It people outside, Russia are sur-priged vat this situation; if they fail to recognize how natural "in the circumstances Stalin's victory has Keen, it is bedouse they refuse to Tealize, that the Communist Party which ' rules Russia differs in Practically all the essentials from the party which gained power in 1918, and for a number of years ried to introduce Communism into the country at the point of the bayonet. People in the west are misled by the continuity of the Bolshevik personnel into bell in the existence of a similar con-Ainuity of Bolshevik policy. Bolshovism has been so much identified with militant and terrorist methods and with propaganda for world revolution, that some observers find it very difficult to believe that the Same ' persons, continuing at the head of a Revolutionary Dictatorship and seemingly wielding unchallenged authority, can be conceived as having changed. their methods, their aims and their} mentality.
Once a Bolshevik always a Bolshevik, and: the Communist Party, no matter what it does, oF what it declines' to do, is always th' party of extreme" revolution. This is the fixed. opinion of the West on Bolshevism; and whenever news of controversy or dissension Teaches the West the conclusion is immediately. jumped at that this is, at last the" revolt "of "the long-suffering". Moderates against the tyranny of the ruling clique in the party." And: yet experience. shows that all the revolts: within' the industrialism at the expense of agriculture would.speedily bring to an end: the rapprochement between the pdasante and the State which they consider the basis of their regime and which they have eared fully nursed since the inauguration of the New Economic Policy. Economically they consider it ruinous, for even if the heavy taxation CE" the peasants could. produce sufficient capital for the bolstering up of industry, it would at the same time destroy the market.
In the view of the Central Committee—and one must admit that it sound doctrine—the only way continuing. in power is to develop the internal market by lowering the burden of taxation in' the and thus increasing. the purchas ing capacity of the. peasants, and by systematically cheapening the cost of production of manufactured goods. They firmly believe that the fate of their regime depends entirely on their success in convincing the peasants that the Bolshevik Government is the most efficient, jand that their super-monopoly in [the market is the best moans for producing cheaper ard cheaper goods.
Capitalism "Stabilized'
This, indeed, signifies 2 tremendous [change in the mentality and outlook jot the Commu Party. "It began when the Bolsheviks finally realized thet the post-war unrest in the world was overcome, and that the capitalist regime had been, to use their own phrase, "stabilized." This conviction that capitalism had withstood all post-war attacks, and was sound enough to be likely to continue in the West for considerable period, naturally took some time in gaining general currency in that, quarter, but, once admitted, it was bound -to influence, the entire policy Of "the Soviet State. And it is not only admitted by the Com: munist Rarty, but has become official doctrine, and' the Basic principle of. their policy..
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.