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fringement universally approved of? And why do we still at the present moment: "Yes, that was the right thing to do?" Simply because it was the arrest of dangerous counter-revolutionaries. And in a revolution, more than at any other time, we should remember the eleventh Commandment: "Be on the look out!" If you are not, if you set all the enemies of the people free, if you do not keep them under control, there will be nothing left to remember the revolution by!
Another example. When Sturmer and Goremikin were being arrested, the Black Hundred press was closed. This was a deliberate infringement of the freedom of the press. Was it justifiable? Most certainly! And no reasonable being will dispute that this was just what should have been done. And why? Again, because at a time of revolution, when there is a life and death struggle going on, the enemy should be deprived of his weapons. And the press is such a weapon.
Prior to the October revolution, several Black Hundred societies ("The Two-Headed Eagle" and a few others) were closed down at Kiev. This was an infringement of the freedom of association. But it was the right thing to do, because the revolution cannot permit the free organisation of unions against the revolution.
When Korniloff was advancing on Petrograd, a number of generals struck, refusing to obey the orders of the Provincial Government. They declared they would support Korniloff to the last. Was it possible to sanction such freedom of generals' strikes? Surely for such strikes these Black Hundred generals should have been subjected to the severest punishment.
What docs ail this mean? We see now that infringement of freedom is necessary with regard to the opponents of the revolution. At a time of revolution we cannot allow freedom for the enemies of the people and of the revolution. That is a surely clear, irrefutable conclusion.
After March and before October neither the mensheviks nor the right socialist revolutionaries, nor the bourgeoisie, once raised their voices against the usurpation of power by violence in March, or against the suppression of freedom (of the Black Hundred press), or speech (Black Hundred), etc. They never once raised their voices against all this, because it was carried out by the bourgeoisie, Goutchkoff, Miliukoff, Rodzinko, and Tereschenko, and their loyal servants Kerensky and Tzeretelli, who had usurped power in March.
