“It is with a feeling of deep satisfaction that the Russian Trades Union Council notices that the mighty pressure of the British Revolutionary Movement has at last made the Government of Lloyd George give up the police methods (as the refusal of passports) so degrading to the British proletariat.”
Was it, I wonder, the “mighty pressure of the British Revolutionary Movement” which accomplished this? Or was it due to the Prime Minister’s desire to begin the movement for happier relations with Russia? Take another phrase:
“I am deeply convinced that the visit of our British comrades is a promising symbol of the great moral upheaval in that country.”
Knowing as I did the ideas about the British Labour Movement they have in mind in Russia, I felt it incumbent upon me for the sake of the Russians themselves, to disabuse them of the notion that there is any evidence worthy of the name to show that the British workers are within appreciable distance of using Communist methods of violence for what, in some respects, is a oneness of ultimate ideal; but that history, tradition, temperament, training and the great fact of our comparative freedom and prosperity all precluded the hope on their part of entering together upon the last decisive fight for world revolution.
From the speech of Losowsky, also a Trade Union leader, I have selected the following phrases to show the aim of the Bolshevik leaders:
“The Labour movement of Russia stands determinedly and definitely for the Social Revolution and the Dictatorship of the Social Revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat.”
“The working class has taken the power into its own hands and with fire and sword annihilates all who seek to turn Russian history backward.”
“No compromise. Merciless war on the bourgeoisie to the victorious end.”
The terrible danger of this inflammatory talk lies in the fact that the deeds of the Communists in power march with their words, and as every person who ventures to disagree in the slightest particular with the principles of the Party is regarded as a traitor, he comes under the suspicion of the Authorities and goes about daily in fear of being denounced and punished as a counter-revolutionary.
But for many of these bitter men, much excuse may be made when the facts of their lives are known. Many of them have been the greatest sufferers from the tyranny of the Czardom. Many of them have had long terms of imprisonment or exile, have suffered from the knout or the bayonet, have been sentenced to death and escaped, or have lost health and happiness in Siberian wilds. Six years in solitary confinement does not tend to sweeten a man’s outlook on life. Fourteen years in the fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul, with the daily terror of being taken out of his cell and shot, does not make for sweetness and light. Outrage and torture of women very naturally hardens them and forms into a thin cruel line many of the lips made to press tender kisses on the foreheads of little children. Very few of the Communist leaders of Russia there are who have not had to endure one or all of these hideous experiences. That they should be infected, unconsciously to themselves, by the virus of cruelty is not to be wondered at. And the greater part of the blame for all that has happened and is happening to the opponents of unadulterated Communism must be laid upon the shoulders of those who, by promoting wars, civil and foreign, have made their task of government impossibly hard.