Simmons, in his testimony before the Overman Committee, describes the policy of inciting class hatred by the Bolsheviki in Russia:
Mr. Simmons. “Being a social revolution, of course the worst parts about it are the results of the awful class hatred the Bolsheviki leaders are inciting. They are inciting it in every part of the country by their publications and in all their efficient propaganda. It has not been any more disastrous in any parts of Russia, I believe, than it has been in many villages among the peasantry.
“Their policy has as an underlying motive the arousing of class antagonism, the proletariat hating the bourgeoisie. In practice it means that the less fortunate in every industry and institution bear animus against those qualified to hold better positions. This has been indirectly the cause of most of the incidents of terrorism witnesses have spoken of, more of which I will tell you about later.
“When it was seen that the peasantry did not rally to the support of the Bolshevik cause and that they refused to sell grain for rubles without value, the Bolsheviki took the class issue to the villages. Lenine calls this movement awakening class consciousness of the peasantry. He organized for this work ‘poor committees,’ as they are called in translation. These committees of soldiers go out to the villages to inflame the dissatisfied elements and to extract by force food from the peasants.... But Lenine sends the poor committees, agitators, to incite peasants who have no land to conspire against those who have, and to take the guns he gives them for fighting, robbing, and plundering neighbors in their own and neighboring villages who have land. When you come later to read, gentlemen, the history of the Russian revolution, some of the bloodiest fights, you will