V. I. Lenin

Source: ru:LS/v5;es:MT
Translated: machine translation (DeepSeek) from the Russian; AI-translated.

The synopsis of the article printed below, under the heading “The Balance of Forces”, was written on Monday, October 30 (17), 1905, in the daytime, when the telegrams about the “Manifesto of October 17” had not yet reached Geneva. Point 5 of the synopsis still says: “Rumour that a constitution has been decided upon.”

The article “The Balance of Forces” was intended, as can be seen from the outline of the contents of No. 24 of *Proletary* sketched by Vladimir Ilyich on the same sheet, as the leading article of that issue.

But late on Monday evening “the telegraph brought Europe the news of the Tsar’s manifesto,” says Vladimir Ilyich in the article “The First Victory of the Revolution” (see *Collected Works*, Vol. VIII, p. 352). The article “The First Victory of the Revolution,” written on November 4 (October 19), replaced the intended article.

30.
THE BALANCE OF FORCES.
[October 30, 1905, daytime.]

1) The result up to now (October 30 (17), Monday),—a balance of forces, as we already pointed out in No. 23 of *Proletary*.
2) Tsarism is no longer strong enough,—the revolution is not yet strong enough to be victorious.¹)
3) Hence tremendous vacillations.
A terrible, gigantic intensification of revolutionary phenomena (strikes, meetings, barricades, committees of public safety, complete paralysis of the government, etc.
— on the other hand, absence of decisive repression.
The troops are wavering.
4) The Court is wavering (*Times* and *Daily Telegraph*): dictatorship or constitution.
The Court is wavering and waiting. Actually, this is the correct tactics on its part: the balance of forces compels it to wait, for power is in its hands.
The revolution has reached a point where it is disadvantageous for the counter-revolution to attack, to advance.
For us, for the proletariat, for the consistent revolutionary democrats, this is not enough. If we do not rise a step higher, if we do not accomplish the task of an independent offensive, if we do not break the forces of tsarism, do not

destroy its actual power,—then the revolution will be half-hearted, then the bourgeoisie will lead the workers by the nose.
5) Rumour that a constitution has been decided upon. If so, then the Tsar, evidently, is taking into account the lessons of 1848 and other revolutions: to grant a constitution without a Constituent Assembly, before the Constituent Assembly, apart from the Constituent Assembly. What kind? At best (for the Tsar) = a Cadet constitution.
The significance of this: the realisation of the ideal of the Constitutional-Democrats, a leap over the revolution.
Deception of the people, for there will still be no full and real freedom of elections.
Will not the revolution leap over this granted constitution?

No. 24 [The Balance] of Forces?
[Petty-]bourgeois and proletarian socialism
School pedagogy
Parliamentarism
Feuilleton??
Foreign review:
France
Germany¹ s)

¹) From the article “The All-Russian Political Strike” (*Collected Works*, Vol. VIII, p. 333).
²) Outline of the contents of No. 24 of *Proletary*.
In fact, No. 24 appeared with a somewhat different content. The article “The Balance of Forces” was replaced by Lenin’s article “The First Victory of the Revolution.”
No article on school pedagogy appeared in *Proletary*. Although the manuscript of the article has been preserved (in the archives of the Institute of Lenin), it has not been possible to establish the author of the article.
A. Lunacharsky’s article “Parliament and Its Significance” was printed not in No. 24, but in No. 25 of *Proletary*.