V. I. Lenin

The50th anniversary of Moscow’s liberal newspaper has evoked torrents of laudatory speeches from Russian liberals of every
stripe. That is natural, legitimate and consistent. Liberals can be
expected to celebrate the jubilee of the liberal newspaper. Russkiye Vedomosti {1} has been no worse than other liberal newspapers, and
in some respects (as in the abundance of scientific material) it has certainly been above
the liberal average.

Butwhen the rhetoricians of liberalism, Messrs. Kovalevsky, Milyukov,
Manuilov, Bunin and their like, praise “ Russkiye Vedomosti” on behalf of democracy and from an ostensibly democratic standpoint, that is a
flagrant lie and it cannot be allowed to go unchallenged.

Distinguishedand notable liberals! You all swear that you stand for
political freedom. But you refuse to understand one simple fact, namely,
that a liberal society in Russia which allows counter-revolutionary
statements by liberals to go unchallenged, does not deserve political
freedom and will never get it.

Youare celebrating the 50th anniversary of Russkiye Vedomosti , aren’t you? That’s fine. In that case, do not hide the truth , do not forget that Russkiye Vedomosti was one of the
first liberal newspapers to trip up the first serious and deep-going mass
movement in Russia, whose aim was to attain political freedom.

Thatwas in the summer of 1905. The leading light of liberal
science and liberal publicism, Mr. Professor Vinogradov the historian, then
contributed to Russkiye Vedomosti a remarkable, unforgettable, and
memorable “historic” article. His main idea was as follows: let’s hope
our movement does not go beyond the German one of 1848–49, otherwise the
Prussian watchman will have to restore order over here.

That’sthe kind of thing Russkiye Vedomosti , organ of the
liberals, printed in the summer of 1905!!

Leteveryone in Russia who wants to gain a reputation for being a
democrat ponder this historical fact. History has proved—and its proof is
irrefutable—that the movement in the autumn of 1905 was weak and
inadequate, while a famous liberal found it much too strong in the
summer of 1905, and put spokes in its wheels.

Thefact is there. It is incontrovertible. This liberal and all his
fellows, all his—you will pardon me the expression—fellow-politicians
among the liberals bear the moral and political blame for
the Jewish pogroms in the autumn of 1905. For, incidentally, the pogromists
drew for strength and impudence on precisely this “Vinogradov”-type mood
of liberal society.

The“Vinogradov”-type liberals have the government they fully deserve. The “Vinogradov” liberal writing in Russkiye Vedomosti , and Purishkevich, the collective Purishkevich, are only two
sides of the same medal, they are interconnected and interdependent
phenomena.

There can be no political freedom in Russia until she has (or because she lacks) mass democracy with a clear understanding of the
total short-sightedness, absurdity and vileness of the “Vinogradov”-type
liberalism of Russkiye Vedomosti .

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Notes:
{1}
Russkiye Vedomosti (Russian Recorder)—a newspaper published
in Moscow from 1863, expressing the views of the moderate liberal
intelligentsia. In the 1880s and 1890s, contributors to the paper included
writers from the democratic camp (V. G. Korolenko, M. Y. Saltykov-Shchedrin
and G. I. Uspensky, among others); it also carried the works of the liberal
Narodniks. From 1905, the paper was the organ of the Right wing of the
Cadet Party. Lenin said that the paper was a unique combination of
“ Right Cadetism and Narodnik overtones” (see present edition, Vol. 19, p. 135).

In 1918, the newspaper was closed down along with the other counter
revolutionary newspapers.

p. 294