ABSTRACT
Lenin begins by drawing a comparison between the French Revolution of 1848 and the coming Russian Revolution. One of the most illuminating statements showing the Bolshevik ideology as it had developed after the Soviet Government came into power was made by Lenin at the 8th All-Russian Soviet congress held on December 30, 1920. The Bolsheviks hypnotized their antagonists by sheer terror. By so doing they imitated the Government of the Tsar, which in 1882, after the assassination of Alexander II, and in 1907, after the revolutionary episodes of 1905-1907, instituted a reign of terror that depressed and took the heart out of its opponents. While the Bolsheviks neither obtained nor retained their power by virtue of doctrine, they have with much insistence expounded a policy by which they allege themselves to be usually guided; it is expedient therefore to examine the character and origin of their tenets.
