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sinner that repents than over ninety and nine righteous persons“.
Nor are these empty words on our part. When Kerensky was minister there was an engineer Paltchinsky, former Governor-general of this city and province. He lived in the Winter Palace and shot at us to the last days, instituted the state of seige, and was the best fighter under that Government. We imprisoned him. He is a fine engineer, a gifted man. And when he saw that what had happened was a serious thing, an historical revolution, not a tempest in a teapot, he agreed to devote his knowledge and his sklll to the service of Soviet' Russia. He was immediately released by us, and now he is working in Moscow, applying his knowledge for the good of the workers and peasants.
There is no petty vindictiveness among us, for the class of the oppressed, which suffered oppression for hundreds of years, cannot while liberating itself and the world, indulge in petty vengeance. When Gutchkov and Miliukov were ministers, Paltchinsky was what comrade Trotsky is now. Let us imagine for a moment that the Whites had defeated us, would they have released Trotsky? Never. But we released Paltchinsky, we appreciated his knowledge and talents, and gave him an opportunity to apply them usefully.
No one has such respect for knowledge as the workers. We know perfectly well what it
