Page:Pavel Ivanovich Biryukov - The New Russia - tr. Emile Burns (1920).djvu/28

 ill-feeling, a good breeding ground for all kinds of revolutionary disorders.

The second point of disagreement is mobilisation. The people never desired war. The ordinary mechanism of a great army dragged them into it in spite of themselves, but now this mechanism has been destroyed and the prestige of necessity has gone. The new Government solemnly proclaimed the end of the war, and set its blessing upon demobilisation. The people were in full agreement, and now for reasons not understood by them mobilisation has began again. The people refused to believe it, but detachments of the Red Army scour the country, search out and arrest deserters, and execute those who refuse to join the army. This is one more point of ill-feeling and discontent, and is likely to prolong the present troubles.

But the disturbances have been repressed, and by far the greatest mass of the people has submitted to the new yoke. This passive mass is not an obstacle to the Government, but on the other hand it does not actively help it. In order to get the new system deep-rooted in the people, the Government needs conscious elements which can carry out propaganda in words and in deeds. It is possible that this support may come from an unexpected direction, from the spiritual, moral and religious movements whose growth has never been checked within the hearts of the Russian people.

Among these movements the most powerful is the Tolstoian. Communist Marxism is the basis of the policy of the Russian Communist Party, and it is a non-moral doctrine. Individual consciousness of right and the understanding of scientific truth are not enough to