Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/881

Europe after the World War 659 The country that gave Europe and America the greatest concern after the defeat of the Germans was Russia. Under the leader- ship of Lenin, the Bolsheviki attempted to carry out a complete social and economic revolution by which the laboring classes should be given control not only of the government but of the land and factories and business in general, to be managed there- after in the interests of manual laborers (the so-called proletariat). The peasants were authorized to take the estates of the great landowners, and even the land of the richer peasants. Factories, banks, and mines were taken over by the nation to be used for the benefit of the proletariat. The older government was replaced by a system of Soviets, or councils, elected by groups of workers in the various factories, trades, and occupations, and by the farmers. There were local and provincial Soviets and these elected representatives to the ail-Russian Congress at Moscow. 1190. Bolshevik Tyranny. Naturally these revolutionary changes aroused bitter opposition. In order to stifle this opposi- tion the Bolsheviki suppressed many forms of freedom and re- sorted to some of the arbitrary practices with which they had so long been familiar under the despotic rule of the Tsar. Trotzky organized the "Red" army to enforce the "dictatorship of the proletariat." The leaders of the Bolsheviki argued that these harsh measures were only temporary, but were necessary to carry out the Revolution against the opposition of its enemies who sought to restore the old system. 1191. Fears in Western Europe and America. The European governments were horrified by the excesses committed in this forcible overthrow of the existing business system and by the seizure of private property. After the treaty of Brest-Litovsk they became persuaded that the Bolsheviki were pro-German. Their representatives in Russia encouraged the opposition to the "Reds." Czechoslovak regiments that had fled into Russia dur- ing the war got control of Siberia, and they were assisted by- English, Japanese, and American forces, which landed in Vladi- vostok to make headway against the Bolsheviki and to try to restore more just and orderly conditions.