the situation, that this
sound and consistently democratic reasoning could be
used by more moderate Labour leaders, like Messrs.
Henderson, Clynes, etc., only when brought in harmony
with their basic idea of class struggle. Constitutional
methods might be resorted to on the admission that
the working class in their turn will become a majority.
This is how, for instance, Mr. Arthur Henderson states
it in his speech at a Labour conference on September
4th : " When organized workers have taken hold of
the machinery of government as they may presently
be called upon to do (cheers) what, I ask, will be our
position ? Are we prepared to allow a minority in
opposition to Labour's programme of social and economic
betterment to defeat that policy by unconstitutional
methods ? If I know anything of organized Labour,
it compels me to say this : a Labour Government would
fight to the last ditch against any policy of direct action
by any minority by whatever name it might care to
call itself (cheers). Therefore we ought not to set a
bad example. We ought not to take the responsibility
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 205
of adopting a policy of direct action against a Govern-
ment whose policy we may strongly oppose. Rather
ought we to set our faces firmly against any attempt
to substitute such methods for the orderly procedure
of our Parliamentary Constitution." This is all very
well, but does it mean that, indeed, Mr. Henderson
would oppose any attempt at a direct action " by any
minority, by whatever name it might care to call
itself " ? By no means, because in the same speech
we read, a few lines earlier, that if the minority might
call itself the Triple Alliance, the case would be different.
" I do not admit that organized workers can entirely
forego the weapon of strike action." ... Of course,
it is the " mistaken policy adopted by some in our
movement who would use this weapon on all occasions
and for all purposes " ; but " until society is much
better organized than it is at present . . . organized
workers must retain this weapon of the right to strike."
Flagrant inconsistency is here hidden behind shifting
terms evasively used. " Right to strike " is one thing ;
" general strike " is another ; " industrial action "
for political purpose, " direct action " is again something
quite different. The point in dispute is, as Mr.
Henderson himself clearly states it, " to introduce
methods that may be necessary in the world of industry
into the field of politics." And he further on admits
that this extension of methods " may be necessary in
another country," i.e. where there is no chance for
Labour to get a majority in the House. His only con-
tention is that this policy is unnecessary in England.
" We are too ready to emulate the policy adopted in
other countries, without having sufficient regard as to
whether it is necessary in a country like ours to adopt
206 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
exactly the same methods that may be necessary in
another country." Far from being a repudiation
of revolutionary tactics, it is its confirmation,
with the only (and temporary ?) exception of
England.
Pure Internationalists of the " Third International "
here, as eve^where, oppose to that wavering and
insincere attitude a firm resolve to fight out their class
struggle to the bitter end by openly violent means,
the same in all countries. Of course they are few in
England as yet, and their connections are to be easily
traced to the same international channels of Bolshevism
and Communism, as already known to us. But their
influence on the working masses is increasing, and it
is felt far beyond purely Bolshevist circles. It may be
asked, How can we distinguish the specific Bolshevist
influence amongst larger currents of Labour movement ?
Some answer may be found if we consider the great
popularity acquired by the " Hands Off Russia "
slogan. It is by no means connected with the direct
interests of working classes, while, on the contrary,
it is very closely connected with the scheme of the
World Revolution. However, it was made one of the
principal demands of Labour, as formulated by the
Triple Alliance, and finally endorsed by the Trades
Unions Congress in Glasgow. Even so far as purely
industrial demands for shorter hours and higher wages,
as well as the chief issue of the moment, " nationaliza-
tion " are concerned, one can discern the " political "
use of these demands from merely industrial. When
bolder demands are hurriedly substituted for such as
become immediately realizable (e.g. 44- and 4O-hour
week instead of 48), there remains little doubt about
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 207
the political purpose of a strike. " Nationalization "
is often repudiated by the Extremists as a right
theoretical solution of their problem ; if at the same
time it is violently urged as a political issue of the
moment, one can be sure that the use of it is pre-
eminently tactical. But, then, Bolshevist influence
can be also verified by studying just by whom such
solutions are advocated. The strikes for political
purposes were regularly unauthorized by the governing
bodies of the trade unions whose members are
involved. In some cases they were emphatically
repudiated by the trade unions executives. We
learn, e.g., who are the initiators of simultaneous
strikes in Belfast, Glasgow, and London, at the end
of January 1919, from the following " Call to Arms,"
largely circulated a week before (see The Times,
January 28th) :
The joint committee representing the official and unofficial
sections of the industrial movement, having taken into con-
sideration the reports of the shop stewards in the various
industries, hereby resolve to demand a ^o-hour maximum working
day for all workers as an experiment, with the object of
absorbing the unemployed. A general strike has been declared
to take place on Monday, January 27th, and all workers are
expected to respond.
Who are the people behind that " Call " ? Glasgow
is the storm corner, the notorious Clyde Workers'
Committee is the working weapon, and among the
ringleaders there are people like William Gallagher,
the President of this Committee, a fervent adherent
of the Soviet system, preaching revolution " as soon
as possible," many times arrested for sedition, and
sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment for circu-
lating the article in the Worker, under the title : " Should
208 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
the Workers Arm ? ' There is Councillor Emanuel
Shinwell, another speaker at revolutionary meetings
and a candidate to the " Soldiers' and Workers' Council,"
a man with both Russian and Irish connections.
There is David Kirkwood, formerly chief shop steward
and another delegate to the Soldiers' and Workers'
Council, an organizer of strikes under the Clyde
Workers' Committee, preaching " bloodshed " and
violence at the meetings. Mr. McManus, the editor of
the Glasgow Socialist, one of the most active members of
the Committee, in touch with Syndicalist agitators
and with the I.I.W., strongly opposed to the official
union leaders. 1 All these people had been working
against war and conscription, and preaching " an
immediate armistice on all fronts." Now they preach
Spartacism and Bolshevism. We can trace their
doctrine and their practice to their German and Bolshe-
vist origin, if we compare the " Programme of the
Clyde Workers' Soviet Committee," dated " Glasgow,
June 2, 1919," with the " official declaration of the
Spartacus Union," " published by the British Socialist
Party," as No. II of the International Socialist Library
in London, on May 1919, and freely circulated in
bookshops and at the meetings. Another pamphlet
of the same kind, written by Klara Zetkin, is published
by the Socialist Labour Party in Glasgow. It is de-
clared in the first pamphlet, entitled The German
Spartacists, their Aims and Objects : " Only the
world-wide proletarian revolution can . . . put an
end to the mutual extermination of the peoples, provide
work and bread for all, and bring peace, freedom, and
true culture to tortured humanity. . . . The present
1 See The Times, February 7, 1919.
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 209
system of production . . . must be abolished. . . . The
proletarian mass must substitute its own class organs
The Workers' and Soldiers' Councils for the
inherited organs of capitalist class rule : the Federal
Council, Municipal Councils, Parliaments. . . . The
proletarian mass must fill all governmental positions,
must control all functions, must test all requirements
of the State on the touchstone of Socialist aims and
the interests of its own class. . . . Only by a stubborn
fight with capital ... by means of strikes, and by
creating their permanent representative organs, can
the workers secure control, and, finally, the actual
administration of production. ... It were madness to
suppose that capitalists will submit voluntarily to
the Socialist verdict . . . that they will calmly surrender
their property. . . . This resistance must be put down
with an iron hand. . . . The threatening dangers of
counter-revolution must be met by the arming of the
people and the disarming of the ruling classes." This
last scheme is then developed into a complete programme
of " immediate means for making the Revolution
secure." The programme of the Clyde Workers'
Committee follows closely that of the Spartacus
Union :
Clyde Workers' Committee. The Spartacus Union.
1. The disarming of all non- I. i. The disarming of the
proletarian soldiers. entire police force, of all officers,
as well as of the non-prole-
tarian soldiers.
2. The seirure of arms and 2. The seizure of all supplies
ammunition by the Workers' of arms and ammunition, as
and Soldiers' Councils. well as of all war industries
by the Workers' and Soldiers'
Councils.
14
210 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
Clyde Workers' Committee.
3. The arming of the entire
labour population as a Red
Army.
The Spartacus Union.
3. The arming of the entire
adult male population as the
Workers' Militia. The forma-
tion of a Red Guard of the
workers as the active part of
the Militia, for the effective
protection of the Revolution
against counter-revolutionary
plots and risings.
4. Voluntary discipline of
the soldiers in place of the
present brutal and degrading
slavery. All superiors to be
nominated by the rank and
file. Abolition of courts-mar-
tial.
4. Abolition of the com-
manding power of officers and
non-commissioned officers. The
substitution of the voluntary
discipline of the soldiers for
the old brutal barrack dis-
cipline. Election of all supe-
riors by the rank and file, with
the right to recall these
superiors at any time. Aboli-
tion of courts-martial.
5. Nomination of authorized
representatives of the Soldiers'
and Workers' Councils for all
political organs.
6. Substitution of authorized
representatives ( Vertrauens-
manner) of the Workers' and
Soldiers' Councils for all poli-
tical organs and authorities
of the old regime.
6. Creation of a Revolution-
ary Tribunal to try the men
chiefly responsible for the harsh
treatment accorded our com-
rades now in prison, and of
political prisoners.
7. Creation of a Revolu-
tionary Tribunal to try the
men chiefly responsible for
the war and its prolongation,
namely, the two Hohenzollerns,
Ludendorff, Hindenburg, Tir-
pitz, and their fellow-criminals,
as well as all conspirators of
the counter-revolution.
7. Immediate seizure of all
means of subsistence to secure
success to the Revolution.
8. Immediate seizure of all
means of subsistence to secure
provisions for the people.
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 211
Clyde Workers' Committee.
8. Removal of Parliament
and Municipal Councils, to be
taken over by the Revolution-
ary Council.
9. Abolition of all class dis-
tinctions, titles and orders ;
social equality of the sexes.
The Spartacus Union.
II. i. Removal of all Par-
liaments and Municipal Coun-
cils, their functions to be taken
by the Workers' and Soldiers'
Councils and by the com-
mittees and organs of the
latter bodies.
2. 3. 4. ...
5. Abolition of all class dis-
tinctions, titles and orders ;
complete legal and social equal-
ity of the sexes.
10. Reduction of working
hours to avoid unemployment
and to conform to the limita-
tion of the working day to six
hours and a minimum wage
of seven pounds per working
week.
6. Radical social legislation,
reduction of working hours to
avoid unemployment and to
conform to the physical ex-
haustion of the working class
occasioned by the World's
War ; limitation of the working
day to six hours.
7. ...
11. Confiscation of all Crown
estates and revenues, which
will become common property.
12. Annulment of State debts
and other debts.
13. Expropriation of all land
and properties, funds, and other
securities now in possession
of the ruling and non-pro-
letarian classes.
III. i. Confiscation of all
Crown estates and revenues
for the benefit of the people.
2. Annulment of the State
debts and other public debts,
as well as all war loans.
3. Expropriation of the land
held by all large and medium
agricultural concerns. . . .
5. ... Confiscation of all pro-
perty exceeding a certain limit.
14. Expropriation of all
banks, mines, industrial and
commercial undertakings by
the Revolutionary Committee.
4. Nationalization by the
Republic of Councils of all
banks, coal mines, as well as
all large industrial and com-
mercial undertakings.
212 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
Clyde Workers' Committee. The Spar locus Union.
15. The Republican Com- 6. The Republic of Councils
mittee to take over all means to take over all public means
of communication, traffic, and of transport and communi-
means of transport. cation.
LONG LIVE THE REVOI.U- IV. . . . V. . . . Our motto
TION AND THE RED ARMY IN towards the enemy is : " Hand
BRITAIN. on Throat and knee on Breast."
It is not the custom of the British to express them-
selves so drastically, as " hand on throat and knee on
breast." But " drastic " action has also here become
nearly a synonym for " direct action." " We are no
partisans of violence," Mr. Philip Snowden said in his
presidential address to the Twenty-seventh Annual Con-
ference of the Independent Labour Party, held at Easter
1919. " But ... if the Revolution has to be achieved
in Great Britain by violence it will come in that way
because of the resistance of the Old Order to the New
Birth. If those who now control Governments . . .
will resist, . . . they will have to be dispossessed.
. . . We, who boast that we have in us the blood of
heroes and of martyrs, will not shrink from our grave
task. We will not betray our comrades in other lands
who are dying for International Socialism. . . . Some
will fall, but the Cause will go forward." The difference
is not great between this slightly covered paraphrase
of the Spartacist thesis and the direct call to " British
Workers " which ends with the appeal : " Get ready
for the Revolution." This last document was found
with the similar " literature " at an agitator's house :
a bogus printer's name was on it ; it reminded the
" fellow workers " that their " comrades in Russia and
Hungary have taken the only action possible. . . .
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 213
They have revolted and overthrown the master class ;
they have abolished private ownership, and brought
about a Social Revolution ; they are . . . making
good progress towards getting the things that we all
desire." The document went on : " What are we
going to do ? " " Will the engineers of this country
continue to make munitions to be used against the
workers of Russia and Hungary ? Will the workers
continue to load ships with those munitions ? Will
the sailors still work the ships carrying food, clothes,
and munitions out of this country for the anti-Bolshe-
viks who are fighting our comrades in Russia ? " The
success of the same kind of propaganda in other
countries was then pointed out. " Italian sailors have
refused to carry munitions to be used against the
Russian workers. Norwegian seamen are boycotting
all goods of the anti-Bolsheviks. Fellow workers,
Italy and France are in revolt. The workers of these
two countries are asking us British workers to join
with them in a General Strike." " Put no trust in
Parliament ; . . . prepare to take action."
Under the conditions of the post-war industrial
unrest, the propaganda of unconstitutional action
has met with more success than is, perhaps, generally
realized. Of course, responsible statesmen and Labour
leaders have tried to stem the flood. The Parliamentary
Committee of the Trades Union Congress as early as
mid-February 1919, in a Manifesto strongly reproved
" attempts on the part of minorities to set aside agree-
ments arrived at by the well-established and constitu-
tional procedure," and to ask, e.g. for 44- and 4O-hour
working week. " Unauthorized strikes," the Manifesto
declared, " cannot and must not be tolerated." At a
214 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
later date (in May) the Parliamentary Committee
refused to call a special congress at the request of the
powerful Triple Alliance to discuss direct action. The
President of the Committee, Mr. Stuart Bunning, in
his presidential address at the opening of the Annual
Trades Union Congress at Glasgow, on September 8th,
defended the line taken by the Committee, and strongly
objected to the idea of a national strike on political
issues. In case of its success, he said, " If the
Government fought it meant revolution. The project
therefore resolved itself into a desperate gamble, with
the lives of men, women, and children for the
stakes."
Far from bringing the rank and file to reason, such
arguments only served to discredit and to isolate leaders,
who most decidedly opposed the current. Such as
wished to preserve their influence and personal
authority have learnt the lesson, and tried to adapt
their views to the new terminology. The cleverest
and most successful have made a selection of catchwords.
They gave up defending such as met with stubborn
prejudice on the part of the working classes, while
they were of no consequence to actual Labour issues
(" the intervention " in Russia, the " blockade " of
Bolshevism) ; they took up the defence of the chief
practical issue, which marked the line of cleavage in
the attitude toward Labour demands (" nationaliza-
tion "), and they used as a permanent threat against
the Government the chief tactical issue which they
were unable to believe and to join in : " Direct
action." As a result of these half concessions and
half-hearted defence on the part of the most
influential and responsible leaders, the whole move-
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 215
ment gradually drifted into the channel desired by
the Extremists.
The miners took the lead. A direct influence
through propaganda by the Clyde Bolshevists can be
traced in the influential South Wales Branch (about
200,000 members) of that powerful Miners' Federation
of Great Britain (about 850,000). The Federation of
eighteen to twenty district associations is strongly
centralized, and the influence of the Executive
is particularly strong. We know the views of
Mr. Smillie, and we can easily guess in what
direction this influence has been used. As a
result the industrial strikes of the end of January,
with their strongly pronounced political background,
have evolved into consistent and systematic tactics
of squeezing out from the Government industrial
concessions without withdrawing political aims. The
other constituent parts of the Triple Alliance followed
the miners at a distance. At the annual council meeting
of the National Transport Workers' Federation at
Swansea (Jime 6th) Mr. Havelock Wilson, Will Thorne,
and Mr. Ben Tillet tried to prove that " the leaders
of that movement steered straight for the rocks and
were doing it in a very dishonest manner." Mr.
Wilson testified that " the rank and file of Labour "
was not concerned about watchwords like " raising
the blockade," or the release of conscientious objectors,
or even conscription. Concerning Russia, he said :
" Mr. Williams has declared that Lenin and Trotsky
are decent fellows. I declare that they are two damned
rogues, and I have more evidence of this rascality than
Mr. Williams may have as to their being white angels."
But the motion of Mr. Wilson was defeated by 213,000
216 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
against 67,000, although Mr. Ben Tillet's motion,
directing the Executive " to refrain from committing
the Unions affiliated to the Federation to strike action
without a ballot vote being taken of the Unions con-
cerned," was carried.
The third constitutive part in the Triple Alliance,
the railwaymen, were less moderate and kept the
balance between the two former. At the conference
of their National Union at Plymouth (June igth) they
were much more outspoken on what they called " the
invasion of Russia with the avowed intention to crush
the present Government of that country." That
" system of government " was classified by the orators
(Walker, Brown) as "a real working-class system
not governed by representatives, but by delegates who
could be recalled." ' They were never going to get
economic emancipation for the working class," they
confidently asserted, " except on the lines of inter-
national working-class solidarity. They would, no
doubt, be called Bolsheviks, but when that term was
applied to them they were being honoured, not
dishonoured. Bolshevism was Socialism with its
working-class clothes on." The resolution asking for
immediate withdrawal of all British troops and the
terminating of interference with the internal affairs of
Russia was carried without opposition, two delegates
only refraining from voting.
On June 25th-27th, at Southport, the Conference
of the Labour Party, with nearly 1,000 delegates
present from trade unions, trade councils, local Labour
parties, and Socialist societies, claiming a total member-
ship of about 3,000,000, once more discussed the
question of initiating a general strike for political
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 217
objects. These objects were formulated in four
catchwords, of withdrawing British troops from Russia,
raising the blockade, repealing the Military Service
Act, and releasing conscientious objectors. The extreme
point of direct action was again urged by Mr. Smillie
and Mr. Williams against the defenders of the constitu-
tional action, who found that "it is both unwise and
undemocratic, because we fail to get a majority at the
polls to turn round and demand that we should substi-
tute industrial action ; this would be an innovation in
this country which few responsible leaders welcome."
" I don't want us," said Mr. Ben Tillett, " to be led by
the nose by professional politicians and their satellites ;
the Trade Union movement will not allow you to boss
them." However, by a majority of two to one
(1,893,000 against 935,000) the Conference passed a
resolution obviously intended to " boss " the Trade
Union movement. It demanded the immediate cessa-
tion of Allied operations in Russia, the removal of the
censorship, and instructed the National Executive of
the party " to consult the Parliamentary Committee
of the Trades Union Congress with a view to effective
action being taken to enforce these demands by the unre-
served use of their political and industrial power." The
spirit in which this resolution was conceived was still
more emphasized by the formal approval given by the
Conference to the decisions of the delegates of the
Labour and Socialist movements in Great Britain,
France, and Italy, meeting at Southport. Demonstra-
tions were to be organized on July 20th and 2ist in all
Allied countries in order to protest " against the help
given to the reactionary elements in their attempts to
triumph over the revolutions and over the new
218 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
democracies." At these demonstrations the following
resolution was to be submitted : " That this demonstra-
tion sends fraternal greetings to the working-class
movements of France and Italy, which are joining
to-day in manifestations of international solidarity
and goodwill. ... It welcomes the revolutions which
have destroyed the old order in Russia, Germany,
Austria-Hungary, and elsewhere, and declares that the
associations of the Governments now engaged for
hostilities and in equipping with arms and munitions
the leaders of the counter-revolutions in these countries
will, if successful, wrest from the working classes the
social and political gains won by these revolutions,
and are inspired by the interests of capitalism and
monarchy. It further declares that it is the duty of
the working classes in every country to demand that
military operations against the Socialist Republics of
Europe should be stopped and the economic and food
blockade against them be withdrawn immediately,
and that they should be left free from interference to
settle for themselves the forms of the government
which they wish to adopt and which should then be
recognized by other Governments. To this end it is
the further duty of the working-class movement to
demand action in the various Parliaments and to bring
whatever pressure it can command in view of its national
circumstances upon the governing authorities of the
various countries." This was the " slippery slope "
to use the expression of Mr. W. Brace, M.P., at
Southport, upon which the " revolting minority "
was drawing the " successful democratic body " of
Trade Unions. It was now left to the Annual Trades
Union Congress to decide whether the Labour move-
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 219
ment as a whole would endorse the scheme, initially
outlined by such organizations as " Hands Off
Russia " Committees and Workers' Committees of
different localities.
The Trades Union Congress met at Glasgow on the
second week of September. The President, Mr. Stuart
Bunning, in his presidential address, at once pointed
out what was the issue between the Extremists and
the responsible leaders of the Trade Union movement.
" This Congress," he said, " has never yet accepted
the policy of a national strike on industrial matters
which are the subject of its primary function. I do
not think it has ever seriously discussed a national
strike on a political issue, still less on several political
issues, on some of which there were sharp divisions
among our own people." And, indeed, the forces of
resistance to extremism by more moderate elements
proved rather strong. The Parliamentary Committee,
which at the beginning received a covered vote of
blame for not calling a special Congress to discuss the
four planks of the Extremist platform (by 2,586,000
to 1,876,000), was finally re-elected by a very strong
vote of 3,882,000 to 2,050,000. Two candidates of the
most radical group of the Triple Alliance, the miners,
polled only 1,969,000 and 1,505,000, and were thus
rejected. Out of the two chief points at issue, direct
action and nationalization, the open revolutionary one
was evaded, and the direct challenge of Mr. Tom Shaw,
M.P., to the defenders of direct action, such as Mr.
Smillie and Mr. Williams, was declined. Mr. Shaw's
proposal to move a resolution " that this Congress
declares against the principle of direct action in purely
political matters " was shelved by a " previous
220 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
question." But that very attitude showed clearly
that face to face with Mr. Smillie's followers ' no other
tactics but that of drift was possible. That was, indeed,
Mr. Thomas's tactics, whose resolution on the withdrawal
of British troops from Russia, and on the repeal of the
Conscription Act, was supported by Mr. Smillie, while
himself he seconded Mr. Smillie's resolution on nation-
alization. The first resolution was carried with only
two dissentient voices, the second had the over-
whelming majority of 4,478,000 votes against 77,000
of Mr. Havelock Wilson's Union (the Sailors and
Firemen). Both resolutions wound up by the instruc-
tion to the Parliamentary Committee to call a special
Trade Union Congress " to decide what action shall
be taken," or even (in the second resolution) to decide
" the form of action to be taken to compel the Govern-
ment," in case of their refusal to comply with the
Trade Unions' demands. The " direct action " was
thus to remain as a menace, while Russia's defence
against Lenin was finally dropped, even by the most
moderate Labour leaders. They might be fully aware
that Bolshevist Russia, as Mr. Tom Shaw stated it,
" was not socialistic," that " to call it republic was a
misuse in terms," and that " Litvinov himself told us
at Nottingham that Democracy was merely a word."
But they acted as if they fully believed in Mr. Smillie's
statement, that " there was no greater Labour question
in the world than that of intervention in Russia,"
because " the Socialists in Russia, led by Lenin,
1 They were thought to consist of the 700,000 miners, most,
if not all, of the 500,000 railwaymen, some sections of the
250,000 transport workers, the 300,000 engineers, and a large
number of the smaller Trade Unions. The vote for two
(defeated) Miners' candidates makes out their general item.
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION
were fighting the fight of Socialism for the whole
world."
I am not going to discuss the elements of Bolshevism
and that of sound Labour movement in the attempts
to practice direct action through national strikes on
presumably industrial issues. One of these attempts
preceded, the other closely followed, the Trades Union
Congress in Glasgow. Both were started by the more
advanced members of the Triple Alliance, the Miners
and the Railwaymen. In both the leaders closely
connected with the Socialism, such as Messrs. Smillie
and Cramp, took the leading part, to the great
detriment of the community and the " direct actors "
themselves. I do not pretend to prophesy what will
be the further developments, and whether the special
Congress foreshadowed by the Glasgow resolution will
meet and decide upon direct action on openly acknow-
ledged political issues. But I must emphasize that
political issues have already been influenced by the
attitude of Labour in the sense foreseen and looked for
by the Bolshevist propaganda. The Government have
been handicapped in their foreign policy by the people
who think that Lenin is " fighting the fight of Socialism
for the whole world." And if the cause of Lenin will
be lost, it is not owing to the lack of " intervention "
in his favour on the part of his friends in England.
So far as the other issue of the international Labour
movement is concerned, that of Germany, I may be
permitted to quote the leading article of the Vorwarts
on September i8th, discussing the chances of the
revision of the Peace Treaty. " There are two possible
means to that end," the writer says, " one being the
League of Nations, which would mean long delay,
222 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
the other, infinitely more desirable, ' revolutionizing '
the Western Powers. The results of the Trades Union
Congress in Glasgow are very important from this
standpoint. The fact of British organized Labour
becoming more extreme and the resolution by a majority
of the Congress to employ every means, even direct
industrial action (meaning a political strike en masse],
to force the Government to do its will or overthrow
it, are phenomena of very far-reaching significance
for Germans as well as for the British. There is a
possibility in the immediate future of a Labour Govern-
ment in England " which will result, according to the
Vorwarts, in Messrs. Ramsay Macdonald and A. Hender-
son replacing Lloyd George and Churchill. " What this
would mean for the German workers clearly appears
from the resolutions of the Southport Congress in July
and the declaration of the British delegation at the
Lucerne Congress in August. . . . The assumption of
Government in England by the working class would
mean a speedy and whole-hearted revision of the Ver-
sailles Peace Treaty and the liberation of the German
nation from the yoke of capitalist slavery."
I need not dwell so long upon the Bolshevist move-
ment in other Allied countries, France and Italy, the
general character of the phenomena there being the
same as in England. The chief difference is that both
these countries, not enjoying the advantages of " insu-
larity," do not also share in its drawbacks, and are
much more imbued with national feeling as opposed
to invading internationalism. That is why the
internationalist movement, if even it takes here
much more uncompromising forms and attitudes, is
more clearly differentiated from other political currents,
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 223
and better kept within its own limits, thus becoming
less contagious for larger masses. The fact that a far
greater part of the population there belongs to the
agricultural class than is the case in England contributes
to the same result. There is, namely, much less hope
left of arriving at the " dictatorship of the proletariat "
by the method of Parliamentary action, and the only
way which remains is, indeed, violence. We must not
forget that the doctrine of violence and of the Commu-
nist rule by minority has been first worked out in
France. The " petty bourgeoisie " of agriculturists
here, as well as in Russia, cannot appreciate the
advantages of a Communist Republic. That is also,
perhaps, the reason why the Communist verbiage here
being much more daring and sonorous, the net result
of it is much less significant than in this country. There
is, so to speak, much less genuineness and much more
hypocrisy in it. The Vorwdrts, obviously, is led by
the right instinct, while putting all their hopes, not on
France or Italy, but on England.
So far as similarity of developments within Socialism
itself is concerned, the best evidence is that of M.
Albert Thomas. i " The Socialist groups in France,"
says M. Thomas, " since the Armistice have been
torn by two conflicting tendencies. One set argues as
follows : The war has upset the capitalist system.
The middle class has proved itself incapable. It can
no longer hold in leash popular forces in revolt. Old
social bulwarks are crumbling. For two years, in spite
of all predictions to the contrary, Bolshevism has
prevailed in Russia. Germany, full of her own troubles,
has so far only dallied with revolution. The Soldiers'
1 See The Times, French number, September 6, 1919, p. 35.
224 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
and Workers' Councils are awaiting their opportunity.
It is only as a result of the intrigues of the Entente
that Bolshevism has failed in Hungary. The peace
which has been imposed by the victorious nations is
a peace of Imperialism and of plunder pure and simple.
The time has arrived for revolutions in the West. The
old Parliamentarianism has had its day. Democracy
is nothing more than a middle-class conception. Here,
in France, too, we must establish the dictatorship
of the proletariat. To this argument the reply is as
follows : ' It is certain that labour has achieved new
rights and is entitled to assert them. It is certain that
political democracy must expand into a vast social
democracy, whose principle must henceforth determine
the policy of each and every nation in the family of
nations. No doubt these changes must take place
with but little delay, and the rights of the producers
be proclaimed in the creation of the machinery of
production on the basis of collectivism. But this
profound revolution must be carried out in an orderly
and legal way, chiefly through the education of the
proletariat. Political revolution is one thing, social
revolution is another, far more delicate, far more
complex. Following upon any sudden and violent
seizure of political power, triumphant Socialism would
be called upon to carry out a vast labour of methodical
organization. Our duty is to insist that this work
should be undertaken forthwith.' '
M. Albert Thomas is still more explicit in his small
leaflet, Bolchevisme ou Socialisme, distributed amongst
his political friends. 1 Here he defends the second
view, which is now only shared by the minority of the
1 Berger Levrault, Nancy, Paris, Fevrier 1919, p. 16.
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 225
Party, since the majority in July 1918 has become
Bolshevist and Zimmerwaldian. M. Thomas reproduces
in full the argument of his opponents in order to refute
it. No, he states, one cannot deny that the Bolsheviks
have committed atrocities and violated all liberties.
No, one cannot compare Russian Bolshevism with the
French Revolution, since Lenin asserts what Robes-
pierre had never asserted that 130,000 Bolsheviks
can govern 100,000,000 inhabitants. No, one cannot
abstain from action in Russia, if even to defend
the borderlands of Russia arid to bring the Bolshevist
Government to reason. No, fighting the Bolsheviks
does not mean committing treason on Socialism ; on
the contrary, it means serving Socialism. No, the
Bolshevist " revolutionism " is no excuse for them,
because, in the first place, revolution does not necessarily
mean violence ; and, in the second place, no revolu-
tionary outbreak can be successful under the conditions
of universal reconstruction. No, the working class
must not isolate oneself by taking the attitude of
irreducible hostility against the rest of the nation. The
whole nation must take up the realizable elements of
the working men's programme, and this is the only
safe way to assure its success.
One sees at once that within the French Socialist
party, which has much more right in France to be
considered as representing the whole Labour movement,
the situation is by far more serious than it is the
case in this country. Bolshevism and international
revolution is the chief issue. M. Albert Thomas belongs
to the extreme right of the French Socialism, while
the views he combats are shared by the great majority.
The question was even raised as to the exclusion from
15
226 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
the Party of M. Albert Thomas and his adherents for
having voted the Budget after the Armistice. After
a violent and protracted debate at the last National
Congress of the Party (September 12, 1919), the passion-
ate appeal for preserving the unity of Party has prevailed,
and the sentence of excommunication was defeated by
1,427 votes against 490. But the crime of their having
voted the military credits was severely condemned,
and henceforth refractory members were menaced with
expulsion. The international point of view has thus
won a decisive victory over the national in the post-war
Socialism in France.
France has remained what it has always been : the
intellectual centre of revolutionary extremism. The
" National Socialism," planned by MM. Laskine,
Zevaes, and the men from La Victoire, seems to have
little chance of success. The question which is being
discussed now is, not how to reconcile Socialism with
patriotic issues, but how to reconcile the Second Inter-
national with the Third Berne with Moscow. That
is why all international issues of the proletarian move-
ment start from, or finish with, Paris. That is also
why the questions at issue are treated by the French
leaders with the refinement of ideology which is unknown
elsewhere, and can only be compared to that of the
Russian " intelligentsia." The subjects of inter-
nationalist discussion are, of course, in France the same
as everywhere : direct action, national strike, inter-
vention in Russia, the iniquities of the " capitalist "
Peace Treaty. But, in the first place, here they are
treated more profusely, and, perhaps, in a different
order of their importance ; and, secondly, it is chiefly
in France that they are made use of for international
227
discussion and international action. We may quote,
as two outstanding instances, the Congress of Lucerne
and the attempt to organize an international " sympa-
thetic strike " of July 21, 1919.
The Lucerne Conference of August 2, 1919, was
intended to do preparatory work for the plenary
International Congress at Geneva, February 2, 1920.
But the revolutionary Socialists were too impatient
and too much dissatisfied with the moderation of the
decisions taken by the Berne Conference six months
ago, not to use their opportunity. The character of
debate at Lucerne has indeed demonstrated the great
gain of the ground by the extremist Socialism in a
short space of the last half a year. M. Marcel Cachin
was the spokesman of the French majority, and that is
how he formulated his view on the very day of the
opening of the Conference (see L'Humanite, August 4,
1919). He accused the Executive Commission of the
Berne Conference of inactivity and slackness. " One
wished to act in a diplomatic way, while the people
wanted energetic appeals to action. Discreet pressure
upon statesmen of the Allied bourgeoisie was attempted.
The attempts remained without result. These tactics
made the Berne International lose the confidence, not
of the governing personalities of the Entente, but also
of the peoples. It is high time to break with such
methods if one does not wish to see this confidence
irrevocably lost. One must propose to the proletariat
a pondered programme of a positive action. It is
important to understand that political and economical
framework of the bourgeois society is going to collapse,
and that our duty is not to strive to respect them at
any cost, but to break them, in order that Socialism shall
228 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
be born. Neither democracy, nor parliamentarianism,
as they are understood by the bourgeois rulers, are able,
without profoundest transformations, to be equal to the
new state of things which is being created under our eyes.
The Lucerne Conference, lest it fail in its turn, must boldly
define its action, push the energies of the masses to the
maximum, and keep in closest contact with them."
Arthur Henderson, Ramsay Macdonald, Emil Vander-
velde, proved quite out of date when measured by
that last word of Socialist wisdom, not to speak of
Edward Bernstein, whose speech was respectfully
listened to in silence as a voice from the tomb. Did
not Mr. Macdonald defend the obsolete " conceptions
of democratic Socialism," and insist that " we must
declare ourselves for Democracy ? " Did not Mr.
Henderson think it a " duty of Labour leaders to
enlighten the Government " and to "warn them against
the terrible spasm of despair and rage bound to seize
the peoples of Europe before the end of the winter ? "
And did not the pat; larch of revisionism, Edward
Bernstein, declare against the principle of Workers'
Councils, while still adhering to the " admirable weapon
of the universal suffrage " ? Of course, all that old
rubbish could not move the interpreters of the new
doctrine like Longuet or Cachin. Instead, they found
supporters in the persons of Mr. Troelstra and the
young representative of the German Independents,
Mr. Hilferding. Both Longuet and Hilferding threat-
ened to break with the Second International and to
pass to the Third, if the decisions of the Conference
are not sufficiently extremist ; and both declared that
the cause of the International stands and falls with
the fate of the " Eastern revolutions " in Russia and
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 229
Hungary. " One must first of all take vigorous action
(they do not speak here of " non-intervention ") to
prevent the Socialist Revolution from being crushed,"
were M. Longuet's words. The Independents, M.
Hilferding said, " will never consent to condemn the
Bolsheviks," and M. Longuet outdid him. Why, we
must express " popular sympathy with Bolsheviks,
prosecuted by the bourgeois Governments." One can
easily understand the allusion of M. Camille Huysmans
saying : " Certain delegates whom the war had separ-
ated are now much closer to each other than certain
others who had fought at their side during the war."
One cannot better emphasize the work done at Lucerne.
Internationalism was here finally substituted for the
point of view of National Defence and the " Sacred
Union." The majority of the Congress proved to be
on the side of the Extremists, as may be judged by the
approval given to some amendments moved by Mr.
Mistral, in order to define the principles and the aim of
Socialism as essentially revolutionary and communist.
"It is a long, long way from Berne to Lucerne,"
M. Marcel Cachin said. One might add that the way
is still longer from Lucerne to the real surroundings in
which the fight of socialistic parties in different countries
is being fought. The great distance from doctrine to
its application can be easily traced in one single instance
where an attempt was made to bring about a compara-
tively modest international action in compliance with
the demands of the resurgent International.
The initiative this time was taken by Italy. As
early as April, after five months' propaganda in the
official newspaper, the Avanti, an attempt has been
made to begin a Bolshevist movement by a twenty-four
230 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
hours' general strike. The strike was arranged in
secrecy by the Federal Labour Exchange, and has
come as a surprise in Rome. Processions were to
march down the Corso ; a big mass meeting was to be
held at the Piazza del Popolo, in commemoration, as
the posters intended to announce, of the Spartacists
who were killed in Berlin, and a holiday was to be
taken in honour of Lenin. Demonstrations were
prohibited by the Government, and the strike proved
a complete failure. But the idea remained, and was
made international on the occasion of the arrival at
Rome and Milan of M. Longuet and Mr. Ramsay
Macdonald. After the Amsterdam International Con-
gress in April Mr. Macdonald came, in June 1919, to
Italy and to Switzerland, with the mission to convert
local Socialist parties to the Second International
from the Third. But he returned with an opposite
mission. The Italians said the Second International
was too tame for them, and instead of propagating unity
he had better start a propaganda for really important
issues ; action in favour of Bolshevist Russia and
protest against the " imperialistic " peace of Versailles.
At Milan M. Longuet joined in the deliberations, and
the question of a general strike in all three countries
was discussed. Mr. Macdonald warned them that
success was very doubtful in England, but M. Longuet
eagerly took up the suggestion. The Confederal
National Committee of the French Union of Syndi-
cates had already (May 26th-27th) decided on an in-
ternational strike of twenty-four hours. The spirit and
the initial aims were identical with those discussed at
Milan. It is once more corroborated by the Manifesto
of the German Independents on the subject of their
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 231
strike. This is how they state it in an Appeal pub-
lished by the Freiheit :
The movement of the militant proletariat is making con-
siderable progress . . . ; the class struggle is extending and
strikes root everywhere. . . . Gradually one begins to realize
that it is not imperialistic peace that will achieve the great
social transformation for which war served as an important stimu-
lant ; the aim of liberation can only be attained by the revolu-
tionary effort of the working class, by destruction of capitalism,
by the realization of Socialism by a proletarian dictature. These
ideas are striking root even among the working men of the vic-
torious countries. On July 21, the French, English, and Italian
proletarians propose to make an imposing demonstration and to
start on strike of protest against the imperialist violence manifested
in the Treaty of Versailles, as well as against the help given by
the Governments to the Russian reactionaries. The proletariat
of a great number of neutral countries are also decided to take
part in this manifestation in order to transform it into a mani-
festation of international solidarity and Socialist combativeness.
We have here a new instance of the working of the
same pro-German machinery known to us on the occa-
sion of so many attempts to impose on the Allied coun-
tries a peace of understanding in war-time.
The Administrative Committee of the C.G.T. (Con-
federation Generate du Travail) took up the scheme.
But it was unable to carry it through in its original
purity. Responsible leaders of French Syndicalism knew
only too well that attempts to use strikes for avowedly
revolutionary aims invariably end in a fiasco. There
was much shooting and rioting in Paris on May ist,
but there were nearly no representatives of the great
Trade Unions taking part in the armed conflicts with the
police. Out of the ninety-seven men armed with
revolvers and knuckle-dusters who were arrested, the
great majority were young people whose heads had
been turned by the Bolshevik propaganda, or men with
criminal records, mostly foreigners Italians, Russians,
232 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
Turks, Spaniards, and Swiss. An attempt to censure
the Executive of the Railway Union at its Congress for
their half-hearted support of the May ist demonstra-
tions ended in a vote of confidence to the Executive
(represented by Mr. Bidegaray) by 174,319 against
71,749. When metal-workers on strike addressed them-
selves to the interfederal cartel of working organiza-
tions with the proposal to help them by proclaiming
a general strike on political issues (demobilization,
amnesty, and non-intervention in Russia), the " cartel "
replied (on June 25th) that under existing conditions
they are powerless to make tolerably efficient a decision
to that effect. That is why the Administrative Com-
mission of the C.G.T., while arranging for a twenty-
four hours' strike in France, preferred to change the
motive, and to put in the first place, together with the
political issues proposed, la vie chere the high cost
of living thus making the strike run on economic
issue. There was no lack in grandiloquent appeals, all
preparations having been made, all measures taken,
all orders given for the strike to be really magnificent
and imposing. But at the last hour, on July i8th,
profiting by an anti-ministerial vote of the Chamber on
questions of economy, the Administrative Commission
withdrew its orders and cancelled its dispositions, while
declaring that " the new situation created by the vote
makes a new examination necessary." After every-
thing had been said and written to cover the retreat,
Jouhaux, in his great speech before the National Council
of the C.G.T., on July 22nd, explained the real reason
of the sudden change of decision :
The wish to have a thing done is not enough to make that
thing possible. In spite of men's will, circumstances are some-
times stronger than their will. I am not of those who think
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 233
that we must be taken in tow by the events. We must, how-
ever, deal with realities. . . .
Jouhaux went even further and gave his own view
as to what " revolution " is. It is not the thing which
one suggests sometimes by " rolling three capital R's,"
not a " catastrophic act bringing about the downfall
of a system." " For conscious revolutionists," it is,
on the contrary, " a long process of evolution which
gradually penetrates a system, the action that saps
a regime, and which, within that system, creates a new
organism to take its place." " It is not sufficient to
go out into the streets, to build barricades, to make a
general strike. . . . A revolution which ends in famine is
not a revolution ; it is the destruction of it. ... To make
revolution means to start on a large constructive busi-
ness. Well, such a revolution cannot be achieved by
verbiage it needs will and judgment. It needs action
of a persevering and tenacious energy." M. Jouhaux
reminds his audience that only a small minority among
their members was ready for such an action, and still more
so after the great influx of new members, who do not know
much about internal divisions within Syndicalism itself.
The result is that M. Jouhaux in Syndicalist move-
ment, as well as M. Thomas in Socialist movement,
now belongs to the right wing. He in his turn had to
defend himself against violent accusations of having
collaborated with the bourgeois during war-time.
" Jouhaux shares the responsibility with such people
as favoured the war," M. Monatte violently shouted
at the last Congress of C.G.T. at Lyon (September
1919). The other opponent, M. Monmousseau, said :
" We must return to the true Socialist idea of class
war, instead of class co-operation." And he very
234 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
strongly blamed the Syndicalist leaders for their lack
of combativeness on chief international issues. " One
has not made a sufficient stand against the unheard-of
campaign which poisoned the public opinion on and about
July 2ist. One has not made a satisfactory propaganda
in the country to raise the working class in favour of
the revolutions in Russia and in Hungary. . . . One
must have done everything in order to save Bela Kun."
Even Merrheim, the Zimmerwaldian, is now accused
of being too moderate, and he avowed that he had told
Lenin at Zimmerwald that France was not ready to
raise the war of masses against the war and to start
on building of the " Third International," as Lenin
had insisted already at that time. " The truth is,"
Mr. Merrheim bluntly said, " that in France there is
revolutionary situation, but there is no revolutionary
spirit." Mr. Jouhaux's answer was as conciliatory as
he could afford : "If one understands under class co-
operation taking responsibility for the acts of the
Government, I have not co-operated. But if it means
going wherever necessary for the welfare of the working-
class interest, then, of course, I have co-operated."
The vote of the Congress at Lyon, as at the contem-
poraneous Socialist Congress, was making for unity.
Jouhaux's report was approved by 1,393 votes against
588. But here, as there, unity has been preserved only
by way of drifting to the left of the whole movement.
On December igth a very drastic resolution to this
effect was carried by the great majority of 1,633 against
323. The Congress repeated the Amiens declaration
of independence of the Syndicalist movement from all
political parties (meaning Socialism), and " once more "
reasserted that the " Syndicalist ideal can only be
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 235
reached by the complete transformation of the
Society." The class struggle was declared to be
" a fact from which Syndicalism desires to draw all
the consequences."
" As this struggle cannot end in any other way but
suppression of all classes, the Syndicalism to make no
equivocation possible declares that in its origin, as
well as in its present character and in its permanent
ideal, it is a revolutionary force." Again and again,
" to avoid ambiguity," the declaration asserts that
Syndicalism " prepares " (which is a concession to
" ambiguity ") the " integral emancipation which can-
not be otherwise realized than by the capitalist expro-
priation," and that it " preaches " (another concession),
as a means of action, the general strike. . . . More-
over, the declaration emphasizes that it "in a perma-
nent way proclaims that basic conception of Syndicalist
tactics, which is direct action." But (a third con-
cession) " the declaration cannot make believe that this
action finds its exact and exclusive (concession to ex-
tremist side) expression in acts of violence or surprise, or
that it can be considered as a weapon that can be utilized
by any organization external to Syndicalism." Ob-
viously, they meant to leave for themselves the mono-
poly of " violence," thus trying to obviate the objections
that they were " preaching " civil war ! In the same
spirit of class egoism the declaration went on saying
that " collective conventions " of the working men with
the employers have only one value : that of " trans-
formation " ; "it would be a mistake to look at them
as a co-operation." Their chief aim is "to reduce the
relations between employer and employee to a bar-
gaining which encourages effort without diminishing
236 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
energy." 1 The declaration, moreover, points out that
no exertion to increase productivity of work is " recon-
cilable with the present regime." The leading idea of
Syndicalism in determining their tactics is that " the
powerlessness of the ruling class and of political organi-
zations (Parliament is meant) from day to day becomes
more evident, and so much the stronger appears the
necessity for working men to face responsibilities in the
management of Society."
" Management " is here used instead of " Adminis-
tration," as a consequence of the basic idea of anarchical
Syndicalism, that the " new order of things " is to be
founded " not on authority, but on exchange ; not on
domination, but on reciprocity ; not on sovereignty,
but on social compact." From this point of view the
Congress of Lyon is quite sure that not only the " daily
work of the Syndicate prepares this overthrow of values,"
but even immediate solutions can be achieved " without
delay," namely, nationalization of the transport, mines,
water currents, and great credit organizations. However,
they do not forget to explain that nationalization " does
not mean state property." " Knowing the powerless-
ness of political institutions, and the character of power,
we do not intend to increase and enlarge the functions
of the State nor to resort to a system which would make
substantial industries depend on officialism and red
tape." Not at all. " We understand by nationaliza-
tion confiding national property to people who are in-
terested in it to associated producers and consumers."
Last, not least, the Congress of Lyon would not
forget the Russian Revolution. Their resolution " once
1 Ramener ces relations a un march6 qui encourage 1'effort
sans diminuer l'6nergie.
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 237
more proclaims the inalienable right of the peoples for
self-determination, expresses profound sympathy for the
Russian Revolution, protests against every continua-
tion of the armed intervention in Russia, and against
a blockade reducing the people to famine because of its
guilt of having risen against the oppressor."
The Congress also takes practical steps in order to
sabotage the intervention. All Syndicalist organiza-
tions of transport are intimated to refuse to transport
arms and munitions destined to the armies of Kolchak,
and Denikin. The " reactionary " policy of the Allies
helping both of them is severely censured ; the Congress
" exacts that peace shall be concluded with the Russian
Revolution." Such is the last word of Syndicalism,
and we can see that it completely coincides with the
aims and the methods of the Bolshevik propaganda.
If the danger is not so great as it looks, it is chiefly
due not to the intentions of the authors of the Lyon
resolutions, but to the fact disclosed by Mr. Merrheim.
In France this revolutionary verbiage is very strong,
but the true revolutionary spirit among the masses is
decisively lacking. . . . One may differ in explanation
but the fact itself is repeatedly asserted by such revolu-
tionaries, even the Extremists who are sincere with
themselves and with the public.
The difference between words and deeds which we
saw increasing the other side of the Channel reaches
its climax in Italy. The " official " Socialist party of
this country is one of the most extremist on the Con-
tinent. After having to the last opposed Italy's en-
trance into the war, they took a prominent part in all
German plotting for strengthening the international
opposition to war. They, to be sure, were not guilty
238 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
of voting military credits or otherwise co-operating
with the bourgeois classes. But, then, they met with a
growing wave of national feeling tinted with Irredent-
ism, all the more unquiet and feverish as national
claims of Italy met with obstacles on the part of the
Peace Conference. Italy was, perhaps, the only country
where, after the Armistice, the Premier was able to de-
clare, as an argument for the vote of confidence, that
war was not yet over, that difficulties, far from being
removed, now only began, and that there could be no
talk of demobilization. (Orlando, December 15, 1918.)
And M. Nitti was, of course, the only Minister of
Finance who could second M. Orlando by saying that,
to extricate the country from her new obligations, and
to wind up the national success, one thing was needed :
taxes, taxes, and taxes. That state of feeling was bound
to influence even the Extremist Socialists. They were
divided in two sections : Confederates and Indepen-
dents. The Confederates, who had denounced the war,
were now striving to overthrow the regime and to
establish a Communist Republic under proletarian dic-
tatorship. The Independents, who had approved Italy's
belligerency, were now disappointed in the results.
They wish to forestall and hinder the vaster strike
planned by the Confederates for the revolutionary
purposes. But just like moderate Socialist trimmers
in France and in Great Britain, they still have pro-
claimed a strike on the plausible ground to protest
against the high cost of living. 1
But even that milder attitude met with patrotic
opposition of one part of the population and with the
1 See Dr. E. T. Dillon's correspondence in the Daily Telegraph
on June 20, 1919.
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 239
apathy of the other. As early as February 24, 1919,
Signor Serrati, fresh from his Turin prison, bitterly
complained that it was the Socialist party alone which
was so much more active than any other. At the
same time he told his admirers that Russia was the only
nation which had found the right way to treat the claims
of the proletariat. In April the Parliamentary Group
of the official Socialist party tried to bridge the chasm
between the two extremes of Bolshevism favouring
the " action " and patriotism refusing co-operation.
They published a Manifesto where they tried to unite
all elements in a common protest against the Paris Con-
ference preparing a peace that would " rival Brest -
Litovsk." In case the events should justify this
assumption, the Parliamentary Group called for a
general strike. As a matter of fact, an attempt for a
twenty-four hours' strike was tried in Rome, on April
loth, by the Federal Labour Exchange. But most of
the local labour organizations refused to adhere to it,
as the avowed aim of the strike leaders was to start
by this strike a Bolshevist movement. The strike fell
flat, and only provoked strong patriotic demonstrations
against the strikers.
A week later another attempt at a general strike was
tried by the Extremists in Milan, Turin, Genoa,
Bologne, and Brescia. After three days this movement
was also defeated. In July a new wave of unrest passed
through the Italian provinces, and the Socialists tried
to base upon it their scheme for bringing about an
international strike in favour of Bolshevism. The
Parliamentary Group of the party had at that time
voted an order of the day inviting their members to
refuse every co-operation with the ruling classes, even
240 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
in the form of mixed committees, and to organize Work-
men's Committees, where they had not yet been started.
The second order of the day was to the effect directly
to introduce into the Chamber the questions of
amnesty, demobilization and cessation of all hos-
tilities against the Soviet Republics in Russia and
Hungary. The unity of international direction is well
proved by these decisions. But the only practical
manifestation of that unity, the strike of July 2ist,
was not a success in Italy any more than in France.
The new Premier, M. Nitti, sent a circular to the
Prefects in order to prevent disturbances. " The
Governments which do not defend themselves," he
said, " have no reason to exist ; institutions which do
not make themselves respected are not durable ; liberty
and democracy do not live where there is no force to
defend them."
These sound maxims were followed ; the big Unions,
in great majority, proved against the strike. The
next day the Avanti declared that, among its
advantages, one was undoubted : that of having
" elucidated the Parliamentary situation."
Before I close this chapter I have to mention the
important results of the political elections in three
Allied countries on mid-November, which took place
after the above lines had been written. In France
these results confirm entirely my reading of the situa-
tion created by the violent pro-Bolshevist propaganda.
The nation emphatically disavowed this propaganda.
Not only the leader of the " Defeatists," M. Longuet
was beaten heavily at the poll. Even the more moderate
Renaudel, who committed the mistake of surrendering
his former, more reasonable, position for the new
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 241
extremism of his successors in the editorship of
L'Humanite, fell through. Even M. Franklin Bouillon,
who conducted a furious campaign against the Peace
Treaty, was beaten by M. Tardieu, one of its chief pro-
moters. On the other hand, the four Socialists who were
excluded from the party as " traitors " for having voted
military credits were all returned. The Old Socialist
" renegades," like M. Briand and M. Millerand, were
elected. Moreover, the leading men of the Extreme
Nationalist campaign, such as Maurice Barres and Leon
Daudet, from the Action Franfaise, were also returned.
This result presents a very interesting parallel to the
British Parliamentary elections of December 1918.
The Extremist Socialists, as well as the inconsistent
Radical Liberals, there as well as here disappeared from
their respective Houses. In both cases, also, the nation
demonstrated their tiredness of the old gang of
politicians by electing an unusually large number of
quite new members.
On the contrary, in Belgium the Socialists have
reaped the reward for their patriotic attitude towards
the war and for their strongly anti-Bolshevist and
anti-German propaganda in the international Socialist
circles. They polled the heaviest vote in the country,
numbering 675,000 as .against 620,000 Catholics and
310,000 Liberals. They are here particularly bent on
" reconstruction " after the war, and their choice con-
firmed the popular wish to see Belgium recovered
as soon as possible from the economic ruin to which
German occupation had brought this unfortunate
country.
It is not so easy to bring the result of the Italian
elections into harmony with our observations. The
16
242 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
Socialists here have got more than twice as many
Deputies in the Chamber as they had before, chiefly
at the expense of severely defeated Nationalists. Their
extremist pro-Bolshevist attitude apparently did not
interfere with their success. Of course, it does not yet
mean that the Italian Socialists' electoral success is
to be explained by their extremism. In electing them,
the chief motive of the Italian elector seems to have
been more negative than positive. It was not so much
approval of Socialism as entire disapproval of the
Government accused of having been too weak both
towards the Allies and the Italian Nationalists.
Another form of manifesting this feeling of dissatisfac-
tion was an abnormally high " absenteeism " from the
elections. Only 26 per cent, electors voted, and, owing
partly to this apathy of the Liberal bourgeoisie, partly
to extremely complicated electoral system newly in-
troduced, only the best organized parties, such as
Socialists and Catholics, profited by the situation. It
must be noticed that the great number of the Socialists
elected did not at all belong to the extremist set.
Even such an organ as the New Statesman, which is
always sympathetic to international Bolshevism, and
which tries to explain the defeat of Socialism in France
in the same way as British Radicals used to explain
the December Parliamentary elections, namely, that
the election was fought on a panic issue " even the
New Statesman understands the general meaning of the
November elections. " The nation is tired," this
periodical states, " and there is a widespread longing
for tranquillity. To many who have that feeling the
Socialist programme seemed to offer only a promise
of new adventures and continued strife and a strife
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 243
for something too remote and too negative." We
are here, obviously, as far as possible from the immediate
advent of the " dictatorship of the proletariat " by
means of a violent " direct action."
6. THE BOLSHEVIST PROPAGANDA OUTSIDE
EUROPE.
It would take another book to draw up a detailed
report on the Bolshevist propaganda in colonies and
dependencies of the European Powers in the New World,
Asia, Africa, and Australia. To write such a book one
must base oneself on the results of local studies, which
hardly exist at this moment, and, at all events, cannot
be consulted. But the picture of the Bolshevist activity
for the World Revolution would remain incomplete
should we have to omit this chapter at all. We must
satisfy ourselves with getting a flying glimpse on the
unexplored field. A few lines of a newspaper telegram
from another hemisphere are sometimes sufficient to
show us that the same things are happening in those
remote countries as are familiar to us from our every-
day's experience.
We already know that the Bolsheviks paid great
attention to having their literature translated into
every possible language. From Petrograd and Moscow,
from Stockholm and Copenhagen, they were spreading
their pamphlets and appeals in every possible direction.
A correspondent from Copenhagen (Morning Post, July
19, 1919) testifies that " both here and in Stockholm it
is possible to get Bolshevist propagandist literature in
any language, from the original Russian to Chinese and
Hindustani, or for no race is too small for conversion
244 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
to Portuguese, and even to Malayan and Turkoman."
When the luggage of the Bolshevist diplomats was
arrested in the steamer Eskiltuna III, it proved to con-
tain (as the Helsingfors Hufvudstads Cladet described it)
leaflets in Hebrew, South Slav dialects, and Kirghiz.
The Moscow Pravda then declared that these pamphlets
were destined " for the conversion of the Western
Imperialist States and their vassals in Europe and
Asia." The " vassals," such as Ireland, Egypt, India,
etc., were given particular attention on the basis of the
" self-determination " principle in its Bolshevist reading.
Russian immigrants all over the world and German
machinery were largely made use of wherever they could
present a point of support for the preachers of the Third
International's crusade. Distinction must be drawn
between that wholesale propaganda at random and
specially chosen territories where enormous quantities
of publications were thrown in close connection with
changing strategical designs of Bolsheviks. To-day it
is Finland, to-morrow Ukraine, then Ireland, America,
the Near or the Far East, Afghanistan, India, China.
One might read the story of universal schemes of Bol-
shevism while following up this changing trend of their
propagandist currents.
Let us begin our short review by the Sinn Fein's con-
tact with the Russian Bolsheviks. A short message,
sent from Helsingfors on April 25th, may introduce the
subject. " The Council of People's Commissaries,"
the telegram says, " has rescinded the vote of
300,000,000 roubles for propaganda in France. In-
stead they have voted the sum of 500,000,000 roubles
monthly for the bureau of general foreign propaganda.
The first payment of 500,000,000 roubles, for the
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 245
month of February, was sent to the Sinn Feiners in
Ireland. (The second, for March, was sent to the
Spartacists in Germany.) 1
Far from me be the idea of identifying Sinn Fein with
Bolshevism. The relations between the two is, perhaps,
in the best way characterized by the correspondence
published in New York at the beginning of June 1919,
between the Bolshevist " Ambassador," Mr. Martens,
and another nonentity, the " Envoy of the Republic
of Ireland," Mr. McCartan. It is the Bolshevik who
tries to prove that practically there is no essential
difference between Sinn Fein and the Russian-Soviet
Republicans. Mr. McCartan reports that "the Republic
of Ireland regards the political system adopted by the
free people in Russia as a concern only of Russians."
But he finally admits that there should exist between
the Irish and the Russian Extremists " that sense of
brotherhood which common purpose can alone induce."
This is the very sense of brotherhood which at the
time of preparing the Irish Rebellion of 1916 had
existed between James Connolly's Internationalist and
Syndicalist " Citizens' Army," and the extreme national-
istic body of the " Irish Volunteers." Both represented
the forces of revolutionary overthrow, and on that basis
had concluded their working alliance.
Bolshevism here stepped into the shoes of Germans
and Irish-Americans, through whose intermediary
the revolutionary elements of 1914-16 have found
and learnt to know each other. Their more con-
genial lever in the Irish movement was the Irish
Labour Party, which was very strongly influenced by
Russian Bolshevism, and which stood in direct con-
1 See The Times, April 3Oth.
246 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
nection with the leaders of the Clyde Labour movement.
Mr. John Gallagher, on whom a detailed plan for an
uprising in Ireland was found on October 29, 1918, and
who refused to recognize the British Court, as being
composed of representatives of an " enemy in
occupation," reminds us of William Gallagher, the
President of the Clyde Workers' Committee. Another
Clyde shop steward and strike leader, Mr. MacManus,
confessed himself to have been in closest intimacy
with James O' Connolly, the leader of the Irish Rebellion
and the President of the proclaimed " Irish Republic."
He fully approved (the Socialist, April I7th) of Con-
nolly's guiding principle : " It is a revolutionary's duty
to encourage and to aid the development of any and
every crisis, and latterly to set about transforming it
into a revolutionary situation." This explains to us the
part of revolutionary Socialism in the Irish Nationalist
movement. When at the General Elections the Sinn
Fein swept the country and won 73 mandates to Parlia-
ment out of the whole number of 105, many of the active
members proved to have been active participants at
the Irish Rebellion of 1916. No wonder that at the
meetings of the pretended Irish " Parliament " at
Dublin purely Bolshevist speeches were pronounced
and the Russian Revolution met with entire approval.
Mrs. Markewicz, a Russian and a turbulent type, who
in 1916 had been O'Connolly's fellow-leader of the
" Citizens' Army," was one of the first to start on a
propaganda of Russian Bolshevism. So far she suc-
ceeded, and a notable group within the Irish Transport
and General Workers' Union was brought to regard
Bolshevism as Labour's ideal, and to advocate violent
methods of action. " The named Union," says Mr.
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 247
O'Brien, the Secretary of the Irish Labour Party, in an
American interview, " since 1916 increased its member-
ship from 8,000 to 80,000 ; it is now the head and front
of the party." Mr. O'Brien asserts that the whole
party " is in close sympathy with international Labour
all over the world, more especially with the Industrial
Workers of the World and kindred unions in Australia
and on the Continent." At the same time it is " friendly
with Sinn Fein, whose ideals and objects are the same."
Now, the official organ of the Irish Transport and
General Workers' Union, the Voice of Labour, openly
declares that they already introduced a Soviet regime
in Ireland. " We have organized," the newspaper
says, " bodies representative of the three constituent
elements of Soviets, namely, workers, soldiers, and
peasants. ... At present we have what corresponds to
Workers' Councils in most towns . . . and in nearly
every country we have Peasants' Councils in some form
or other, and all these are linked up in a kind of loose
federation."
Revolutionary aims and methods of Sinn Fein,
especially of its " physical force " group, have become
so obvious, and the reminiscences of 1916 are as yet so
fresh, that there was ample ground for Government
action. On September I2th a proclamation was issued
by the Lord-Lieutenant in Ireland prohibiting and
suppressing the Sinn Fein " Parliament " (the Dail
Eireann), the Sinn Fein organizations, clubs, the Irish
Volunteers, etc. At the same time a series of raids were
carried out by the police and military force in Sinn
Fein premises, newspaper offices and residences, both
in Dublin and in provinces. Many documents were
seized and numerous arrests made. The next day the
248 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
Trades Union Congress at Glasgow expressed " its pro-
found sympathy with our Irish brethren in their hours
of repression." In face of this conflict between official
prosecution and extremist opinion the leaders of the
Sinn Fein remain self-confident. It would be prema-
ture to say what will be the upshot of the conflict, but
one is fully entitled to bring the acute state of things
in Ireland now obtaining under the same head with
other phenomena of post-war unrest, fostered and
promoted, among other causes, by direct Bolshevist
influences.
We now pass to another instance of the extremist
application of the self-determination principle India.
Here, as well as in Ireland, the extremist propaganda for
independence tried to make any moderate reform im-
possible. Here also, as well as there, evidence is handy
to prove the existence of an external organization trying
to work through the Indian extremists by using violent
methods of action. We can even surmise, with a great
degree of certainty, that in India, as in Ireland, this
organization was working for a certain time, and that
here, as well as there, Russian Bolsheviks only stepped
into the shoes of Germans. The specifically Russian work
of propaganda was being done through the channel of
Moslem and Pan-Turkish movement, and signs of it are
obvious in the part played by the Indian Moslem
elements in the April rioting at the Punjab. Mohamme-
dans have been foremost in the work of riot and destruc-
tion in Ahmedabad and Delhi. The scheme for an
Indian revolution included, as well as that for a revolu-
tion in Ireland, as a first step, systematic attacks on
railways, telegraphs, and other means of communica-
tion, and all these attacks have been tried in Northern
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 249
India. 1 The chief motive for incitement to trouble
was that stated by the Secretary of State for India, Mr.
Montagu, in the course of the debate at the Commons
on May 22, 1919 : "I put first among the political
causes (of disturbance) the perturbation and per-
plexity caused to the Mohammedan world by the
discussion arising out of the defeat of Turkey."
So far as Germany is concerned, we have, besides
voluminous evidence collected in Justice Rowlatt's
Report and Sir Valentine Chirrol's collection, Mrs.
Annie Besant's recent testimony (The Times, June 10,
1919) that " the revolutionary party in India was
supported largely by German money, which had been
used for many years in the effort to cause unrest. Even
before the war money had been spent freely on German
propaganda work, which was carried largely by German
missionaries who taught children to ' call for the
German Kaiser ' instead of for our own King-Emperor.
The first results," Mrs. Besant adds, " of German pro-
paganda were the revolutionary movement in the Punjab
and Bengal." The Times correspondent from Lahore
(April 25th) is also induced to conclude that German
agents are behind the movement by the fact " that
the outbreaks coincide with the stiffening of Germany
on the peace terms, and follow closely on the Egyptian
outbreak." This may seem too far-fetched, as the
cause of simultaneity of these outbreaks may also lie
in the general state of unrest after the war. However
1 The Morning Post correspondent on April 3oth suggested
that the aim of breaking up the railway system was " to cut
out an enclave in the centre of the Punjab, consisting of the
three districts of Lahore, Amritsar, and Gujranwala, wherein,
securely separated from the outer world, they would be free
to pursue their work.
250 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
it be, the part of the Bolsheviks in the Indian trouble
is even more obvious than the part of the Germans.
On March 20th The Times special correspondent at
Helsingfors described the contents of a letter addressed
by the Bolshevist representative at Stockholm, Vorov-
sky, shortly before his expulsion, to the Extraordinary
Commission in Petrograd. This letter, which the
correspondent had himself seen, and which was in posses-
sion of a British subject, alleged that during 1918 the
Bolshevist representatives in Stockholm succeeded in
sending to Bombay, via London, 25,000 and explosives.
Bolshevist agents in India frequently assured the
Stockholm representatives that a Bolshevist movement
would certainly break out in India in March or April
(which really took place). The Pravda, the Soviet's
official organ, has declared that during the first ten months
of 1918 the Bureau of Mussulman Communist Organiza-
tions published 4,000,000 copies of news-sheets, pam-
phlets, and handbills in the Tartar, Turkish, Kirghiz,
Sart, and Hindu languages. A special organization
was formed in Moscow to operate in India, Persia,
China, Japan, and other Eastern countries. The names
of organizers of different branches of the Eastern propa-
ganda were : Mr. S. D. Mstislavsky for India, T. S.
Bravine for Persia, Mr. Yussupov for revolutionary
Islamism in general, Subchi Bey for Turkey. This is
" the real Russian peril " which Mr. John Pollock made
subject of a special article in the Nineteenth Century.
Concerning India in particular, a Bolshevist cor-
respondence has been revealed between Petrograd
and Delhi as early as February 1919. The Times
correspondent on August 2nd wired from Helsingfors
that an original letter came into his possession and
/ OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 251
is now in the hands of the British Foreign Office which
proves the complicity of the Bolshevist Government
at Petrograd with Indian revolutionaries. As a sequel
to some murders of Russian subjects at Stockholm, the
very personality of the Bolshevist agent was discovered
in August 1919. It was a certain Bek Hadji Tlashee,
a Mohammedan from the Caucasus and an adventurer
of the vilest type, ready to serve everybody for money.
In the letter mentioned above, and published in The
Times on August 29, 1919, this gentleman discloses
that he " must receive money from India," and that he
" only to-day received in Stockholm a wire from Bom-
bay that his previous telegrams have reached Delhi
by post." The money he wants 24,000 krons was
assigned (by the Extraordinary Commission at 2,
Gorokhovaya) in payment for the machines, the rest
for publishing purposes. A certain " Michael Yakovle-
vich intended to go back to India with machines," which
were ready. This news may be confronted with official
telegrams from India during the time of the April
uprising. " The Arya Samaj and Mohammedan emis-
saries from Delhi," we are told (Morning Post, April 2ist),
" are making attempts to stir up trouble in neighbour-
ing districts of the Punjab. In Bombay arrests have
been made of two agitators who were distributing
inflammatory leaflets." The Viceroy's report from
April igth states that " the city mobs (Punjab) are
reported to be generally composed of Mohammedan
Groudas (hooligans) directed by Pan-Islamic and Hindu
agitators."
In the article mentioned Mr. John Pollock warns the
English people that a great anti-British offensive is to
be delivered on the Indian front. And, indeed, the
252 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
organization disclosed by The Times correspondent in
Helsingfors on March 3ist (see above) means an offen-
sive on a large scale. As early as the beginning of 1919
the intention becomes manifest to keep the road to
India open for Moscow. Branch offices of propaganda
are being opened all along the way. One has already
been started at Orenburg. Agitators are preparing
to go to Tashkent. Later on in the year Merv was
captured by the Bolshevists, and their forces proceeded
to Kushk, where they were at the very door of Herat,
the key to Western Afghanistan. It was at that moment,
on May gth, that the new Afghan Ameer, Amanullah
Khan, the third son of the late Habibulla, Britain's
faithful ally, started on war with England and passed
the Indian frontier. Turkish nationalist influences
may, to a great extent, explain the Ameer's move ; but
both the German and Bolshevist hand behind the
Turkish Pan-Islamic propaganda can be easily guessed.
The Bolsheviks were keen enough to see their chance,
and from that moment of the Ameer's open hostilities
against Great Britain they drew particular attention to
Afghanistan. Towards the end of August a Bolshevist
mission under M. Bravin, the before-mentioned diplo-
matist formerly of the Russian Legation at Teheran,
and afterwards Russian Vice-Consul in Seistan, a good
expert in the Near-Eastern questions, arrived at Cabul
on a special mission from Lenin. M. Bravin had an
audience of the Ameer, whose reception of him, accord-
ing to The Times, is described as " courteous, but cool."
Since then M. Bravin has been in continuous commu-
nication with Moscow through Tashkent, which has
become the headquarters of Bolshevist propaganda in
Central Asia under a certain M. Suritz. The results
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 253
were not late to appear. On May 6th the Bolshevist
official newspaper, Izvestia, published an interview with
the Hindoo professor, Baranatulla, who had just come
to Moscow at the head of the Afghan Mission. " I am
neither a Communist nor a Socialist," was Mr. Barana-
tulla's sincere avowal, " but my political programme
entails the expulsion of the British from Asia. I am
an implacable foe of the European capitalization of
Asia, the principal representatives of which are the
British. In this I approximate to the Communists,
and in this respect we are natural comrades. The
ideas of the Bolsheviks, whom we call the ' Intrakion,'
have already been absorbed by the masses of India,
and a small spark of active propaganda is enough to
set all Central Asia ablaze with revolution. ... In the
normal course of events it may be expected that this
summer will prove decisive in the liberation of India." 1
1 The precedents of the " renowned Indian Professor,"
Mayavlevi Mohammed Baranatulla, advertised by the Soviet
Press, are very interesting. As early as 1915 he was sent by
the Germans to Afghanistan in company with the Turkish
officer Mohammed Kazym Beg and the German officer Wagner.
They had their headquarters in the Punjab and Afghanistan,
and extended their propaganda far beyond the limits of these
countries, disposing of very large sums of money and utilizing
their network of conspirative connections. The result of this
propaganda appeared already in 1916, in the form of an uprising
in Turkestan. Beginning with 1917, these very " Afghans "
were furnishing arms to Kirghiz, Turkmen, and Young Sarts,
thus preparing a revolt against Russia. In the spring of 1918,
according to instructions from Berlin, the Soviet Government
arranged for a solemn reception of the representatives of the
Mohammedan population in India, proclaimed themselves
protectors of the Islam all over the world, and began spreading
appeals " to all toiling Moslems of Russia and the East." The
Soviet of Turkestan nominated the Turkish captain Kadem-
Beg commander-in-chief of the Soviet Front of the Western
Turkestan, and the " Indian Professor " Baranatulla and
Kadem-Beg signed the Soviet appeal " To all Moslems of Asia."
254 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
Two days later (May 8th) the Izvestia gave an account
of another interview with the Russian specialist on
Asiatic affairs, a professional young diplomatist who has
gone over to the Bolsheviks, Mr. Voznessensky, manager
of the Eastern section of the Commissariat for Foreign
Affairs. According to him, Mr. Baranatulla was not
yet an official representative of Afghanistan, but he was
the personal friend of the new Ameer, and his arrival
foreshadowed the coming official negotiations. " We
of course recognize the independence of Afghanistan,"
Mr. Voznessensky said, " and we will enter into diplo-
matic negotiations with Baranatulla as soon as we hear
officially from the Afghan Government. Afghanistan
is of primary importance for the propaganda in
Asia. Ethnographically, Afghanistan is closely con-
nected with India, and as an independent country,
united by a common religion, has an enormous influence
on the seventy millions of Mussulmans in India. Any
movement in Afghanistan has always found a lively
echo in India." Furthermore, the Soviet diplomatist
spoke of the German-Turkish plots in Afghanistan
during the war, and wound up by saying that now
Afghanistan cannot look for help either from Germany
or Turkey, and therefore Amanullah Khan is naturally
looking to (Bolshevist) Russia for assistance.
A few days after these interviews had been
published the Afghan troops were defeated at
Dakka (May i6th-i8th), and less than a month
after the opening of hostilities Amanullah was
asking Great Britain for peace. Already, at an
earlier date, he ordered his local governors at Jelala-
bad and elsewhere to discountenance any attempt
by Afghan subjects to interest themselves, directly or
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 255
indirectly, in the riotings in the Punjab. He has
forbidden the issue of passports to agitators and any
persons concerned in the Indian risings. But it did
not prevent the Afghan Government from entering into
negotiations with the Bolshevist Government in Moscow.
The People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs in the
beginning of August addressed a Note to the Afghan
Foreign Minister, stating that the Soviet Government,
having cancelled all secret treaties concluded for the
enslavement of small nationalities, thus returned to
Persia and other Eastern peoples all that was taken
from them by the Russian Tsars. " The successes of
our troops in the East," the wireless went on saying,
" hold out the promise that we shall soon join forces
with the Siberian revolution. Despite all difficulties,
we can safely say that victory will be ours, not only in
Russia, but on an international scale."
This has been written after the retreat of Kolchak,
when the hopes of the Bolsheviks ran high. But the
leading men knew already at that time that their days
were numbered, and that Bolshevism in Russia is
doomed to failure. That is why their schemes for the
conquest of Asia began to acquire another meaning
for them. In case of a final defeat in Europe and Russia
they decided to transfer the centre of their world's pro-
paganda to Asia. They thought for a time of China.
It was easy for them to extend their propaganda to
China through the intermediary of Chinese working men
in Russia. A special revolutionary organization had
been started for that purpose very early in Moscow.
Later on the Bolshevist organ in Petrograd, the Njrthern
Commune (Sievernaya Communa) published news that
" the number of Chinese proletarians is growing in
25C BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
Soviet Russia. According to the recent registration
made by the Asiatic Department of the Commissary for
Foreign Affairs, the number of Chinese at present
exceed half a million (?)." The paper asserted that
many of them were confirmed Bolsheviks, who were in
close contact with the Labour and Socialist organi-
zations in China. Bolshevist agents disposing of large
sums of money, the newspaper said, are to be found
on the frontiers, recruiting Chinese for service in
Soviet Russia.
What kind of Chinamen were thus recruited can be
seen from a witness by Mr. Djin-Yun-Huy, a special
envoy of the Chinese colony at Moscow to General
Denikin and to the representatives of the Allied Powers
at Odessa. Mr. Djin-Yun-Huy declares that the Chinese
recruits are mostly " Chunchuses " (Chinese bandits)
and the most ignorant elements of the Chinese popula-
tion. At the head of the Executive Committee, organized
and paid by the Bolsheviks, is a convict escaped from
hard labour. The Chinese serving in the Red Army,
Mr. Djin-Yun-Huy asserts, are conscripted and retained
by force. The Danish Red Cross tried to repatriate
the Chinese workmen, but the attempt failed owing to
the obstacles put by the Bolshevik authorities.
The Bolsheviks have also made an attempt with the
Koreans. The Bolshevist newspaper Krasny Nabat
(the Red Tocsin] recently published a proclamation
addressed to the revolutionary organizations of the
Korean people. The proclamation informs the Koreans
that a " Korean National Union " has been formed at
Moscow, " whose aim is to provoke a revolution in
Korea and to give back to this country its independence.'
The Bolsheviks promise that the Korean regiments
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 257
formed in Moscow will come to the aid of this revolution.
" The Korean workmen resident at Moscow have ad-
hered to the Third International." " At the time
when the Red Army and the Koreans will fight the
Japanese on the Urals, Korea must rise and communi-
cate with the Government of the working men and the
peasants. It is only in that way that we shall succeed,
having united our forces, to expel the Japanese from
Vladivostok and from Korea. The hour of liberation
is drawing nigh. Koreans, make the supreme effort."
One may be sure that this proclamation, whatever its
result, has reached its destination.
But the greatest hopes of the Bolsheviks, particu-
larly after Kolchak had stopped his retreat and " the
promise to join forces with the Siberian revolution "
proved unrealizable, were still based on India and
Afghanistan. With the obvious aim of preparing for
themselves a solid basis of retreat through Russian
Turkestan, they concentrated about 100,000 Red troops
in that region, while at the same time guarding the access
to Tashkent from Orenburg by the railway line. At the
moment of writing these lines (mid-October) 40,000
of these troops were defeated by General Annenkov
in Eastern Turkestan. WTiether the other 60,000
will surrender at Tashkent, whether the corridor to
Orenburg will be kept open long enough for the totter-
ing power of the Bolsheviks in Moscow to use that
passage, or it will be shut up by the Orenburg and Uralsk
Cossacks, thus cutting the only line of retreat, remains
to be seen. Meantime the negotiations with the
Afghan Government wound up with the despatch of an
Ambassador to Moscow. On October loth the Afghan
Embassy was met by a large deputation, and the
17
258 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
Director of the Mussulman Near East Department,
" comrade " Narimanov, greeted them in Turkish.
He said he " purposely used the Turkish language
in the Red Capital in order to prove that the
Workers' and Peasants' Government treats all
peoples and languages with sincere respect." Another
member of the deputation, " comrade " Sultan
Calico, who spoke in the name of the Revolu-
tionary Council of the Republic, said : " Your heroic
country is fighting for its emancipation from the
age-long oppressors of the East, British Imperialism.
We know that you need help and support, and that you
expect this support from Soviet Russia. In the name
... of the revolutionary organizations of the many
millions of the Mohammedan labouring masses of Soviet
Russia, I declare to you that Soviet Russia will give
you that assistance, as she herself is fighting against
international Imperialism." To which the Ambassa-
dor, Mohamed Vali Khan, answered : " We know
that the Mussulman peoples of Russia are now free,
and we strongly hope that, with the assistance of
Soviet Russia, we shall succeed in emancipating
Afghanistan and the rest of the East."
The measures for the Bolshevist " emancipation "
of the East are already being taken in close proximity
to Afghanistan. " News from Tashkent," The Times
states, " shows that the Bolshevists there, acting upon
instructions from Moscow, have instituted on a large
scale classes for instruction in Bolshevist propaganda,
for the purpose of training emissaries to go to India
and Afghanistan. These classes are conducted in the
Pushtu, Hindustani, and other Eastern languages,
and are publicly advertised in the Tashkent papers."
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 259
The same methods are thus being now used to
" bolshevize " the East as had proved efficient to
" bolshevize " Russia. Propaganda on the largest scale
by trained propagandists was and remains not only a
secondary feature of the Bolshevist domination, but the
chief aim and the most important application of their
temporary power, which justifies in their own eyes
their " dictatorship," as a stepping-stone to something
greater and more lasting to come.
So far, we cannot ascertain any direct influence of
the Bolshevist propaganda on the Egyptian unrest.
Apparently there is none. But taking it as a part of
the movement rife throughout the Mohammedan world,
we shall here find the same medium favourable for the
extreme Nationalist movement, and the same agents
active in spreading the movement as are known to us
in Turkey and in the Near East. The especially Egyp-
tian motive for unrest, the proclamation of the British
Protectorate on December 18, 1917, of course, counts
for very much in the March and April uprisings, as
well as the desire " to make the voice of Egypt heard
at the Peace Conference," steering for independence.
But there is hardly any doubt that some plan of using
the nationalistic catch- word of " Egypt for the Egyp-
tians," as well as the mistakes, acknowledged since,
of the British Administration, had been conceived in
advance, a long time before the actual trouble began.
We know already that in its origin this plan was
German. I do not know what were its further develop-
ments, but there are some features in the movement
(e.g. the sabotage on the railways on the most extensive
scale) which are known to us from revolutionary
attempts, both in Ireland and in India., I also find that
260 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
a communique from Cairo, dated April ist (The Times,
April 2ist), says that the chief agents of the outbreak
were the same as had undergone the initial German
influence. " Some of the most violent attacks have
been led by the students and the Azharites. It would
be interesting to know to what extent foreign, possibly
German, influence and money still prevail at Al Azhar
University, for it is well known that the Germans long
before the war intrigued deeply with the Bedouin and the
Azharites, the groundwork being done by the notorious
Baron von Oppenheim, and that the German plan
for disorganizing Egypt during the war included the
active participation, not only of the Bedouin, but also
of the Al Azhar, where they had many emissaries."
The same correspondent wrote on April igth (The Times,
April 22nd) : " The agitators in the provinces are, it is
true, some out-of-work lawyers and effendis, but the
main source of their inspiration is the clique of officials,
lawyers, students, and Azharites (connected with the
Al Azhar University) , who are directing the strike move-
ment in Cairo." But here the traces are getting lost,
and the author of the series of articles published by
The Times in September recognizes that " there
appears to be no serious evidence of any foreign
propaganda or any organization linking up the
movement with other countries."
Quite unexpectedly, we meet with the genuine Bol-
shevik propaganda at the other extremity of Africa,
Johannesburg and Capetown. Two Russians came to
Durban via Mesopotamia, with passports furnished
by the British military authorities on the strength
of professed pro-Ally sympathies. Nobody knew here
Mr. Lapinsky (an extremist " Menshevik " member
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 261
of the Kienthal Conference) and Mr. Sosnovik. Their
lectures, delivered in Russian before compatriot
colonists, did not at once disclose their political inten-
tions, but subsequent speeches in English revealed them
to be Bolshevik propagandists. Resolutions were passed
by the meetings arranged by them, protesting against
Allied efforts to strangle workers' revolutions in Russia,
Germany, Austria, and other countries. This was a
regular " hands-off-Soviet Republic " propaganda. Both
gentlemen were asked by the police to leave first
Johannesburg and then Capetown. A small crowd of
revolutionary Socialists gathered at the docks to see
them off (they sailed from Mosambique to Lisbon). A
meeting was held on the quay, and Mr. Lapinsky
definitely threw off the mask : he declared that the
Russian Bolsheviks were the advance guard of the
World Revolution, and confidently predicted that
he would return to Africa and meet his local admirers
in very different circumstances. On the occa-
sion of a previous strike in Johannesburg several
speakers at mass meetings frankly declared that the
movement was not a mere strike, but an attempt
at revolution. Finally, the Government decided to
introduce a Bill for alien registration empowering
the Government to deport any persons joining any
association for the subversion of the Constitution or
associating themselves with propaganda aiming * r at
the subversion of law and order. The Bill was mainly
directed against Bolshevik propaganda on the Rand. 1
A turbulent demonstration in Brisbane on March 23rd
disclosed to the world the existence of a nucleus for
1 See The Times, April 3rd, May 22nd ; Daily Telegraph, April
22nd ; correspondence from Capetown.
262 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
Bolshevist propaganda in Australia. A large crowd,
chiefly composed of Russians, went in procession through
the streets, rioting and overpowering the police. Red
flags and other Bolshevik emblems were displayed and
the " Internationale " sung. The mounted troopers
were violently attacked by Russians armed with long
poles and other weapons, who shouted : " This is the
start of the revolution." Finally they entrenched
themselves at the Russians' headquarters, where they
were attacked by the returned soldiers and dispersed.
The inquiry has revealed that there is a considerable
Russian element among the waterside workers of all
the States. According to a Times correspondent from
Sydney (April 3rd), a secret society was conducting
Bolshevist propaganda. The organization consisted
of small groups of members who went by assumed
names. They were proselytizing by means of unsigned,
typewritten literature, which urged the permeation of
labour leagues with revolutionary Socialism. Some
leaders, arrested after the demonstration of March 23rd,
made statements in court in defence of Bolshevism. A
certain Simonov even claimed officially the right to
represent the Soviet Government in Australia. He was
refused recognition. The March outbreak was easily
stifled, but already in May we see the results of the
Bolshevist propaganda among the working men. A
wave of industrial unrest threatened to submerge
Australia. There was a series of strikes in almost
every section of Labour owing to the increased cost of
food. The miners three times demanded increase of
wages. The Victorian Railways Union passed a re-
solution in favour of Russian Sovietism (The Times,
May 1 3th)
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 263
In America the ground for Bolshevism proved to be
much more favourable than either Africa or Australia.
This is chiefly due to two causes : the far greater number
of Russian immigrants and incomparably greater in-
dustrial development. The first motive prevailed in
Canada, the second in the United States.
Of course, America entered into the general scheme of
the Bolshevist propaganda. The proofs are ample, but
in order to quote first hand evidence, I may refer to a
conversation with Lenin by Mr. Albert Rhys Williams,
an American correspondent and " an authorized
messenger from Lenin and the Soviet Government,"
as the Socialist leaflet quoted styles him. 1 " I saw
Lenin the day I went away. At that particular time
the Americans were playing in very good there, and
America stood high with the Bolsheviks. They were
ready to make many concessions to Americans. So they
allowed me to collect a lot of literature to take to
America, and they also prepared a moving picture reel,
showing the creative and artistic side of the Socialist
Revolution, and they printed these in English ; they
spent hundreds of thousands of roubles on these reels
to show America. ... Of course, they were never
allowed to come over. Lenin knew it would happen.
He said : ' I am afraid they won't allow this literature
to get into America. It is pretty bad literature
really.' "
Lenin was right so far that in Canada severe measures
were taken against the spread of Bolshevist literature.
1 Questions and Answers about Russia, an Extract from a
Verbatim Report of a Conversation with A. R. W. reprinted from
The Liberator by the Worker's Socialist Federation, 400, Old Ford
Road, E. 3. Mr. Williams left Russia in autumn, 1918.
264 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
Some people, like William Watson or Harry Chesseman,
were sentenced to imprisonment for having seditious
literature in their possession as early as January
1919. The last sentence provoked a demonstration
in Toronto of 1,200 sympathizers, which proved that
the Bolshevist element was already strong enough in
that city. They were chiefly " aliens," and they used
every opportunity of speaking at the meetings to glorify
the results of Bolshevism in Russia, to attack the
Orders in Council which prohibited meetings of Social
Democrats and the circulation of seditious literature
during the war. They alleged that these were the signs
of their being " a great capitalist conspiracy to conceal
the true situation." This produced a very strong
feeling against aliens on the part of the war veterans
returning to Canada from the Front. They displayed
an equally resolute temper, and conflicts between the
soldiers and the foreign elements leading the extreme
group of the Labour opinion became an everyday
occurrence in Canada. The alien influence was particu-
larly strong in the West, owing to the composition of
the local population. When the war broke out there
were 25,000 Germans and Austrians in the Western
Provinces, besides many thousands of Swedes, Russians,
and other European nationalities. In Saskatchewan
60 per cent, of population are foreign-born and illiterate.
In the prairie Provinces there were 102,435 persons of
foreign birth over ten years of age who cannot speak
English. In the Winnipeg district there were 27,000
registered alien enemies. Many of the aliens belonged
to the Labour Unions. These foreign elements proved
to be a particularly docile element for the fomenters
of trouble. The chief leaders were also aliens having
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 265
come from Northern England and Scotland, of the same
extreme " pacifist " type known to us, and some Rus-
sians. The names of the " Red Five " of Canada are
R. T. Jones, of Winnipeg ; W. A. Pritchard, of Van-
couver ; Joseph Knight, of Edmonton ; V. R. Midgley,
of Vancouver ; and Joseph Maylor, of Cumberland.
Most of them had been opponents to conscription.
Warrants have been issued in June for the arrest, be-
sides the first two, of Sam Blumenberg and B. Drivatkin,
while the four aliens charged in July for sedition were
Blumenberg, Kharitonov, Almazov and Schoppeltrel.
The last five names are evidently Russian and Jewish.
Inspector Guthrie, of the Toronto detective force,
stated (end of May) that there were three Bolshevist
societies in the city which were working secretly to
encourage and maintain the industrial unrest. Of these
the membership was 90 per cent, foreign and 75 per cent.
Russian. They were careful not to appear on the strike
committees, but were busy sowing the seeds of revolu-
tion. There were, undoubtedly, similar organizations
at Vancouver, Victoria, and Winnipeg.
What were their aims ? It is shown by their actions.
As early as March 1919 the Bolshevist character of their
propaganda, disclosed by the decisions of the Western
Labour Conference at Calgary, consisting of the repre-
sentatives of all the Unions in Western Canada. The
Calgary Convention resolved to separate the Western
Unions from the American Federation of Labour and
inaugurate " a movement to consolidate all the labour
bodies into ' One Big Union.' ' The Convention sent
fraternal greetings to the Russian Soviet Government
and to the Spartacists in Germany. It demanded
the release of all political prisoners in Canada and the
266 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
immediate withdrawal of the Allied troops from Russia,
under the threat of a general strike. It protested against
the further deportation of alien enemies on the ground
of their being true to the cause of Labour. The Van-
couver Trades and Labour Council endorsed the same
decisions. A Red Book published at Winnipeg in Rus-
sian outlined the general policy of Bolshevist organi-
zations in the United States and Canada, and stated,
as the cardinal principle of the movement, the over-
throw of the " damnable trinity of Religion, Govern-
ment, and Capitalism." Henceforth a campaign of
propaganda was started for the introduction of the
Russian Soviet form of government, thousands of
copies of Lenin's addresses were freely circulated, and
Bolshevist doctrine was preached for months without
hindrance in the cities of the Canadian Pacific Coast.
On May I5th an open revolt was tried in the shape of
a general strike. In the first days of the strike at
Winnipeg, when its spokesmen were as yet bold and
arrogant, they stated their aims quite plainly. " Winni-
peg is now governed by a Soviet," the editor of the
Winnipeg Socialist wrote on May i6th ; " the seat of
the authority has been transferred from the City Hall
to the Labour Temple." The Secretary of the Winni-
peg Trades Council told the meeting of strikers that " a
bigger struggle is to come for the control of all the
resources of the country." Mr. Ivens, the editor of
the Socialist, was still more outspoken. On May igth
he stated that " in a short time there will be no need
to use the weapon of the strike : we shall not need to
strike when we own and control industry, and we
won't relinquish the fight until we do control." On
May 23rd the Labour News, the organ of the strikers,
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 267
said : " The fight is on. It overthrew the Governments
in Russia, Austria, and Germany. . . . Now it has Win-
nipeg in its grip. . . . We shall fight until we win."
The same psychology explains the attempt to extend
the strike movement over all Western Canada. In
Toronto the President and the Secretary of the District
Trades and Labour Council, who represented moderate
elements of Labour, resigned their membership at the
Strike Committee because a faction of the Committee
was attempting to make the Toronto strike a part of
a Dominion-wide strike, in furtherance of the " One
Big Union " plan. And on June i8th, Mr. Robert-
son, the Minister of Labour, issued a statement showing
that the aim of the " sympathetic " strikes was every-
where the same. " The information and evidence
amply warrant the conclusion," Mr. Robertson said,
" that a seditious conspiracy was contemplated by a
portion of the members of the Central Strike Committee,
who are believed to be revolutionary and dangerous in
tendencies. . . . Persistent and insidious propaganda and
misrepresentation were being spread abroad, especially
among the railway employees, with a view to extending
the strike and utterly dislocating transportation. . .
From additional evidence obtained, consisting of papers,
pamphlets, and documents gathered by the police, the
citizens . . . will . . . reach a conclusion as to the
depth and seriousness of the conspiracy which is going
on, not only in Winnipeg, but generally throughout
Western Canada." Mr. Robertson has also disclosed
the fact " that in correspondence addressed to R. T.
Russell, Secretary of the ' One Big Union,' the pro-
vincial executive of Manitoba acknowledges the receipt
of Bolshevist money." After the arrest of Mr. Russell,
268 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
Mr. Robertson announced that there was positive
proof as to the acceptance of large sums of money during
March-May from Chicago, to be devoted to the spread
of Bolshevism and the establishment of Soviet Rule in
the Dominion. $29,000 was to have been sent him on
June i8th by special messenger from the United States.
The Bolshevist propaganda had met with strong
opposition on the part of returning soldiers, who formed
unions of Great War Veterans, and " the Grand Army
of Canada," and insisted on the deportation of aliens.
When the strikes began there were also organized the
" Committees of Citizens," which prevented the strikes
from becoming general, while the Veterans proposed
to the Government their services as constables. The
Government took a firm attitude towards the demands
of the strikers. At once the tone of the leaders of the
movement, as well as that of their Press, has changed,
but the strike movement did not stop, and the Govern-
ment proceeded to drastic measures. All processions
and congregations of crowds in the streets were for-
bidden by the Mayor of Winnipeg. On June 6th the
House of Commons and the Senate, within an hour's
time, passed the Bill empowering the Government
to deport persons advocating the overthrow of con-
stituted authority who are not British subjects by birth
in Canada, or by naturalization in Canada. The Bill
applied to British immigrants who were not naturalized
and who were believed to be largely responsible for the
Western Labour conditions. The Special Committee
was considering amendments to the criminal code,
declaring unlawful all associations purposing to bring
about governmental, industrial, or economic changes
by force. It also declared unlawful all attempts to
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 269
circulate or import literature advocating a resort to
force. Mid- June the Winnipeg strike leaders were
imprisoned, and further arrests contemplated at Van-
couver, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Moose Jaw,
Regina, and Brandon. Henceforth, much less was
heard of the industrial unrest in Canada.
The situation in the United States is much more
complicated. Happily, we receive here a valuable sup-
port of an inquiry into the " Bolshevik propaganda "
by the Committee of the Judiciary of the United States
Senate. Hearings before a Sub-committee of this Com-
mittee make out a stately volume of 1,265 pages, and
include, along with testimonies of American witnesses
having visited Russia, some of them pro-Bolsheviks,
like Mr. John Reed, his wife, Louise Bryant, Mr. Albert
Rhys Williams, the notorious Mr. Raymond Robbins,
so much responsible for America's policy toward Bol-
shevism, also the testimonies of professional men
in the Intelligence Service, Mr. Tunney and Mr. Steven-
son. All these testimonies confirm what we might
guess from other sources. In the United States, as
well as in other Allied countries, but in a far larger
measure than elsewhere, the Bolshevist activities, just
as the Irish, the Indian, the Canadian, are closely in-
terwoven with the previous anti-Ally and pro-German
propaganda. Organizing strikes in the factories of
munitions was a part of the scheme for destruction,
worked out and brought into action by the Austrian
Consul and the German military and naval attaches.
Pacifist organizations such as the Emergency Peace
Federation and the American Neutral Conference
Committee, which existed before the declarationffof
/*
war by the United States, were also working parallel
270 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
with pro-German and Bolshevist lines. The Pacifist
movement became more radical since that time, as may
be seen from the activity of the People's Council of
America for Democracy and Peace, founded on
August 7, 1917, to take the place of the two former
organizations. The advent of this organization was
hailed with enthusiasm by the German propagandists,
and wide publicity was given to it in the German organs,
such as Issues and Events, The Fatherland, etc. Among
the officers and Executive Committee are E. V. Debs
and Irving St. John Tucker, having served sentences
for violation of the Espionage Act. Mr. Stevenson
officially stated before the Senate Sub-committee that
" there are a large number of persons connected with
this organization that sympathize with the Bolshevik
and Soviet form of government." " The outgrowth
of this People's Council was the Liberty Defence Union,
in which there is a curious mixture of intelligentsia and
Anarchists, Radical Socialists, and I.W.W. Among the
members of this organization, Kate Richards O'Hare,
now serving a sentence for violation of the Espionage
Act, was an associate of Lenin and Rosa Luxembourg
in the International Socialist Bureau, the People's
House, in Brussels, before the war, in 1914." Another
delegate of the same Bureau was Mr. Victor Berger.
Both Berger and Kate O'Hare were leading members
of the " Commission on War and Militarism " at the
St. Louis Socialist Convention of April 7-17, 1917,
and they brought in the " Majority " Report of this
Committee which was adopted by the Convention.
This meant the victory of the revolutionary Socialism,
which caused the withdrawal from the party of some
of its " evolutionary " members, such as Charles Edward
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 271
Russell and John Spargo. The resolution adopted by
the St. Louis Convention runs as follows :
... Be it resolved that the Socialist Party, being the
political arm of the working class in its fight for industrial free-
dom, and its power resting mainly in its clear-cut, specific
declaration of political and economic principles, rather than
in the number of votes passed for party candidates, and the
purpose of the Socialist movement being the emancipation of
the working class from economic servitude, rather than the
election to office of candidates, it is therefore declared to be
the sense of that Convention that all State organizations facing
the solution of this question be urged to remember that to
fuse and to compromise is to be swallowed up and utterly
destroyed ; that they be urged to maintain the revolutionary
position of the Socialist Party and maintain in the utmost
possible vigour the propaganda of Socialism, unadulterated by
association of office seekers, to the end that the solidarity of
the working class, the principles of international Socialism may
continue to lay the foundations for the social revolution.
The social revolution, not political office, is the end and aim
of the Socialist Party. No compromise, no political trading.
Senator Wolcott, in the Senate Sub-committee,
rather naively asked Mr. Stevenson : " Taking the great
body of the American people, were they not too level-
headed to be influenced by this outfit ? " Mr. Steven-
son's answer was : " We must remember, Senator,
that the really American people are not present in very
large numbers in our industrial centres. They have
made a very great impression on the foreign element."
Here we come to the specifically Bolshevist propaganda
among the American aliens by the Russian emigrees,
such as Mr. Leon Trotsky. To show at once just how
large their number was, I shall quote the following
excerpt from the testimony of Mr. Thomas J. Tunney,
the Inspector of Police, before the Senate Sub-
committee :
272 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
Senator Nelson : How many of those Anarchists and those
Radicals, I.W.W.'s and Anarchists have you in New York ?
Mr. Tunney : I believe there are 12,000 or 15,000 in New
York. I mean those who sympathize with the real Radical
movement. I should say we probably have 50,000 who more
or less sympathize with them. 1
Senator Nelson : They are really foreigners, are they not ?
Mr. Tunney : Mostly foreigners.
Senator Nelson : From what part of the Old Country ?
Mr. Tunney : The three principal nationalities that they
represent are Russians, Spaniards I am talking about the
Anarchist group and the Italians, mixed up with some Germans.
There are a few Radical Irishmen and Englishmen and a few
Americans.
So far as Russians (Russian Jews) are concerned,
special publications were issued to make Bolshevist
propaganda among them. Leon Trotsky was particu-
larly connected with the newspaper Novy Mir (the
New World) ; the other editors were Weinstein and
Brailovsky. According to Mr. Tunney's testimony,
Trotsky " was very often delivering lectures both to
Russians and Germans on anarchy and Radical
Socialism." He also " travelled somewhat through the
United States " on lecturing tours. Mr. Tunney quotes
some of these meetings ; one of them is particularly
interesting to us. Mr. Trotsky was leaving for Russia,
after the success of the Russian March Revolution.
On the night of March 26th, before he sailed from
New York, Mr. Trotsky addressed, " in both German
and Russian," a large meeting of over 1,000 " German
Socialists and Russians " at the Harlem River Casino.
He said : "I am going back to Russia to overthrow
the Provisional Government and stop the war with
Germany and allow no interference from any outside
Governments. I want you people here to organize
1 The testimony was given on January 21, 1919.
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 278
and keep on organizing until you are able to over-
throw this darned rotten capitalistic Government of
this country." " He did leave the next morning,
with about thirty-five or forty of his associates,"
Mr. Tunney added ; " and from that date (March 27,
1917) until June ist about 450 Russians left, with
various leaders, and they also went back to roast the
American Commission that was over there at that
time."
The fact is that there were by far more than 450
Russian (Jewish) refugees who left America for Russia
after the beginning of the Russian Revolution, to
play a very important part in the development of
Bolshevism in Russia. This fact explains many things
which happened since. To make clear the part of
American propagandists in Russia I may quote some
testimonies of the American eye-witnesses given before
the Senate Sub-committee. Here is the testimony of
Mr. R. B. Dennis, a teacher in North-Western Uni-
versity, who had worked in Russia from November
1917 to September 1918, first for the American
Y.M.C.A., and since April in the Consular Service.
He had been all over Russia, in Rostov, Kharkoff,
Moscow, Nijni Novgorod, and Petrograd. This is what
he says :
... A thing that interested me very much was to discover
a number of men in positions of power, Commissaries in the
cities here and there in Russia, who had lived in America . . .
in the industrial centres. I met a number of them, and I sat
around and listened to attacks upon America that I would not
take from any man in this country.
Senator Wolcott : In the main, of what nationality were they ?
Mr. Dennis : Russian Hebrews. The men that I met there
had lived in America, according to their stories, anywhere from
three to twelve years . . .
18
274 BOLSHEVISM : AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
Senator Overman : Are these people over there, who have
lived in the United States, taking part in the Bolshevist move-
ment ?
Mr. Dennis : This is the thing that, in my opinion, backed
up by the opinions of other Americans, Englishmen, and French-
men with whom I talked when we got into Moscow, and were
waiting there three weeks before we got out, and comparing
notes, seems more interesting than the fact that they are there
in positions of power ; that these men were the most bitter
and implacable men in Russia on the programme of the exter-
mination, if necessary, of the bourgeois class. I never met a
more implacable individual than a man that they called the
War Commissary in Nijni-Novgorod ; he has been in this
country a number of years. Our general opinion in Moscow
was, that anywhere from 20 to 25 per cent, of Commissaries in
Soviet Russia had lived in America.
Senator Overman : Do you know any of them that have been
naturalized in this country ?
Mr. Dennis : No ... I asked two, I recall, and they said
they had not. . . . One man, when I bade him good-bye, said :
" Good-bye, I will see you in about ten years. We are coming
over to America to pull off this same show."
The same impressions are given by a man
of very different set of opinions, Mr. Raymond
Robins, the head of the American Red Cross
Mission in Russia, who functioned as unofficial
representative of the American Ambassador, David
K. Francis, with the Soviet Government. Says
Mr. Robins :
There was another fact of importance. There returned to
Russia, immediately at the beginning of the Revolution, great
numbers of Russians from America, immigrants, both Gentile
and Jew. . . . They represented genuine honest men who had met
America at America's worst . . . then came back to Russia and
spoke . . . (they) interpreted America as the capitalist's heaven
and the workman's hell. That was perfectly false, but it carried
influence, because those men spoke the language, and they came
back with that interpretation ; and man after man, when I
was fighting against the rise of Bolshevism, said : " We do not
care for your democracy ; we do not want political democracy ;
we are going to have a real economic Revolution. We did not
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 275
depose our Tsar to get twenty Tsars ; we are not going to have
a Tsar of oil, a Tsar of coal, a Tsar of the railroads." . . . To
this group (of honest men) were added the agitators who were
the paid agents of Germany or the doctrinaire Socialists of the
destructive groups, such as the I.W.W.
It is now known that it was Colonel Raymond Robins
who, through his private secretary, one of these
Russian Jews from America, Mr. Alexander Gumberg,
got possession of the documents serving to reveal
the German pecuniary connections with the Bolshe-
viks, both before and after the Russian Revolution.
Mr. Gumberg 's antecedents are particularly interesting.
To my knowledge (I have the following from a Russian
witness closely connected with Mr. Gumberg), Mr.
Gumberg had lived in New York for about fifteen
years, and he contributed to the New World (Trotsky's
newspaper). His brother, known under the name of
the Commissary Zorin, lived in the same room with
Trotsky during his stay in New York, a year before
the Revolution of 1917. This also explains the good
relations between Mr. Robins and the Bolshevik
authorities. Mr. Francis, in his testimony, wondered
what Colonel Robins meant by saying : "I have the
goods on my person," while leaving Russia via Vladi-
vostok. My informant helped me to solve the riddle :
it was platinum bought from the Bolsheviks through
the intermediary of Alexander Gumberg. Intimate
relations of Colonel Robins with that group of the
Bolsheviks are also proven by the fact that Radek,
Trotsky, and his lady secretary, saw the Americans
off in Moscow, and Radek said he hoped that the
" materials " given to them, and filling up quite a
railway carriage, would reach their destination, and
276 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
that " soon they will accomplish the American revo-
lution."
Of course, Colonel Robins' present construction of
the aims of his activity with the Bolsheviks is quite
different. He agreed he knew all about the World
Revolution, but he intended to divert it into the
German channels. The following conversation at the
Sub-committee is characteristic of Robins' official
view :
Senator King : I want to call your attention that as early
as the 22nd of December 1917 the Bolshevik Government
stated that it was necessary " for us to maintain diplomatic
relations, not only with foreign Governments through couriers,
but also with the socialistic and the revolutionary parties which
are endeavouring to overthrow the existing Governments."
Do you not regard that, Colonel Robins, as a challenge by them
to all existing Governments and an expression of a purpose upon
their part to get into communication with revolutionary organi-
zations everywhere for the purpose of destroying all existing
Governments ?
Mr. Robins : Thoroughly so, and from the beginning I was
in full understanding of that purpose . . . but, believing that
as an attack on Germany, which was a danger very near, while
others were most remote.
Senator King : That is to say, you understood they were
going to light the fires of revolution everywhere ?
Mr. Robins : Wherever they could.
Senator King : And after it has burned out in Europe we
might extinguish it in our own country ?
Mr. Robins : After it had burned in Germany, and it had
been sufficient to fight the Central Powers, it would not go
further.
Senator King : But you knew it was the purpose to destroy
our Government as soon as they could ?
Mr. Robins : Everybody there knew it.
Colonel Robins has brought it so far as to persuade
the Ambassador Francis " to work together to that
end," and was clever enough to receive from the
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 277
Ambassador the following telegraphic acknowledgment
(May 3, 1918) :
I can understand the difficulty of the position of Lenin and
Trotsky and their colleagues, and know they are compelled to
profess when organizing an army, or preparing any kind of
resistance, that such is the promotion of the world-wide social
revolution ; at the same time you, I know, have always felt that
it was necessary to encourage such professions in order to organize
any resistance whatever to the Central Empires, and were con-
fident that such an organization would never be used against
existing Governments, including our own. But it is difficult to
induce our Government to accept that view. . . . You are also
aware of my action in bringing about the aid of the Military
Missions towards organizing an army (of the Soviet) . . . they
failed because the Home Government refused to endorse the pro-
gramme.
Mr. Robins also urged recognition of the Bolshevist
Government by the United States ; but here Mr.
Francis disagreed with him, although, on January 2,
1918, on the condition that " the Russian armies now
under command of the People's Commissaries commence
and seriously conduct hostilities against the forces of
Germany and her Allies," he finally consented " to
recommend to his Government the formal recognition
of the de facto Government of the People's Commis-
saries." If we are to believe Colonel Robins, England
was also involved in that scheme through the inter-
mediary of Colonel William B. Thompson. Says Mr.
Robins : " He (Colonel Thompson) left largely at
my earnest request that he should go out by way of
England, and that he should make an effort to get a
correct understanding of the thing in England. At
that time Sir George Buchanan, the British Ambas-
sador, and General Knox, the chief of the Military
Mission, were absolutely unwilling to do anything like
278 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
co-operating (as the Ambassador of the United States
did) to try to meet the needs of the situation ; and
Colonel Thompson did go out and saw Lloyd George,
and the result was that the British High Commissioner
recalled the British Ambassador, Sir G. Buchanan, and
the chief of the British Military Mission, General
Knox." Mr. Robins also asserted that he had secured
the help of the notorious Captain Sadoul (later on
sentenced to capital punishment for treason), who
" has agreed with the position that I held and has
made his statement in France." Mr. Robins' reve-
lations throw much light on the further developments
of the Allied policy toward Bolshevism. But at that
time the encouragement of Bolshevism did not go
beyond the well-known telegram of President Wilson
to the All-Russian Congress of the Soviets, or rather,
on Ambassador Francis' suggestion, " to the Russian
people " through the Congress. The result of that step
was described by the Petrograd's dictator, Mr.
Zinoviev as a " slap in the face to the President."
The Congress sent their answer to the address of
" labouring and exploited masses in the United States,"
and " used the occasion of the message from President
Wilson ... to express firm conviction that the happy
time is near when the labouring masses in all bourgeois
countries will throw off the capitalist yoke and estab-
lish a socialistic state of society." As at the same
time the Congress, contrary to Mr. Francis' expecta-
tions, ratified the Brest-Litovsk Peace, all hopes of
raising armed resistance of the Bolsheviks against the
Central Empires has vanished, and attempts at the
" recognition " and " encouragement " of Mr. Lenin's
Government were for a time dropped.
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 279
What has not succeeded with the Governments, as
a result of " diplomatic relations through couriers,"
might still succeed in the proper sphere of the usual
Bolshevist action, the propaganda through " the revo-
lutionary parties which are endeavouring to overthrow
the existing Governments." They were partly the
same people who had tried to influence diplomacy,
who now redoubled their exertions to bring the
Bolshevist propaganda back from Russia to America.
Alexander Gumberg, Robins' secretary, performed in
Moscow the functions of the chief censor of telegrams
despatched by foreign journalists to America, England,
and France. No telegram passed without being con-
trolled by Gumberg. After his return to America,
Gumberg was appointed president and chief manager
of the Russian Telegraphic Agency (Rosta) in New
York. On December 23, 1917, a decree appropriated
2,000,000 roubles for the needs of the revolutionary
international movement and for the purpose of carry-
ing on the work of the Soviet Governments in other
countries besides Russia. The bureau of international
revolutionary propaganda was attached to the Com-
missary for Foreign Affairs, and another Russo-
American Jew, Mr. Reinstein, was appointed as its
head, under Radek. Two American journalists were
employed in that office, Mr. John Reed, a resident of
Oregon and a war correspondent since 1915, and Mr.
Albert Rhys Williams, a former Congregational minister,
who left the Church and devoted himself to literary
work for the Revolution. This is how both describe
their work for the Bolsheviks in their evidence before
the Sub-committee. Mr. Reed : " The Press Bureau
edited the papers. They published one paper in
280 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
German, which changed its name from Die Fakel to
Der Volkfriede, and we got a circulation of half a
million a day of that ; and then we got out half a million
of a Hungarian paper, and a quarter of a million of
a Bohemian paper, and a quarter of a million of a
Rumanian paper, and a quarter of a million of a
Turkish paper ; and then we translated all the decrees,
etc." Mr. Williams gives the following description :
" They published, with those 2,000,000 roubles, three
pamphlets in French and English ... of those
2,000,000 roubles, 99 per cent. I have worked it
out to a figure were spent upon literature in the
languages of the German and Austro-Hungarian Em-
pires. . . . The propaganda was concentrated against
Germany and Austro-Hungary. They have tried to
get some into France and England. . . . There has
never been any particular attempt to get propaganda
into America."
This was obviously the method of self-defence on
the part of Mr. Williams, as well as Mr. Reed and
Colonel Robins, to emphasize that they were using
propaganda chiefly against " the German Imperialists."
But Mr. Williams could not conceal from the Sub-
committee that they also were ready to fight " every
imperialistic design amongst the Allies that would
throttle the Russian peasants and workers, and would
turn their natural love for America into hate." To
that effect Mr. Williams avowed to have " presented
reports to certain members of the State Department,
to Justice Brandeis, to Colonel House, and through
him to the President." But he also mentioned that
" in May 1918 there sprang up the idea of a Russian
Bureau of Public Information in America." The
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 281
Government did not permit the Bureau to open,
but both Mr. Williams and Mr. Reed, the un-
recognized representatives of the Russian Soviet
in America, have found other ways to carry the
Bolshevist propaganda into the United States.
They were helped by Louise Bryant, the wife of
Mr. Reed.
The results of the activity of these and other American
propagandists soon became patent. Mr. Stevenson
stated before the Sub-committee, as early as the end
of January 1919, that " the Russian Bolsheviks have
flooded America with propaganda literature. ... A
large number of documents are printed in Russian,
Yiddish, Finnish, and the various other languages which
are spoken by large groups of our foreign immigrants
in this country ; and besides all this, we find that
Socialist papers, almost without exception, encourage
and support this movement. . . . Immediately after
the signing of the Armistice there was a tremendous
outcrop of this propaganda. The number of meetings
doubled." The movement is " growing rather rapidly
if we can gauge it by the amount of literature that is
distributed and the number of meetings held. ... I
conceive it to be the gravest menace to the country
to-day."
Asked what remedy he could suggest to complete
his diagnosis, Mr. Stevenson said : " In the first place,
the foreign agitators should be deported ; the bars
should be put to exclude seditious literature from
the country ; American citizens that advocate revo-
lution should be punished under a law drawn for
that purpose." Then Mr. Stevenson recommended
" a counter-propaganda campaign, a campaign of
282 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
education." He wound up his testimony by the state-
ment " that so long as the Bolsheviks control and
dominate the millions of Europe, so long that is
going to be a constant menace and encourage-
ment to the radical and dissatisfied elements in this
country."
The rapid growth of Bolshevism in the United
States was made easy by the co-operation of previous
currents of extremist movement which now made one
with Bolshevism. The traditional form of American
extremism was anarchism. Leading Anarchists, like
Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, made friends
with Trotsky while in New York. The two above-
mentioned leaders were later arrested and tried ; but
the movement was spreading, and it is no mere chance
that the first manifestation of the Bolshevist violence
took the form of a " bomb conspiracy " on the tradi-
tional Anarchist lines. On May ist a dozen or more
bombs addressed to men in all parts of the country
were deposited for mailing in a New York City post-
office. Fortunately, they were discovered in time,
and the only victim was a coloured servant girl, both
of whose hands were blown off when she opened the
package addressed to her master. A month later, on
June 2nd, another bomb demonstration succeeded so
far as to draw serious attention to the perpetrators
of the crime. Explosions took place simultaneously in
nine great cities of the United States : at Washington,
Cleveland, Newtonville, New York, Boston, Paterson,
Pittsburg, Philadelphia, Roxburg. Some of the pro-
clamations found among the wreckage in Washington
were by far more Bolshevist than Anarchist. Here is
an extract from one of them :
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 283
The powers that be made no secret of their will to stop here
in America the world-wide spread of revolution. The powers
that be must reckon that they will have to expect the fight
they have provoked. A time has come when the solution of
social questions can be delayed no longer. Class war is on,
and cannot cease but with a complete victory for the inter-
national proletariat.
Among the persons arrested there was a certain John
Johnson, the president of the Pittsburg branch of
the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.). The
police authorities alleged that he was the directing
genius of the bomb plots. He was said to have come
to Pittsburg at the instance of " No. 1001," which
is the pass number of William Haywood, the President
of the National Union of the I.W.W. This brings us
to another element which helped Bolshevism to its
growth in America. The Industrial Union of the
I.W.W. was launched at a Congress at Chicago on
June 27, 1905. Anarchists entered the Union ; the
other constituent parts of it were Parliamentary
Socialists of both types (revolutionary and reformist),
Industrial Unionists (revolutionary) , and Labour Union-
ists (evolutionary, nicknamed " fakir " in the I.W.W.
slang). In its very first declaration (" preamble " to
the constitution) the Union proclaimed the principle
of class war. " The working class and the employing
class have nothing in common. . . . Between these
two classes a struggle must go on until (see p. 284).
. . . The Trade Unions aid the employing class to
mislead the workers into the belief that the working
class have interests in common with their employers."
However, some mitigating expressions have been
added to the " preamble " by the " labour fakirs."
At the following congresses a struggle was fought out
284 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
between the Evolutionists and the revolutionary leaders,
such as W. G. Trautmann and John R. Jordan. It
finished with a rupture between the " politicians "
and the " Industrial Unionists " at the Fourth Congress
of the I.W.W. It was then that the " preamble " was
amended in a more decisive sense, e.g. the phrase
following the word " until " was changed to another :
The Original Text. The Amendment.
until all the toilers come to- until the workers of the world,
gether on the political, as well organized as a class, take pos-
as on the industrial field, and session of the earth and the
take and hold that which they machinery of production and
produce by their labour through abolish the wage system,
an economic organization of the
working class, without affili-
ation with any political party.
Thus the development from evolutionary Socialism to
a form of revolutionary Syndicalism was brought to
a finish. To emphasize the basic principle and the
tactics of the renewed doctrine the following comment
was made on the " preamble," in a leaflet on The
I.W.W., its History, Structure and Methods, by
Vincent St. John :
It is the historic mission of the working class to do away
with capitalism. The army of production must be organized,
not only for the every-day struggle with the capitalists, but
also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been
overthrown. By organizing industrially we are forming the
structure of the new society within the shell of the old. . . .
In its basic principle the I.W.W. calls forth that spirit of revolt
and resistance that is so necessary a part of the equipment of
any organization of the workers in their struggle for economic
independence. In a word, its basic principle makes the I.W.W.
a fighting organization. . . . The tactics used are determined
solely by the power of the organization to make good in their
use. The question of " right " and " wrong " does not concern
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 285
us. No terms made with an employer are final. All peace so
long as the wage system lasts is but an armed truce. . . . Failing
to force concession from the employers by the strike, work is
resumed and " sabotage " is used. ... In short, the I.W.W.
advocates the use of militant " direct action " tactics to the
full extent of our power to make good.
Of course, it was now easy for the I.W.W. to endorse
the practically identical doctrine and tactics of Bolshe-
vism. In a pamphlet of Harrison George (The Red
Dawn) this identity is formally stated. " The wave
of bourgeois ideology," the author says, " that poured
into Russia now is overturned, and, with terrific
force, its proletarian crest sweeps outwards over Europe.
The war between national groups of the bourgeoisie is
changing, under pressure of the Russian workers, into
a war between classes. . . . The world proletariat
shall crush its enemy, without and within ; break its
rusty chains and establish real freedom Industrial
Freedom."
This is the conventional internationalist doctrine.
It made out the substance of the rapidly growing
Bolshevist propaganda amongst the American working
class, chiefly that layer of alien extraction amongst
them in the United States. The results are easily
guessed. Here, as everywhere, we meet with a series
of strikes. At the beginning, these are mostly un-
authorized strikes, organized by small irresponsible
groups, independently and sometimes against the
formal decisions of larger Labour organizations. At
a later stage, the recognized Labour leaders, even so
moderate as Mr. Gompers, find themselves obliged to
follow the general trend of Labour opinion. They
make concessions to it and, just as is the case in
Britain, proclaim strikes of their own in order to be
286 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
able to control the movement. At that stage a process
of differentiation begins between the extremist and
more moderate elements in the Labour movement.
The Government feels obliged and encouraged to take
drastic measures against the extremist lead. The final
result here, as well as in Great Britain, is far from being
reached, but, as a result of repression, the extremist
movement for a time subsides.
So far the trend of events runs parallel to what we
know in Great Britain and in France. But the special
feature for America is that, in the first place, the
Labour movement is here by far not so much developed
as in Europe, while the capitalist side is much more
strongly organized and much more influential both
in the legislature and in the administration. In the
second place, as a result of a weaker combativeness
of the native working man which is not necessarily
explained by his lesser consciousness of his class interest
the aggressive forms of Labour movement are chiefly
developing amidst the aliens. That is why at the
beginning the whole extremist movement is repre-
sented by aliens. The climax is reached when national
Labour organizations join in it. But, then, the process
of differentiation of moderate from extremist element
is very much hastened because it finds a strong support
in the national movement against the alien danger.
It is not difficult to determine the exact moment
when the general trend of the Labour unrest from
extremist and alien becomes national and chiefly
industrial. It coincides with the moment of failure
of the Industrial Conference convened at Washington
on October 6th by President Wilson in order to let
the representatives of both sides, employers and
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 287
employees, discuss plans for a better understanding.
The Conference was preceded by the first strike on
a national scale, that of steel workers, declared on
September 2ist. It was followed by another, by far
more dangerous, nation-wide strike of miners, declared
on November i, 1919. The steel strike is described
by The Times correspondent from New York as "an
attempt by the extreme elements in the Labour move-
ment to take advantage of what would otherwise be
a sound case for the men, and to push it to what
amounts to an agitation in the direction of Syndicalism."
The strike has been initially ignored by the great
majority of American-born workmen. The Syndicalist
propaganda has had the greatest effect in Cleveland,
Chicago, Pittsburg, and other districts where large
numbers of Germans, Austrians, Russian Jews, etc.,
are employed. The American Federation of Labour
with Mr. Gompers kept silent.
The case was quite different with the miners' strike,
which took place after the Industrial Conference had
broken up, owing to the uncompromising attitude taken
by the employers. It was then that the idea of a
" triple alliance " for America (industrial unions, rail-
ways unions, and farmers) made its appearance. Mr.
Gompers, who was known to be very hostile to ex-
tremism, but who felt now personally weakened by
his impotence at the Industrial Conference, was obliged
to make concessions. He declared now that he was
willing " to have full responsibility for anything that
might happen " in the coming struggle for the miners.
The coal strike was announced a few days before
November ist. It was intended to be a strike on
purely industrial issues, as differentiated from the
288 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
" ill-advised " steel strike. The organized American
labour had this time to take sides. At a convention
in Cleveland the demands of the strikers were formu-
lated as follows : " a 60 per cent, increase in wages,
a six-hour day, a five-day week, weekly pay days,
time and a half for overtime, double time for holiday
work, and the abolition of the automatic penalties
for the failure to carry out Labour contracts." The
owners refused to yield, and the men refused the
arbitration. The first ones were too confident in their
strong position and wished to bring things to an
immediate issue rather than postpone it. On the
other hand, the American Trade Unionism wished to
keep the concessions that the war urgency brought
them, and if possible to enlarge them. Even such
moderate and sane leaders as Mr. Lewis, the President
of the miners' unions, found the strike inevitable, for
the reason that if the miners did not strike officially,
the collieries might, none the less, be crippled by un-
authorized strikes much more difficult to deal with,
and the whole movement will be taken up and led
by the Extremists.
The Government, backed by the public opinion and
the owners, took at once a firm stand. President
Wilson from his sick-bed launched a " solemn request "
to the miners not to strike, and in case the strike occurs
warned them that they will be guilty of a " grave legal
and moral wrong," and that the law will be enforced.
Federal troops in large numbers were moved to the
mining districts ; law offices were directed to take
legal action against the organizers, and an injunction
forbidding the coal strike was granted in the Federal
Court at Indianopolis on October 3ist. Further
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 289
injunctions were to be sought in the various States
against local leaders.
Nevertheless, on November ist 753,000 coal miners
stopped work. The injunction proved effective only
so far as no strike orders were issued by the official
leaders and no benefit funds disbursed. No arbitra-
tion was possible because the Government looked at
the strike as being illegal under the terms of war-time
legislation and refused to negotiate with men who
were disobeying the law. A week later, when visible
signs of curtailment in the expenditure of coal
appeared, as a result of the strikes, the Government
decided to resort to drastic measures against the
extremist and the alien element all over the country.
On November 8th a widespread raid on extremist
organizations was begun by the agents of the Depart-
ment of Justice. Not less than 2,500 " Radicals "
were arrested. Not more than 5 per cent, of the
persons arrested were American citizens. The pro-
minent feature of the whole scheme was a raid on the
headquarters of the " Federations of Unions of Russian
Workers in the United States " in New York City.
The number of members of the New York branch of
this " Federation " was said to be 7,000. According
to State Senator Clayton R. Lusk's testimony, on
September i, 1919, the Communist party was founded in
Chicago, as a coalition of all the Extremists, and within
two months seventy-five meeting places and business
offices of the party were opened in New York alone,
and vast propaganda machinery has been established
over all the United States. Twenty-five tons of
Bolshevist literature were found in possession of these
seventy-five meeting places, including Lenin's appeal to
19
290 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
the workers in America. Funds for carrying on all this
propaganda, according to Senator Lusk, who presided
over a Legislative Committee investigating Bolshevism,
were " furnished mainly by large contributors abroad
and in this country." Half a hundred revolutionary
newspapers, printed in foreign languages and having
a circulation, largely through free distribution, of
3,000,000 copies in the great industrial centres,
were subsidized by " Parlour Bolsheviks " otherwise
wealthy amateur revolutionists living in New York.
This is confirmed by Mr. Reed's testimony before the
Senate Sub-committee. " You know," he said, " there
are some wealthy women in New York who have
nothing to do with their money except something like
that."
Some of the documents seized in the raids on the
Union of Russian Workers printed in Russian language
were made public by the authorities. Amongst
them there is a Manifesto outlining the plan of a Bol-
shevist revolution, as follows :
WHAT SHOULD BE OUR MEANS OF CARRYING ON THE FIGHT.
. . . We must conscientiously hasten the elementary move-
ment of the struggle of the working class. We must convert
small strikes into general ones, and convert the latter into an
armed revolt of the labouring masses against capital and the
State. At the time of this revolt we must at the first favour-
able opportunity proceed to the immediate seizure of all means
of production and all articles of consumption, and name the
working classes masters in fact of all general wealth. At the
same time we must mercilessly destroy all remains of govern-
mental authority and class domination by liberating prisoners,
demolishing prisons and police offices, and destroying all legal
papers pertaining to private ownership of property, all field
fences and boundaries, and burn all certificates of indebtedness.
In a word, we must take care that everything is wiped out off
the earth that is a reminder of the right of private ownership
of property. . . .
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 291
The membership books of the Union of Russian
Workers, which had sixty branches in the States,
contained the following preamble :
Because the struggle between the classes will only end when
the toiling masses, organized as a class, understand their true
interests, and make themselves masters of all the world's riches
by means of a violent social revolution, for the attainment
of these aims we consider of final importance the necessary
building up of a wide revolutionary organization of toilers
which, while conducting a direct struggle with all institutions
of capitalist government, must train the working classes to
take initiative and independent action, and then educate in
it the consciousness of the absolute necessity of a general strike
of social revolution.
There is not the slightest doubt as to the intense
resentment roused among American citizens by this
alien extremist propaganda. A Bill was introduced
to the Congress for spending 5,000,000 dollars this
year, and twice as much henceforth annually, for the
" Americanization of the alien." The Bill was sup-
ported officially by figures showing that some
3,000,000 out of 30,000,000 of alien blood cannot
speak English, and more than 5,000,000 cannot
read it. Within a three to nine years' period after
their arrival only 8 per cent, of Russians were stated
to have become citizens. " How can we," the New
York Tribune asked, " ever hope for a united nation
amidst such conditions ? What can we expect except
that extreme leaders, appealing to these alien groups
in their own tongue, can easily win them to stupid
.and suicidal attacks upon that which they do not
understand ? "
However, the question of alien propaganda could
not cover the other issue, that between capital and
292 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
labour. As already mentioned, the coal strike was
backed by American Trade Unionism, and on Novem-
ber Qth the Executive of the American Federation of
Labour formally endorsed it, promised its support to
the miners, and appealed for support of all " workers
and citizens of our country." The leaders of the
miners, menaced by the legal prosecution, it is true,
took to another line of action. On November nth,
after a meeting lasting seventeen hours, they passed the
following resolution : " In obedience to the mandate of
the United States Court, the order of October I5th,
directing the cessation of the operations in the
bituminous coalfields, is withdrawn and cancelled."
" We are American," Mr. Lewis said, alluding
obviously to alien revolutionists ; "we cannot fight
our Government." Nevertheless, this resolution,
taken reluctantly and " under protest," was never
enacted. On the contrary, the relations between
the Government and the organized Labour have now
become much more acute. And the influence of
the Extremists was likely to increase even among
the native working men with the weakening of
their own leaders' influence, owing to the Govern-
ment's uncompromising attitude having forced these
leaders to unconditional surrender.
A new Conference between the union leaders and
the employers, summoned at Washington on November
I7th, so far from improving the situation, brought it
to a complete deadlock. The Secretary of Labour,
Mr. W. B. Wilson, having produced the figures showing
that the cost of living in mining districts since Decem-
ber 1917 had increased 79'8 per cent., suggested a
wage increase of 31 '6 per cent, over the existing scale
OUT FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION 293
(instead of 60 per cent, demanded by the strikers),
coupled with a seven-hour day and a half-holiday on
Saturday. The owners declared Mr. Wilson's figures
and proposals " partisan and impossible," and they
offered a 20 per cent, advance in wages. Then the
Government interfered by proposing to the miners an
advance of 14 per cent, in wages. Of course, Mr.
Lewis flatly rejected this proposal, while the owners
reluctantly favoured it, although they complained that
with even 14 per cent, increase they would be unable
to continue working certain mines with thin seams.
Upon that the negotiations were broken off. When
these lines were being written the Government had
to choose between the extension of drastic measures
or further concessions to Labour. Whatever line they
choose, they will hardly put an end to the acute stage
of the class movement. It is interesting to notice the
birth of a new " National " Labour Party in Chicago,
with the State Socialism as a platform and with very
mixed membership, which, though, is united in a common
desire to oppose both the I.W.W. and the " Communist
Labour Party." The new party thus avoids the
charges of being alien and revolutionary, while it
remains mildly socialistic and political. But even in
that way the National Socialist party can hardly
secure the adhesion of American Trade Unionism, with
its still more moderate programme. In its turn, Trade
Unionism cannot count upon the support of the farmers,
who greatly outnumber the working men, and who
only recently replied to the appeal of Mr. Gompers
that they intend to stand with the bourgeoisie and the
property owners rather than with Labour in any class
struggle that may be forthcoming. This is also why,
294 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
in spite of all successes of the extremist movement
amidst the working class, there is no real fear of the
" Red " peril in America. The easy cure from Bolshe-
vism is generally found in adequate legislation and in
energetic and intelligent way of handling the law.
It remains to be seen whether that attitude of public
opinion is not too much optimistic.
CONCLUSION
MR. RAYMOND ROBINS, speaking before the American
Senate Sub-committee, told them one of his conver-
sations with Lenin, which might serve as a motto to
this book. " Nicolas Lenin, sitting in the Kremlin,
said to me," Mr. Robins rather solemnly declared,
" the Russian Revolution will probably fail. We have
not developed far enough in the capitalist stage, we are
too primitive to realize the socialistic state. But we
will keep the flame of the Revolution alive in Russia
until it breaks in Europe. It will break first in Bul-
garia, and the Bulgarians will cease fighting. It will
break next in Austria, and the Austrians will cease
fighting. When you hear that the Workmen's, Soldiers',
Peasants' Soviet is in command in Berlin, remember
that the little man in the Kremlin told you that a
proletarian World Revolution was born."
I began writing this book when the Bolshevist hopes
for the World Revolution ran high, and when they still
expected the Berlin Soviet to appear very soon, as a
result of their military and propagandist offensive on
the Western frontier of Russia. When I am finishing
the book things have very much changed. Out of the
two prophecies of Mr. Lenin one is not materialized :
there is no revolution and no Soviet in Berlin. On
the contrary, the other prophecy, about the probable
205
296 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
failure of the Russian Revolution, is now being proved
true by everything we learn from within Bolshevist
Russia, whatever be the result of the military pressure
from outside. As the Bolshevist monomaniacs, in
spite of all, still stick to their idea of the World Revo-
lution, they are now busy preparing for another stage
of it, which is rather defensive than offensive. It is
the retreat to the East, no matter which, Turkestan
or China. These countries are still less " developed
in the capitalistic stage " and still more " primitive."
But, obviously, " primitiveness " is the necessary
condition for the success, at any rate temporary, of
a " Communist " revolution and of a tyrannical rule
by the minority of a minority.
Mr. Lenin, of course, is too clever not to know that
this kind of revolution cannot possibly evolve into
anything like a " socialist state."
But what about this alternative, for the sake of
which all these experiments in anima vili are being
tried : the breaking out of the flame of the " Com-
munist " Revolution in Europe and in the New World ?
While I was writing on the international danger of
Bolshevism, this danger was gradually decreasing.
Does that mean that all danger is now over ?
The abstract of facts which are here collected is
enough to show that this is far from being the case.
To be sure, the abnormal conditions created by the
World War and the world's exhaustion, by the
economic and financial crisis, will be passing away,
rather sooner than later. With their disappearance,
momentary causes which were breeding unrest and
favouring turbulent and anti-social elements of the
community will also cease to work. No " proletarian
CONCLUSION 297
dictatorship " is likely to develop anywhere under
these changing conditions. But to bring about this
satisfactory result, a mere " wait-and-see " policy is
not sufficient. If even Bolshevism is really passing
away as' it may one has got to take stock of the
rather rich inheritance of the Bolshevist ideas and
catchwords spread all over the world by the pro-
Bolshevist propaganda, and to oppose to it new
educational activities or legal action.
The " Hands Off Russia " slogan is the most typical
part of this inheritance. Shall one leave " the fire to
burn out " by itself in that very " hearth " of the
world's conflagration, in Bolshevist Russia ? The
advice seems to find sympathetic reception in this
country. Everybody agrees that without pacified
Russia there can be no peace in the world and no
League of Nations. But in flagrant contradiction
with this obvious truth, very prominent people go on
saying that the best method of bringing peace to Russia
consists in letting her " stew in her own juice." Mr.
Lloyd George even succeeded in connecting that laissez
faire policy with the national interest of Great Britain
as Beaconsfield understood it.
A future historian will be much amused on this
occasion to verify the common saying that " the wish
is the father of thought." Every kind of argument
was used to prove what war-wearied people desired
to believe, and nobody seemed to mind the otherwise
obvious inconsistency and fallacy of argumentation.
It is not my purpose here to discuss it. But this book
may help some future analyst to inquire into the origin
of common error. It is important to state that this
origin, without people always knowing it, is the
298 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
Bolshevist propaganda. There exists no other way but
this to trace common blunders in framing the " Russian
policy " to its origin, and even to understand at all
the real meaning of these obvious blunders. The only
possible sense of the " non-intervention " policy was-
and still is that which pro-Bolshevist extremists of all
countries imply in it, namely, to save " the Russian
(Communist) Revolution and the Soviet Republics."
Only such people may claim to be consistent in urging
that policy, as realize that this and. nothing else is its
real aim and its possible result.
However weakened the international danger of
Bolshevism may be, the practical interest of this book
will still consist in stating, in an objective way, the
component elements of the pro-Bolshevist political-
psychology. Bolshevism may or may not be stifled
for the moment. It will hardly disappear at all. To
recollect and to keep present in mind its origin and its-
development means to be able to recognize it at its
single symptoms, and thus to prevent its resurrection
EPILOGUE
A NEW chapter seems to be opening in the history of
revolutionary Internationalism. When I was finish-
ing the book, in November 1919, the prospects of
Bolshevism were rather gloomy. Moscow, the centre
and the source of the world propaganda, was within
the reach of Denikin's armies. The United States has
decided to break with the policy of toleration towards
the criminal propaganda of open revolt against the
State and its institutions. Attempts at open Bolshevist
demonstrations on an international scale had failed,
and the very intractability of revolutionary Extremism
seemed to alienate the sympathies of labouring masses.
General Elections in France had shown that these
masses did not lack the sense of patriotism and solidarity
roused by the great exertion of the War.
Since then a change has come owing to two principal
events : One is the military defeat of the centres of
Russian national resistance to Bolshevism ; another is
the triumph of the " Hands-off-Russia " policy, preached
by the Bolshevist supporters and now accepted by the
Allied Governments, especially by that in this country.
Both events are closely interwoven. The result of both
now is that a new wave of Bolshevism is rising and
sweeping over Europe. The visible sign of the growing
tide is the progress in Europe of the Third International,
the Bolshevist chief engine of propaganda.
Says Mr. Lincoln Eyre, a special correspondent of the
300 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
New York World, in his recent article (see the Daily News,
February 26th) : " In the seven weeks I spent in Moscow
three (Communist) delegates arrived from the United
States, and literally scores from Germany, Hungary,
Austria, Switzerland, Scandinavia, Rumania, Bulgaria,
Italy, China, Japan, Corea, India, Afghanistan and the
countries of Asia Minor. The only important states
from which few Communistic envoys come are Great
Britain and France. Practically all these missionaries
are obliged to travel illegally, i.e. with false passports
or without any. They slip across the fighting front that
encircles the Soviet Republic in most astonishing ways,
risking death from all forms of hardship to reach Moscow.
The one-time seat of Moscovy's Emperors has become
to Communists of the world over what Mecca is to the
Mohammedan pilgrims."
Nowadays, thanks to Mr. Lloyd George's policy
adopted by the Allies, communication with the Com-
munist Mecca has become much more comfortable.
The " ring of fire " or " barbed wire " no longer exists.
Newspapers are full of correspondents' articles from Red
Russia, singing the praises of Lenin, Trotsky and Zino-
viev. The Bolshevist prison has taught even Mr.
Keeling to appreciate the power of Communism, and
if we are to believe Mr. Lansbury he has made amends.
Before this book is published swarms of propagandists
from Bolshevist Russia, disguised as negotiators, co-
operators or traders, are likely to invade Europe.
No wonder European Bolshevists also have grown
self-confident. They wear no disguise in preaching their
Bible. The Third International has held its new con-
ference in Amsterdam, in the beginning of February.
It was decided that " a revolutionary action of the
EPILOGUE 301
workers, to force international capital to make peace
with Russia, is a necessary condition to save Soviet
Russia, and to hasten the World Revolution. To
further this action, the Communists of all countries
must utilize every strike movement, every mass demon-
stration (i) to place this aspect of their responsibility
to the Russian Revolution before the workers, (2) to
convince them that their interests are identical with
those of Soviet Russia, (3) to develop a strong feeling
of revolutionary solidarity and revolutionary action all
the world over." The resolution finishes with a confi-
dent forecast and a corresponding directive. " When
the Revolution again arises in Germany or in any other
country, the forces of international proletariat (especi-
ally the transport workers in Britain, America, France,
Italy, Scandinavia, Holland and Switzerland) must be
prepared for a general strike the moment the capitalist
Powers attempt intervention. The bureau is to take
immediate steps to prevent the workers from being
again forestalled by the Governments." (See The
Workers' Dreadnought, February 28th.)
In order to achieve this the Third International is at
pains to keep clear from every compromise with the
" reformists " or even with the " centrists." What
are the latter doing ? Well, as usual they are busy
negotiating with the Extremists to preserve the " unity "
of the Party. The difference is only that Longuet is
now playing as regards Lenin the part which Renaudel
had been playing in regard to Longuet. Thus in the
process of drifting to the Left a new stage is being
reached, which is very vividly reflected in the discussions
of the national congress in Strassburg at the end of
February. The resolution to leave the Second Inter-
302 BOLSHEVISM: AN INTERNATIONAL DANGER
national, which does " no more correspond to the
revolutionary situation," was passed by an overwhelm-
ing majority of 4,330 votes against 337. It is true that
the proposal directly to adhere to the Third International
of Moscow was also defeated (by 2,999 against a strong
minority of 1,621), but it was chiefly because in any
case Longuet's new "centre " could not count on the
unconditional acceptance by the Third International,
for which it is already too moderate. Longuet's majority
still wants to preserve the contact with " the existing
organizations of the working masses, such as syndicates
and co-operatives," while the Extremist " advance
guard " of the proletariat wishes to detach themselves
from the masses in order to develop the full speed of
revolutionary action. The Strassburg resolutions might
denounce every compromise with bourgeois power.
They might proclaim themselves for pure class war,
approve of all " fundamental resolutions " of the Third
International of Moscow and admit the form of " Soviets "
as " one of the forms suitable to exercise the proletarian
power." Nothing short of an unconditional surrender
to the Extremists is acceptable to the partisans of the
Third International. It is doubtful whether they will
condescend to discuss a larger form of organization with
the more advanced elements of the Second International;
they want to keep clear of them. From this point of
view the attitude of the German Independents is very
symptomatic. In December 1919, they decided to
negotiate with revolutionary elements in Europe in
order to present themselves as a bloc at the conference
of the Third International. But if the bloc cannot be
formed, they have decided in any case to join the Third
International, like the Italian, Serbian, Norwegian,
EPILOGUE 303
Rumanian Socialist parties and fractions of parties in
Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Bulgaria, Hungary, United
States and Great Britain.
I cannot dwell on the numerous symptoms of a new
Extremist offensive in all these countries. 1 The vote
of the Special Trade Union Congress in London on March
nth has just shown that this offensive does not always
succeed and that the working masses are still against
the Extremists. " Direct action " was rejected by a
huge majority of 3,732,000 against 1,015,000. But
here, as in Strassburg, even in defeat Extremism has
advanced another step. I am still optimistic, so far as
the decreasing influence of post-war phenomena is con-
cerned. But, on the other hand, one cannot ignore the
increasing influence of the Russian Soviet Republic on
the World Propaganda of Bolshevism. Hitherto one has
had to confess that Lenin's disciples are the only politi-
cians who know what they want and who act in accord-
ance. They meet with half-hearted and disunited opposi-
tion, voluntarily ignorant of their far-reaching aims,
unmindful of the future, and concerned exclusively with
small gains in the everyday struggle, with the preserva-
tion of their own momentary power or popularity, or
even with realizing the doubtful and illusory benefits
which the Soviet power is clever enough to dangle before
the " greedy capitalists."
1 The last and the most important one, as this book goes to press
(March igth), is an unsuccessful attempt at a military counter-revolu-
tion in Berlin. Far from preventing the Bolshevist " danger from
the East," its result was to set free the forces of Spartacism.
Roughly speaking, the German Kornilov and the German Kerensky
both repeated the mistakes of their Russian predecessors ; the former
by trying a desperate stroke to give Germany a strong Government,
the latter by refusing to come to terms with patriotic rebels. In
Germany, as well as in Russia, the result is the same : the door open
to the common enemy Bolshevism.
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