Bolshevism: The Enemy of Political and Industrial DemocracySpargo, John
History
Bolshevism: The Enemy of Political and Industrial Democracy
Spargo, John
Communism -- Soviet Union; Soviet Union -- History -- Revolution, 1917-1921
The press is a most dangerous weapon in the hands of our enemies.
We will tear it from them, we will reduce it to impotence. It is
the moment for us to prepare battle. We will be inflexible in our
defense of the rights of the exploited. The struggle will be
decisive. We are going to smite the journals with fines, to shut
them up, to arrest the editors, and hold them as hostages.[30]
Is it any wonder that Paul Axelrod, who was one of the representatives of
Russia on the International Socialist Bureau prior to the outbreak of the
war, has been forced to declare that the Bolsheviki have "introduced into
Russia a system worse than Czarism, suppressing the Constituent Assembly
and the liberty of the press"?[31] Or that the beloved veteran of the
Russian Revolution, Nicholas Tchaykovsky, should lament that "the
Bolshevik usurpation is the continuation of the government by which Czarism
held the country in an iron grip"?[32]
III
Lenine, Trotzky, Zinoviev, and other Bolshevik leaders early found
themselves so much at variance with the accepted Socialist position that
they decided to change their party name. They had been Social Democrats, a
part of the Social Democratic party of Russia. Now ever since Bronterre
O'Brien first used the terms "Social Democrat" and "Social Democracy," in
1839, their meaning has been pretty well established. A Social Democrat is
one who aims to base government and industry upon democracy. Certainly,
this cannot be said to be an accurate description of the position of men
who believe in the rule of a nation of one hundred and eighty millions by a
small party of two hundred thousand or less--or even by an entire class
representing not more than six per cent. of the population--and Lenine and
his friends, recognizing the fact, decided to change the name of their
group to the _Communist party_, by which name they are now known in Russia.
Lenine frankly admits that it would be a mistake to speak of this party as
a party of democracy. He says:
The word "democracy" cannot be scientifically applied to the
Communist party. Since March, 1917, the word democracy is simply a
shackle fastened upon the revolutionary nation and preventing it
from establishing boldly, freely, and regardless of all obstacles
a new form of power; the Council of Workmen's, Soldiers' and
Peasants' Deputies, harbinger of the abolition of every form of
authority.[33]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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