III. THE SOVIETS UNDER THE BOLSHEVIKI 20 IV. THE UNDEMOCRATIC SOVIET STATE 38 V. THE PEASANTS AND THE LAND 67 VI. THE BOLSHEVIKI AND THE PEASANTS 90 VII. THE RED TERROR 140 VIII. INDUSTRY UNDER SOVIET CONTROL 192 IX. THE NATIONALIZATION OF INDUSTRY--I 240 X. THE NATIONALIZATION OF INDUSTRY--II 280 XI. FREEDOM OF PRESS AND ASSEMBLY 309 XII. “THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT” 352 XIII. STATE COMMUNISM AND LABOR CONSCRIPTION 369 XIV. LET THE VERDICT BE RENDERED 410 DOCUMENTS 453 INDEX 473 PREFACE Like the immortal Topsy, this book may be said to have “just growed.” In it I have simply assembled in something like an orderly arrangement a vast amount of carefully investigated evidence concerning the Bolshevist system and its workings--evidence which, in my judgment, must compel every honest believer in freedom and democracy to condemn Bolshevism as a vicious and dangerous form of reaction, subversive of every form of progress and every agency of civilization and enlightenment. I do not discuss theories in this book, except in a very incidental way. In two earlier volumes my views upon the theories of Bolshevism have been set forth, clearly and with emphasis. On its theoretical side, despite the labored pretentiousness of Lenin and his interminable “Theses,” so suggestive of medieval theology, Bolshevism is the sorriest medley of antiquated philosophical rubbish and fantastic speculation to command attention among civilized peoples since Millerism stirred so many of the American people to a mental process they mistook for and miscalled thinking. No one who is capable of honest and straight-forward thinking upon political and economic questions can read the books of such Bolshevist writers as Lenin, Trotsky, and Bucharin, and the numerous proclamations, manifestoes, and decrees issued by the Soviet Government and the Communist Party, and retain any respect for the Bolsheviki as thinkers. Neither can any one who is capable of understanding the essential difference between freedom and despotism read even those official decrees, programs, and legal codes which they themselves have caused to be published and doubt that the régime of the Bolsheviki in Russia is despotic in the extreme. The cretinous-minded admirers and defenders of Bolshevism, whether they call themselves Liberals, Radicals, or Socialists--dishonoring thereby words of great and honorable antecedents--“bawl for freedom in their senseless mood” and, at the same time, give their hearts’ homage to a monstrous and arrogant tyranny.