The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1921-02-05

classes and the class struggle, but spread the
fire still more broadly.
"The state remained class state and
needed an apparatus of compulsion.
"We see how Kerensky established his
counter espionage and put people in prison
and executed his Bolshevist opponents.
"He established militia, legalized the
death penalty, and blessed the massacre.
"Al this was in the order of things: the
new power must defend its existence and beat
its adversaies.
''The October revolution made the class
struggle still sharper The proletariat hurled
its challenge to the entire old world. The
struggle became fight not for life, but to
the death. For the class which stood IN power,
the proletariat, it was necessary 10 endure
attacks by the bourgeoiSie Of q character
never before known The bomgeoiSie fought
not only on the open external front, hut also
in the rear. Opposing both secretly and open
ly betraying our secrets, and preparing plots,
it destroyed our security in the rear, lessened
our fighting ability and thus prepared victory
for the White Guards on the external fronts.
"The October revolution did not destroy
classes; the bomgeoisie was driven from
power but not destroyed.
"For the victorious proletariat it was ne
cessary to preserve the state, that apparatus
of violence, an apparatus for establishing the
achievements of the prOletarian dictatorship.
Hence all further conclusions. This state
must create special agencies for conflict with
the conquered class, with counter-revolution,
This state must have its own army and its
own internal espionage
'SThus a correct understanding of the class
struggle and the class state was dictated to
us: thus spoke the experience of the former
state, which held so long the former power,
despite the fact that it was based only on a
minority
A PRACTICAL QUESTION.
"The Workers and Peasants Government
correctly estimated the situation and estab-
lished special agency for fighting counter
revolutionary disturbances in the rear
"This agency was created in the form of
the Al-Russian Extraordinary Commission
for Fighting Counter Revolution, speculation,
and sabotage
''Tl,e need for this agency was felt the
more keenly because the Soviet power had no
apparatus for spiritual transformation.
"The school remained as formerly. The
teaching force and textbooks could not be
changed at one stroke The school continued
to work in its former spirit, or, at best, was
inactive The Church, that powerful agency
for confusing the free spirit, worked in its
former direction The barracks needed new
leaders.
'The masses of the people were still filled
to large degree with the old spirit, and could
not always break away from their former
slave-like thinking, and not infrequently went
together with their class enemies against
their former comrades. Hence the sharp ne
cesSity for an apparatus for compulsion and
publication.
''Ths was not fruit of theoretical thinking,
but was dictated by vital necessity, 1t was ne
cessary to beat those who were beating us.
More than that; it was necessary to avert pos
sible attacks of counter-revolutionarie to
preserve the life of our comrades and the ap-
paratus of Soviet power. Only hypocrites or
idiots would deny the necessity of a special
organ for fighting the countel-revolution F..
"The Extraordinary Commission now has
behind it just two years of work. This work
speaks for itself Our task is to show this
work in it's broad outline. Then let every read
Ell judge for himself whether the Soviet
power needed this apparatus or not
THE COMMISSIONS SCOPE.
"The sphere Of work Of the Extraordinary
Commission was defined by the activities OF
counter-revolutionary elements. But since
there is no sphere of life into which counter
revolutionaries did not penetrate and give
evidence Of their destructive work, the Ex-
traordinary Commission frequently had to in
terfere decisively in every sphere of ife in
food supply, in transportation, aviation, the
Red Army, the fleet, the militia, the schools,
consulates industry, distribution, etc.
"The Extraordinary Commission had to
concern itself not alone with direct counter
or themselves and they Federation of Labor Their ,