In the same way the Soviet regime, though resembling in certain 
respects regimes of different former periods, has much in it which does 
not relate to any past: the building of a State on the privileges of 
the lower classes, with the destruction of economic and cultural leader- 
ship; the negation of quality; the rule of incompetence; the struggle 
against creative forces. Under the Soviets, personal and social activities 
are eliminated (a state of affairs that never reached such a limit, — even 
in the Eastern despotic States, and only was it so, perhaps, in the Jesuit 
State of Peru). The State swallowed up all functions and the Communist 
Party swallowed up the State, without settling the functions of its organs. 
Such a regime is constantly fated to act against all natural processes of life 
and of its needs; in order to keep it In existence, it has to resort to 
oppression and violence. 
Such is the Soviet regime. The existence of such a monstrosity cer- 
tainly requires explanation; how could it eventuate, and how can it keep 
its hold? One may, however, hope that life itself will soon give an 
exhaustive answer to the second of these two questions, and will prove 
the impossibility of such a regime by the very fact of its disappearance. 
1Y