By Dr. Ileana Johnson Paugh ——Bio and Archives--October 7, 2023
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The seizure of power is the main objective of a revolution. And certainly, the communist revolution had the same goal. Lenin’s book, Toward the Seizure of Power, explains that “The question of power . . . is the fundamental question which determines everything in the development of a revolution.” That was certainly the goal of the 1917 Bolshevik revolution.
The Bolsheviks and Lenin destroyed the czarist regime. And they were not restrained by any traditional moral, legal, or ethical principles. Marx and Engels had declared that “there were no eternal moral laws,” and Lenin wrote that “morality is entirely subordinated to the interests of the class struggle of the proletariat,” and that “morality taken outside of human society . . . is a fraud.”
Communist propaganda then and now describes the Bolshevik seizure of power as a ‘proletarian’ revolution. It was actually “an armed insurrection by a relatively small group against an almost powerless government.”
Lenin and his Bolsheviks did not have the overwhelming support of peasants and workers as they had claimed, they constituted a minority and remained so long after the seizure of power. They added more converts by promising ‘Bread, Peace, and Freedom!” The Russians wanted those promises but did not want Bolshevism.
Lenin sought power to advance communism through the “dictatorship of the proletariat,” with total disregard for individual freedom. He even told the masses in detail in the summer of 1917 how he planned on ruling through his dictatorship of the proletariat, using “naked force and terror.”
The “dictatorship of the proletariat” in communist ideology implied a transitional form of government from capitalism to pure communism and was described as an “era of socialism.” Even Marx wrote that the “state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat.” To further the deception, all Soviet satellites were called socialist republics.
Lenin wrote that force and violence were essential in overthrowing capitalism. Capitalism could not be reformed, had to be destroyed and replaced with the dictatorship of the proletariat. In this new form of governance, the means of production were owned by the state. The state also had complete power, unrestricted by laws, crushing all opposition, real or imagined.
“The seizure of power is a matter of insurrection; its political purpose will be clear after the seizure,” Lenin wrote. Power had to express itself through violence and force, unrestricted by any laws.
Violence and force were excused for the ruling communists. They were allowed to oppress the masses and ethnic minorities among their peoples. The Communist Party (CP) excused violence and force because the bourgeois minority, they said, had exploited the masses under capitalism and therefore the CP members could use any means necessary to teach them hard lessons that capitalism and private property were evil and anybody who tried to have more than what was approved by decree was therefore open for severe punishment. Hoarders of food and other necessities were imprisoned, if lucky, or executed.
Josip Broz Tito is an example of how an early communist organizer used the crisis of fascist Germany invading European countries to rally his people under the leadership of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia to take up arms against the fascist aggressors. Tito was so convincing that his cause was just that in 1945 he became president of Yugoslavia. The Yugoslavs repealed the Nazis only to replace the fascist yoke with the communist yoke.
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The communist party of the Soviet Union who terrorized and oppressed its people for 72 years, never relinquished the power they had taken in 1917 by force. They pretended to resign but went underground in 1989 to regroup and reemerge as an even more powerful brand of communism, globalism, now sold in the U.S. as the “woke” movement. No matter what the euphemism used, it is still communism.
Once the Bolsheviks took power, they restricted the publication of any opposition newspapers and outlawed all political groups. Freedom of the press and freedom of speech were eliminated.
Cheka (Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counterrevolution and Sabotage) oversaw the crushing of all opposition to the Bolsheviks. Cheka was controlled by the Council of People’s Commissars, chaired by Lenin. Cheka had the unchecked power to arrest, imprison, shoot on the spot without due process, and execute anyone who was on their radar for any reason.
The Russian people did not go quietly into the night after the Bolshevik seizure of power. Military resistance developed into civil war by 1918 and spread widely by 1920. But the Bolsheviks won, and the win was attributed to Leon Trotsky as commissar of war. A former journalist in New York City, Trotsky reorganized the Red Army. The dire economic situation at the time worked in his favor as well. Bolshevik agricultural policies produced a short-lived economic recovery in 1921 which further confused the population.
Lenin’s absolute power ended with his death in 1924. But the world communist movement he established continued to suppress all political opposition, applying strict censorship over all means of communication; trade unions became wards of the state and Cheka terrorized everyone.
It is interesting to note that in 1917, when Lenin and his Bolsheviks started the reign of terror in Russia, William Tyler Page, a descendant of one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, wrote “The American Creed.” It was accepted by the U.S. House of Representatives on behalf of the American people.
I believe in the United States of America as a Government of the people, by the people, for the people, whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a democracy in a Republic; a sovereign Nation of many sovereign States; a perfect Union, one and inseparable; established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes.
I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to love it, support its Constitution, to obey its laws, to respect its flag, and to defend it against all enemies.
Having lived under communism for twenty years, I appreciate the freedom we have in the United States more than other citizens born and raised in this country who take their abundant life for granted. I respect its laws, I fly the American flag proudly every day, and I support the Constitution.
Unfortunately, the thirst for global power in the hands of a few billionaires and the U.N. is moving all countries further and further to the radical left of global communism. The last holdout in the last century has been the United States of America but it is changing fast.
The fundamental transformation of our country promised by President Obama fifteen years ago is unfolding fast before our eyes and we are powerless to stop it.
The manufactured global warming now turned into the climate change industry is just convenient smoke and mirrors to mask the intricate globalist power and control by a few billionaire communists over our lives and deaths.
The power has been seized under the banner of “wokeism,” a euphemism for communism, no force and violence yet, just massive propaganda, consensus, fear mongering, freedom of speech interdiction, marginalizing the opposition, and nudging everyone into compliance.
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Dr. Ileana Johnson Paugh, Ileana Writes is a freelance writer, author, radio commentator, and speaker. Her books, “Echoes of Communism”, “Liberty on Life Support” and “U.N. Agenda 21: Environmental Piracy,” “Communism 2.0: 25 Years Later” are available at Amazon in paperback and Kindle.