The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-06-10

ing delegates to meet with others similarly
elected by other regiments and divisions. These
delegations of workers, peasants and soldiers
also met in national conventions and estab-
lished national councils.
At first these workers councils (Soviets)
fell under the spell Of the phrases of the men
sheYik agents of the Provisional Government.
Only experience and the leadership of the Boil
sheViks taught them the emptiness of these
phrases. Under the initiative of the Bolshe-
viks the Soviets formulated their own revolu-
tionary program.
However, the Provisional Government, like
the government of the Gar only represented
the interests Of the few-the interests of prof
it-making capitalists, as the former had repre-
sented the exploiting big landowners. The cap
ltallstS and landowners wanted CONSTANT
nople; the masses wanted bread and land. The
landowners and capitalists insisted on continu-
ig the war; the masses demanded peace.
These differences were irreconcilable. A de-
cisive conflict between the Provisional Gov
eminent and the councils of workers, soldiers
and peasants delegates was therefore unavoid-
able. The Bolsheviks proposed, as the only
possible solution of this conflict, the taking
over of government power by the Councils
(SOViets). There was no other way out The
essence of the conflict was who should rule.
Should the few capitalists and landowners rule
through the Provisional Government as they
had ruled through the Gar, or should the
masses rule through their Councils of Dele
gates, through the Soviets? Should the con-
quest of bread, land and peace for the masses,
be the guiding principle of the government, or
should it be the conquest of Constantinople for
the capitalists.
The SOviets Seize Power.
By November, 1917 the mensheviks and So
cial Revolutionaries had been thoroughly dis
credited in the Councils of Workers, Soldiers
and Peasants Delegates. The national conven-
ton, under the leadership of the Bosheviks
decided to take over power With the help of
the armed revolutionary masses they arrested
and dissolved the Provisional Government The
whole Czarist government machinery, which
the republic had taken over, lock, stock and
barrel with its policemen and it's judges, with
its jailers and its eXecutionerS, with its aris-
tocrats and with its laws, were uprooted and
completely replaced by the machinery and de-
cisions of the workers, soldiers and peasants
delegates, the Soviets. The capitalist republic
of Russia had thus given way to the Soviet
Republic. The big landowners and capitalists
were replaced by the toiling masses as the rul-
ing class.
This change Mortified the capitalists and big
landowners of Russia. Now they began to
groan. The groans of a hundred and fifty
million of exploited workers and peasants in
Russia against the oppression, exploitation,
starving, lashing and executions by the big
landowners and capitalists never found an echo
in the capitalist press, church and the politics
of the world But the groans of the few hun
dred thousand landowners and capitalist eX-
ploiters of Russia were Immediately amplified
a thousandfod And why? Because the Sow
let Revolution overturned the age-old Order
that the exploiters must rule. The masses
were so long the governed for the profit of
the capitalists and landowners that it was de-
clared the evident antithesis of order to have
these masses become the ruling class. Capt.
talist civilization" cannot accept the principle
that not property and property interests shall
exploit and rule man, but that man and mans
interests shall rule and exploit property. For
the capitalists the exploitation and political OPP
preston of the many for the profit of the few
is order is civilization. The rule of the many
against the profit interests of the few is dis
order, is anarchy, is-Bolshevsm,
The second article in this series will appear
in tomorrows paper In this article, Down
with the Soviets," Comrade Bedacht will tell
the entire story of what the capitalists all
over the world did and said after the Soviet
Government was established Be sure to or
der your copy of the Daily Worker immedi-
ately