Page:Samuel Gompers - Out of Their Own Mouths (1921).djvu/74

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48
OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS

cratic Workmen's Party (Menshevists), and also to propose to all Soviets of Workmen's, Soldiers', Peasants' and Cossacks' Deputies to remove the representatives of these fractions from their midst.

(Signed) President of all-Russian Cen-
tral Executive Committee,
Y. Sverdlov.
Secretary—V. Avanesov.

Not only are leaders of all opposition parties excluded from the Soviet whenever they become powerful, but they are regarded as traitors and treated accordingly. The only opposition tolerated is obliged to call itself "non-partisan," and even the non-partisans are "suspect" and subject to sudden punishment.

[Lenin's speech above quoted is only one of many evidences of this attitude.]