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CHAPTER V
THE DEGENERACY OF THE REVOLUTION
The Russian Revolution has brought about personal and
political liberty, responsibility, and racial freedom. But,
as in so many instances of revolution in the past, the control
of the masses, the sense of proportion, and the consciousness
of the practical requirements of statesmanship, without
which public affairs cannot be conducted, has been lost.
The destruction of a regime of despotic rule, centuries old,
seemed of such enormous importance that all other
considerations were pushed into the background as having no
practical significance. Nobody whose mind is not prejudiced
by the expectation of special personal advantages could
desire the return to the former days of an unlimited autocrat
ruling over irresponsive and irresponsible automata. The
days of bureaucracy pure and simple are over in Russia,
never to return again. The people will henceforth decide ;
the people want to shape their fortunes on the strength of
their own free will. But as soon as a State edifice disappears
the question arises unavoidably what structure should
replace it, as every community or society must be organised
in some way, must recognise some rule and prevent the
individual merely following his own instincts regardless of
the requirements of his neighbours and of the res publico,.
The question of the special form or constitution of a
community is of secondary importance in comparison with the
other question that order should prevail and the existing
law should be respected.
For centuries Russian bureaucracy has impeded the
formation of character, the education of political thought,
and adequate instruction in the schools, with the consequence
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