V. I.

Lenin

Theliberals are trying to make the public optimistic regarding the composition
of the Duma. Here is what the Frankfurter Zeitung correspondent wrote
from St. Peters burg on October 14 (New Style): “Consideration of the
results of the pre-election meetings now taking place leads one to the
conclusion that the composition of the Duma will not be as bad as it seemed
before. It may now be foretold with a certain degree of probability that
conservative elements proper will hardly make up one half of the Duma. The
moderate liberals and the liberals have the best chances of
being elected, whereas the radicals’ prospects are far less favour able, though
they may be called relatively good from the viewpoint of the pessimism with
which the radicals regarded the future as recently as in August. There can
hardly be any doubt that the radicals’ representation in the Duma will not be
too weak. The only question is in what degree they will be able to make the
liberals and the moderate liberals follow in their wake, since only if these
three elements present a solid front to the conservative core will a constituent
assembly be ensured.”

Byradicals the correspondent undoubtedly means the
Constitutional-Democrats. Their candidates in St. Peters burg are Nabokov,
Kedrin, and Vinaver. The “moderate liberals” are not defined with
any precision, but among their candidates mention has been made of Fyodorov (a
conservative “proper”, but “one who might be supported by the
liberals as well”!), and Nikitin (a candidate of the Right, but at the same time
also a moderate-liberal candidate).

Soa constituent assembly is “ensured”, with the liberals and
moderate liberals subordinated to the leadership of the
“radical” Osvobozhdeniye League members.... Indeed, here we have the liberal optimists “clutching at straws”. What
is most curious is their failure to see that even should a Duma majority
vote for a constituent assembly, it will not be the latter that will be
“ensured” in actual fact, but only a determined revolutionary
struggle for one. The Constitutional-Democrats would like to have two irons
in the fire—to have dealings with the autocracy (legal opposition in a
legal Duma), and with the revolution ("we have done our bit” for
a constituent assembly).

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