This decree was
simply a reproduction of a Revolutionary Socialists' resolution adopted at
a Peasants' Congress. What could the socialization of the soil be to Lenine
and all the Bolsheviki in general? They had been, but a short time before,
profoundly indifferent with regard to this Socialist-Revolutionist
"Utopia." It had been for them an object of raillery. But they knew that
without this "Utopia" they would have no peasants. And they threw them
this mouthful, this "decree," which astonished the peasants. "Is it a law?
Is it not a law? Nobody knows," they said.
It is the same desire to have, cost what it may, the sympathy of the
peasants that explains the union of the Bolsheviki with those who are
called the "Socialist-Revolutionists of the Left" (for the name
Socialist-Revolutionist spoke to the heart of the peasant), who played the
stupid and shameful role of followers of the Bolsheviki, with a blind
weapon between their hands.
A part of the "peasants in uniform" followed the Bolsheviki to Smolny. The
Germans honored the Bolsheviki by continuing with them the pourparlers for
peace. The Bolshevist government had at its disposal the Red Guards, well
paid, created suddenly in the presence of the crumbling of the army for
fear of remaining without the help of bayonets.
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