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Who Was To Blame For Bolshevism?

Portfolio Armor's Photo
by Portfolio Armor
Thursday, May 01, 2025 - 5:02
Various Russian empire ethnicities united in Bolshevism.

Remembering David Horowitz And Bolshevism 

Our last post ("Remembering David Horowitz") drew some spirited comments. 

This passage in particular, from David Horowitz's son Ben's eulogy for him, struck a cord with one commenter (emphasis ours): 

In his continued mission to save the world, in 1968 David became co-editor of the new left magazine Ramparts. While at Ramparts, David developed a close friendship with Huey P. Newton, founder of the Black Panther Party. As part of their work together, David helped raise money for, and assisted the Panthers with, the running of a school for poor children in Oakland. He later recommended that Newton hire his friend Betty Van Patter as bookkeeper; she was then working for Ramparts. In December 1974, Van Patter's body was found floating in San Francisco Harbor; she had been murdered by the Panthers for knowing too much.

The murder forced David to confront a truth that he had long suspected. It made clear to him that the pursuit of a Marxist utopia was a false and unachievable goal. Diabolically, the goal created a religion. The religion then cloaked the movement’s leaders with an invincible moral standing enabling them to commit atrocities with impunity for their own gain. He was horrified that he had been part of it and it caused him to rethink his entire life.

In response, our commenter wrote: 

He does not mention the name of the religion.

Maybe because he has it backwards - his parents religion created the goal - which is openly admitted to be Bolshevism.

You know what the religion is.

58 million pus slaughtered in the USSR by the Bolsheviks from 1914 to 1958. the greatest "holocaust" in all of human history - until, of course, the covid shots.

Of course, Ben Horowitz wasn't referring to an actual religion above, but the ethical blindness that comes with adhering to a radical political ideology religiously. Leftists ignored a horrific crime, because to acknowledge it would reflect poorly on leftism and leftists' fellow travelers. 

But our commenter is obviously referring to Judaism. Horowitz's parents were Jewish (ethnically--they were atheist Marxists), as were many early Bolsheviks. Ergo, Jews are responsible for all the horrors of Bolshevism. That brought to mind a recent interaction involving the popular rightwing Russian podcasters, Russians With Attitude (@RWAPodcast). 

A Russian Perspective On The Bolsheviks 

In response to their post on X about the number of Latvians in the Soviet government of the Ukraine during the 1930s famine, a replier asked if "Latvians" was a euphemism (for Jews). 

Russians With Attitude offered the following reply:

If you know anything about the history of the 1917 Revolution(s) and the Civil War, it is quite funny to read something like this.

No, "Latvian" is not a euphemism for "Jew". There was significant Jewish involvement in the Bolshevik movement, including among its leaders, but describing Communism in Russia as a "Jewish movement" is a ridiculous oversimplification.

Communism was first and foremost a coalition of the fringes. There was a lot of factionalism involved. Not just along ethnic lines. The Mensheviks had a very strong Georgian faction; Georgia was considered a "Menshevik" region - that's why Stalin was initially put forward by Bolshevik leadership, since being a Bolshevik from a Menshevik region was considered extraordinary. The Menshevik had more pull with the more moderate Socialists; this would come in handy when Stalin negotiated with the Provisional Government on behalf of Lenin (they were going to arrest him)...

But I digress. Bolshevism was a coalition of the fringes. All sorts of ethnic minorities flocked towards it, Jews were not the only ones. There were plenty of Balts, Poles and Caucasians (for Americans: people from the Caucasus, not 'White people'), even among the highest ranks.

There was a satirical verse about the later Russian Duma: "И пролетарии всех стран слились в один кавказский стан", loosely translated: "The workers of the world united into one Caucasian camp", because so many Leftists in the Russian parliament were Georgians, Armenians, etc.

Latvians were also heavily overrepresented. The Balts exploded into revolutionary violence back in 1905, starting to massacre their Baltic German masters, and just never stopped. Due to their geographic location - many ports, close to Sweden, which was a spy hub, particularly for the British, and Finland was just across the sea, too - they were the main recipients of British 'aid' during the 1905 Revolution and the Russian-Japanese war (the former should be mainly seen as a British-Japanese attempt to support the latter).

Lenin's bodyguard was formed out of Latvian Bolsheviks and they were the first and best shock troops of the new Soviet regime. They were used not just on the frontlines of the Civil War, but also to execute the expropriations and death squad jobs associated with War Communism. Russian peasants HATED Latvians because of this and they prominently featured in White Guard propaganda as the main instrument of Bolshevik terror, even above Jews.

Latvians were the backbone of the Cheka in many regions, they had the highest party membership per capita until the 50s or so. They played an absolutely crucial role in the early Soviet regime.

Perhaps This Helps Explain Putin's Views Toward Minorities

If Bolshevism could be blamed on one ethnic group, one might expect Russia's leader to scapegoat that group. But Putin hasn't scapegoated any of Russia's minorities, and instead has embraced them in a spirit of tolerance and inclusion. 

Eagle-eyed readers may have noticed that Putin didn't mention Latvians there--that's simply because there are fewer than 20,000 of them in today's Russia. 

Since We Are Not Bolsheviks...

The Bolsheviks hated commerce. Since we are not Bolsheviks, let there be commerce between us. (((Goldman Sachs))) says the market hasn't priced in the possibility of a recession, and you should use the current market rally to add downside protection. We have the perfect tool for that.  

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