for mass production. Trotsky in his famous
speech delivered at a great meeting held in
the National Theatre, Moscow, last February
did not attempt to minimise the danger to
individual freedom, but based his case for this
innovation entirely on the fact that by no
other means could present day difficulties be
overcome. He swept away the idea that men
like himself desired to rule and boss ; pointed
out that no revolution could exist without
work ; that it was not yet certain that Western
Europe and America would go to the
assistance of Russia, and, even if they did,
it still remained the duty of Russia to recreate
and build up her own internal life and
industry.
I heard much criticism from friends and enemies of the Bolsheviks, but not a single critic had any better proposal to make. The soldiers in the Red Army seem to have a clearer conception than others of what is wanted. When it was proposed to demobilise the seventh army and send the soldiers home because they were no longer needed to fight Denikin, the men got together and sent a request to Trotsky asking that instead of going home they should remain mobilised and under the same officers be allowed to work as a disciplined army of labour. This was the start of the Labour army. Someone coined the phrase, “ The bloodless front,” and soon
