Page:Grigory Zinoviev - Army and People (1920).pdf/18

 individuals do stay out of politics, take no active part in them. And no one says to them „Join our Party“ or „Support our policy“.

But since we are examining general questions, we say: every mature, intelligent man must understand that ever since the history of cultured people has existed, no army ever stood or could stand outside of politics.

Shall not the same be said in particular of the officer class? There is not and never was an officer class, any more than the masses, which could stand outside of political conflicts. It is not subtleties which matter, not details or particulars; what is important is the principle.

If we consider the destiny of the Russian officer class, and its development—and after all, it touches us most closely—we shall find that it never was a compact homogeneous body, and never stood outside of politics.

In our officer class there has always been a very distinct division into strata. One part of it thought this way, another that way. One part was in one camp; the other in another camp. This sort of thing began about a hundred years ago. One of the first revolutionary outbreaks at all in the nature of a mass movement, in favour of a republic as against a monarchy, came from the officer class. I refer