[Not before August 19 (6), 1905]

Date: 1905-06-19
Source: Lenin Collection, vol. 26
Pages: 342-342

CORRECTIONS TO THE MANUSCRIPT OF P. NIKOLAEV'S PAMPHLET
"REVOLUTION IN RUSSIA"
[Not before August 19 (6), 1905]

R. Nikolaew. Die Revolution in Russland¹.
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Proletarians of all countries, unite!
Prix: 25 cent.— 272 d·—20 pf.—25 kop. — 3 cts.
P. Nikolaev. Revolution in Russia. Central Committee Edition.

... [Thus are the estates obtained] The origin of the estates is as follows...

... the nobility will be, as before, the chief mainstay, and even if the elected representatives should happen to disagree with them in something, the Tsar will not heed such an opinion of the elected representatives. Therefore, the party of the Shipovs and Sheremetevs is called conservative, i.e., a party that preserves the existing order. On June 19, 1905, this party sent its deputies to the Tsar, and they set forth its wishes, and the Tsar replied that he is in favor of the estate system and the advisory character of the assembly of elected representatives. The Minister of Internal Affairs Bulygin intends to establish a State Duma precisely on such foundations*.

¹ The pamphlet was published in Geneva in 1905 by the Central Committee. The pamphlet has 30 pages. All of Lenin's corrections were incorporated into the pamphlet.

* The present pamphlet was written before August 6. Now the State Duma has already been established. The working class and all the propertyless people have absolutely no right to elect members of the Duma. Rich landowners and merchants elect members of the Duma through provincial electors. The peasants do not even elect provincial electors directly, but through district electors, elected at volost assemblies. There is not a trace of freedom of elections, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly. The police remain all-powerful. The Duma adopts decisions that are not binding on the government, but only advisory, i.e., the Duma has absolutely no power whatsoever.