Page:Raymond Augustine McGowan - Bolshevism in Russia and America (1920).pdf/6

6 But the theory of a revolutionary seizure of political power was after a time discarded by most Socialists. They began to rely upon the ballot. They looked forward either to a gradual and almost imperceptible entrance of society into Socialism, or to the victory of the Socialist party at the polls and the introduction of the coöperative commonwealth after a majority had voted its adoption.

The difference in tactics also developed two sets of ideas regarding the organization of industry and government in the Socialist society. Both posited a central power directing industry and social life, but the revolutionary Socialists, especially in recent years, have looked forward to a State which would have vast industrial unions as its constituents, while the moderate Socialists have left this matter for future decision, or have thought that the present organization of the State would remain under Socialism. Still the chief difference between the revolutionary and the moderate Socialists—between the Bolsheviki and the Mensheviki—was one of tactics and present policy. One group looked forward to the seizure of political power by the class-conscious proletariat; the other group looked forward to political victory for Socialism at the polls. One prepared for a revolution; the other prepared for victory at an election.

The Russian Bolsheviki, before the Revolution, were a party in Siberian or foreign exile. When the Tsar was deposed in March, 1917, they were able to return to Russia and returning they did all in their power to effect the plans that they had prepared long before. They joined in with other parties to overthrow the first Provisional Government, and when the Kerensky Government came to power they attacked it as mercilessly as they had the first Government.

As allies they had the extremist wing of the Social Revolutionaries led by Maria Spiridonova, a terrorist, lately returned from Siberia. This group was not Marxian but almost anarchistic centering its efforts upon