V. I.

Lenin

In a leading article [1] we pointed out what a muddle the new-Iskra’s new
plan for a “Duma campaign” is. Here is a most lucid exposition of it
given by Martov himself in the Vienna Arbeiter Zeitung [2] (of
August 24, New Style). (The italics everywhere are Martov’s own.)

"The plan is as follows,” says Comrade Martov, referring to its
“endorsement by many organisations in Russia”. “Working-class
organisations are to assume the initiative in establishing people’s agitation committees , to be elected by all elements of the population that
are not satisfied with the tsar’s reform. The task of such commit tees consists
first of all in developing agitation for genuine popular representation
throughout the country. These committees are to be set up formally for the
purpose of enabling the mass of the population to take part in the forthcoming
elections. Since by virtue of the electoral law they are barred from
direct participation in the elections, the citizens may take part
indirectly by communicating their opinions and demands to the more exclusive
bodies of privileged voters. The committees bring pressure to bear on the
electoral body with the object of getting only resolute advocates 01 democratic and free representation elected to the Duma. At the same time
the committees strive to set up, apart from the ’legal’ representative body, an
illegal representative body which would be able at the right
moment to come forward as the country’s provisional organ of the people’s will. The committees call on the population to elect
their representatives by universal suffrage; at a given moment these
representatives should gather in some one city and proclaim themselves a constituent assembly. Such is, so to say, the ideal objective of this
campaign. Whether matters will get so far as this or not, a movement along these
lines will serve to organise revolutionary self-government, which will smash the
shackles of tsarist legality, and lay the foundation for the future triumph of
the revolution. Little by little the rudiments of such revolutionary self-government are arising all over Russia, as, for
instance, has already happened at the present time in two Caucasian gubernias where the official authorities are being boycotted by the entire
population, and the latter is being governed by its own elected authorities. (In
parentheses: the peasants of Guria demand that these authorities be endorsed by our Committee .)

"The abolition of the autocracy, which does not wish to inaugurate a
constitutional era voluntarily, must proceed by way of setting up such publicly
functioning self-government bodies everywhere. It goes without saying that
opportunities for this are engendered by the increasing disorganisation of the
government apparatus and the growth o¶ an effective power ( wirkenden Kraft ) among the people.”

We recommend this peerless plan to the comrades as the Ideal objective of the monarchist (Osvobozhdeniye) bourgeoisie , as the ideal objective of liquidating the Russian proletarian- peasant revolution by the liberal landlords .

As we have pointed out hundreds of times, the Osvobozhdeniye League,
i.e., the monarchist bourgeoisie, wants just such a “liquidation” as
would bring about the transfer of power to the bourgeoisie without a popular
uprising, or, at any rate, without the complete victory of an uprising of the
people. Manilovist plans for “elections” while the autocracy remains
in power play entirely into the hands of the liberal bourgeoisie , which
alone is capable of producing anything at all resembling such elections.

We shall dwell on the details of this ridiculous plan only briefly. Is it not
naïve to forget that self-government in the Caucasus (not in two gubernias, but
in a few volosts) rests on an armed uprising? Is it not puerile to
imagine that what is possible in a few mountain villages in a remote frontier
district is possible in the heart of Russia without the people’s victory over
the autocracy? Is not this plan of multi-stage “elections” while power remains in the hands of the autocratic government, a bit of superb pedantry? “The dissatisfied elements of the population” (?)
elect people’s agitation committees (without a programme, without clear
slogans). The committees set up an “illegal representative body” (in
all probability, simply replacing the illegal organisation of the
Socialist Labour Party by an Osvobozhdeniye organisation!). It
is obvious that the substitution of the obscure term, “organ of the people’s will” , for the clear revolutionary term, “a
provisional government as the organ of the uprising”, is simply playing into the hands of the Zemstvo-bourgeois party. Universal
elections to a constituent assembly on the initiative of
“illegal” committees, while Trepov [3] and Co. are left
in power is an idea which is altogether infantile.

In disputes it is sometimes useful to have a “devil’s advocate”—one
who defends an absurd view which is rejected by everyone. Iskra has
now assumed this role. Its plan is most helpful for educational purposes in
refuting absurdities at meetings of study circles, extemporaneous meetings, mass
meetings, etc.; it is very helpful for the purpose of bringing out more
distinctly the contrast between the slogans of the revolutionary proletariat and
those of the monarchist liberal bourgeoisie.

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Notes:
[1]
See pp. 212-23 of this volume.— Ed .

[2]
The Vienna Arbeiter Zeitung —a daily newspaper that was the central organ of Austrian Social-Democracy. It was
founded by V. Adler in Vienna in 1889.

In 1905 the paper reflected the militant temper of the workers and the toiling
masses of Austria-Hungary, who under the influence of the first Russian
revolution were fighting for the introduction of universal suffrage in their
country

During the First World War the paper took a social-chauvinist stand, for which
Lenin called it the newspaper of “The Viennese traitors to