THE BOLSHEVIKS.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 15469, 12 March 1919, Page 7

THE BOLSHEVIKS.

SIR GEORGE BUCHANAN'S ACCOUNT.

In the "Fortnightly Roview" for December Sir George Buchanan, who was British Ambassador to Russia during tho war, writes upon "The Russian Revolution: Its Genesis *and Aftermath." He gives the following account of tho Bolshovik rule:—

The supremo power was now in the hands of tho Bolsheviks, who had won over the soldiors, the workmen, and the peasants by the magic words, "Peace, Bread, and Land." How, I would ask, have these deluded dupes profited by these vain promises? The treaty, which was to have given Russia a peace without annexations or contributions, has placed under German control some of her richest provinces, and has imposed on hor an indemnity of £300,000,000. Tho Army, it is true, has been disbanded, but there has been no peace for Russia, rent as she is by class war. Tho land hunger of tho peasants has been satisfied by a decree proclaiming tho confiscation of all private estates and of all Church and Crown land, but, as no legal machinery was set up for its partition, villages and individual peasants fought one another for its coveted possession, and the land went to whoever could seize and hold the most. Tho workmen, on tho other hand, to whom the control of factories was entrusted, did not know how to manage them, and as nobody cared to work, moift of the factories havo been closed, and th© workmen thrown on the streets. As thero are, consequently, no manufactured goods in the country, the rouble has lost its purchasing power, and the peasant, who has stocks of grain, refuses to part with theul. Tho promised food has not boen forthcoming, and famine is claiming thousands of victims. Workmon and peasants alike have realised too late by bitter experience what Bolshovik rule means, and how it has spelt ruin both for thomselves and their country. Liberty, the watchword of tho February Revolution, has long been a dead lotter—it is the monopoly of a single class, of' a minority which, through its Rod Army, terrorises the majority of tho nation. All who do not subscribe to tho articles of tho Bolshevik creed are disfranchised, all papors which do not support tho Government are suppressed. Ju&tico is unobtainable, or only to bo bought, and corruption is rampant. Never sinco the days of Ivan the Terrible ha 3 Russia suffered from such tyranny; and whon, some weeks ago, the Bolsheviks feared that their power was on tho wane, they indulged in an orgy of massacre and pillage, in tho hope of overawing a helpless people with tho Red Terror. Nobody's life is safe—all their political opponents, whether belonging to the Socialist or non-Socialist parties, to the working classes or to the aristocracy, aro styled counter-revolu-tionaries, and as such are judged guilty and sentenced to death. Tho process of passing sentence on individuals is, even found too slow, and they are massacred in batches, the Red Guard or the Chinese mercenaries employed as executioners being free to choose their victims from tho list of the proscribed. Such aro tho methods by wnich those pseudo-democrats, Lenin and Trotsky, have attempted to found their Socialist Stato. and such aro the precepts of the Bolshevik gospel which they fain would see preached in this and other countries. They havo voted money for Bolshevik propaganda abroad, and, though I have too much faith in tho common-sense and patriotism of tho British workman to believe that ho would ever listen to their insidious pleadings, it would bo well that he should bo on his guard, and that he should realise tho ghastly suffering and ruin which Bolshevism has brought on Russia.

. The sympathy felt in certain quarters for Bolshevism is due entirely to ignorance of what Bolsheviks really aro. They are not democrats as we understand the meaning of that word. They are anarchists, and I am convinced that, were any of our so-called Bolshevilcs to go to Russia and seo with their own eyes the crimes that aro being committed there in the name of liberty, they would never call themselves Bolsheviks again.