Page:Maxim Gorki on the Bolsheviki.djvu/1

 

Maxim Gorki, the famous Russian novelist, whose vivid portrayals of Russian life and character long stirred the world to sympathy with the ideals of the Russian Revolution, was at first antagonistic to the Soviet Government. He attacked the Bolsheviki in his paper, the Novo Zjin, and bitterly opposed the Soviet Government. The British Capitalist Press even reported that he had been executed by the Soviet Government.

Later, however, he became converted to Bolshevik methods, and accepted a post under the Soviet Government in order to help its literary and educational work. He has now definitely joined the Soviet Government, and has issued the following Manifesto to the civilised world:—

The war is at an end. German Imperialism has been defeated and has now to pay a heavy penalty for its lust of conquest.

The German proletariat, decimated by the war and exhausted by hunger, will dearly pay for the former victories, because in the past it obeyed the policy of its ruling classes.

On the other hand, the victors, who but a short time ago proclaimed to the world that they were destroying millions of human lives for the triumph of Justice and for the happiness of the peoples, have now compelled the defeated German nation to accept armistice terms which are ten times worse than those imposed on Russia by German Imperialism at Brest, and which threaten the German people with absolute starvation.

Day by day the cynicism and inhumanity of the Imperialists' policy grow more patent and threaten the peoples of Europe with new wars and fresh bloodshed.

President Wilson who but yesterday posed as the smooth-tongued champion of the liberties of the peoples and of the rights of democracy, is to-day* equipping an immense army for the "restoration of order" in revolutionary Russia,