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
_Izvestya_ published, on July 25th, a Bolshevist military proclamation
addressed to the inhabitants of Jaroslav concerning the insurrection which
originally arose from the suppression of the Soviet and other popular
assemblages:
The General Staff notifies to the population of Jaroslav that all
those who desire to live are invited to abandon the town in the
course of twenty-four hours and to meet near the America Bridge.
Those who remain will be treated as insurgents, _and no quarter
will be given to any one_. Heavy artillery fire and gas-bombs will
be used against them. _All those who remain will perish In the
ruins of the town with the insurrectionists, the traitors, and the
enemies of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolution._
Next day, July 26th, _Izvestya_ published the information that "after
minute questionings and full inquiry" a special commission appointed to
inquire into the events relating to the insurrection at Jaroslav had listed
350 persons as having "taken an active part in the insurrection and had
relations with the Czecho-Slovaks," and that by order of the commissioners
the whole band of 350 had been shot!
It is needless to multiply the illustrations of brutal oppression--of men
and women arrested and imprisoned for no other crime than that of engaging
in propaganda in favor of government by universal suffrage; of newspapers
confiscated and suppressed; of meetings banned and Soviets dissolved
because the members' "state of mind" did not please the Bolsheviki. Maxim
Gorky declared in his _Novya Zhizn_ that there had been "ten thousand
lynchings." Upon what authority Gorky--who was inclined to sympathize with
the Bolsheviki, and who even accepted office under them--based that
statement is not known. Probably it is an exaggeration. One thing, however,
is quite certain, namely, that a reign of terror surpassing the worst days
of the old regime was inflicted upon unhappy Russia by the Bolsheviki. At
the very beginning of the Bolshevik regime Trotzky laughed to scorn all the
protests against violence, threatening that resort would be had to the
guillotine. Speaking to the opponents of the Bolshevik policy in the
Petrograd Soviet, he said:
"You are perturbed by the mild terror we are applying against our class
enemies, but know that not later than a month hence this terror will take a
more terrible form on the model of the terror of the great revolutionaries
of France. Not a fortress, but the guillotine will be for our enemies."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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