had sung a funeral hymn
to Logvinov, and wept when they saw that they had understood
nothing, now became the docile executioners of the orders of the
Bolsheviki. And when they were asked, "Why do you do this?" they
answered, as in the time, still recent, of Czarism: "It is the
order. No need to talk."[40]

We do not need to rely upon the testimony of witnesses belonging to the
Revolutionary Socialist party, the Mensheviki, or other factions unfriendly
to the Bolsheviki. However trustworthy such testimony may be, and however
well corroborated, we cannot expect it to be convincing to those who pin
their faith to the Bolsheviki. Such people will believe only what the
Bolsheviki themselves say about Bolshevism. It is well, therefore, that we
can supplement the testimony already given by equally definite and direct
testimony from official Bolshevist sources to the same effect. From the
official organs of the Bolsheviki it can be shown that the Bolshevik
authorities suppressed Soviet after Soviet; that when they found that
Soviets were controlled by Socialists who belonged to other factions they
dissolved them and ordered new elections, refusing to permit the free
choice of the members to be expressed in selecting their officers.

The Bolsheviki did this, it should be remembered, not merely in cases where
Mensheviki or Socialist-Revolutionists were in the majority, but
also in cases where the majority consisted of members of the
Socialist-Revolutionary party of the Left--the faction which had united
with the Bolsheviki in suppressing the Constituante. Their union with the
Bolsheviki was from the first a compromise, based upon the political
opportunism of both sides. The Socialist-Revolutionists of the Left did not
believe in the Bolshevik theories or program, but they wanted the political
assistance of the Bolsheviki. The latter did not believe in the theories or
program of the Socialist-Revolutionists of the Left, but they wanted their
political support. The union could not long endure; the differences were
too deeply rooted. Before very long the Bolsheviki were fighting their
former allies and the Socialist-Revolutionists of the Left, like Marie
Spiridonova, for example, were fighting the Bolsheviki. At Kazan, where
Lenine went to school, the Soviet was dissolved because it was controlled
by Socialist-Revolutionists of the Left, former allies, now hostile to the
Bolsheviki. Here are two paragraphs from _