No one who has followed attentively the work of the constitution-makers in Weimar can have overlooked their readiness to adopt and assimilate the positive elements of a movement which was essentially destructive.  In this respect they displayed a remarkable degree of open-mindedness and receptivity.  They showed themselves avid of every contribution which they could glean from any source to the work of national reorganization, and even in Teutonized Bolshevism they apparently found helpful hints of timely innovations.  One may safely hazard the prediction that these adaptations, however little they may be relished, are certain to spread to the Western peoples, who will be constrained to accept them in the long run, and Germany may end by becoming the economic leader of democratic Europe.  The law of politico-social interchange and assimilation underlying this phenomenon, had it been understood by the statesmen of the Entente, might have rendered them less desirous of seeing the German organism tainted with the germs of dissolution.  For what Germany borrows from Bolshevism to-day western Europe will borrow from Germany to-morrow.  And foremost among the new institutions which the revolution will impose upon Europe is that of the Soviets, considerably modified in form and limited in functions.

“In the conception of the Soviet system,” writes the most influential Jewish-German organ in Europe, “there is assuredly something serviceable, and it behooves us to familiarize ourselves therewith.  Psychologically, it rests upon the need felt by the working-man to be something more than a mere cog in the industrial mechanism.  The first step would consist in conferring upon labor committees juridical functions consonant with latter-day requirements.  These functions would extend beyond those exercised by the labor committees hitherto.  How far they could go without rendering the industrial enterprise impossible is a matter for investigation....  This is not merely a wish of the extremists; it is a psychological requirement, and therefore it necessitates the establishment of a closer nexus between legislation and practical life which unhappily is become so complicated.  And this need is not confined to the laboring class.  It is universal.  Therefore, what is good for the one is meet for the other."[276]

The Soviet system adapted to modern existence is one—­and probably the sole—­legacy of Bolshevism to the new age.

During the Peace Conference Bolshevism played a large part in the world’s affairs.  By some of the eminent lawgivers there it was feared as a scourge; by others it was wielded as a weapon, and by a third set it was employed as a threat.  Whenever a delegate of one of the lesser states felt that he was losing ground at the Peace Table, and that his country’s demands were about to be whittled down as extravagant, he would point significantly to certain “foretokens” of an outbreak of Bolshevism in his country and class