The Russians (those who had been born in the “home of the revolution”) thought they should play the predominant role. They argued: Wasn’t Lenin a Russian? Didn’t the revolution start in Russia? Hence they, the Russian-born, obviously had an “insight” denied all the others. They should be the leaders. On one point, however, all agreed: obedience to Soviet Russia. Every communist considered Lenin a god and the Russian Bolsheviks models of perfection. These were the men who had made the October Revolution. They were the teachers; the Americans, the learners. Soviet Russia, at this time, was assuming an authority over communists in this nation that it has never relinquished. This control was to become ever more pronounced, inescapable, and dangerous. The history of the Communist Party in the United States since 1919 is characterized by two main trends: (1) the development of a disciplined Party structure or, in the words of William Z. Foster, “the building of a Leninist Party of a new type,” and (2) the complete and unquestioning subservience of the Party to Soviet Russia. Every word and deed, hope and aspiration, of American communists over the years has promoted these two objectives. The conventions of the CLP and CP were over, but “civil war” continued. Communists roamed the country, denouncing each other. Just a few weeks after the Chicago conventions Charles Ruthenberg, Executive Secretary of the Communist Party (the “American Lenin,” who died in 1927 and whose ashes lie buried in the Kremlin), mounted a platform in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He began his address. The Communist Party was the heir of the revolutionary spirit and its rival, the Communist Labor Party, was wrong. The CLP, he charged, was “centrist,” a vile word to communists, just like the Party in Germany where the communists had failed. But _his_ group, the Communist Party, was without sin. It represented the thoughts of the victorious Bolshevik Party of Soviet Russia. When would the revolution come? Ruthenberg did not know; tomorrow or next week. But he was optimistic. The communists, he said, had better hurry to learn how to run the government. Communist Labor Party orators replied in kind. They denounced their opponents. They alone held the sacred communist truth. Splinter factions, and they were many, raised their voices. They attacked everybody but themselves. American communism in these early days was bedlam. There were other complications. Just a few weeks after the founding conventions, in the fall of 1919, the federal government and local authorities initiated prosecutive action against the communists. As a consequence the communist movement went underground. Comrades met in secret hide-outs, maintained underground headquarters, and sent messages by couriers. Hidden printing presses poured out propaganda.