That measure provided for the abolition of
private property in land, and placed all land in the hands of and under the
direction of the peasant communes. It was the old Socialist-Revolutionist
program. But the Bolshevik government had not carried out the law of
February. Instead, it had resorted to the Social Democratic method of
nationalization. In the western governments, she said, "great estates were
being taken over by government departments and were being managed by
officials, on the ground that state control would yield better results than
communal ownership. Under this system the peasants were being reduced to
the state of slaves paid wages by the state. Yet the law provided that
these estates should be divided among the peasant communes to be tilled by
the peasants on a co-operative system."[83] Spiridonova protested against
the attitude of the Bolsheviki toward the peasants, against dividing them
into classes and placing the greater part of them with the bourgeoisie. She
insisted that the peasants be regarded as a single class, co-operating with
the industrial proletariat, yet distinct from it and from the bourgeoisie.
For our present purpose, it does not matter whether the leaders of the
Bolsheviki were right or wrong in their decision that state operation was
better than operation by village co-operatives.
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