UNDER THE KNOUI

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 121, 25 May 1931, Page 12

UNDER THE KNOUI

—.— RUSSIA’S REVOLUTIONS I MARX I 3CTRINE OF POWER. RULE BY A MINORITY, Russia, it is said, is under I lie die i tutorship of the proletariat. It is not. It is ruled by a, group of Communists who are supported m power by armed forces and a secret police, which is another army. There is no such thing as representative government. It is I autocracy—autocracy of the worst I kind. ; Ever since the Bolsheviks, who were . the extreme left of the social revolutionary party, seized power from the : Mensheviks, who were the right, they i have not deviated one hair’s breadth j from their long-fostered plan of ruling j in this manner. ! A graphic record of the events which | led up to and brought about the rcvolution is given by an American journalist, Air. A. Dosch-Fleurdt, in “Through War t > Revolution,” which comes from the Dudley Head press. He was a war correspondent and lived in Russia through the revolution, finally [ leaving the country by stealth to cs--1 cape the wrath of the Bolsheviks bc- ; cause he had written on the “Red Ter--1 ror. ’ ’ The First Revolution. i Because of the mismanagement of 'i the war and of the shortage of food, ; j tlie disgusted intelligentsia of St. I Petersburg ami the discontented factory workers of that city brought, about • the first revolution, in which Keren J sky came to the top. The iutelligenti sia believed that the revolution was | over except for the legalising of a con- ' stitutional assembly. Kerensky and I his people, among them being Prince ■ Tseretelli, wer for the ‘prosecution of j the war to victory, out this was not j the intention of the disciples of Marx, | many of whom were returned exiles. Chief among those exiles was the “Tartar Georgian,” Nicholas Oulianoff, otherwise Comrade Lenin, whose return appears to have been facilitated by the German General Staff. Ever since the 1905 revolution, when an enduring cleavage separated the Bolsheviks from the Mensheviks, Lenin had kept up a campaign among the exiled revolutionaries for a plm of action according to which a small, compact and determined group of revolutionaries must get control of die Russian revolution whenever it happened and establish the dictatorship of the proletariat at once. As soon as he returned to Russia Lenin proceeded to marshal his forces, but at first it was in a very decided minority. Probably it is still in a minority to-day, but the Mensheviks have no say. Lenin’s Fight for Power. j "When the army discipline was breaking Kerensky look the portfolio of war and, facing the Soviet, declared, “I regret I did not die two months ago, when a new life was growing in the Russian people, when 1 had faith the Russian people could govern them selves —that they did not need the knout.” When Kerensky organised an offensive by the Cossack army against the Germans, Lenin planned an offensive of his own. Lenin succeeded. His propaganda destroyed the army as a lighting force, and using Trotsky as his mouthpiece, finally won a second revolution that was practically Jalood- : less. The overthrow of Kerensky and his -I i democrats who had envisaged a repuby j lie on the lines of France or the 1 I United. States was simply achieved by 1 the Cronstadt sailors ordering the leaders of the Council of the Republic to leave the Marinsky Palace and taking possession of the telegraph, telephone and post offices. There was no resistance. a Trotsky announced the establishI ment of the Military Revolutionary j Committee and decla i d that it would I maintain order. Military reinforce- | meats Kerensky sent for were or»red | by liotsky not to move and cncy dil £ not. ’ll >s was the Bolshevik rc-olu- - tion. Fnd of Constitutional Assembly.

From that day to this Russia has been dominated by the group whic.i has never trusted the people, which ha- never given a cahncc fur the dcieo cratic impulses even of the social revu lutonists lu operate. A cuus* •*. ui *.oa al assembly hud been culled for three weeks after the B,olshcviks obtained power. They allowed it. lu assemble but the proceedings were farcical. \ltcr an adjournment it met in the Domna building. Armed, sailors from the Baltic Fleet were present. The oldest delegate was placed in the chair. He told the commanding sailor: ‘‘We will not need your protection.” The sailor laughci and went, back to his post a few feet away. The chairman then ordered the. election of president. At this moment Lenin, Hvertloffand other members of trie inner Bolshevik group entered. Svertloff ordered the übairma.’ to leave his seat. The old m.iu refused. SvcitJolT elbowed him ;o the tear and called for nominations 'or President. The Mensheviks were in the. majority aud placed their man ju the chair. The meeting pushed forward a bill of rights which was an enumeration uf Bolshevik principles, rhe assembly Jost itself iu a series uf discursive speeches during which Lenin went to sleep on the steps al the back of the platform. Finally the sailor in command, re.voivei in hand, walked up to the President’s chair ami said: “Tin l .u: rd is tired, 'fell I'vciyini 1 to get in; ’ The Constitutional Assem i bly l ex er met again. All ilii- was accomplished in the name ei the. proletariat, which was online I in a few cities. Peace was signed luiil the peasants ami soldiers back on the land were hostile, but 1 lie Red Terror. W it liin a muiitli uf the establishment of Ibis die,tutorship Dz.cijinsky, a. Pole, had his plan for combating a counter rexolutiun in hand. It was the begin uing of the Terror. He organised “Tin* AII-liiissia n Extraordinary Commission to Combat Counter-Revolution, Espionage ami Speculation. Dzerjinsky sent punitixm expeditions in every direction where he doubted tin' loyalty of the local soviet. He signed wholesah orders for the execution of counter revolutionists. 1I«* ordered the arrest of all officers on the active lists of tin old army and navy. His aim was bj terror to freeze tlio populace into in activity. Soviet and labour absolutely union leaders who did not conform ab solutely to Bolshevism were avivtei in every town. He issued an orde telling the revolutionary workers am

peasants they had been ‘oo soft and that the time had come to denounce everyone suspected of being hostile to the revolution. And what this master-terrorist, begun has been continued without abatement. Russia is hold in subjection. Hs voice is the voices of its masters.