political power themselves or call back the bourgeois to share it with them. The first way leads inevitably to Soviets and revolution, and the second to a Constituent Assembly and reform. Even so far back as the Paris Commune traces of Soviets are to be found. And it is significant that the workers of Germany and Hungary turned rapidly to Soviets when their old Governments broke down after the war. If the Russian workers have the Soviet idea stronger than other branches of the world's proletariat, it is merely because they have been confronted with more extreme revolutionary crises.
The Soviets have many admitted faults. But they are peculiarly well-adapted to a revolutionary situation. They give the workers a much more flexible and practical governmental organization than one constructed upon so-called democratic principles. It is safe to prophecy that, the revolution prospering, the Russian workers will not dispense with their Soviets until they are able to develop the non-governmental society towards which they are aiming.
20
