New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-08-21

passive stage of the abrogation Of
civic rights and liberties-viz.. the ter
ror, which is the third and. perhaps.
the most potent element of the pro-
tective apparatus OF the Soviet regime
The instrument for the carrying out
of the terror and the various activ;-
ties connected with it is in the form Of
the Ali-Russian Extraordinary Com
mission and the various local ex-
fraordinary commissions. These insti-
tutions are built along the lines of the
various branches of the famous i'm
perial police under the Car regime,
with very important notifications,
however. From the point of view Of
their personnel these extraordinary
commissions consist partly of those
who constituted the various branches
of the imperial police and partly of
men of all sorts of criminal type. It
Is not an uncommon occurrence to find
former policemen and the criminals
whom they had bounded now working
together in the extraordinary commits
sions for the glory and advancement Of
communism.
Extraordinary Commission
Carries Out Terrorism
The extraordinary commissions have
become a real nightmare in the life of
Soviet Russia. They are bad enough
at the all-Russian center, under the
guidance of its boodthirsty heads
Dzerzhinski. Latsis and Peters But
they are still worse at the local CEN
ters. Their power is almost unlim-
tied and their ruthless cruelty unprec-
edented. Even the government officials
themselves are afraid of them Their
methods, their cunning, their arbi-
trary responsibility, are such as to
have made them an almost supe rnat-
ura terror in the eyes of the Russian
population. History will. probably,
never know the extent of their bloody
activities While the all Russian GEN.
ter issues from time to time reports
Of It's work, which are appalling
enough. the countless local centers do
not consider 1t necessary to make any
reports or. apparently. even to keep
records They are probably content
with the records that remain written
in blood through all the limitless
stretches OF the vast country.
Thus to the numberless cohorts of
Soviet bureaucracy, in the various
branches of government, in the army,
and i'll the extraordinary commissions.
the preservation of the Communist re-
CINE means their continuation in posi-
tons OF personal advantage which they
could not possibly have had under any
other regime. and which they would GER
tainly lose. most probably together with
their lives. if the regime should be over
thrown. This condition is reflected in
those portions of the Communist leader
ship which directly represent these ele-
nents. Then there are others in the
Communist leadership to whom material
advantages mean less than the sheer ex-
ercise of power, which. too, would cease
with the downfall Of the political aspects
Of the regime
To all these elements communism is
career. But there are elements in the
Communist leadership they include
most of the outstanding leaders Of the
regime to which communism is PR
marily no. personal career, but
cause. for which they had fought and
striven for decades
1t is inconceivabe that such leaders
as Lenine, for example. should be fight
ing with all their might for the preser-
walton Of the political forms Of the So
Wet regime, after they themselves have
admitted the disappearance OF the sub
stance of these forms, their roisor
d'ctre, the new economic system. merely
IN order to provide an opportunity for
that criminally degenerate crew, known
as the Soviet bureaucracy, 10 continue
its murderous work. Surely no one
knows better than these leaders the
true nature of the political apparatus OF
the Soviet regime or the inevitable re-
7alts, so far as Russia's national life is
concerned, of a continuance Of the re-
glne in It's present composition. Yet it
is Lenine and leaders like him that
clutch even more than the bureaucracy
at every means for the prolongation OF
their hold on the political authority in
Russia. None Of the leaders is more
vehement than Lenine in his refusal
even to entertain the notion of sharing
political authority with any other group
of the population than the Communist
party.
When one reads Lenine's recent
speeches and pronunciamentos one
gets a curious impression Of the work
ings Of his mind. The Red Dictator Of
Russia is not concerned with what
takes place to-day, with what individ-
uals do or say at the present time-so
long as by any compromise. at any
price whatever, he can hold out against
their opposition. He is interested in
what history will say about MS expert
ments, in what they viii mean n the
. historic perspective. His mind is, ap-
parently, definitely made up on one.
point: Whatever happens ultimately to
Russia, or even to the Soviet regime
itself. it Will be better for the Com
ro,.pic< oorra b,e+cr.- raoorIs H.