Memorandum On Certain Aspects Of The Bolshevist Movement In Russia. Introduction.

MEMORANDUM ON CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE BOLSHEVIST MOVEMENT IN RUSSIA.

INTRODUCTION.

The Russian Division of the State Department has prepared from original sources this brief summary of what appear to be some of the fundamental Bolshevist principles, methods, and aims. As will be seen, the statements are based almost entirely on translations from Bolshevist newspapers in the files of the department. These newspapers are the official organs of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of Soviets, of local Soviet committees, or of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks).

The Bolsheviks' own statements are supplemented by the reports of American representatives in or near Russia. '

The theoretical “dictatorship of the proletariat,” acknowledged to be the rule of a minority, with a definite policy of preliminary destruction, is found in fact to have degenerated into a close monopoly of power by a very small group, who use the most opportunistic and tyrannical methods, including “mass terror.”

While existing on the accumulated wealth of the country, the Bolshevist regime has brought about a complete economic collapse, with consequent famine and epidemic. The claim of, the Bolsheviks that economic isolation is wholly responsible for the economic chaos in Soviet Russia, can not be sustained. . The Bolshevist program has not worked and Bolshevism has to its credit no constructive accomplishment.

One of the main aims of the Bolshevist leaders from the very beginning has been to make their movement a world-wide social revolution. They insistently declare that success in Russia depends on the development of corresponding social revolutions in all other countries. Bolshevist policies and tactics are subordinated to the idea of the international proletarian revolution. Apparent compromises with “bourgeois” governments or countries have proved temporary and tactical.