"In the beginning of the soviet power we extended to it o>ur great confidence. But after the revolution-born soviet power, in the course of three years, had become a powerful state machine, it has throttled the revolution. It developed into a dictatorship of the proletariat over the bourgeoisie, into a dictatorship of one party, and of a small part of the proletariat over the whole proletariat, over the whole working people, while at the same time this dictatorship throttles the will of the broad working masses. Through this the revolution lost the creative power by which alone it was possible to solve the different problems of the revolution. The soviet power is, therefore, a lesson and a warning to the workers of all countries. This conference proposes to the comrades to boycott the administrations and Soviets which are controlled by the government and to devote all their powers of propaganda to this purpose among the lower strata of the workers. We must start with illegal groups and gather all revolutionary material around us."
Besides, in the "report over the situation in Russia," we read:
"At the same time as world imperialism convulsively clings to each opportunity to strangle Soviet Russia, as the home and the source of revolutionary infection, there is taking place in Russia itself a sad decomposition of the revolution. Instead of the united mass of workers which in the October days of 1917 fought in Russia for the conquest of bread, we now have a division of the working masses into masters and servants, governing and governed, rulers and subjects. The party of the so-called communists, which possesses an unlimited power, forms the centralized soviet government with all its central committees, city, district and gouvernement committees, etc. The right of the workers and peasants to elect free councils has become a fiction. From the community soviet up to the Ail-Russian Congress of Soviets, from the congress of the unions to the so;-called free, nonpartisan peasant conferences there is nothing free, but everything is undermined by the party. A Gigantid system of espionage has been established. Under the pretense of a struggle with the counter-revolution, the communist party has laid its hand heavily upon the working population through its "Partkom" (party committees which are formed everywhere). The press is strangled. There is no free exchange of opinion, either in the street, or in the house, or in the meetings, or on the job. In the street the "Tscheka" (extra ordinary commission) is spying; in the house the "do\mkom' (house committee of the communist party, if a party com munist lives in the house) ; on the job in the factory th( "fabkom" (factory committee of the communist party) . Far far from the lower strata of the workers the "Sovnarkom' (Council of People's Commissars) has formed a strong gov ernment, which rests upon a strong army. The governmen has changed into a body whose interests are opposed to those of the revolution."
These descriptions of the situation offer extremely valuabl< material for the understanding of the present character of the Soviets.