existing conditions. For this purpose it was necessary to enlist the aid of the mob—that portion of the people, mainly women, who, having nothing to lose by general confusion, were ready in return for adequate remuneration to stamp and shout for each party in turn. Applauders and murderers are to be had at all prices."
A good example of the transparent absurdity of this stock argument of English white-washers of Bolshevism is provided in Lieut-Col. Malone's recent booklet, The Russian Republic. In order to try and show that the Red Government was obliged to make, and justified in making somewhat wholesale exemplary executions, because of the Allies' organised attempts to assassinate Lenin, which provoked "popular indignation," resulting in rioting and massacre, he refers to a declaration published in the Parisian Press in August, 1919, by Savinkoff, "in which he claims the credit for having organised the murder of Lenin." In view of what has already been related about the activities of Savinkoff (see § VI. p. 12), who has so admirably served the Bolshevik cause, there is a humorous irony in claiming him as working for the forces of "monarchical reaction and counter-revolution."
XIII. The Psychological Significance of the Terror. Sadism as Motive.
While it does little good to dwell on the horrors and bestialities that have been committed wholesale in Red Russia, all mention of their psychological significance cannot altogether be omitted, as they serve to give meaning to what would otherwise seem to lack explanation. It has long been known to the medical profession and to
