Denver labor bulletin., 1917-12-29

the country the Bolsheviki are no.
where.
According to Lenine's chief scien-
tific work-which is deservedly the
Russian authority on this subject-the
agricultural laborers constitute less
than half of the peasant population
Yet it is chiefly upon these laborers
that Lenine confesses he relies in all
his late proclamations.
Against these are the peasants he
calls the "more or less well-to-do." >"
This extremely poor but successfully
struggling element of the peasantry is
estimated in Lenine's book as one-fifth
of the total. They include such an un-
popular figure as the village money
lender (the 'fist"O, but they also in
clude all the most active, the most
skilled, the most experienced and most
enlightened peasants - who, more
over, carry with them politically near
ly all those who do not work for hire
(about one-half according to Lenine)
as well as a large part of the hired
laborers-the majority of whom work
at the same time on their own land.
We must also remember the Cossacks.
Poles, Armenians, Tartars, and Geor-
gians = among whom the landless
agricultural workers are still less
numerous than among the other Rus
SLAMS.
The prospect for Lenine among the
peasants $50 per cent of the popula-
tom is, therefore. hopeless
Thus the Bolshevik were bound to
overthrow all Constitutional Assem-
blies-unless largely appointed by
themselves. They know they are
minority. Lenine always has known
that he could not have a majority for
his kind of revolution. Not only did
he acknowledge to me personally sew
eral years ago that the peasants would
probably overthrow any such revolu-
ton, but he has repeatedly written
about his fear that this would happen.
His hope was that a German revolu-
tiOn would come to reinforce the Rus
sian turmoil. Even if he still expects
such a revolution, he knows now that
it cannot occur soon enough to save
his government. What hope remains
One and one only: An immediate peace
with the kaiser, on any terms, before
/ Russian opinion has time to organize.
The worst clauses of this peace
treaty will. of course, be secret. This
will save both Lenine and the kaiser
| from much criticism. Then, this
friendly relation once established, as
Lenine is pressed harder and harder
] ny HIS tlltiilltS dI NOME ne can cali ON
the kaiser for aid, sometimes public
and sometimes secret. OF course the
kaiser will exact a high price on each
occasion.
! The army situation absolutely COM
pels the Lenine government either to
abdicate or to rely every day more
and more on the kaiser's armies. For
there are only two actual forces to be
considered, the Russian armies and
the German armies on the Russian
front.
Kaiser Can Move Troops Easily.
The Boleshevik government rests
primarily not upon the workmen, nor
even upon the power of the army. II
rests upon the disorganiZation of the
army. This permits the kaiser to
move his troops West even without
written armistice, thus making him an
ardent Bolshevik. But inside of Rus
sia it serves the purpose neither of
kaiser nor of Bolsheviks. Such troops
cannot be effective, even for the pur-
pose of civil war. Thus Lenine, pushed
into power in the first instance by the
vIct Or"cs Of the military and DroDa-
gandIst armies of the kaiser operating
on Russian soil now comes to be com
p'rtely HELPLESS without their aid.
Whether he allows his government to
take directly the German money now
beng expended in RUSSIA is of no mo-
ment. He allows the German money
to be spent having liberated most of
the German spies and AGENTS arrested
by the Kcrensky government and to-
tally SUSPENDED governmental action
against the rest. This he can do I'll
the moro easily since his purposes and
those Of the German propagandists
have become identical-with one ex.
ception that the latter take effective
action to prevent the spread of the
propaganda to Germany. That a rev
olution in Germany-spreading from
Russia-is the foundation of every
point in the Lenine program is now
forgotten. That is, the point has been
reached when the Bolsheviki have
ceased entirely to serve even Bolshe-
vikism and are serving the kaiserism
exclusively.
Will Stop at Nothing.
Lenine will stop at nothing. He be-
lieves that the end justifies the means. |
And he is an intellectual desperate |
whom the choice of means-will set |
new standard in treachery and vio-
lence that will make us forget Cesare |
Borgia. Being at the same time a |
megalomaniac fanatic, he will lose |
sight entirely even of his own end |
without realizing that he has done so. |
Indeed his real unconscious end is not |
anarchistic Socialism but endless, or
at least lifelong, warfare against his |
enemies and those of his sect. FOrtu- |
nately he spreads his hatred so far,
and has labelled so manv classes as
enemies of the proletariat" that his |
ultimate overthrow is certain. Indeed |
he has premonitions of it himself. He |
has allowed the masses of town and |