Page:Pavel Ivanovich Biryukov - The New Russia - tr. Emile Burns (1920).djvu/34

 abroad, and the country became covered with Communist Organisations of Moravian Brothers who marked the most flourishing epoch in the history of the Slav peoples. I believe that a similar role is marked out in the present day for the Tolstoian movement.

We believe that Communism is a very high form of social order, but we cannot approve of the use of constraint in imposing it upon the people. Nevertheless we look upon the Communist institutions of Soviet Russia as an accomplished fact, and we believe that we can collaborate in the free education of the people in Communist ideals.

We understand by Communism the recognition of the duty to work and the guarantee of material existence. The abolition of that awful anxiety with regard to material needs in the life of each individual would be without doubt an enormous step forward, and this may indeed be realised. There is no doubt that the luxurious life which the possessing class lives at present cannot be guaranteed to all. The people will have to content themselves with the necessary minimum. When that time comes we shall be able to say aloud the words spoken by Jesus:—

This is indeed the greatest beauty of the collectivist system—the free enjoyment for every human being of all of nature's treasures, and of all the treasures of the sciences and the arts.