Page:Lars Henning Söderhjelm - The Red Insurrection in Finland in 1918 - tr. Annie Ingebord Fausbøll (1920).djvu/67

 well as the peace conference in Brest-Litovsk, which revealed the utter impotence of Russia, influenced the situation in Finland. It was necessary for the Labour Party to take a stand upon the subject. Either the peaceful development of free Finland to a Western State emancipated from Russian dependence and Russian anarchy, or a Finland continually whirling round in the maelstrom of the Russian revolution, sinking into an Eastern chaos, into a gulf of anarchy and terrorism. The party chose the latter alternative. It was the natural consequence of its previous activity and of Russian pressure. But it could not have sunk into the arms of Bolshevism if it had let itself be guided by fairly reasonable views and not by the two powerful passions which now quite blinded it: lust of power and class hatred. The party subordinated itself to the plans of the Russian Bolsheviks, though reluctantly in certain quarters.

These latter were no secret. The formula of the self-determination of nations threatened Russia with destruction. And the peace with Germany was soon to establish the fact that the provinces which had emancipated themselves were politically independent. Undoubtedly Lenin's whole policy was directed towards preventing such a national disaster to Russia. And the means he employed was the social revolution of the world. It was to paralyze Germany's power, and it was to keep hold of the provinces within the boundaries of the Russian Empire which, without being occupied by the troops of the Central Powers, were now wandering their own ways. The same course was taken in the Ukraine, Estland, and Finland. The Bolsheviks intended to monopolise the power, if in no other way, by force. In this way these states would again become attached to Russia. For even if no separate nations existed to the