BOLSHEVIK METHODS.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 63, 14 March 1919, Page 8

BOLSHEVIK METHODS.

THE LE-INHE AIM. EXTINCTION OF THE MIDDLE CLASSES. (From Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON". January 15. Dr. David Soskice, a gentleman with a somewhat more intimate knowledge with Russia than most of those who hate of late been trying to "educate' the British public in the domestic affairs of that unhappy country, contributes to the "Observer" one of the most interesting accounts of llolslievism and its methods that has yet appeared in this country. He thus describes the village "eoiniiiitt-ees ot poverty" through which Lenin succeeded in laying hands on the peasantshidden stores of grain, ami which he speaks of as "the most powerful and hideous instruments ever invented in history." "Armed bands coming from the cities were unable to discover the ..rain cleverly hidden in the ground, above which fre-li corn was sometimes sown, or the cattle driven to the forest at the approach ot the peasants' enemy. Mm nothing could he hidden from the rich peasants' neighbour, the poor peasant. Lenin organised the poorest members ot every village into committees, under whose control he placed the property and life of their richer neighbours. Thus, in every village a committee ot spies was established, which became n local organ of the Government, nnd disclosed the hidden reserves to agents sent from the Central < loverniuent. Central depots of grain and other eat ables were -organised in the great cities, and commerce was nationalised. Even the 'sackers'-soldiers and small merchants, who, at first, were allowed to bring a -nick of grain weighing not more than 001b from the country to sell in the towns —were declared enemies ot the nation and shot when caught. A similar fate awaited those peasants who refused to \ it-Id up their reserves to the State. Thus, with the help of terror and the Committees of the Poor. Lenin has succeeded during tlie Inst few months in obtaining enormous quantities of grain and other eatables and concentrating it in his central depots."

Similar committees, we are told, have been established in every block of flats in the big towns. There their chief function is to prevent the wealthier tenants from selling furniture and other personal belongings. ln this way, tlie

"bourgeoisie" has been deprived of its last resource, and brought up sharp against the dilemma; starvation or acquiescence in Bolshevism. THK RED TERMOR. The most valuable part of Dr. Soskiie's contribution is, however, a quotation from Lenin's newspaper. "Pravda," of September 11 last, in which the theory of the "Red Terror winch prevails in Bolshevik Kiwsia is set forth, thus:—

"Krom the dictatorship of the proletariat over the bourgeoisie we have passed to Red Terror destroying of the bourgeoisie, as a clans, so speedily tnat the question of terror \\a< discussed at the meetings only a week after the uis.ussiou of the question of dictatorship. The t>l>j.ct of proletarian terror is the destruction of the active centres of the bourgeoisie; even more than that, tho destruction of the bourgeoisie as a clu--*-. Hut it would be quite a mistake to believe that for that piirpo*-e the whole "t the bourgeoisie need be physically destroyed. First of all, the higher and middle bourgeoisie do not act us an armed enemy-, the big bosses, the bankers, capitalist*., and _o on. are arming others but do not fight themselves. In most eases they are not even dangerous as the organisers of insurrectioni*, because their profession i_ trade and not guerilla warfare. They are dangerous as leaders £>f national economy, as men who possess tlie money and the comforts of life, and who can buy everything. Their organisations are dangerous as centres around which the reai organisers and members gather.

"These latter, the employees a*i I agent.- of the bourgeoisie, are muc.'i more dangerous. They are the educated, men of higher and -fiddle rank, the salaried, the officers, the village ex ploitcls. the priests, etc. In most .Uses they are considered 'Socialists.' only they delay tho introduction ol" Socialism to future centuries. These strata of the population present the real fighting danger. But to destroy them all would mean to destroy the trained workers, who are needful to every social order. And it is not so easy for the naked eye to distinguish where the citizen ends and the counter-revolutionary begins. The above form three foundations upon which the proletariat has to build bis system of terror, of the destruction "t tlie bourgeoisie class, together ivit'.i its relations and onhangers.'' TO EXTINGUISH THE BOLKGEOISIh The Bolshevik writer proceeds to enlighten the world as to the consummation at winch Lenin and the Soviet Government aims, not only for Riinsia, but for the whole of Europe--the total extinction of all those classes of society to which the Bolsheviks are pleased to apply the very elastic term "bourgeoisie." The process of "extinction" promises to be peculiarly painful. "When by these methods the bourgeoisie are deprived of their personality, pulverised, placed under the educational control of the working class, finally deprived of all property, and obliged to do forced liDbour, then the bourgeoisie as a class will die out. . . . Jt wiil be a very difficult and painful process, tor the bourgeoisie and their on-hangers. They will have to give up net only all the comforts of life to let the proletariat have as much as they have. They will have to receive less than the proletariat. A part of the bourgeoisie (perhaps the greater part) will be transformed into bare-foot paupers, declassed, thrown out of social life. A tireless watch will weigh upon them Tbey will lie enslaved. But „n!v by breaking up the bourgeoisie ns a* claws and casting the frr. into a category of members useful to society. That work is socially necessary. The Russian proletariat here, too, is obliged to hasten to advance the course of events. We have to begin this work in Russia, and to finish it as soon as possible, before the work of melting the bourgeoisie in the proletariat fiery furnace of the Western countries \jill begin." The method of hastening the process of extinction outlined thus seems, so far as we can judge, the simple one ol murdering anybody who is even suspected of holding opinions at variance with those of Lenin, and his mad-brained satellites.