26 JANUARY 1924, Page 3

Yet, oddly and contradictorily enough, he was also a great

realist. With the saturnine smile of the fatalist he would accept what he believed to be inevitable ; and thus under his own hand the Communism of Russia was gradu- ally and sensibly changing into something else. The way in which he held the Soviet Government together while a large part of Russia lived in misery, fear, squalor .or starvation was an amazing achievement. No post-War Government has lasted so long, and it was this one man's brain and energy which did it. He was in effect a mediaeval tyrant who, with the help of the word " proletariat," persuaded a good many manual workers all over the world that Sovietism was their cause.

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