The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism

This book is an excellent description of the state of Communism in Russia while Lenin was still alive. Russell, who was himself a communist, travelled to Russia and saw first-hand both the successes and failures off the October Revolution. Russell is critical of Bolshevism for its superficial understanding of human nature and human motivations, and for its ruthlessness. He concedes that its ideals were good, but its methods departed from its ideals. Nevertheless, he concludes that it was the right government for Russia at the time ""because the possible alternatives are worse. If Russia were governed democratically, according to the will of the majority, the inhabitants of Moscow and Petrograd would die of starvation."" With food in very short supply, peasants were reluctant to part with it for worthless paper money. Peasants, the vast majority of the population, would have abandoned the cities under a democratic system.