placed in the hands of the Communist bosses by the constitution of their organization:
The 2nd Congress of the Communist Internationale should not only affirm the historic mission of the Communist Party in general, but should indicate to the International Proletariat, at least in its fundamental features, precisely what kind of a Communist Party we need.
The Communist Internationale considers that the Communist Party should be built up on the basis of iron proletarian centralism particularly in the epoch of the dictatorship of the proletariat. In order to be able to direct successfully the activities of the working class in the long and persistent civil war which impends, the Communist Party itself must operate within its own ranks iron military order.
Under the "military order" of an "iron proletarian centralism" any practical person may easily grasp the futility of such reforms as are now proposed for "the ending of the dictatorship of the people's commissars" and "the taking over of actual control of the affairs of state by the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets." (Resolution of the 1920 Soviet Congress.) Where is there any authority honestly to carry out this proposed change outside of the Communist Party? The resolution on February 9, 1921, by which the Central Executive Committee ordered the local Soviets convoked and given "full power," was also mere verbiage. As these local governing bodies consist to the extent of ninety-nine per cent (see Zinoviev's figures above quoted) of Communists under the dictatorial power of the Soviet Commissars as chiefs of the Party, what change has taken place?
