    17

    Shiites

    "Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo."

                                      H.G. Wells

    Battles don't just take place between societies, they take place

    between the groups within a social unit.  And ideology is what

    galvanizes these groups for their struggle over turf and power.  In

    1917, Russia was in serious trouble.  Russian citizens had entered the

    First World War with tremendous enthusiasm.  Then they had bogged

    down on the eastern front for years, losing battle after battle to the

    Germans.  The demands of the war had strained the country's

    infrastructure past endurance.  Transport and supply had broken

    down.  Soldiers fought without bullets, went through the winters

    without adequate clothing, and made it through each day with scarcely

    enough to eat.  The faltering railroad system ceased bringing adequate

    supplies of food to the cities.  In Petrograd and Moscow, citizens

    waited at three A.M. in line for a scrap of bread, their faces literally

    turning blue as the temperature dipped to minus 40.25

    A frustrated mass of humanity was boiling with anger, anxious

    to find someone to blame for its misfortunes, eager to uncover a

    scapegoat.  The Bolshevik ideology gave them the perfect target for

    their hostility.  Said Lenin, all these problems were the fault of the

    propertied classes and the bourgeoisie. Why was Russia at war?

    Because the propertied classes demanded it.  Why was Russia losing?

    Because the propertied classes were sabotaging the efforts of the

    soldiers.  Why were people starving?  Because the propertied classes

    were hoarding all the food.26

    The answer--destroy the propertied classes and, in the process,

    take from them everything they had: their homes, their clothing, their

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