VICTOR CHERNOV, Russian Social-Revolutionary leader and writer, Minister of Agriculture in the Kerensky Government
THE Fifteenth Congress of the Communist Party, held in December, 1927, carried out the sentence of execution against the left opposition, and especially its three leaders -- Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev. The chief executioners were Bukharin, Stalin, Tomsky and Rykov. Their resolutions were passed unanimously and all received endless ovations from the Congress. At that time nothing seemed to foretell that at the very next Congress, which has just come to an end, three of the four triumphant victors were to appear as accused, that the condemnation of their views was to be carried out with the same unanimity, and that even more shameful was to be the eclipse of their political star...
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LENIN is dead--this time dead physically, for spiritually and politically he has been dead a year at least. We have got in the habit of speaking of him as a thing of the past; and for that very reason it will not be difficult now to write of him dispassionately.
Editor's Note: This article by Victor Chernov, Lenin's fellow revolutionary and political rival, appeared in Foreign Affairs March 15, 1924, following Lenin's death on January 21 of that year. It is reprinted here on the 100th anniversary of Lenin's birth.
NO student of the internal structure of the Soviet power can overlook the way in which every part of the Soviet Government machine is paralleled in the machine of the Communist Party. The supreme organ of the Soviet Union is the General Congress of Soviets, which elects the Central Executive Committee, which in turn elects from among its members the Praesidium, de facto the highest executive organ of the Union. The Communist Party pyramid is similarly constructed.

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