Page:The Proletarian Revolution in Russia - Lenin, Trotsky and Chicherin - ed. Louis C. Fraina (1918).djvu/232

 more pitiful, and practically, nothing more ridiculous, than the middle class sobs concerning the 17th of July (indulged in, by the way, by L. Martov), concerning the fact that the Bolsheviki contrived to bring about their defeat, and so on and so forth. All these sobs, all the conclusions that "there should not have been" any participation in the July 16–17 movement (participation which was for the purpose of imparting a "peaceful and organized" character to a perfectly legal state of discontent and activity of the masses!)—all this verges on apostasy if emanating from the Bolsheviki, or is characteristic if emanating from the petite bourgeoisie, the manifestation of its habitual indecision and intimidation. In fact, the movement of July 16–17 was a development of the movement of May 2–3 and its subsequent period, as inevitable as that summer follows spring. It was the unquestionable duty of the proletarian party to remain with the masses, trying to give a more peaceful and organized expression to their just demands and action, not to sweep aside, not to wash their hands of it all, in the manner of Pontius Pilate, on the pedantic pretext that the masses were not organized to the last man and that excesses might follow. (As if there were no excesses on May 2–3! As if there was ever in the history in the world a single mass movement without excesses!)

After July 17 the Social-Revolutionists and the Mensheviki were so completely involved and entangled with the bourgeoisie that they could no longer disguise the fact that they were prepared for cooperation with the counter-revolutionary Cadets (for purposes of repression, slander and the hangman' policy). The Social-Revolutionists and the Mensheviki were completely swallowed in the swamp of counter-revolution because their actions during May and June, their acceptance of the coalition ministry and support of the policy of the offensive, led directly to the swamp.

I have somewhat digressed, apparently, from my theme of the suppression of Pravda to the historic evaluation of the 17th of July: but that is only apparently, since in reality we cannot understand the one without the other. The suppression of Pravda, the arrests of Bolsheviki and other persecutions, represent nothing more or less than the realization of the program of counter-revolution and the Cadets in particular, if we consider the main aspect of the affair and the course of events.

It is most instructive, now, to consider just by whom and by what means this program was realized.

Consider the facts. On July 15 and 16 the movement gathers