V. I. Lenin

From the Theses for a Report at the October 8 Conference of the St. Petersburg Organisation, and Also for a Resolution and Instructions to Those Elected to the Party Congress {2}

ON THE LIST OF CANDIDATES FOR THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY {3}

Thelist of candidates published by the Central Committee
has been compiled in an inadmissible manner and calls for the sharpest
protest. The point is that there must be four or five times more workers in
a peasant Constituent Assembly, because they alone are capable of
establishing close and intimate ties with the peasant deputies. It is
absolutely inadmissible also to have an excessive number of candidates from
among people who have but recently joined our Party and have not yet been
tested (like Larin). In filling the list with such candidates who should
first have worked in the Party for months and months, the C.C. has thrown
wide open the door for careerists who scramble for seats in the Constituent
Assembly. There is need for an urgent review and correction of the list.

NOTE TO THESIS “ON THE LIST OF CANDIDATES FOR THE CONSTITUENT
ASSEMBLY”

Itgoes without saying that from among the mezhraiontsi {4} who have been hardly tested in proletarian work in our
Party’s spirit , no one would contest the candidature of, say,
Trotsky, for, first, upon his arrival, Trotsky at once took up an
internationalist stand; second, he worked among the mezhraiontsi for a
merger; third, in the difficult July days he proved himself equal to the
task and a loyal supporter of the party of the revolutionary
proletariat. Clearly, as much cannot be said about many of the new Party
members entered on the list.

Larin’snomination is especially scandalous (apart from his being
placed ahead of Petrovsky, Krylenko and others...). During the war, Larin
helped the chauvinists , spoke on their behalf at the
Swedish congress, and helped to print lies against the St. Petersburg
workers and their boycott of the War Industries Committees. During the war,
before the revolution, Larin did not once show himself to be a
fighter for internationalism. Upon his return to Russia, Larin
long helped the Mensheviks and even came out in the press with indecent
attacks against, our Party, in the Alexinsky spirit. Larin is well known
for his “swings”: let us recall his pamphlet on the labour congress and
on a merger with the S.R.s.

Ofcourse, there would be no need to recall all this if Larin entered
the Party with a desire to reform. But to get him into the Constituent
Assembly within a week or so of his entry into the Party is in fact to transform the Party into the same kind of dirty stall for
careerists as most of the European parties are. [1]

Theserious work in the Constituent Assembly will consist in
establishing close, intimate ties with the peasants. Only workers
who are in touch with peasant life are fit for this. To pack the
Constituent Assembly with orators and writers is to take the beaten track of opportunism and chauvinism. That is
unworthy of the “Third International”.

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Notes:
[1]
What about M.N. Pokrovsky’s candidature? In 1907, he moved away from
the Bolsheviks and remained on the sidelines for years. It would be a good
thing if he came back for good. But this has first to be proved by long
effort. — Lenin

{2}
The theses were first published in full in Vol. 34 of the Fifth Russian
edition of the Collected Works . The First edition of the

Collected Works (Vol. 14, Part II), and the Fourth edition of the