294 THE CLASS STRUGGLE GREETINGS FROM SOVIET RUSSIA 295 in three months, in order to make clear to the proletariat the object of its activities, may it present to the proletariat of the world, whose blood is still being shed in streams by the capitalists; a picture of something that is worth fighting for, and to die for which is the greatest happiness for one to whom Socialism is not an empty sound.
Moscow, September, 1918. The week in which Lenine, the heart and brain of the World Revolution, fought with death and conquered. Greetings from Soviet Russia By RUTGERS (Moscow)
we can this alternative was clear to everyone who had the least conception of the actual mechanism of the so called democratic states, the opponents of the Soviet Government had to confine themselves to defending the right of the nation, that is, the bourgeoisie, to have its say, but they did not dare to defend the very kernel of the system (the actual rule of the united clique of the bureaucracy and the sharks of finance. that is, they had to leave the cardinal question of the form of the Workers Revolution completely untouched. And that is the best proof of the fact that the learned gentlemen were not only not able really to attack the Russian Revolution, but were unable even to grasp it.
The European proletariat will, without doubt, march forward so quickly in the near future that it will not have the time to learn the experiences of the Russian Revolution out of learned books, but it will learn them practically, before it is in a position to learn them out of the documents of the Revolution. We, who have the immeasurable good fortune after four years of horror, the horror of the world war, to be living, that is, to be fighting, in the midst of a newly created society, we do not flatter ourselves that be the teachers of the European proletariat. In as far, however, as history gives it a little spare time, in which to study the whole scheme of the Russian Revolution, before it uses this scheme practically on its own account and surpasses it, it is our duty to describe the strivings and doings of the Russian proletariat to the international proletariat. The facts will then speak to the longing heart of the proletariat, to its brain, which believes that facts are facts and need no apology. The Russian Revolution does not need to defend itself before the tribunal of the European proletariat. When Socialism has really fulfilled the longings and strivings of the best proletarians, as we are sure that it has, they will recognize that fact in the Russian Revolution, because it is the first step in the development of Socialisin from a theory into action. And they have already recognized in the Russian Revolution the fulfillment of their dreams. From San Francisco to Vladivostok, whether one goes by way of the Atlantic or the Pacific, from all points of the world we are receiving proofs daily of the fact that in spite of the lies of the bourgeois press, in spite of the cowardice of the traitors to Socialism, the workers: of all countries, when they are just beginning to stir, or just feeling the desire for the struggle, turn their eyes to blood drenched Russia, to that Russia in which the working class is battling with a world of foes, and, as we hope, to conquer.
May this little book of my friend Bucharin, of which three millions of copies were scattered over the wide plaîns of Russia For the third time Soviet Russia is passing through a period of life and death struggle in which all her physical and spiritual forces are strained to the utmost. First it was the threat of German Imperialism, which brought about a crisis that was so intense that it seemed to all observers to lead necessarily to a collapse. But the young power won out against the old force of brute weapons. Then came the period of counter revolutionary conspiracies and uprisings, instigated by French and English money.
The uprisings of the Czecho Slovaks, of the Mensheviki, of the Left Social Revolutionaries, all these without exception were based upon the aid of the Allies and upon the pretence of bourgeois Democracy. But again the young power won out against the old system of lies and deception.
At present the Western Democracies are manifestly in open alliance against their mortal enemy, the Russian Soviet Republic.
All the means of armed force, treachery, and deception are to be employed in one last endeavor to destroy that Republic.
In the North, the Murman Archangel front; in the East, an increasing number of fronts; in the West, the threats of aggression from the Baltic and from Rumania; in the South, the English ships in the Black Sea as well as on the Caspian; together with a whole band of counter revolutionary armies under conscienceless commanders, such as Krassnov, Denikin, Skoropadsky, etc. are manifestly receiving aid from the Allied Democratic Imperialists.