by voluntary groups of peasants without regard to the carefully devised plans based upon systematic expert study.

A man who knows that he is about to inherit an estate does not, if he is intelligent, proceed to wreck its very basis, beforehand, in order that he may hasten the coming of the heritage. And surely none but men who believed that nothing that was done at the moment could matter, that it was only an interlude during which they could mark time while waiting for the other parts of the general revolution to develop, would have been capable of supposing that the management and control of industry by Soviets, in the then prevailing stage of industrial development, could produce anything short of disaster.

It is only when we pay proper regard to this period during which the "makeshift psychology" prevailed, and observe the Bolsheviki waiting for developments which never took place, for material and moral reinforcements which never appeared, that we can get anything like a proper perspective on the events of the first year or two.

One of the strongest weapons they had used against the Provisional Government under Kerensky was the charge-wholly unfounded in fact that it was not acting in good faith with respect to the Constituent Assembly; that the convocation of this important body,

and the election of delegates to it, had been deliberately delayed in order to cheat the people of the right to determine for themselves the kind of constitution, and the measure of political rights, they would have. The Bolshevist leaders posing as the friends of the Constituent Assembly, were alarmed at its peril. They rallied peasants and workmen under their leadership upon the plea that it was necessary to save the Constituent Assembly.

When they seized power and overturned the Kerensky Provisional Government, the elections for the Constituent Assembly had already begun. A good many delegates, though a small part of the whole number, had been elected. In other places, the campaign was on. The Bolshevist party had its candidates in the field and the suffrage was equal, universal, direct. When the greater part of the elections took place the Bolsheviki were already in control of the State. In the end it was found that the candidates of the Bolshevist party were in a minority among those elected; the majority belonging to other parties. Eighteen million ballots had been cast, and the verdict was overwhelmingly against the Bolsheviki. When the Constituent Assembly met, on January 5, 1918, the Bolshevist members attended, but bolted when they could not control the body. Then the Red

Guards, by orders of the Soviet Government, dispersed the Constituent Assembly at the point of the bayonet.

Thus, in power, the Bolsheviki turned directly away from the position they had taken when they were seeking that power. They went back upon their pledges and promises, explicit and implicit. The next step was the arbitrary adoption, by a small, select, non-representative body, of the famous Constitution of the Soviet Republic. That much discussed document need not detain us longer than is necessary to note some features of it which clearly show how far the Soviet rulers in power receded from the democracy of the Constituent Assembly of which they had posed as the special champions, features which are singular among all the varied instruments of constitutional government. It confined the right to vote to certain exceedingly limited classes. Industrial workerswage-earners—provided they were engaged on work "productive and useful to society;" teachers and educators, if in the employ of the Government; peasants who owned no land or but little or worked for peasants or other employers for hire; all wage-earners engaged in the public service as employees of the State, subdivisions of the State, or public corporations under the direction of the State; wives and others engaged in keeping the homes of the foregoing, enabling them to work, but not if they employed help; and the

"soldiers of the army and navy"-apparently intended to apply to all up to a certain official rank. The peasant and we must always mentally translate this into our American equivalent, "farmer"who employed as much as a single hand to help was not permitted to vote. No minister of the gospel was entitled to vote. No professional person, such as a doctor, dentist, architect, or lawyer, who employed as much as a single stenographer, or an office clerk, could vote. The keeper of a public garage; the petty contractor; the small shopkeeper-these and many other occupational groups were altogether excluded. This constitution excluded from the franchise perhaps as many as sixty-five or seventy per cent of the peasants, taking the most moderate estimates. It disfranchised that part of the farming class of that great farming nation which was most vitally important, the most intelligent, prosperous and successful. It enfranchised that part of the farming class that was least important, the unsuccessful ones, the wrecks and failures, the shiftless.

Freedom of speech and assemblage, and the freedom of the press, which the Bolsheviki, like all other Socialists, had invariably championed in the past, were entirely swept away. No party other than the Bolshevist party could legally exist. The only press permitted was the press of the Soviet Government and its departments and the press of the Bolshevist

party. To the latter, be it noted, subscription was not optional, but obligatory. In other words, it was a forced assessment or tax, for non-payment of which sharp punishment was the rule.

Under the constitution, there was one representative for every 125 soldiers, one for every 1000 factory workers and two for every Volost, or union of peasants' villages. A Volost rarely had less than 15,000 inhabitants and sometimes as many as 100,000. In other words, even the votes of those farmers who were permitted to vote, were subject to a great discount, one farmer's vote being equal to one-eightieth of a soldier's vote and one-tenth of an industrial worker's vote.

Election to the Soviet Government, that is to the supreme body, was not direct, but indirect. Power descended to the voters through a most complicated hierarchy. No modern constitutional government is as far removed from direct election by and responsibility to the people. Whenever it has suited their purpose, this constitution has been abrogated, or suspended, as to its fundamental provisions no less than to minor ones. Taking the period as a whole, by arbitrary action, the actual political system has, under pressure, been broadened beyond the instrument. But at times for considerable periods, rigid enforcement has prevailed.