V. I. Lenin

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

1. NOTES ON THE FEUILLETON IN No. 93 OF ISKRA

Compare Iskra No. 93, feuilleton—only from below, not from above.

A separate article should be written on this subject. To show that a revolutionary who, in a revolutionary epoch, confines himself to activity only from below, who refuses to exert pressure from above, thereby (eo ipso)[113] renounces revolution.

Two types of bourgeois development or revolutionary emergence from the serf-owning ancien régime[114] are conceivable:

1) by way of concessions from above, by way of curtailments, reductions, subtractions;

2) by way of remoulding from below, by positively introducing the new system…

2. PLAN OF AN ARTICLE

More on the Provisional Government

1. Clarity in revolutionary aims is necessary. Obscurantism was begun by Martynov before January 9. Not an exaggeration of individual aspects of the movement (always possible), but a dragging backward.

2. Formulation of the question: (1) Is participation of Social-Democrats in a provisional government permissible? Yes (Vperyod), No (Iskra). (2) Is participation of Social-Democrats together with the revolutionary democracy in a government of revolutionary democratic dictatorship permissible? Yes (Vperyod), No (Iskra).

“Jaurèsism”—“Jacobinism” (tantum mutatus ab illo![115]).

The seriousness of the question.

3. Arguments of Iskra:

The bourgeois order is sanctified: police, prisons, credit—unemployment, etc.

(1) “To defile one’s lips by combining the words ‘Long live!’ and ‘government’.”

{Phrase}

Vulgar Jaurèsism.

To carry out the maximum programme.

The consciousness of the bourgeoisie will not permit [contra Baku.]

It is more convenient to push from the side.

4. Its errors:

Failure to understand the military conditions of the task and the moment. Kurz[116] = the struggle for a republic.

For or against? Do you “sanctify”?

A non-dialectical understanding of the “sanctification” of the bourgeois order, prisons, army, etc. Ich stimme rückwärts, nicht vorwärts zu…[117]

“Strike together”—and kill together? finish off? beat off? The vicissitudes of the struggle: “the run of the true love is never smooth…”[118]

“Jaurèsism”: they learned it, but did not understand it. They crammed it, but did not think it through.

They assimilated the letter, but not the spirit. Is it a principle? (Cf. Paris. 1900){138}.

Minimum and maximum programme. Is the proletarian sober?

5. The real danger: forgetfulness of the tasks of the independent organisation and independent struggle of the proletariat.

This is unconditional.

Will this participation in a provisional government hinder it? Freedom of association? Means of agitation? The press? The convenience of resigning under certain conditions.

(2) The distinction between (α) a provisional revolutionary government and (β) a revolutionary dictatorship (created by Iskra) = scholasticism. α = legal form, β = class essence. On the one hand, α is impossible without β. On the other hand, β is inevitably temporary (either a transition to bourgeois dictatorship, to the defeat of the proletariat, or to socialist dictatorship).

Tactical caution. To prepare, to rally the ranks, not to losschlagen gedankenlos (Draufgänger)[119], not to be “more revolutionary than all”…

Is there a revolutionary democracy? Of course, yes (L. Martov is right contra Trotsky and Parvus and Trotsky). L. Martov even believes Trotsky wrongly that the revolutionary democracy is only “growing up”, while the proletariat is growing. Rather vice versa[120] (the legal press, the broad intelligentsia, its connection with the peasantry, etc., will be restored sehr bald[121]).

“Abnormal people” (Frankfurter Zeitung). Baku. All legal liberals, whoever is honest, are ready-made revolutionary democrats, all the influence of honest writers, conscientious lawyers, decent teachers, doctors, etc., etc…

Bessere Einsicht[122] of Iskra: Revolution in Permanenz, that is precisely revolutionary dictatorship.

“More revolutionary than all.” And the S.R.s? The struggle of the S.R.s and the S.D.s. It is very possible that the S.D.s will have to leave the revolutionary government of the S.R.s and go into opposition to “revolutionary adventurism”, waiting for their Abwirtschaften[123]… (The inevitability of the revolutionary democrats being coloured by the S.R.s, taking the S.R.s as a type.) Here, under no circumstances tie one’s hands. The organisation and discipline of the proletariat, the “adventurism” and instability of the revolutionary intelligentsia and the revolutionary petty bourgeoisie…