“Bolshevism” as understood in Steiner’s time would have been state control over the individual in order to force society into “the future”. Marx had predicted an inevitable outcome to capitalism. Lenin had to rework the “inevitable” piece because it did not fit the circumstances in Russia. But in action the Bolsheviks were ruthless and relentless and unashamed in their striving to utterly remake society around their theories. Mass murder in the service of a better tomorrow was logically proper. Another major features that would have mattered a great deal to Germans in 1919: that Bolshevism advocated and practiced the forced abolition of private property. That, of course, required a great deal of violence.
Leave a Reply