446 THE CLASS STRUGGLE AN OPEN LETTER 447 want in Russia is the crushing of the Soviet Government as such, regardless of the fact that it is anti German and regardless of all proofs of its constructive ability. As the Soviet Government obviously is supported by the great majority of the people, you will have to suppress that majority. In order to do that you must send to Russia not a small army which could accomplish nothing but bring evidence of your hostile attitude toward the Russian proletariat, but send there millions, to the great detriment of your military plans on the western front. Or otherwise you must allow the Japanese to send an army. and leave as a heritage of your Russian adventure an absolute Japanese domination in the East, a strengthening of Japanese imperialistic ambitions. To overcome the popular support of the Soviet Government you must in addition to that prepare yourself for a permanent occupation of the vast area of Russia, because as soon as you should withdraw your troops from any region, you would have on your hands new rebellions followed up with blind revenge taken on those Russians who have supported you in the accomplishment of the coup etat. You have the example of the Ukraine before your eyes. Do you not see that the bloody rule established by the Germans in the Ukraine, although it is partly due to the peculiarities of Prussian militarism, mostly is an inevitable natural consequence of the fact that the poorer Ukrainian peasantry. and in Ukraine there is a larger percentage of rich and conservative peasants than in any other parts of Russia, blindly revolts against attempts to deprive them of their newly won land and freedom?
Samara? The first dispatches from that city about a month ago were that the Czecho Slovaks had occupied the city, disarmed the Red Guard and deposed the local Soviet, with the result that the local bourgeoisie at once proceeded to take a bloody revenge upon the workers, killing hundreds of Soviet members, the armed presence of the Czecho Slovaks making this revenge possible, although they themselves did not participate in the execution. After a few weeks the Red Guard took possession of the city once more, and one hundred Czecho Slovaks were publicly hanged in retaliation of the execution of the Soviet members. That story will repeat itself over and over again. And for what use, as at the end of it.
all, sooner or later, there must be, and there will be, the ultimate victory of the social principles represented by the Soviets to day. am not a pacifist nor do shudder at civil war, if such must befall. But would gladly give my life if thereby could prevent unneccessary slaughter of people. Yet the experience of the past two years plainly shows, that however much the workers would like to avoid bloodshed and civil war, they will not be allowed to do so by their opponents, who do not seem able peacefully to admit the inevitable trend of the social evolution. The workers in Russia and in Finland today are the conscious majority, just as the third estate became the conscious majority against feudalism 150 years ago. You can not expect the workers in Russia and in Finland voluntarily to renounce their supremacy in favor of the retention of old forms of society, which have brought them nothing, and can bring them nothing but misery. have many times pointed out that most of the program of the Soviets which you object to, including the repudiation of the debt, is a logical result of the expropriation of land by the peasants. To put an end to the policy of the Soviets you will have to repudiate the expropriation of land, and then you at once will find yourself in the same position as the Germans found themselves in the Ukraine.
Is it then possible at all that the former ruling classes in Russia by sheer reasoning power should admit this fact and thus avoid unnecessary struggles and bloodshed? And if it is not possible for the Russian bourgeoisie to see it, as they personally have been deprived of all the privileges so dear to their hearts, is it not possible that you, their intellectual class brethren, who are not personally as closely interested in And is there no lesson for you in the dispatches from