Dictatorship vs. Democracy (Terrorism and Communism): a reply to Karl Kantsky — Kant — John Shaqi
Dictatorship vs. Democracy (Terrorism and Communism): a reply to Karl Kantsky
Kant · en
Going along the path of shallow Liberal analogies, which do not reckon
with the class nature of the State, Abramovich might (and in the past
the Mensheviks did more than once) identify the Red and the White
Armies. Both here and there went on mobilizations, principally of the
peasant masses. Both here and there the element of compulsion has its
place. Both here and there there were not a few officers who had
passed through one and the same school of Tsarism. The same rifles,
the same cartridges in both camps. Where is the difference? There is a
difference, gentlemen, and it is defined by a fundamental test: who is
in power? The working class or the landlord class, Pharaohs or
peasants, White Guards or the Petrograd proletariat? There is a
difference, and evidence on the subject is furnished by the fate of
Yudenich, Kolchak, and Denikin. Our peasants were mobilized by the
workers; in Kolchak's camp, by the White Guard officer class. Our army
has pulled itself together, and has grown strong; the White Army has
fallen asunder in dust. Yes, there is a difference between the Soviet
regime and the regime of the Pharaohs. And it is not in vain that the
Petrograd proletarians began their revolution by shooting the Pharaohs
on the steeples of Petrograd.[10]
[10] This was the name given to the imperial police, whom
the Minister for Home Affairs, Protopopoff, distributed at
the end of February, 1917, over the roofs of houses and in
the belfries.