revolt is a necessity?
How many are simply victims of subtle neuroses occasioned by sex
derangements, by religious chaos, and similar causes?

II

The Bolshevik rule began as a reign of terror. We must not make the mistake
of supposing that it was imposed upon the rest of Russia as easily as it
was imposed upon Petrograd, where conditions were exceptional. In the
latter city, with the assistance of the Preobrajenski and Seminovsky
regiments from the garrison, and of detachments of sailors from the Baltic
fleet, to all of whom most extravagant promises were made, the _coup
d'etat_ was easily managed with little bloodshed. But in a great many other
places the Bolshevist rule was effected in no such peaceful fashion, but by
means of a bloody terror. Here, for example, is the account of the manner
in which the counter-revolution of the Bolsheviki was accomplished at
Saratov, as given by a competent eye-witness, a well-known Russian
Socialist whose long and honorable service in the revolutionary movement
entitles her to the honor of every friend of Free Russia--Inna
Rakitnikov:[25]

Here ... is how the Bolshevist _coup d'etat_ took place at
Saratov. I was witness to these facts myself. Saratov is a big
university and intellectual center, possessing a great number of
schools, libraries, and divers associations designed to elevate
the intellectual standard of the population. The Zemstvo of
Saratov was one of the best in Russia. The peasant population of
this province, among whom the revolutionary Socialist propaganda
was carried on for several years, by the Revolutionary Socialist
party, is wide awake and well organized. The Municipality and the
Agricultural Committees were composed of Socialists. The
population was actively preparing for the elections to the
Constituent Assembly; the people discussed the list of candidates,
studied the candidates' biographies, as well as the programs of
the different parties. On the night of October 28th [November
10th, European calendar], by reason of an order that had come from
Petrograd, the Bolshevik _coup d'etat_ broke out at Saratov. The
following forces were its instruments: the garrison, which was a
stranger to the mass of the population, a weak party of workers,
and, in the capacity of leaders, some Intellectuals, who, up to
that time, had played no role in the public life of the town.

It was