all the oppressed, the focus and centre of all aspirations of all the oppressed striving for their liberation. It is natural, therefore that the Soviets, as the instrument of the oppressed masses, should have reflected and expressed the moods and changes of view of these masses much more rapidly, much more fully, and much more faithfully than any other institutions. In this, among other things, lies one of the reasons why the Soviet democracy is the highest Дуре of democracy.
In the period between March 12th and November 6th, 1917 the Soviets held two All-Russian Congresses, representing the overwhelming majority of the population of Russia, all the workers and soldiers, and 70 per cent, or 80 per cent, of the peasantry; not to speak of the vast number of local, district, urban, provincial, and regional congresses. During the same period, the bourgeoisie did not succeed in calling into life a single institution which represented the majority of the people, except that obvious and insulting sham, the so-called Democratic Conference, which enraged the proletariat. The Constituent Assembly reflected the same mood and the same grouping of the population as the first (the June) All-Russian Congress of Soviets. By the time of the meeting of the Constituent Assembly in January, the second and third Congress of Soviets had met in November, 1917, and January, 1918, respectively, and both demonstrated up to the hilt that the masses had gone to the Left, had become revolutionary, had turned away from the Mensheviks and Social-Revolutionaries, and passed over to the Bolshevik side; that is, had turned away from petty bourgeois leadership, from illusory compromises with the bourgeoisie, and joined the revolutionary fight for the overthrow of the bourgeoisie. Thus, even the external history of the Soviets shows how inevitable the suppression of the Constituent Assembly was, and how reactionary that body was. But Kautsky stoically persists in his watchword: "May the
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