Page:Boris Zakharovich Shumyatsky - The Aims of the Bolsheviki (1919).djvu/11

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In all the Dumas the Bolsheviki opposed the voting of State credits, because, in the main, all this money was used by the Czar, his servants, the bureaucrats, and their newly-acquired ally, the bourgeoisie, against the interests of the people. It was used for the upkeep of hosts of thieving officials; for the maintenance of gendarmes and police used:in open fight with the people; for the passing of laws in the interests of capitalists; for increase of armaments and preparation for wars which only benefit capitalists, making enormous profits from inflated war prices.

III.—Chief Dissensions during the Period preceding the October (November) Revolution.

All through the period from March to November, 1917, there were dissensions between the Mensheviki and Right Social Revolutionaries[1] on the one hand, and the Bolsheviki on the other, concerning three of the most important questions of the Revolution and of modern times:

i. The question of the land;
ii. The question of war and peace;
iii. The question of the organisation of the country during the revolutionary period.

i. The Land Question—The opinion of the Bolsheviki on this important national question was that all land must belong to the working people and peasants, the process of handing over must be organised, and there must be no compensation to private owners.

Up to this point the Mensheviki and the Right Social Revolutionaries were in complete agreement with the Bolsheviki; but, later on, when words had to be trans-

  1. The Right Social Revolutionaries, form that small section of the former S.R. Party, who, deaf to the calls of honour and conscience, have joined the capitalists, principally because in this group of the "intelligentsia " capitalism had secured a cosy little place in the sun.