BOLSHEVISM

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 171, 15 April 1921, Page 5

BOLSHEVISM

ABANDONMENT OF PRINCIPLES 0 SOVIET GOVERNMENT’S CHANGE OF FRONT RECOGNITION OF PRIVATE OWNERSHIP By Telegraph—Preen ABaoclation-OopyrlCht. (Reo. April 15, 1.5 a.m.) London, April 14. The Helsingfors correspondent of "The Times” states that the bottom has been knocked out of Bolshevism as a result of tho Soviet's concession of free-trade s,nd the decision to substitute a produce tax in place of forcible requisitioning. Both decisions involve tho recognition of private ownership, which is tho 'antithesis of Communism. The peasants are responsible for forcing the Government to abandon its most cherished principles. Unable forcibly to retaliate, they adopted a policy of passive resistance, producing sufficient only for their own needs, with the result that tho population of tho cities was reduced to starvation and the economic life of the country was brought to a standstill. A continuance of this policy during the coming seeding season would have a catastrophic effect, hence the Government’s complete change of front. "The Times” in a leader considers that Lenin’s explanation of the new system is a candid and unqualified confession that dictatorship of the proletariat has proved a disastrous failure. Nothing remains' but a reversal to the principle of capitalism in Russian national life.— "The Times.”