A.B.C. OF ANARCHISM what they wanted ; namely the abolition of Tsardom. All the machinations of politicians, all the oratory and schemes of the Lvovs and Miliukovs-the " liberal " leaders of those days-could not save the Romanov regime in the face of the intelligent and conscious will of the, people.. It was this clear understanding of, its aims which made the February Revolution a complete success, with, mind you, almost no bloodshed. Furthermore, neither appeals nor threats by the Provisional Government could avail against the determination of the people to end the war. The armies left the fronts and thus terminated the matter by their own direct action. The will af a people conscious of their objects always conquers. It was the will of the people again, their resolute aim to get hold of the soil, which secured for the peasant the land he needed. Similarly the city workers, as repeatedly mentioned before, possessed themselves of the factories and the machinery of production. So far the Russian Revolution was a complete success. But at the point where the masses lacked the coniciousness cl definite purpose, defeat began. That is always the moment when politicians .md political parties step in to exploit the revolution for their OfN11 uses or to experiment their theories upon it. This happened in Russia as in many previous revolutions. The people fought the good fight-the political parties fought over the spoils to the detriment of the revolution and to the ruin of the people. This is, then, what took place in Russia. The peasant, having secured the land, did not have the tools and machinery he needed. The worker, having taken possession of the machinery and factories, did not know how to handle them to accomplish his aim. In other words, he did not have the experience necessary to organise production and he could not manage the distribution of the things he was producing. His own efforts-the worker's, the peasant's, the soldier's-had done away with Tsardom, paralyzed the Government, stopped the war, and abolished private ownership of land and machinery. For that he was prepared by years of revolutionary education and agitation. Bu.t for no more than that. And because he was prepared for no more, where his knowledge ceased and definite purpose was lacking, there .stepped in the political party a:Rdtook .affairs O\it of the hands of the masses who had made the revolution. Politics replaced economic reconstruction and thereby sounded the death knell of the social revolution ; for people live by bread, by economics, not by politics. Food and supplies are not created by decree of party or govern50 B1blioteca Gino Bianco
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