so-cailed Bolsheviks; the other the Social Revolutionaries; the other the Mensheviks and Constitutional Democrats four parties.

"Q. And what was the result of that election; what were the various proportions of delegates returned to that Assembly? A. I do not remember exactly the figures. It was about approximately 40 per cent. Bolsheviks, and about as many Social Revolutionists, and the rest for the other parties.

"Q. So that the majority of that Assembly constituted other than Bolshevik representatives? A. Nobody constituted a majority.

"Q. I mean a majority of the delegates were not Bolshevik representatives? A. Yes.

"Q. Did that Assembly ever meet? A. Yes.

"Q. When did it meet? A. In December, 1917, I think. "Q. And where did it meet? A. Petrograd.

"Q. And was that Assembly permitted to sit? A. Until a certain time, yes.

"Q. And then what was done to it? A. Well, then the Soviets demanded a revolutionary assembly and it was dissolved.

"Q. It was dissolved? A. Yes."

As a matter of fact the following things occurred: The Bolshevik seizure of power happened November 7. The elections took place November 25. The Bolshevik government represented by the Petrograd Soviet issued a manifesto to the workers and soldiers, which appeared in the "Izvestia" of November 11, as follows:

"The bourgeoisie land magnates, Kerensky's government, have done everything possible during eight months in order to put off elections to the Constituent Assembly. Persistently and stubbornly did they endeavor to break it up, for they knew that in the matter of land and peace the Constituent Assembly cannot help but come out against the land magnates and capitalists. The only guarantee of really convening the Assembly has been the overthrow of Kerensky's government, the victory of the workers, soldiers and peasants over the bourgeoisie.

"The elections to the Constituent Assembly are now assured and must be held on time.

"The Petrograd Soviet calls upon all workers, soldiers, sailors, administrative staffs, upon all citizens to go to the balloting places on the 12th and 13th of November without fail. Failure to vote is playing into the hands of the bourgeoisie who may be depended on to mobilize their entire strength for the elections. The ballot must aid the gun.

"Workers and soldiers, go to the ballot box and vote for those who helped with their blood to attain the soldier-worker victory. Vote for the Bolsheviks for List 4."

The above appeal was issued after Lenin had issued an official decree on the same day, announcing the election for the 25th. The first informal meeting of the Constituent Assembly was December 12th and for two successive days, under great difficulty, and the third day the deputies were driven out by a body of sailors. It was a military coup d'etat. Of the 730 members of the Assembly, only 165 were Bolsheviki. The official meeting was fixed for January 5th, notwithstanding Bolshevik opposition and intimidation. Two prominent anti-Bolshevik deputies, Kokoshkin and Shingarie, were murdered cold-bloodedly in bed by Bolsheviki ruffians. When the session was opened Bucharin, on behalf of the Bolsheviki, announced that the Assembly must bow to the decisions of the Soviet before it could be recognized. A few hours later a decree was issued by Lenin dissolving it as a counter-revolutionary body. On January 6th Trotzky, in speaking of it before the Third Congress of Soviets, acknowledged: "In dissolving the Constituent Assembly we violated the formal principles of Democracy."

In other words, as late as December of 1917, the majority of the representatives chosen by suffrage of the entire people of Russia were not supporters of the Russian Communist Party, known as "Bolsheviki."

It is evident that the powerful parties whose participation in government had been denied them were openly resentive of the action of the Soviets, and must have constituted a serious menace to the control of the governmental power, because we find the Soviets setting up revolutionary tribunals for the purpose of prosecuting so-called counter-revolutionists; and also revolutionary tribunals of the press for the purpose of silencing all criticisms of the conduct of the Soviet authorities.

The Bolsheviki acknowledged that their worst enemies, those against whom they used the severest form of "Red Terror,"

including wholesale executions, were not members of the bourgeoisie, but members of the other two Socialist parties, the Mensheviki and Social Revolutionaries, against whom they raised the absurd accusation of being "counter revolutionists." Mr. Martens, in his testimony before the Committee, says, in answer to the question:

"Q. And the purpose of these tribunals was to prosecute counter-revolutionary activities? A. Exactly.

"Q. And then parties agitating against the Soviets were constituted counter-revolutionaries, were they? A. Yes, several parties. One of them was the anarchists, constituted to overthrow the government, and the Constitutional Demo

crats.

"Q. Were they the Cadets? A. Yes.

"Q. So they were the principal parties that had been active in the campaign for the Constituent Assembly, were they not? A. Oh, no.

"Q. Well, the Cadets you mentioned? A. Yes, the Cadets and Social Revolutionaries.

"Q. Those two parties were treated as counter-revolutionists, were they not? A. Yes, and the anarchists, too."

It is particularly interesting to note that the Social Revolutionaries which represented the rural or peasant population in the struggle against the Czarist regime was among the first of the parties to be treated as counter-revolutionary. Perhaps for this reason the constitution of the Soviet Republic makes a distinction between the city and rural voters, and gives to the rural inhabitants only one-fifth the representation in the Soviet councils given to the city proletariat.

During the summer of 1918, as a part of the campaign of "merciless suppression of the bourgeoisie" and effectually to silence all persons or parties who sought to resist the usurpation of power by the Soviets, the Red Terror was allowed free reign.

In the official publication of the Petrograd council of Workmen's, Peasants' and Red Guard Deputies, the "Red Gazette," an editorial was published on the 31st of August, 1918, referring to the Red Terror as follows:

"Only those men among the representatives of the bourgeoisie class, who, during the period of nine months sueceeded in proving their loyalty to the Soviet rule should be

spared. All the others are our hostages, and we should treat them accordingly. Enough of mildness. The interest of the revolution necessitated physical annihilation of the bourgeoisie class. It is time for us to start.” Another official Communist publication, namely, the "Izvestia," published on the 29th of September, 1918, in the fourth issue, an article under the title "The Voice of Tombs," the closing lines of which read as follows:

We

"Nay, we have already left the path of all errors. have found the right track of struggle with our hated enemies, and this track is the Red Terror."

A Bolshevist proclamation issued in the City of Kotelnich in 1918, in North Russia, reads in part as follows:

"We take oath not to leave a stone unturned in these nests where the terrible parasites and their partisans are living. When compelled to evacuate the cities, we will turn them into deserts, and every step of ours will be abundantly soaked with blood. In this struggle between the world's capital and those oppressed, let the world tremble before the horror of the mode in which we shall demolish and annihilate everything which oppresses us. . . . . You, rich peasants, who have drunk the blood of the poor for centuries long, you should remember that the above also applies to you." Thus the bourgeoisie as a whole, as well as the prosperous peasants, were declared enemies of the Russian Soviet Republic. Although the revolutionary Socialists have for many years been loudest in protesting against any infringement of the right of free speech or free press on the part of any government, one of the first steps taken by the Soviets after they gained control in the November revolution was to set up the revolutionary tribunal of the press. In a decree signed by I. Z. Steinberg, People's Commissar of Justice, the organization of this tribunal, its jurisdiction and powers were set forth as follows:

"THE REVOLUTIONARY TRIBUNAL OF THE PRESS

"1. Under the Revolutionary Tribunal is created a Revolutionary Tribunal of the Press. This Tribunal will have jurisdiction of crimes and offenses against the people committed by means of the press.

"2. Crimes and offenses by means of the press are the publication and circulation of any false or perverted reports

and information about events of public life, in so far as they constitute an attempt upon the rights and interests of the revolutionary people.

"3. The Revolutionary Tribunal of the Press consists of three members, elected for a period not longer than three months by the Soviet of Workers, Soldiers, and Peasants' Deputies. These members are charged with the conduct of the preliminary investigation as well as the trial of the case. "4. The following serve as grounds for instituting proceedings: Reports of legal or administrative institutions, public organizations or private persons.

"5. The prosecuting and defense are conducted on the principles laid down in the instructions to the General Revolutionary Tribunal.

"6. The sessions of the Revolutionary Tribunal of the Press are public.

"7. The decisions of the Revolutionary Tribunal of the Press are final and are not subject to appeal.

"8. The Revolutionary Tribunal imposes the following penalties: (1) Fine; (2) expression of public censure, which the convicted organ of the press brings to the general knowledge in a way indicated by the tribunal; (3) the publication in a prominent place or in a special edition of a denial of the false report; (4) temporary or permanent suppression of the publication or its exclusion from circulation; (5) confiscation to national ownership of the printing shop or property of the organ of the press if it belongs to the convicted parties.

"9. The trial of an organ of the press by the Revolutionary Tribunal of the Press does not absolve the guilty persons from general criminal responsibility."

It will be noted that the crimes and offenses by means of the press are publication and circulation of any false or perverted reports, and information about the events of public life in so far as they constitute an attempt upon the rights and interest of the revolutionary people.

It is difficult in passing not to comment upon the cries of anguish and reproach which would arise in the columns of the New York "Call" and other radical newspapers published in the United States should the government of the State of New York attempt to put into force a statute to control the press in