The Bolsheviks from the start found themselves short-handed, understaffed for the work of organising the nation. It is always easy for a despot like a Czar to carry on his Government : he has only to give the order and people must obey. But in a society which is endeavouring to put into practice the forms of democracy the business is more difficult. The worst thing about an autocracy, even when it is overthrown, rests in the fact that the evil it has done lives after it. Lenin and his colleagues found themselves with a nation of over one hundred million people and a country of thousands of square miles to administer, with nearly all the old rulers and leaders of the people hostile. In spite of this, the country is slowly being organised and made safe from the evils arising out of the blockade and foreign wars.
Critics and investigators who go to Russia to see the revolution at work must bear in mind the fact that Russia has seen nearly six years of war, and for the last two and a half years she has been faced also with civil war. Consequently the Government and its administrators have had no chance. We shall all make a great mistake unless from the outset we recognise these facts when discussing organisation of labour and distribution of food under the Soviets. Life is becoming more tolerable, the people who have assisted in this
