That is the only difference between the dictatorship
of Russia by the Romanov dynasty and the dictatorship of Russia by a small
minority of determined, class-conscious working-people. It is not only the
precise forms of oppressive power used by them that are identically
characteristic of Czarism and Bolshevism, but their underlying philosophy.
Both forms of dictatorship rest upon the philosophy of might as the only
valid right. Militarism, especially as it was developed under Prussian
leadership, has exactly the same philosophy and aims at the same general
result, namely, to establish the domination and control of society by a
minority class. The Bolsheviki have simply inverted Czarism and Militarism.
What really shocks the majority of people is not, after all, the methods or
the philosophy of Bolshevism, but the fact that the Bolsheviki, belonging
to a subject class, have seized upon the methods and philosophy of the most
powerful ruling classes and turned them to their own account. There is a
class morality and a class psychology the subtle influences of which few
perceive as a matter of habit, which, however, to a great extent shape our
judgments, our sympathies, and our antipathies.
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