The facts in the case are, briefly, as follows: First, as Professor Ross
has pointed out,[77] the land policy of the Bolshevik government was a
compromise of the principles long advocated by its leaders, a compromise
made for political reasons only. Second, as Marie Spiridonova abundantly
demonstrated at an All-Russian Soviet Conference in July, 1918, the
Bolshevik government did not honorably live up to its agreement with the
Socialist-Revolutionists of the Left. Third, so far as the land problem was
concerned there was not the slightest need or justification for the
Bolshevik _coup d'etat_, for the reason that the problem had already been
solved on the precise lines afterward followed in the Soviet decree and the
leaders of the peasants were satisfied. We have the authority of no less
competent a witness than Litvinov, Bolshevist Minister to England, that
"the land measure had been 'lifted' bodily from the program of the
Socialist-Revolutionists."[78] Each of these statements is amply sustained
by evidence which cannot be disputed or overcome.
That the "land decree" which the Bolshevik government promulgated was a
compromise with their long-cherished principles admits of no doubt
whatever.
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