government can secure for us the fruits of the heroic struggle of the working class and the revolutionary army in the October-November days. We believe that outside of this there is only one alternative: the preservation of a clearly Bolshevik Government by means of political terror. This alternative has been adopted by the Council of People's Commissaries. We cannot and do not desire to join this government. We foresee that this must lead to the removal of the proletarian mass organisations from the leadership of political life, the establishment of an irresponsible regime, and the suppression of the revolution in the country. We cannot accept responsibility for such a policy, and for that reason we submit to the Central Executive Committee our resignation as People's Commissaries."[1]
Here is a short but eloquent extract from a long letter written by Zinoviev, Kamenev and others:
"We are resigning from the Central Committee at a moment of victory, at the moment when our Party has assumed power. We are resigning because we cannot look on calmly while the policy of the leading group of the Central Committee is leading to the loss of the fruits of victory of the workers' party and to the defeat of the proletariat." (Archives of the Revolution, 1917, p. 409.)
These political views did not just drop from the skies; they quite consistently and "correctly" fol-
- ↑ Archives of the Revolution, 1917. The October Revolution, Facts and Documents. Complied by Popov, edited by Roshkov. Leningrad, 1918, "Novaya Epokha," p. 408.
