It should be born in mind that the Communist Party, contrary to Euro- 
pean political parties, is not open to everybody, admittance to it may be 
gained only by satisfying several conditions, — regarding one’s origin, 
fortune, etc., by passing a term of probation, and by being proposed by a 
certain number of communists (this number varying according to the origin 
of the person proposed). Thus the whole party is made up by way of co- 
optation. 
Alongside of it are organisations which prepare a man from his early 
years for the participation in the communist party; they train him, they try 
him, they put him to the test, they coach him, — till he is ripe for the 
job. Such organisations are the “Communist Union of Young People” 
(Comsomol), and the “Organisation of Pioneers’. Evidently one can never 
be sure that the boy trained in this way will prove a good communist. 
Members of the party themselves may now and then “turn rotten” (as it 
is termed there), or a member may be found simply working in disaccord 
with the views of the leaders. A “cleaning” is then effected. Periodically 
the party dismisses unworthy members. The chief organ of this supervision 
and cleaning is one of the ruling organs of the party — the “Committee of 
Control”. The mere threat of its possible intervention (which takes away 
a man’s advantages, power, means of subsistence) smoothes out the would- 
be offender. This is one of the last among the complicated network of 
measures, which guarantee and keep secure the power of the government: 
indirect oligarchy of the communist summit, managing the communist party, 
which in its turn rules over the apparatus of the State, and does not allow 
any independent organisation to exist alongside of itself. 
Conclusion. . 
The answer to two questions may be adduced from what has already 
been said. These two questions interest alike Russian society in Russia and 
abroad, as well as foreigners studying Russian affairs. The first question 
refers to the possibility of an evolution on the part of the Soviet regime; 
the second concerns the possibility of the Soviet regime being retained after 
the Communist Party is rejected: the first question is founded on the hope 
that the State will gradually and painlessly revert to its normal structure; 
the second is based on the recognition of “good” sides of the Soviets, on 
the wish to keep them, and on the assumption that the slogan “long live 
the Soviets, down with the communist party’, will help to make an end of 
Bolshevism fairly easily. 
It should be clear from the previous pages that the existence of the 
Soviet regime without the “dictatorship” of the Communist Party, is an 
impossible thing. The party supervises, corrects, renews, subordinates, keeps 
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