The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-10-01
The @9Pravda" on TIokky,s Interview

AS Comrade Trotzky in the interview published
above deviates essentially from the feminist views
of the Party some of the most important uues-
tons of the international struggle of the proetariat
the Reduction Of the "Pravda" is compelled to make
a Jew remarks.
Does Democracy exist in Soviet Russia, or does
it not?
To the important question thus formulated by the
American delegation Comrade Trotzky has failed
to give the correct feminist answer. Instead of
emphasizing the fact that with US, against bourge-
OILS democracy, there exists proletarian democracy
as the highest form of Democracy Comrade Trotzky
has deviated from the class conception of Demo-
crazy to the incorrect comparison of Democracy in
general with Dictatorship in general" contained
in the formulation of the question by the delegation
Comrade Trotzky finally led back the question of
Democracy mask" which the dictatorship of
the bourgeoiSe needs, but which the dictatorship
of the proletariat does not need He thereby COM
pletely overlooks the proletarian democracy which
is based on the dictatorship of the proletariat He
seeks to erase from history fact of the very
greatest Importance namely, the unparalleled dew
eiopment of Democracy under the Soviet Regime
Let US compare the ANSWERS" of Comrade Trot-
zky with that which Lenin said on Democracy in
the Soviet Union. In his "Theses on the Constitu-
ent Assembly" of December 1917, Lenin wrote:
From the first days of the Revolution of
1917 the revolutionary Social Democracy re-
peatedly emphasized when putting forward the
demand for the convocation of the Constituent
Assembly, that the Republic of the Soviets re-
presents higher form of democracy than the
usual bourgeois republic with Constituent AS
sembly
For the transition from the bourgeois to the
socialist system, for the dictatorship of the
proetariat, the republic of the Workers Sold
lers' and Peasants deputies is Gin comparison
with the usual bourgeois republic with a Con-
stituent Assembly the crown of the whoe)
not only form of higher type of democratic
institution, but also the only form best secur-
ing the relatively most painless transition to
socialism" (Lenin, Vol 49, page 50-Russian
edition. Thick type by the "Pravda"l
In the Brochure "The Proletarian Revolution
and the Renegade Kautsky' (19181, Comrade Lenin
said:
Proletarian democracy is million times more
democratic than any bourgeois democracy. The
Soviet power is million times more democratic
than the most democratic bourgeois republic"
Only the most conscious sycophant of the bour-
geoise, a politically dead man who does not see
real life behind the dingy dusty bourgeois books,
who is filled through and through with bourgeois
prejudices and thereby becomes effectively the
lackey of the bourgeoisie, could fail to see that
Only a who is incapable of putting the
question from the standpoint of the oppressed cias-
ses could fail to observe that :"
Lenin then speaks of the political relationships
IN the bourgeois countries:
eve are governed (and our State is "de-
termined") by bourgeois-minded officials, bour-
geois parliamentarians and bourgeois judges.
That is the simple, obvious and indisputable
truth which is recognised by thousands and
millions of members of the suppressed classes
in the bourgeois countries-includng the demo-
cratic countries-as result of their everyday
experiences
In Russia, the other hand, the bureaucratic
apparatus is completely shattered, not one
stone has remained upon another The old
judges and the bourgeois Parliament have been
driven out. A much more accessible representa-
ton has been granted to the workers and pea
SAINTS: their Soviets have replaced the officials
or their Soviets have been placed over the of
ficials, and their Soviets elect the judges. This
fact alone suffces to enable all suppressed
classes to recognise the Soviet government l. e.
the given form of the dictatorship of the pro-
letariat as being million times more demo-
cratic than the most democratic bourgeois Re-
public
Kautsky does not understand this truth which
Is plain and obvious to every worker, because
he has forgotten" to put the question thus:
democracy for which class? He judges the
matter from the standpoint of "pure" democ-
racy THAT Is classics? or democracy standing
~