CHAPTER FIFTEEN
THE CLASH
WHO made the Revolution, and how was the Revolution accomplished? One would imagine that nothing could be simpler than the answer to this question. All the phases of the Revolution were enacted quite openly; nay, more, all the preliminary stages, the events which led up to the Revolution, took place in the public view. The revolutionary spirit was growing visibly; revolution and counter-revolution were mustering their forces without making any secret about it.
And yet an absurd confusion has arisen, not only about the details of the Revolution, but even about its outstanding events. For instance, in this country it has become fashionable to consider that the Revolution was made by the Duma, and that the workers with their Soviets usurped the power which rightly belonged to Russian Liberalism. This idea has taken root so firmly in this country that anyone who says anything to the contrary is liable to be branded as an anarchist—even if he merely suggests that the workers played the chief part in the Revolution.
This attempt to represent the Duma as the author of the Revolution, though it is a sheer perversion of perfectly evident facts, is none the less comprehensible. For the question of who made the Revolution involves the question of what the Revolution stands for. Having accused the workers and soldiers of usurping the power which was won by the Duma, one can then declare that all the ideals of the Soviets were alien to the Revolution and not inherent in it. Then one can begin a "holy war" (i.e., really counter-revolution), not in the name of counter-revolution, but in the name of the "real Revolution," defending it from the Soviets, the "anarchists" and "usurpers."
