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
What a remarkable anticipation of the Bolshevist methods of 1917-18 is thus
outlined in this letter, written sixty-seven years before the Bolshevik
_coup d'etat!_ How literally Lenine, Trotzky and Co. have followed Herr von
Miquel! They have desperately tried to "give an anti-bourgeois tone to the
Revolution," denouncing as bourgeois reactionaries the men and women whose
labors and sacrifices have made the Russian Socialist movement. They have
destroyed "the essential conditions" of bourgeois and of any other than the
most primitive production. They have set themselves in serried ranks in
opposition to "the plan of calling a Constitutional Assembly." They have
suppressed not only the organizations of the "lower and middle class," but
also those of a great part of the working class, thus going beyond Miquel.
Finally, to replace what they lack in bulk, they have resorted to "partial
terrorism and local anarchy."
And it is in the name of revolutionary progress, of ultra-radicalism, that
we are called upon to revert to the tactics of desperation born of the
discouraging conditions of nearly seventy years ago. A new philosophy has
taken possession of the easily possessed minds of Greenwich Village
philosophers and parlor revolutionists--a new philosophy of progress,
according to which revolutionary progress consists in the unraveling by
feverish fingers of the fabric woven through years of sacrifice; in
abandoning high levels attained for the lower levels from which the
struggles of the past raised us; in harking back to the thoughts and the
tactics of men who shouted their despairing, defiant cries into the gloom
of the blackest period of the nineteenth century!
Universal, secret, equal, and direct suffrage was a fact in Russia, the
first great achievement of the Revolution. Upon that foundation, and upon
no other, it was possible to build an enduring, comprehensive social
democracy. Against that foundation the Bolsheviki hurled their destructive
power, creating a discriminating class suffrage, disfranchising a great
part of the Russian people--not merely the bourgeoisie, but a considerable
part of the working class itself. Chapter XIII of Article 4 of the
Constitution of the "Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic" sets
forth the qualifications for voting, as follows:
THE RIGHT TO VOTE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
64. The right to vote and to be elected to the Soviets is enjoyed
by the following citizens, irrespective of religion, nationality,
domicile, etc., of the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet
Republic, of both sexes, who shall have completed their eighteenth
year by the day of election:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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