Page:Emile Vandervelde - Three Aspects of the Russian Revolution - tr. Jean Elmslie Henderson Findlay (1918).djvu/44

 enjoyed a very precarious liberty, powerless to establish themselves on a solid basis.

That will give the reader some idea of the truly extraordinary quantity of explosive material thus massed together.

Does that mean that Russia is on the eve of this "social revolution" foretold by the theorists of Socialism? That would mean that we take a singularly superficial view of the case. A "labour" revolution would necessitate positive, constructive conditions; it would require a political and industrial capacity of which the urban proletariat of Russia has not given any proof so far, and which cannot be acquired in a day. The future of the country seems, moreover, likely to be determined rather by its agricultural situation, which directly interests the immense majority of its inhabitants, than by the state of its industry. It is, after all, the peasant who remains the real master of the situation.

Do we mean to say, then, on the other hand, that the material accumulated must