strength, of fortifying herself for the fight against all enemies, amongst which would be included German imperialism, if it thought fit to attack Soviet Russia. But of course people who deeply disdain the toiling masses, people who for hundreds of years have held them under their yoke, could not possibly believe that a labor government was capable of organizing Russia in such a way that she could guarantee herself against German imperialism. They could not believe that the toiling masses would not bow down their necks to them, and they ignored the fact that the united wisdom of all the capitalist states had not been able to save these masses from the horrors of a four years’ war. If the Soviet Government of Russia could develop and strengthen itself, then indeed there would be evidence that the workers, after overthrowing the yoke of capitalism, could themselves order their own life. That would be a proof, which would react upon the toiling masses of all lands with unheard-of force. The capitalism of the Allies could not with its own hands create the belief in the minds of its own working classes of the uselessness of capitalist governments. That is a common psychological phenomenon, which it is possible to observe both with Entente and with German imperialism. In the case of the Allies this point of view was given particular prominence in view of the military situation and of the military position of the Allies. German capitalism was ready for a business deal, for its interests demanded that there should be no Eastern front. It was carrying on a severe struggle in the West and whatever it may have thought of a government of the working classes, it was satisfied if this government by its own strength and for its own interests kept off the forces of the Allies from penetrating far into Russia. Therefore with a heavy heart it had to pretend to believe that a workers’ and peasants’ government did not necessarily mean the end of the world. Allied capitalism on the other hand, was directly interested in establishing the Eastern front. It wanted to create it in order to draw off the forces of German imperialism from the Western front to the Eastern and therefore it was natural that with it the fundamental tendency of all capitalist society, namely hatred for a workers’ government, should overcome all others. The fact that France plays a great role in directing the policy of the Allies clenched the
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