bourgeoisie, with whom we have had a mild quarrel—a quarrel is not a rupture—over the Kornilov incident. We have quarrelled—well, we can make it up. Moreover, the Bolsheviks 'concede' us absolutely nothing, for all the insurrections that they'll try will be totally crushed as was the Commune of 1871."
The other voice will say: "To base one's arguments on the Commune is to reason superficially and even sillily. For, first of all, the Bolsheviks have learned a little from the experience of their precursors of 1871: they will not fail to put their hand on the State Bank, nor will they hesitate to march on Versailles; and the Commune, had it done that, might have won through. Furthermore, the Commune could not immediately offer the people what the Bolsheviks can if they take power, that is to say: land to the peasants, the immediate proposal of peace, effective control of production, an honourable peace with the Ukrainians, the Finns, &c. The Bolsheviks, in common parlance, have ten times as many trumps in their hand as had the Commune. The Commune implies a painful period of civil war, a prolonged stoppage to civilisation's peaceful development; it will facilitate the machinations of all sorts of MacMahons and Kornilovs, a grave danger to our bourgeois society. Is it reasonable to run the risk of the Commune?
"But the Commune is inevitable in Russia, if our bloc does not take power, if the situation remains as it has done from May 6 to August 31. The spirit of every workman, of every revolutionary soldier will without fail turn towards the Commune, he will believe in it, he will attempt to achieve it. The people, he will say to himself, is perishing; war, famine, ruin are decimating its ranks more and more seriously as each day goes by. Only the Commune can save us. Let us sacrifice ourselves, let us all die if need be, but long live the Commune! These are the thoughts which will fatally come into the minds of all the workers, and the Commune to-day will not be so easy to defeat as in 1871. The Russian Commune will have throughout the whole world allies a hundred times more mighty than the Commune of Paris. Is it sensible to take the chance of the Commune? Moreover one could not say that the Bolsheviks are granting us nothing by their compromise. In all advanced countries intelligent ministers highly appreciate every accord, small as it may be, with the people during war. And, as these ministers are business men, genuine ministers, their
