ABSTRACT
Kautsky has cited as an argument against the Soviet Constitution the indirectness of elections, which contradicts the fixed laws of bourgeois democracy. In the first place, Marx puts forward, not the particular democratic form of the Commune, but its class essence. The Commune, as is known, abolished the regular army and the police, and decreed the confiscation of Church property. In spite of Kautsky's slanders, Marx had nothing in common with the view of democracy as the last, absolute, supreme product of history. The Pharisees of democracy speak with indignation of the repressive measures of the Soviet Government, of the closing of newspapers, of arrests and shooting. In a word, Marx, instructed by the experience of life, proves to be a well-behaved Kautskian. Marx, on the other hand, first and foremost wanted a revolutionary victory. Kautsky yet again tears his hair because the Soviet Government, during the Civil War, has made use of the severe method of taking hostages.
