Executive Committee, as elsewhere. I think it may be
regarded as proved that these majorities are not always
legitimately obtained. Non-Communist delegates do
undoubtedly find every kind of difficulty put in their way by
the rather Jesuitical adherents of the faith. But. no matter
how these majorities are obtained, the result is that when the
Communist Party has made up its mind on any subject, it is
so certain of being able to carry its point that the calling
together of the All-Russian Executive Committee is merely a
theatrical demonstration of the fact that it can do what it
likes. When it does meet, the Communists allow the
microscopical opposition great liberty of speech, listen
quietly, cheer ironically, and vote like one man, proving
on every occasion that the meeting of the Executive
Committee was the idlest of forms, intended rather to satisfy
purists than for purposes of discussion, since the real
discussion has all taken place beforehand among the
Communists themselves. Something like this must happen
with every representative assembly at which a single party
has a great preponderance and a rigid internal discipline.
The real interest is in the discussion inside the Party
Committees.


This state of affairs would probably be more actively
resented if the people were capable of resenting anything
but their own hunger, or of fearing anything but a general
collapse which would turn that hunger into starvation. It
must be remembered that the urgency of the economic crisis
has driven political questions into the background. The