ABSTRACT
The chief theme of Kautsky's book is terrorism. The view that terrorism is of the essence of revolution Kautsky proclaims to be a widespread delusion. There is another difference between the White Terror and the Red, which Kautsky to-day ignores, but which in the eyes of a Marxist is of decisive significance. The institution of hostages apparently must be recognised as immanent in the terrorism of the civil war. Kautsky, who, during the last two years, has covered mountains of paper with polemics against Communism and Terrorism, is obliged, at the end of his pamphlet, to recognise the facts, and unexpectedly to admit that the Russian Soviet Government is to-day the most important factor in the world revolution. 'The Soviet Government' Kautsky thunders, has destroyed the sole remedy that might militate against corruption: the freedom of the Press. The Press is a weapon not of an abstract society, but of two irreconcilable, armed and contending sides.
