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Spargo, John, 1876-1966

"Bolshevism The Enemy of Political and Industrial Democracy"

Thus they were resorting to
illegal methods, exactly as the Socialists had done. Finally, many of the
liberal zemstvo leaders formed themselves into a political party--the Union
of Liberation--with a special organ of its own, called _Emancipation_. This
organ, edited by the brilliant and courageous Peter Struve, was published
in Stuttgart, Germany, and, since its circulation in Russia was forbidden,
it had to be smuggled into the country and secretly circulated, just as the
revolutionary Socialist journals were. Thus another bond was established
between two very different movements.
As was inevitable, revolutionary terrorism enormously increased. In the
cities the working-men were drawn mainly into the Social Democratic
Working-men's party, founded by Plechanov and others in 1898, but the
peasants, in so far as they were aroused at all, rallied around the
standard of the Socialist-Revolutionists, successors to the Will of the
People party. This party was peculiarly a party of the peasants, just as
the party of Plechanov was peculiarly a party of industrial workers. It
emphasized the land question above all else. It naturally scorned the view,
largely held by the Marxists in the other party, that Russia must wait
until her industrial development was perfected before attempting to realize
Socialism.


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