isaac-deutscher-the-prophet-armed-trotsky-1879-1921

CHAPTER XIII
Revolution and Conquest
THROUGHOUT these years the leaders of Bolshevism anxiously
watched for the omens of revolution in Europe. Every phase
in the social and political struggles of Europe reacted directly
upon the course of the civil war. The downfall of the Hohenzollerns
and Habsburgs allowed the Soviets to regain ground
lost under the Peace of Brest Litovsk. But soon afterwards the
victorious Entente proclaimed the blockade of Russia and this
was followed by the 'crusade of fourteen nations'. The mere
threat of Allied intervention profoundly affected the situation
in Russia. Since the revolution the old ruling classes had been
in a state of utter depression, terrified by the abyss which separated
them from the mass of the people. They lacked organization
and faith in their own cause; they were divided against
themselves; they were incapable of producing any plan of
action. 1 The promise of intervention put courage into their
hearts. It was only after the promise had been made, after
British, French, and American liaison officers had appeared at
the headquarters of the White generals and the first foreign
cargoes of guns and munitions had reached Russian shores
that the ranks of the White Guards began to swell and the
civil war flared up in earnest. The Bolsheviks thought that
only intense revolutionary ferment abroad could paralyse the
intervention. They were compelled to carry the struggle into
the enemy's camp; and they were all the more inclined to do so
as they had persistently predicted that Europe's ruling classes
would not reconcile themselves to the Russian Revolution and
that for its self-preservation the revolution would be forced to
assail the European capitalist order, which was anyhow about to
crumble under the blows of the European working classes. Half
of this prediction had come true: the ruling classes of the Entente
had declared war on Bolshevism; and there were moments when
1
One of the first leaders of the White Guards, General Kaledin, said before be
committed suicide early in 1918: 'Our situation is hopt'less. The population not
only docs not support us--it is definitely hostile. We have no strength, and resistance
is useless.' Dcnikin, op. cit., vol. ii, p. :z20.