the revolutionary proletariat, thus effecting a revolution in the whole character of penal measures.
73. Revolutionary Tribunals.
These popular courts — to which the judges are elected, from which the judges can be recalled, and in which every worker must fulfil his judicial duty when his turn comes — are looked upon by the Communist Party as the normal law-courts of the proletarian State. But in the epoch of the extremest intensification of the civil war, it has been found necessary to supplement the popular courts by the appointment of revolutionary tribunals. The function of the revolutionary tribunals is to deal speedily and mercilessly with the enemies of the proletarian revolution. Such courts are among the weapons for the crushing of the exploiters, and from this point of view they are just as much the instruments of proletarian offence and defence as the Red Guard, the Red Army, and the Extraordinary Commissions. Consequently, the revolutionary tribunals are organised on less democratic lines than the popular courts. They are appointed by the soviets, and are not directly elected by the workers.