Any dictatorship, whether of a single man, a group or class,
must rest ultimately upon oppressive and coercive force. Believing that the
means would be justified by the end, Lenine and Trotzky and their
associates had suppressed the Constituent Assembly, claiming that
parliamentary government, based upon the equal and free suffrage of all
classes, was, during the transition period, dangerous to the proletariat;
that in its stead a new type of government must be established--government
by associations of wage-earners, soldiers, and peasants, called Soviets.
But what if among these there should develop a purpose contrary to the
purpose of the Bolsheviki? Would men who, starting out with a belief in the
Constituante, and as its champions, used force to destroy and suppress it
the moment it became evident that its purpose was not their purpose,
hesitate to suppress and destroy any Soviet movement which adopted
policies contrary to their own? What assurance could there be, once their
point of view, their initial principle, was granted, that the freedom
denied to the Constituante would be assured to the Soviets? In the very
nature of the case there could be no such assurance.
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