A spiral of regression
Nearly 370 people have died since gunmen claiming to champion Chechen national rights seized a school in North Ossetia (a territory neighbouring Chechnya) on Wednesday 1 September and took the children hostage. Nearly 200 people are still officially missing. Many of the dead and missing are children. Nothing the hostage-takers might say about Chechen rights can blur the horror of what they did. Discussing the need for harsh measures in revolutionary and class struggles, Leon Trotsky wrote: "The liberating morality of the proletariat of necessity is endowed with a revolutionary character. It...