V. I. Lenin

Insertions for V. Kalinin’s Article “The Peasant Congress” {1}

We see, consequently, that class-conscious socialists must
unconditionally support the revolutionary struggle of all, even the
prosperous, peasants against the officials and landowners, but
class-conscious socialists must make the clear and straightforward
statement that the “general redistribution” {2} the peasants want falls very far short of
socialism. Socialism demands the abolition of the power of money, the power
of capital, the abolition of all private ownership of the means of
production, the abolition of the commodity economy. Socialism demands that
the land and the factories should be handed over to the working people
organising large-scale (instead of scattered small-scale) production under
a general plan.

The peasant struggle for land and liberty is a great step towards
socialism, but it is still a very far cry from socialism itself.

The tactical resolution adopted by the Congress is truly
astounding by its meagreness. We are inclined to think that there some of
the peasant well-wishers (liberals) must have done some more
“explaining”.

Here is the resolution:

“The activity of the Peasant Union, depending on local conditions, may be either open or secret (conspiratorial). All members of
the

Union must spread their views and seek to realise their demands in every
possible way, being undeterred by the resistance on the part of the Zemstvo
chiefs, the police and other authorities. Among other things, they are
insistently advised to make use of their right to draw up public decisions
at village and volost meetings and private gatherings concerning
improvements in state amenities and improvement of the people’s welfare.”

That kind of resolution is extremely unsatisfactory. Instead of a
revolutionary call for an uprising, it merely gives liberal advice of a
general sort. Instead of organising a revolutionary party, the resolution
only organises an annex to the liberal party. The progress of the movement
itself will inevitably and inescapably split up the liberal landowners and
the revolutionary peasants, and we Social-Democrats will try to accelerate
this split.