olved in
industrial conscription which, at first sight, was certainly repugnant
to most of them, is the main secret of the Dictatorship, and is not in
any way affected by the existence of the Extraordinary Commission.

Thus the actual government of Russia at the present time may be not
unfairly considered as a small group inside the Central Committee of the
Communist Party. This small group is able to persuade the majority of
the remaining members of that Committee. The Committee then sets about
persuading the majority of the party. In the case of important measures
the process is elaborate. The Committee issues a statement of its
case, and the party newspapers the Pravda and its affiliated organs are
deluged with its discussion. When this discussion has had time to spread
through the country, congresses of Communists meet in the provincial
centres, and members of the Central Committee go down to these
conferences to defend the "theses" which the Committee has issued. These
provincial congresses, exclusively Communist, send their delegates of
an All-Russian Congress. There the "theses" of the Central Committee
get altered, confirmed, or, in the case of an obviously unpersuaded
and large opposition in the party, are referred back or in other ways
shelved. Then the delegates, even those who have been in opposition at
the congress, go back to the country pledged to defend the position of
the majority. This sometimes has curious results. For example, I heard
Communist Trades Unionists fiercely arguing against certain clauses in
the theses on industrial conscription at a Communist Congress at the
Kremlin; less than a week afterwards I heard these same men defending
precisely these clauses at a Trades Union Congress over the way, they
loyally abiding by the collective opinion of their fellow Communists
and subject to particularly uncomfortable heckling from people who
vociferously reminded them (since the Communist debates had been
published) that they were now defending what, a few days before, they
had vehemently attacked.

The great strength of the Communist Party is comparable to the strength
of the Jesuits, who, similarly, put themselves and their opinions at the
disposal of the body politic of their fellow members. Until a decision
had been made, a Communist is perfectly free to do his best to prevent
it being made, to urge alterations in it, or to supply a rival decision,
but once it has been made he will support