········-····-··-··-·········-·······-·-···-···················--- ········· ···-····-····-··--- DEFENCE OF THE REVOLUTION have the greatest strength of the revolution. The masses fight to-day for ~ing1 capitalist, or president because they belie~e. them· worth fightmg for. Let them believe in the revolution and tht:y will defend it to the death. · ' They will fight for the revolution with heart and soul, as the half-starved working men, women, and even children of Petrograd defended their city, almost with bare hands, against the White army of Genera! Yudenitch. Take that faith awa_y,deprive the people of power by setting up some au~ority over them, be it a political party or military organisation, and you have dealt a fatal blow·to the revolution. · You will have robbed it of its main source of strength, the masses. You will have made it defenceless. The armed workers and peasants are the only effective defence of the revolution. By means of _their unions and syndicates they must always b.e on guard against counter-revolutionary attack . . The worker_in .factory and mill, in mine and field, is the soldier of the revolution. He is at his bench and pjough or on the battlefield, according to need. But. in his factory as in his regiment he is the soul of the revolution, and it is his will that decides its fate. In industcy the shop committees, in the barracks the soldiers' committees-these are the fountain-head of all revolutionary stren~ and activity. It was the volu-nte.er Red Guard" made up of toilers, that successfully de(ended the Russian Revolution in its most critical initial stages. Later on it was again volunteer peasant regiments who defeated the White armies. The regular Red army, organised later, was powerless without the volunteer. workers' and peasants' divi- · sions. Siberia was freed from Kolchak and his hordes by such peasant volunteers. In the North of Russia it was also workers' and peasants' detachments that drove out the foreign armies which came -to impose the yoke of native reactionaries upon the people. In the Ukraine the volunteer peasant armies--known as po;,stantsi -aved the Revolution from numerous counter-revolutionary . generals and particularly from Denikin when the latter was already at the very gates of Moscow. It was the revolutionary povstanti who freed Southern Russia from the invading armies of Germany, France, Italy, and Greece, and subsequently also routed theWhite forces of General Wrangel. · The military defenc~ of the revolution may demand· a supreme command, co-ordination of activities; discipline, and obedience to orders. But these must proceed from the devotion of the workers and peasants, and must be based on their voluntary co-operation through their .own local, regional, and federal organi~tions. In 99 B blroteca Gino Bianco
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