Germany, and his professed willingness to “accept the services of American officers in training that army,” all indicated a mind given to illusions and stone blind to realities.  Lenine at least knew that the game was up.  He knew that the game into which he had so coolly entered when he left Switzerland, and which he had played with all his skill and cunning, was at an end and that the Germans had won.  The Germans behaved with a perfidy that is unmatched in modern history, disregarded the armistice they had signed, and savagely hurled their forces against the defenseless, partially demobilized and trusting Russians.  There was nothing left for the Bolsheviki to do.  They had delivered Russia to the Germans.  In March the “indecent peace” was signed, with what result we know.  Bolshevism had been the ally of Prussian militarism.  Consciously or unconsciously, willingly or unwillingly, Lenine, Trotzky, and the other Bolshevik leaders had done all that men could do to make the German military lords masters of the world.  Had there been a similar movement in France, England, the United States, or even Italy, to-day the Hohenzollerns and Habsburgs would be upon their thrones, realizing the fulfilment of the Pan-German vision.

VIII

In view of the fact that so many of our American pacifists have glorified the Bolsheviki, it may be well to remind them, if they have forgotten, or to inform them, if they do not know it, that their admiration is by no means reciprocated.  Both Lenine and Trotzky have spoken and written in terms of utter disdain of pacifist movements in general and of the pacifists of England and America in particular.  They have insisted that, in present society, disarmament is really a reactionary proposal.  The inclusion in the Constitution, which they have forced upon Russia by armed might, of permanent universal compulsory military service is not by accident.  They believe that only when all nations have become Socialist nations will it be a proper policy for Socialists to favor disarmament.  It would be interesting to know how our American admirers and defenders of Bolshevism, who are all anti-conscriptionists and ultra-pacifists, so far as can be discovered, reconcile their position with that of the Bolsheviki who base their state, not as a temporary expedient, but as a matter of principle, upon universal, compulsory military service!  What, one wonders, do these American Bolsheviki worshipers think of the teaching of these paragraphs from an article by Lenine?[89]

Disarmament is a Socialistic ideal.  In Socialist society there will be no more wars, which means that disarmament will have been realized.  But he is not a Socialist who expects the realization of Socialism without the social revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat.  Dictatorship is a government power, depending directly upon force, and, in the twentieth century, force means,