Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1919-04-18
.BOLSHEYISTS NEED
HELP, NOT BULLETS
LContinued from page onel

crate, a simple program OF land,l peace
and bread as advocated by the Bolshev-
lists should win support. Kerensky, the
the premier OF the temporary govern
ment that had followed the Cars
downfall declared that the peasants
must wait for their land until the Con-
stituent Assembly met but the Boil
sheviks answered distribute it at once,
and they demanded a peace with no
anneXations or Contributions They
felt that Kerensky was not acting to
carry out this formula and demanding
social as well as a political democra-
cy the Bolshevists rapidly gained
strength and soon secured a majort
in the Petrograd Soviet, and when the
temporary government refused to yield
to their demand they took control of
Petrograd with very little fighting, and
in Moscow where there was six days
of heavy shooting the Bolsheviks won
an easy victory, since practically no
one came to the help of the govern
ment,
MANY felt that the upheaval was
due to German propaganda and the
Bolsheviks were termed as murderers,
liars and German agents. Undoubted-
" there were such among them, but
we must also remember that under the
Cars regime there were mprderers,
liars and German agents, The Empress
herself was a German and actively
working against Russia's best interests.
"If we would try to understand the
Bolsheviks who represent thousands of
Russians we must inquire into what
was the cause of their present con
dition. Take the history of Lenine.
What made him a Bolshevik? When
he was a boy his brother was hung
because he was member of some revo-
lutionary society in the university 1t
is small wonder that Lenine grew up
with the hatred of the Cars govern
ment When Lenine entered the uni
versity he studied social democracy,
and was himself eXiled to Siberia. When
he was released he became a leader of
the social democratic party and wrote
the best book on land that anyone in
that party had written. He was then
exiled abroad.
"The reasons for the name BelShevik
is simply that at a Stockholm con-
ference attended by representatives of
the Russian social democratic party in
1903, Lenine's faction was in the major
itv. "Boshevik" is the Russian word
which means majority. The faction
which is opposed to Lenine is likewise
the 'Menshevik' or minority party. a.
l..
reached Russia after the revolution be
gan he preached taking over the factor
les, naturalization of the banks. giv
the land to the people and Immediate
active steps for peace. He always said
that he did not wish to make an unjust
peace with Germany and he offered
to refuse to ratify the Brest Litovsk
treaty if he could get help from Ameri-
ca He failed to get any reply from
this offer and was forced to accept
bad peace.
zone of the great outstanding charaC-
teristiCs OF many of the Bolshevks is
their sincerity do not mean to gloss
over their faults or to say that all were
sincere but | mean that many believed
were endeavoring to usher in. In look
ing back into the environment which
created Russia of today would not
many of the Bolsheviks' foremost crit
les be doing exactly what the Bolshev-
iks are doing had they had their eX-
perience and environment.
Il am absolutely opposed to the
Bolsheviks l do not believe in Their
economic theory. Their preaching of
class hatred and their policy of killing
men is wrong. But do believe that
they are perfectly natural and I'M
derstandable product of Russian his
tory.
THE problem for us in America and
in the world is how we can help the
Russian people. The idea OF active
allied military intervention must be
abandoned There remains the pos
sibility of giving arms and ammunition
to every group that opposes the Boil
sheviks This would probably lead to
a long period of bloodshed and if allied
soldiers fighting the Bolshevists cannot
overthrow them is it probable that the
mere sending of guns and ammunition
without the men would be any more
effective? To place military equip
ment in the hands OF Kulchak, the OPP
posing leader in Siberia would be for
America to support monarchist and
we should be lending our aid to the
killing off of the ignorant people and
peasants, contrary to every tenet OF
our Christian doctrine However de-
luded many of the Bolshevists may be,
they feel they are fighting for the high
est interest of the Russian people
To-day all over Russia the country
is openly longing for education. To
day the Soviet would welcome every
thing that could be done by America
to educate the Russian people. Why
we are not then justified in adopting
this policy of educational intervention
in Russia"