INTERNATIONAL POLICY 106
PART II
BOLSHEVIK THEORY
I. THE MATERIALISTIC THEORY OF HISTORY 119
II. DECIDING FORCES IN POLITICS 128
III. BOLSHEVIK CRITICISM OF DEMOCRACY 134
IV. REVOLUTION AND DICTATORSHIP 146
V. MECHANISM AND THE INDIVIDUAL 157
VI. WHY RUSSIAN COMMUNISM HAS FAILED 165
VII. CONDITIONS FOR THE SUCCESS OF COMMUNISM 178
PART I
THE PRESENT CONDITION OF RUSSIA
I
WHAT IS HOPED FROM BOLSHEVISM
To understand Bolshevism it is not sufficient to know facts; it is
necessary also to enter with sympathy or imagination into a new
spirit. The chief thing that the Bolsheviks have done is to create a
hope, or at any rate to make strong and widespread a hope which was
formerly confined to a few. This aspect of the movement is as easy to
grasp at a distance as it is in Russia--perhaps even easier, because
in Russia present circumstances tend to obscure the view of the
distant future. But the actual situation in Russia can only be
understood superficially if we forget the hope which is the motive
power of the whole. One might as well describe the Thebaid without
mentioning that the hermits expected eternal bliss as the reward of
their sacrifices here on earth.
I cannot share the hopes of the Bolsheviks any more than those of the
Egyptian anchorites; I regard both as tragic delusions, destined to
bring upon the world centuries of darkness and futile violence.
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