The hostility of the world was in no way a surprise to those who made the October revolution; it was in accordance with their general theory, and its consequences should have been taken into account in making the revolution.

Other hostilities besides those of the outside world have been incurred by the Bolsheviks with open eyes, notably the hostility of the peasants and that of a great part of the industrial population.  They have attempted, in accordance with their usual contempt for conciliatory methods, to substitute terror for reward as the incentive to work.  Some amiable Socialists have imagined that, when the private capitalist had been eliminated, men would work from a sense of obligation to the community.  The Bolsheviks will have none of such sentimentalism.  In one of the resolutions of the ninth Communist Congress they say: 

    Every social system, whether based on slavery, feudalism, or
    capitalism, had its ways and means of labour compulsion and
    labour education in the interests of the exploiters.

The Soviet system is faced with the task of developing its own methods of labour compulsion to attain an increase of the intensity and wholesomeness of labour; this method is to be based on the socialization of public economy in the interests of the whole nation.

In addition to the propaganda by which the people are to be influenced and the repressions which are to be applied to all idlers, parasites and disorganizers who strive to undermine public zeal—­the principal method for the increase of production will become the introduction of the system of compulsory labour.

In capitalist society rivalry assumed the character of competition and led to the exploitation of man by man.  In a society where the means of production are nationalized, labour rivalry is to increase the products of labour without infringing its solidarity.

Rivalry between factories, regions, guilds, workshops, and individual workers should become the subject of careful organization and of close study on the side of the Trade Unions and the economic organs.

The system of premiums which is to be introduced should become one of the most powerful means of exciting rivalry.  The system of rationing of food supply is to get into line with it; so long as Soviet Russia suffers from insufficiency of provisions, it is only just that the industrious and conscientious worker receives more than the careless worker.

It must be remembered that even the “industrious and conscientious worker” receives less food than is required to maintain efficiency.