No need to talk."[40]
We do not need to rely upon the testimony of witnesses belonging to the
Revolutionary Socialist party, the Mensheviki, or other factions unfriendly
to the Bolsheviki. However trustworthy such testimony may be, and however
well corroborated, we cannot expect it to be convincing to those who pin
their faith to the Bolsheviki. Such people will believe only what the
Bolsheviki themselves say about Bolshevism. It is well, therefore, that we
can supplement the testimony already given by equally definite and direct
testimony from official Bolshevist sources to the same effect. From the
official organs of the Bolsheviki it can be shown that the Bolshevik
authorities suppressed Soviet after Soviet; that when they found that
Soviets were controlled by Socialists who belonged to other factions they
dissolved them and ordered new elections, refusing to permit the free
choice of the members to be expressed in selecting their officers.
The Bolsheviki did this, it should be remembered, not merely in cases where
Mensheviki or Socialist-Revolutionists were in the majority, but
also in cases where the majority consisted of members of the
Socialist-Revolutionary party of the Left--the faction which had united
with the Bolsheviki in suppressing the Constituante.
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