Greymouth Evening Star AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1918. THE RUSSIAN SITUATION.

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 September 1918, Page 4

Greymouth Evening Star AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1918. THE RUSSIAN SITUATION.

Ix Russia the Bolshevik! appeal’ to he determined to play the Germans’ game for them, and they are treating French and British subjects with scant respect. The British Embassy has been plundered, Captain Cromie, an official, assassinated, and the Consul thrown into prison, condemned to death and reprieved only after joint protests by neutral representatives. A Russian correspondent, writing to an English paper, states that Socialism is at present the dominant force in Russian political life- Before the overthrow of the Roumanofi's the people had a great reverence for the person of the “Little Father,” hut they are now embracing tlxe tenets of Socialism, and they give a ready ear to those who are willing to expound the principles of the various Socialist writers. The Socialists in Russia are divided

into two great parties, the Social (Democrats or Marxians, and the | Social Revolutionaries. The j Social Democrats are split up into i two antagonistic factions ; the Bol- ! sheviks, otherwise known as the | Maximalists, and the Mensheviks, ! or Minorists, some of whom call j themselves Internationalists. The split in the ranks of the Social i Democrats took place some fifteen I years ago, and time has served | only to widen the breach. At the ■conference where the trouble arose j there Were some forty delegates in attendance, and the dispute ended in a small majority, headed by Lenin, gaining* the supremacy. Trotsky was one of the minority and he published a strong denunciation of Lenin’s scheme. The , trouble arose not. through differences regarding the programme, but with reference to matters of tactics and organisation. Both the Bolseviks and the Mensheviks advocated a determined class war with the ultimate design of es-

iablisliing a Dictatorship of the working classes to create a Socialist State in accordance with the Marxian doctrine. Lenin and the Bolsheviks strongly supported the establishment of a strong central committee, which alone would be competent to carry on the political and social struggle, and which, when the opportune moment arrived, would be able to establish a Dictatorship and assume the reins of power in the name of Labour. The Mensheviks favoured educating the working classes, submitting to their control the. personnel and control of the Central Committee, and leaving to the masses the right to assume the direction of State affairs when they considered themselves fit to do so. In a clever pamphlet, published in 1904, Trotsky showed that Lenin’s scheme of an autocratic Central Committee would not result in the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, but Lenin’s dictatorship over the proletariat. This prediction has now been fully justified, and the people of Russia have escaped from the tyranny of the Romanoffs only to pass under that of Lenin. The Social Revolutionist Party was established . about sixteen years ago, and their doctrines may be briefly summed up by their adopted motto: “Land and Freedom. ’ J They were the first who directed their main attention to the distribution of private lands, without compensation, among the tworkers. By the peasants this party has long been considered the champion of their vital interests. In the ranks of the Social Revc • hitionists we may find many of the names of those identified with the catise of Russian freedom. We may mention Mine. Catherine Breshkovsky (the Grandmother of the Russian Revolution), Lopatine, Morosov, Yera Figner and others- ■■ - Kerensky belonged to this party. Their influence in the Provisional Government estab- ■ lisheft after the Revolution was predominant. They are keen supporters of the Entente and have repudiated the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, which forged German chains around the unfortunate German people. They secured a preponderating .majority in the National Assembly, elected ai-

ready under the Bolshevik regime, where 273 deputies voted for them and only 140 for the Bolsheviks. When, after the fall of the Tsar, Lenin and Trotsky returned to- Russia, they joined hands as leaders of the Bolsheviks, and they were responsible for the fraternisation that went on between the German and the Russian soldiers, which led to the demoralisation of the Russians and made easy the task of the Germans to subjugate the country. Side by side with the fraternisation at the front, Lenin and Trotsky encouraged class war within the country. Thus it was Russians were found arm in arm with Germans in the fighting line, and cutting each other’s throats in the cities far from the battlefront. The other sections of the Socialist party protested against such a policy as being suicidal, but they did not care taking extreme action against Trotsky and Lenin who, they considered, were members of the Socialist party, and as such comrades. Matters have gone from bad to worse and there is now a reign of terror in Russia far worse than any that existed under the Tsars. Lenin has so aroused the that his life has been attempted. The 80l sheviks are now in alliance with the Germans and they are treating British and French subjects with great severity. The Allies, however, are steadily gaining ground, and the overthrow of the Bolsheviks cannot now be longdel/xyed*, The people recognise that the Bolsheviks are incapable of giving the country settled government, and until that is brought about Russia can never re-estab-lish herself as a great Power. The people have been so frequently deceived that they do not know whom to trust and they are becoming morose and sullen in consequence. It is very hard to say what form the regeneration of Russia will take, but the Allies must treat the Russian people with every sympathy.