Page:Grigory Zinoviev - Army and People (1920).pdf/54

 change takes place in the officer class, until there are tens of thousands of new officers in the ranks of the Red Army. until traitors get to be as rare a phenomenon as white crows, to be pointed at, despised in their own families, by their own fathers, mothers, sisters, sweet-hearts, wives; until then we must make use of such measures as at present.

The conditions just now are those of the most furious, most desperate struggle; here, in this very city, there are hundreds of spies in the pay of the French and English bourgeoisie. Quite lately, a few days ago, a bomb was thrown at Moscow into a gathering of Party workers, who were discussing their Party affairs; several women were killed, some of whom were with child.

In a red hot atmosphere like this the innocent, naturally, sometimes have to suffer. And a military man, who knows what war is like, should be the last to complain of that, and he should patiently put up with such extra unpleasantness as falls to his share outside of the open war with the White Guards. A military man who is acquainted with the circumstances of warfare, should be the last to accuse us. It is hard to see one's friends, or people one is fond of kept in prison, knowing them to be innocent—desperately hard. I admit the legitimacy of bitter feeling in such cases; but one must make allowance, understand the cause of it. It