forced to explain away differences of opinion much too thoroughgoing to be
explained away. In a country which is in the throes of the most remarkable
revolution ever witnessed, they tried to apply non-revolutionary
methods and drew on themselves the suspicion of the masses of being
counter-revolutionists. From the very moment when Miliukov announced the
passing of the supreme power from the Tsar to Grand Duke Michail, when his
words were answered by angry shouts in favor of a democratic republic, the
position of the party became precarious. They had either to revise their
own program and to catch up with the rush of the progressive current, or
else to find themselves in the ro1e of inundated rocks over which the
waters flow. The announcement that the party would support a demand for a
republic was too late to change the first impression, while the proposition
to accept unconditional expropriation of land in place of the compensation
plan was defeated in heated debate at the party convention. Under normal
circumstances the party would have probably been steadily losing support,
but the arrest and imprisonment of the best and highly honored leaders by
the Bolsheviki is bound to put fresh vigor into their efforts and give new
life to their cause.

The leaders of the Bolsheviki themselves have fallen into error of a
different kind. Being primarily a party of the wage earning day laborers,
the program of the Bolsheviki puts the interest of the proletariat above
everything else. From insufficient observation of peasant life and the fact
that peasants want socialization of land, they jump to the conclusion that
the country is ready for complete socialization. Only the more educated
leaders among them realize that such a conclusion is premature. But to
bring about the necessary change in as near a future as possible, the
leaders of the Bolsheviki have fanned hatred of the proletariat toward the
"bourgeois" classes. One must give them credit in this respect. They know
the value of simple language when they put this hatred into words. Listen