Thus, at the beginning of the year 1920 the fortunes of Bolshevist Russia were good. On the southeast and east her enemies were all but crushed. On the west the Baltic states were ready to give up the struggle. Esthonia held a conference with them at Dorpat in De cember, in which a treaty of peace was all but made on the basis of mutual recognitions of independence and the renunciation by Esthonia of her alliance with the Western powers. The negotiations broke off, however, when the Bol shevists demanded that the Esthonians expel or intern the remnant of the army of General Yudenitch, which had taken refuge within their borders. The Western powers insisted that this army be left where it was in order that it might at least serve to hold Bolshevist troops in the west who might otherwise be sent into the southeast. Representatives of Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Finland were at Dor pat informally, and it was believed that they would have favored the treaty offered to Ls thonia, if it conld have been accepted. Early in January 1920 the Esthonians made an ar mistice with Bolshevist Russia, and it was an nounced that Yudenitch's army would be sent by water to join the anti-Bolshevists in south ern Russia.
With established peace on their western border and victories won in the Far East, Rus sian Bolshevism presents itself as one of the most important results of the World War. So far it seems to have succeeded in uniting the Russian Empire, except for the Baltic states and Poland, which in 1917 was considered a difficult thing to do. It has been strengthened at home by the political incompetence of the anti-Bolshevist Russians and by the fact that it was the most promising force in Russia for national unity. It is not a democratic form of government: in its present state it is as auto cratic as the government of the tsar. It sets out to force every man to become a proletarian, and then it means to keep him a proletarian until all men choose to remain in that state. If that condition is reached the coercion of the leaders may be relaxed, and Bolshevism may become democratic. It remains to be "seen how it can swing itself into the world move ment for self-government which has been the underlying force in political development for the past seven centuries. At present that sterns to be the most serious problem of the Bolshe vists. JOH N SPENCER BASSETT, Professor of History, Smith College.