ABSTRACT
I began writing this book when the Bolshevist hopes for the World Revolution ran high, and when they still expected the Berlin Soviet to appear very soon, as a result of their military and propagandist offensive on the Western frontier of Russia. When I am finishing the book things have very much changed. Out of the two prophecies of Mr. Lenin one is not materialized: there is no revolution and no Soviet in Berlin. On the contrary, the other prophecy, about the probable failure of the Russian Revolution, is now being proved true by everything we learn from within Bolshevist Russia, whatever be the result of the military pressure from outside. As the Bolshevist monomaniacs, in spite of all, still stick to their idea of the World Revolution, they are now busy preparing for another stage of it, which is rather defensive than offensive. It is the retreat to the East, no matter which, Turkestan or China. These countries are still less “developed in the capitalistic stage” and still more “primitive.” But, obviously, “primitiveness” is the necessary condition for the success, at any rate temporary, of a “Communist” revolution and of a tyrannical rule by the minority of a minority.
