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Bolshevism combines the characteristics of the French Revolution with those of the rise of Islam;
Bolshevism deserves the gratitude and admiration of all the progressive part of mankind.
Bolshevism is not merely a political doctrine; it is also a religion, with elaborate dogmas and inspired scriptures.
A full-fledged Communist is not merely a man who believes that land and capital should be held in common, and their produce distributed as nearly equally as possible. He is a man who entertains a number of elaborate and dogmatic beliefs
If a more just economic system were only attainable by closing men’s minds against free inquiry, and plunging them back into the intellectual prison of the middle ages, I should consider the price too high.
The present holders of power are evil men, and the present manner of life is doomed.
Those who followed Christ did not learn to love their enemies or to turn the other cheek. They learned instead to use the Inquisition and the stake, to subject the human intellect to the yoke of an ignorant and intolerant priesthood, to degrade art and extinguish science for a thousand years.
the war destroyed the hold upon men’s minds of everything merely traditional.
I believe that while some forms of Socialism are immeasurably better than capitalism, others are even worse.
the intolerance and lack of liberty which has been inherited from the Tsarist régime is probably to be regarded as Russian rather than Communist.
The exhaustion and misery caused by unsuccessful war were necessary to the success of the Bolsheviks; a prosperous population will not embark by such methods upon a fundamental economic reconstruction.
from men who are more anxious to injure opponents than to benefit the world at large no great good is to be expected.
The baser side of the present Russian Government is most nearly paralleled by the Directoire in France, but on its better side it is closely analogous to the rule of Cromwell.
Both, starting from a combination of democracy and religious faith, were driven to sacrifice democracy to religion enforced by military dictatorship.
there comes a point at which men feel that amusement and ease are worth more than all other goods put together.
The revolution foretold by Marx, which is to abolish capitalism throughout the world, happened to begin in Russia, though Marxian theory would seem to demand that it should begin in America.
No real good can come to any country without a bloody revolution: English Labour men may fancy that a peaceful evolution is possible, but they will find their mistake.
after weighing this theory carefully, and after admitting the whole of its indictment of bourgeois capitalism, I find myself definitely and strongly opposed to it.
I cannot support any movement which aims at world revolution.
while I cannot advocate world revolution, I cannot escape from the conclusion that the Governments of the leading capitalist countries are doing everything to bring it about.
But nationalism is natural and instinctive; through pride in the revolution, it grows again even in the breasts of Communists.
men who control a vast governmental machine can hardly have quite the same outlook on life as they had when they were hunted fugitives.
also to the power of Bolshevik propaganda. He said the Germans had laughed when the Bolsheviks proposed to combat guns with leaflets, but that the event had proved the leaflets quite as powerful.
I went to Russia a Communist; but contact with those who have no doubts has intensified a thousandfold my own doubts, not as to Communism in itself, but as to the wisdom of holding a creed so firmly that for its sake men are willing to inflict widespread misery.
All the intellectuals whom I met—a class who have suffered terribly—expressed their gratitude to him for what he has done on their behalf.
A State which is struggling with economic difficulties is bound to be slow to admit an artistic vocation, since this involves exemption from practical work.
The only hope, if men are to remain human beings under industrialism, is to reduce hours to the minimum.
art directly inspired by Communism it is a different story. Apart from the propaganda pictures already referred to, there are propaganda plays performed by the Red Army in its spare moments, and there are the mass pageant plays performed on State occasions.
It was intense and tragic and passionately acted. Dramatic talent is not rare in Russia.
it must be remembered that it is necessary first to admit that children should be delivered up almost entirely to the State. Nominally, the mother still comes to see her child in these schools, but in actual fact, the drafting of children to the country must intervene, and the whole temper of the authorities seemed to be directed towards breaking the link between mother and child.
an evil in that it is done emotionally and fanatically, with an appeal to hate and militant ardour rather than to constructive reason. It binds the free intellect and destroys initiative.
the pragmatist view of knowledge and scientific research which the Church and the capitalist already find it so convenient to adopt.
Once again I experienced the dread of seeing the ideals of the Russian revolutionaries go down before the logic of necessity.
It is impossible to secure that the village Soviet shall consist of Communists, because, as a rule, at any rate in the villages I saw, there are no Communists.
All real power is in the hands of the Communist Party, who number about 600,000 in a population of about 120 millions.
Communism is anathema to the peasant, who wants his own land and nothing else.
make their profit out of the fact that no one can live except by breaking the law.
The Bolsheviks are industrialists in all their aims; they love everything in modern industry except the excessive rewards of the capitalists.
All that I saw on the Volga made me believe that real efficiency has been shown in reorganizing the transport of oil,
On the one hand, there is no disorder, very little crime, not much insecurity for those who keep clear of politics.
the effect of life in some vast village, rather than in an important capital city.
The police play, altogether, a much greater part in daily life than they do in other countries
One does not see people reading, as one does here in the Underground for example.
By proclaiming itself the friend of the proletarian, the Government has been enabled to establish an iron discipline, beyond the wildest dreams of the most autocratic American magnate.
The average working man, to judge by a rather hasty impression, feels himself the slave of the Government, and has no sense whatever of having been liberated from a tyranny.
the Bolsheviks have only a very limited share of responsibility for the evils from which Russia is suffering.
It is commonly said that the problem of feeding Moscow and Petrograd is a transport problem, but I think this is only partially true.
the attempt to suppress private commerce has resulted in an amount of unprofessional buying and selling which far exceeds what happens in capitalist countries.
the peasants are too ignorant to have any national consciousness, such as one takes for granted in England or France or Germany.
the old village communism, which is extraordinarily unlike Bolshevism and entirely dependent upon a very primitive stage of culture.
