is what was called an "old guard Bolshevik revolutionary" which means primarily that he was a Bolshevik revolutionary before Stalin acquired his power. The term "old guard" means in this sense that he viewed Stalin's leadership as counterproductive to the greater good of the communist revolution and its goal of eventual successful communism.
             Rubashov said that "We diagnosed the disease..." which can be interpreted as many different meanings. One being that before the revolution, he and his peers had deemed that capitalism was not the answer to their distraught situation nor was it a necessary step to eventual true communism as Marx had said decades earlier. The term "disease" in this sense shows the distaste that the Bolsheviks had for the western liberal ideals, primarily capitalism. The "disease" can also be interpreted as the old regime of the Tsars that ruled Russia for centuries prior to the revolution. The roots of the uprising were in the workers associations that were called "Soviets". These groups were forming
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