the Ukraine the
Mensheviks retain a footing, but I doubt whether either of these parties
has in it the vitality to make itself once again a serious political
factor. There is, however, a movement which, in the long run, may alter
Russia's political complexion. More and more delegates to Soviets
or Congresses of all kinds are explicitly described as "Non-party."
Non-partyism is perhaps a sign of revolt against rigid discipline of
any kind. Now and then, of course, a clever Menshevik or Social
Revolutionary, by trimming his sails carefully to the wind, gets himself
elected on a non-party ticket. 'When this happens there is usually
a great hullabaloo as soon as he declares himself. A section of his
electors agitates for his recall and presently some one else is elected
in his stead. But non-partyism is much more than a mere cloak of
invisibility for enemies or conditional supporters of the Communists. I
know of considerable country districts which, in the face of every kind
of agitation, insist on returning exclusively non-party delegates. The
local Soviets in these districts are also non-party, and they elect
usually a local Bolshevik to some responsible post to act as it were as
a buffer between themselves and the central authority. They manage local
affairs in their own way, and, through the use of tact on both sides,
avoid falling foul of the more rigid doctrinaires in Moscow.

Eager reactionaries outside Russia will no doubt point to non-partyism
as a symptom of friendship for themselves. It is nothing of the sort.
On all questions of the defense of the Republic the non-party voting is
invariably solid with that of the Communists. The non-party men do not
want Denikin. They do not want Baron Wrangel. They have never heard of
Professor Struhve. They do not particularly like the Communists.
They principally want to be left alone, and they principally fear any
enforced continuation of war of any kind. If, in the course of time,
they come to have a definite political programme, I think it not
impossible that they may turn into a new kind of constitutional
democrat. That does not mean that they will have any use for M. Milukov
or for a monarch with whom M. Milukov might be ready to supply them.
The Constitution for which they will work will be that very Soviet
Constitution which is now in abeyance, and the democracy which they
associate with it will be that form of democracy which were it to be
accurately observed in th