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nationalities. What is actually taking place in the East? Ask the philosophical Crispien. They are—so he says—young capitalist countries, which desire to liberate themselves from the influence of old capitalist countries.
Thus, according to Crispien, India. Persia, and China turn out to be "young capitalist countries." This is an obvious fallacy. But Crispien expounded it in all seriousness and with a pretence to scholarship. We had no difficulty in proving how utterly ignorant Crispien and Co. were on this question.
We said:
"There can be no world revolution without a rebellion, an awakening of Asia. Only then can we count on a European revolution." We pointed out that only the Third International could inspire boundless confidence in the nations of the East in the shortest space of time. We pointed out the present attitude of the Right Independents towards the movements of Eastern nations is in reality a continuation of the policy of the Second International. That sublime contempt which was poured on the "Mullahs from Khiva" by gentlemen like Hilferding, proves the petty bourgeois conceit and stupidity of the "European" reformists, who are incapable of understanding the revolutionary part which the awakening of Asia is destined to play. We had no difficulty in proving that the Right Independents are incapable of understanding the movement of emancipation among the Eastern nations as a factor in the proletarian revolution, precisely because to them the world revolution itself is only an empty sound and a meaningless symbol.
With regard to 'Terror, Crispien and Co., following in the footsteps of Kautsky, attempted to make a "scientific" distinction between "terror" and "violence." "We recognise Violence (stated Crispien), but under no circumstances Terror.” We answered that Terror is only the most extreme form of "Violence," just as civil war is the most extreme form of the class struggle. Further, we adduced instances from the Russian and the Finnish revolutions. We reminded them of that rosy dawn of the workers' revolution in Russia—the first days of the October revolution—when we liberated Krassnov from the Smolny
