The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1921-06-25

The problem of power is the most perplexing
in the Russian situation What is it that keeps the
Communists in control? How is it possible that
party of 100000, of whom only fraction are active
can maintain dictatorship 125 millions under
the most trying conditions? "Why do they not
throw the Boshevik?"
The conditions are trying indeed. There is hunger
in Russia. Not hunger for bread and potatoes, per-
haps, but hunger for the most ordinary necessities
of fe There is no white bread in the cities of Rus
sia and very little meat or butter or sugar or fat
Milk and eggs being given only to children, sell
dom to the sick. Throughout my six months soiourn
in the Russian provinces, l saw no chocolate, no
oranges or lemons coffee, no real tea, no cake
No tramways are running in the cities of Russia, no
lamps are burning in the streets, outside of Mos
COW. In the winter, water pipes are bursting canai-
cation and sewage systems collapse, misery and
hideous sufferings inflicted millions There
is scarcity of medicines and soap, and abundance
of disease. The peasants have enough to eat, yet
rural Russia is clamoring for salt kerosene and
cotton fabrics and nails and plows and scythes.
There is no personal liberty in Russia. The peas
ant is forced to yield part of his crops to the state
without receiving the equivalent in manufactured
goods. The peasant is obliged to do menal
work of the crudest kind cutting wood for the rail-
ways, carrying it to the stations loading and un-
loading cars. The workingman is bound to his fac
tory or mine; his remuneration is fixed by agencies
of the state; he cannot move mthout permit from
the labor organization which is controlled by the
state; he cannot go strike; his very participation
in labor union is duty, not merely right. True
it is that the peasants pay no taxes and receive
about twothrds of the national output of industries
free of charge; true it is that the workman is
ed STEADY job and much food can be OBJ
tanned by the state; yet labor, in village and town.
is under semi-mlitary rule, and personal freedom is
Incompatible with martial law.
There is no political freedom in Russia. Not only
the bourgeois parties who lost every foothOd in the
country under the ban, but even outspoken So
calists, the Menshevk and Socialists Revolution
aries, their Left Wing not excluded are deprived of
the means for political campaigns. They have not
been actually ouawed, but they may not issue
papers ca magazines pamphlets. They are not
senced at general nOn-partsan" meetings or con
ventions, yet they forbidden to call open meet
ings of their own. They are hardly tolerated. Their
headquarters often raided; their very existence
depends upon the mercy of the party in power $50.
There is no equality in Soviet Russia. Food, the
life-giver denuded in Russia of its cultural embel-
lishments stands out in all its prmeval Importance.
And this omnipotent factor is being handled not ac-
c0rding to the canons of equality, but as an ex-
pedient in soco-potical struggles. The worker in
the essential industries receives more than the work
er in the less essential; the member of the COmmun-
ist party is better provided than the Nom -Commun-
ist the friend better than the opponent. This may
be imperative from the standpoint of state admins
tration, yet the numerous privileges would hardly
tend to decrease the bitterness of the ordinary citizen
whose soul has been SCARED and battered by num-
beress privatiOns. 80.
EXPLANATIONS OF COMMUNIST POWER
Why, then, do the Russians not overthrow the
Communist rule?
number of explanations should be dismissed
from the start obviously false. Terror" has been
advanced as being the chief weapon OF Communist
control True it is that the methods of the Soviet
administration implacably harsh This will hard
ly surprise anybody familiar with the requirements
of social discipline under stress of war; Yet the sue
cess of compulsory measures ultimately depends,
everywhere, upon the loyalty of the army. 1t is ap-
parent that the Communists are able to rule Russia
only insofar as the Red army obeys their command.
Why then, does the Red Army obey? There were
some three millions of armed men in Russia at the
end of 1920, with thousands of officers from the
ranks at their head. By what miracle of shrewdness
or meanness did fraction like 100000 manage to
keep control over millions of armed sons of the
masses? The popular reply is ready at hand: This
is an army of mercenares, abundantly fed and CON-
fortably kept amid an ocean of destitution so that