November 1920:

Last month saw more amazing scenes in Russia where, for almost two years now, the Bolsheviks have been fighting a civil war with the white forces who have been receiving help from the allies. But as this Bolshevik propaganda cartoon shows, the Whites cause is coming to grief.

Last month, the Crimea, the last white stronghold was under siege. Trapped here was the white force under the command of the General Wrangel. They were attacked by a Red Army force four times their size, and there was panic. There were politicians and church men, grand dukes and entire peasant groups, middle-class families and Cossack villages escaping such Bolshevik retribution.

There were regular Russian army officers and men who joined the white forces and Cossacks who joined the Whites as a separate call. Ships of the French Navy stood by to help evacuate them all to safety--145,693 people were taken off by the 15th of November. Is this the end of the old Russia?

Today (1920) a Communist Government by Lenin rules in Russia, a country whose revolutionary potential Karl Marx seems to have dismissed. The 300-year-old Romanoff Dynasty has been swept away and in its place? Well, who can tell? What a change there has been since 1913 when Russia celebrated three centuries of rule by the Romanoffs in a patriotic and religious orgy. The Tsar, who in earlier years might have been terrified of assassination, was able to go through the crowed streets entirely unprotected.

Goddess Russia seemed to be at the height of her confidence. The revolution and pressures of 1905 seemed to have been reduced. Russia’s industries had achieved a growth rate that had no parallel in Europe nor in America. Even her agriculture had made progress. The peasants worked contentedly, and the reforms introduced by the late Mr. Stolypin, Chief Minister, seemed to be making agriculture more efficient.

Russia’s armed forces were stronger before, and the Russian Navy was on course to become second only to the British Navy. All agreed time was needed. Stolypin wanted twenty years of peace. A member of the Duma, Shedlovsky said, "Give us ten more years, and we are safe." But time was not allowed. On the 31st of July, 1914 Russia mobilized and the next day it was war.

Two men forecast that war would destroy the Tsarist system--Lenin, the Bolshevik leader in exile in Zurich, and Giolitti, the Italian Liberal leader. Yet the immediate affect in Russia, as in all other countries, was to rally the nation behind the government. Only a handful of Social Democrats, Bolsheviks, and Mensheviks opposed the war. St. Petersburg was renamed Petrograd to sound Russian, not German.

Russian troops advanced into Prussia but, instead of the expected quick victory, there was a run of bloody defeats. Hopeless muddles were made of so many things--total losses came to over seven million men. Hospital arrangements were primitive; the casualties were overwhelming to hospitals that couldn’t manage even the cases of syphilis.

With war material, there was considerable scandal with a terrible multi-cornered wrangling over money and priorities. Territory was being lost to the German invaders in spite of brave fighting. The generals, however, were mainly too old to understand the methods of modern warfare.

In 1915, the Tsar took over supreme command of the forces, replacing his cousin Grand Duke Nicholas (to everyone’s great surprise). This brave gesture by the Tsar was a fatal mistake. The government, in the hands of a strange monk Rasputin and Tsarina Alexandra, who unquestionably took his advice, became increasingly incompetent and corrupt.

Military disasters were now blamed on the Tsar himself. As this American cartoon shows, the Tsar is being asked, "Why these fortifications, your Majesty? Surely the Germans will not get this far." And he answers, "but when our own army returns.."

At the end of 1916, politicians, generals, and people were united in the belief that under Nicholas, the country could only go down to defeat. If the war was to be won, the Tsar must go. Before any political moves could achieve this, Russia lurched into revolution in 1917 and not only Nicholas, but the whole Tsarist system was swept away, as was headlined around the world. What lay behind this? Was it carefully planned? Were the Bolsheviks responsible as they had claimed?

In fact, Zenzinov leader of the Socialist Revolutionist, said, "The Revolution fell like thunder out of the sky. It arrived joyfully, unexpected." As for the Bolsheviks, they were a small minority and their leaders were all far away. Exiled in Switzerland with Radek and Zinoviev was Lenin. Trotsky was in New York, Stalin, with others, was exiled in Siberia.

The war was the key to the collapse of Tsarism. The continuing defeats

destroyed political support for the Tsar. Industrial workers toiled very long hours for low wages to provide supplies for the war effort. Accident rates were high. All this lead to strikes, such as the Putilov works at Petrograd in February 1917.

Just as the war effort was mismanaged, so was the financial system. The government just printed money to pay the bills. There was an inflation of 400% by January 1917. Costs rose sky high. Peasants couldn’t afford machinery or raw materials and, as many peasants had gone off to the war, less food was being produced.

Food stuffs were available but too little could reach the cities. The railway networks, overused by the army, couldn’t deliver the grain. Moscow and Petrograd needed two thousand railway wagons of grain a day. By January 1917, they were only getting between three and four hundred wagon loads.

Petrograd became a very dismal place. There wasn’t enough fuel to keep the electricity going--people froze, couldn’t get about easily, couldn’t find what they wanted. No salvation was expected from the war, where there was only defeat and, recently, almost complete inactivity.

Bread became so scarce that in March 1917 bread lines turned into riots which the police couldn’t control. From then onwards, the country went into an extraordinary state of chaos.

On the application of the Tsar, a provisional government took office until elections were to be held. At first all parties, including the Bolsheviks, united to defend the March Revolution and to win the war. Due to its liberal principles, the provisional government accepted popularly-elected councils, Soviets--people voted by village, factory, or by army unit. The largest and most important Soviet was that of the capitol itself.

Political prisoners were released, censorship was abolished, and political exiles were allowed to return. Trotsky arrived from New York. Stalin from Siberia and, back from Switzerland, came Lenin in April. From the moment of his arrival in the Finland station in Petrograd, Lenin called for a new revolution. In his April thesis, he denounced all cooperation with the provisional government. Soon the Bolshevik’s were promising peace, land, bread, and freedom to all who listen.

Their promises were gladly received by the soldiers and sailors tired of war and only anxious not to be sent to the front, by workers and their wives eager for food, and the promises of Bolshevik’s were eagerly grasped by peasants who believed that, at last, all land would be theirs.

Having seeing Lenin in action, it’s difficult to understand why Kerensky, clearly the most able and popular minister in provisional government, and his colleagues made such a hash of things. Were they simply too liberal or too divided or too slow? Were the Bolsheviks too clever or too persuasive? Perhaps, Mr. Kerensky, at present in France, will tell us one day.

It’s clear that to continue to war was a bad mistake and to allow Lenin back into Russia was another. Only a few days before Lenin’s return, Kerensky said, "Just wait, Lenin himself is covered--then the real thing will start." It’s astonishing that, having this feeling, Kerensky, who went on to become Prime Minister, not only failed to crush Lenin and his party after the July rising, but actually re-armed the Red guards and called on the Bolsheviks to help save the revolution from General Kornilov in September.

By this time, Russia’s condition was disastrous. Almost everyone was on strike. Soldiers influenced by the Bolshevik’s propaganda deserted. Lenin called it "voting with their feet for peace." Peasants were seizing private land. The Soviets were dominated by Bolsheviks. Lenin, while in exile, had long experience in committee infighting--settling disputes. He made sure the Bolsheviks knew how to dominate committees, gain control, discredit possible foes, and "arrange" for opponents not to vote by any means in their power.

By October, the Second Congress of Soviets had 385 Bolsheviks present out of 562 delegates. At a time when other parties, and indeed Russia itself, seemed to be falling apart, the Bolsheviks remained united and offered their simple policy: peace, land, bread, and freedom.

By November, soldiers and workers, facing disease and starvation in the towns, were already a revolutionary force only needing a strong leader. The Bolshevik Revolution was a fact before it happened. On the 7th of November, the Bolshevik’s seized power. Now they faced the same problems as the Tsar and the provisional government. Could they do any better? Could they hold onto power?

At first, this seemed improbable. A small minority, they commanded clear support in only a fraction of the country. Their decrees on land, classes, education, freedom for the nationalities sounded fine but had little immediate affect. Inflation and hunger got worse.

The Bolsheviks ceased cooperating with other parties after the elected assembly was dismissed in January 1918. Peace with Germany came in March, but the price was high--too high for Russian pride to swallow when so much land was taken away by the Brest-Litovsk Treaty.

In Spring, white armies supported by foreign forces, surrounded the small Bolshevik state. The allies were there simply because they wanted to persuade the Russians to continue the fight against Germany and, of course, they wanted to defend their legitimate trading interests.

There was war on six fronts, yet Lenin is still there. How has it been done? Is it just that his opponents have been weak and inefficient or is Bolshevism really strong? It’s clear that the Whites have been weak and divided and now they have been finally deserted by their allies. It’s clear that Trotsky has succeeded in building the Red Army into a most formidable force. However, that’s not the full story. Lenin has provided confident and united leadership. Skillful use of propaganda has put forward a picture of the Reds as Russian patriots fighting against foreign invaders, as defenders of the peasants against landowners, and as bringers of freedom to the non-Russian people.

Street posters, special propaganda trains, the wireless, and propaganda ships have been carrying the message far and wide in ways all can understand. Above all, terror has been used as part of the policy of Communism. This is a retribution squad so that all resources--food, industry, people--should be made available to defend the revolution in Russia and to spread it to the world.

So Lenin has survived, but at what price? Millions are dead. More millions are starving. Millions are homeless. Industry is wrecked. Arms are ruined. Is this the real price of political slogans like "peace, land, bread, and freedom?" Can Lenin maintain his single party dictatorship? Can he continue Communism? Can the Russian state survive as a Communist island in a Capitalist sea? Will other countries be affected by Bolshevism? Are we seeing the Red Dawn of the world? This is the Russian answer. This is what many fear.

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