est chains to which the masses were compelled to submit. So it was yesterday. And today the same revolution—and indeed in the interest of Socialism—demands the absolute submission of the masses to the single will of those who direct the labor process. It is self-evident that such a transition cannot take place at once. It is self-evident that it can be realized only after great upheavals, crises, returns to the old; only through the greatest strain of the energy of the proletarian vanguard which is leading the people to the new order. This is ignored by those who, like the snug and comfort loving, fall into the hysterics of the "Novaya Zhizn," "Vperiod," "Dielo Naroda" and " Nash Viek."[1]
The Transition Period
Take the psychology of the average, ordinary type of the toiling and exploited masses and compare this psychology with the objective, material conditions of his social life. Before the November revolution he had never seen the possessing exploiting classes sacrifice in his favor anything that was really of value to them. He did not believe that he would be given the often promised land and liberty; that he would be given peace; that the interests of a "greater Russia" and of the secret treaties aiming at a "greater Russia, " would be sacrificed; that capital and profits would be surrendered. He realized this only after November 7, 1917—when he took it himself by force and when he had to defend this by force against the Kerenskys, Gotz, Gegechkoris, Dutovs, and Kornilovs. It is natural that for a certain time all his attention, all his thoughts, all his energy are turned in one direction—to breathe freely, to straighten out, to expand, to take the immediate benefits of life which can be taken and which were denied·to him by the overthrown exploiters. It is natural that it must take some time before the ordinary representative of the masses not only sees and becomes convinced, but comes to feel that he must not just simply seize, grab, snatch;—that this leads
- ↑ Liberal and moderate Socialist journals representing groups opposed to the Bolsheviks.
