The Anti-Climax (concluding chapter of The Bolshevik Myth)

me by the Revolution I summarised in the Concluding Chapter. But Mr. Liveright rejected that chapter as an "anti-climax" from a literary stand' point and insisted on leaving it out. Anxious to place my book before the public, I consented, But much as I am interested in literature, I consider the Russian Revolution and its lessons far more important than the finest writing. In a certain sense present-day Russia is indeed an anticlimax to the revolutionary aspirations of 1917. The ore vital is the elucidation of the causes that led to \ the debacle of the Revolution. Those causes are discussed in the missing chapter. I have therefore published the Latter in the present brochure, for the dreader's better understanding of the "BOLSHEVIK MYTH" and — in justice to myself. ^ cry TxV Berlin, January, 1925. 444435 PREFACE Various circumstances have delayed the appearance of my work on Russia. But though it deals with conditions of two years ago, the book is as descript* ive of Russia today as it was then. "THE BOLSHEVIK MYTH" covers the period of military communism and the succeeding "nep" — the new economic policy introduced by Lenin in 1921. The "nep" has remained in force ever since, whatever the variations of its application, now hesitating, now energetically intensive.…