The Greatest Failure in All History

Preface Why Have the Bolsheviki Retained Power? The Soviets The Soviets Under the Bolsheviki The Undemocratic Soviet State The Peasants and the Land The Bolsheviki and the Peasants The Red Terror Industry under Soviet Control The Nationalization of Industry Freedom of Press and Assembly "The Dictatorship of the Proletariat" State Communism and Labor Conscription Let the Verdict Be Rendered Documents Index John Spargo (1876-1966) was a leading socialist writer of the period. Spargo, trained as a stonecutter, but became a lay Methodist minister, became identified with the socialists in England in early life, became a leader in the English labor movement; and served on the Executive Council of the Social Democratic Federation. He immigrated to America in 1901 and was thereafter a longtime member of the National Executive Committee of the American Socialist Party. He regarded Bolshevism as an "inverted form of Czarism." He edited the socialist periodical, The Comrade, became involved in child labor issues; helped promote laws on child and woman labor, and moved to Vermont in 1909. He remained active in socialist circles, but moved to the right over World War I, and with Samuel Gompers and George Creel, founded the American Alliance for Labor and Democracy, in favor of American involvement in the war. He gradually became outspoken advocate of free-market capitalism. His major publications include The Bitter Cry of Children (1906) and Karl Marx: His Life and Work (1909).