. Already from the start the maximalists took an anti-parliamentarian standpoint. They never took part in the elections to the Duma and were, together with the anarchists and anarchosyndicalists, the first and most passionate adversaries of the Constitutent Assembly. The Maximalist Union was recruited from the ranks of the poorer peasants and the city proletariat. They have the qualities of a fighting class organization and are in the highest degree active class militants. They always emphasize with the greatest force the staking of the personality and differ on this point from the Marxists. They were also terrorists ; they are still adherents of the personal terror, but like the left social-revolutionaries, they reject governmental terror and the system of terror.
As already indicated, they are a soviet movement, yes, in fact, they belonged to those who first came forward with the soviet idea. They differ, though, from other soviet parties, for instance, from the ruling Bolshevik Party, in that they take exception to party Soviets. One of their mottoes is: All power to the Soviets— not to the party Soviets but to the class Soviets. They demand class power but not party power, while the bolsheviks, in their opinion, demanded only power for the party. Principally from these reasons they are also opponents of the Bolshevik Party.
In the beginning of the revolution, after the overthrow of Kerensky, they had, in common with the anarchists, their greatest influence in such places as Kronstadt, Samara and Kursk. They were not organized according to centralist, but decentralist principles. In many places their faction was the strongest one in the soviet. But the faction was not tied down by party discipline in the voting. Everybody could vote as he desired. This connects with the fact that they did not want to acquire the power. The bolsheviks, on the other hand, who for fifteen years had prepared themselves for the power, were naturally compelled to resort to a different, much more rigid principle of organization. The iron party discipline of the bolsheviks required absolute obedience to the party orders issued. This centralism and this discipline helped the Bolshevik Party to power, although it was by far not the strongest party in every place.
As the program of the maximalists in many respects coincides with the program of the social-revolutionaries of the left, a separate presentation is unnecessary. Since 1905 the motto of the maximalists was : In unity of hammer, plow and thought lies power and right, and since 1919: All power to the Soviets; no power to the pcfrrty.
As, at present, during the rule of the Bolshevik Party, all parties have become illegal, they have retired to the place where it still is most possible to bring their ideas before the people, namely to Ukraine. Thus the maximalists and the anarchists, etc., especially under Machno, had the best possibility in Ukraine to propagate their ideas. Besides the maximalists, there is ' still another union of left social-revolutionaries, who have also developed out of the narodniki and now call themselves Barbists. The name Barbists comes from the name "barba," struggle. They are fighters. In principle they do not differ from the maximalists.
The agrarian program of the maximalists and the barbists rests on the mir-organization. As far as possible the peasants shall cultivate the land on communist lines. The land of the large land owners and the kulaks (rich peasants) shall be delivered into the possession of the commune. The peasants shall thereafter cultivate it in common. Where the peasants divide up the land between themselves they shall not be stopped with force, but care should be taken that nobody receives more than he himself can cultivate. The peasants of a village, both those who cultivate their own land and those who cultivate the land in common, form a commune. They enter into exchange relations with other communes and the cities. In so far as the exchanged objects consist of larger agricultural implements, agricultural machinery and so on, they go into the possession of the commune. The peasants shall be guaranteed the greatest independence, politically and eco^nomically.