Page:Emile Vandervelde - Three Aspects of the Russian Revolution - tr. Jean Elmslie Henderson Findlay (1918).djvu/115

 reaction the party that is lying low at present will come back to power. They are practising the policy of letting things get worse. There are employers who, instead of combating disorder in their workshops, leave it alone, as if they hoped that extreme disorder in the production would achieve their purpose and obtain for them again the power which they have lost. The same attitude can be noticed in a minority, fortunately not considerable, in all the domains of activity. We can say, in short, that we are witnessing a kind of strike of the citizens. It is, not to use a stronger expression, singularly imprudent, for it could lead to worse even than to a reaction of which it would be difficult to limit the result. It could bring in its train all Russia to a common and possibly irretrievable ruin.

But the Revolution is more vigorous than it appears to the superficial observer. Its necessity imposes itself more and more on those who at first were inclined to doubt its viability. It is carrying with it even those who were recalcitrant, and,