V. I.

Lenin

The St. Petersburg elections provide a wealth of instructive material for a
true study of the character of the various parties, and the class
tendencies, or class significance, of their policies.

Inthis respect two facts are of greatest interest: the negotiations between the
Cadets and Stolypin, the leader of the Black-Hundred government, and the
negotiations between the petty-bourgeois parties and the liberal landlords, the
Cadets.

Sofar we know very little about the negotiations between the Cadets
and the Black Hundreds: the audience granted by Stolypin to Milyukov,
attempts to legalise the Cadet Party, for which the Cadets are to pay
by abstaining from entering into blocs with the Lefts. These
negotiations are being carried on very secretly, and their exposure is
a matter of the future.

Theother negotiations are to a certain extent public. The role the opportunist
Social-Democrats are playing in them is particularly clear.

Whydid they break away from the St. Petersburg Social-Democratic organisation?

Soas to make a deal with the Cadets.

Butthe Cadets will not agree to a deal with the Mensheviks alone .

Andso, the Mensheviks are entering into a bloc with all the petty-bourgeois parties, i.e., the Socialist-Revolutionaries, the Trudoviks, and the Popular Socialists .

Theopportunists who have broken away from Social-Democracy are going over to
the petty bourgeoisie!

Whatare the terms of this bloc?

Theyare: to enter into a joint agreement with the Cadets to secure for
the Left bloc three Duma seats out of the six.

Weknow that the agreement between the Mensheviks and the petty-bourgeois
parties has been made in writing— at any rate, a joint resolution has been
adopted. Apparently, the new allies do not want to inform the public about it,
or are in no hurry to do so.

Wealso know that Comrade Dan took part In the negotiations on the
formation of this bloc, although he had not been authorised to do so
either by the group of breakaway St. Petersburg Social-Democrats (31), or by any other party organisation .

Wecould not even dream of better confirmation than that provided by the course
of political events, of our constant assertion that the Mensheviks are the
opportunist, petty-bourgeois section of the workers’ party, and that
they are as unprincipled and vacillating as the petty bourgeoisie in general.

Justthink what the Mensheviks are doing. Did they not proclaim from the
housetops that they were protecting the class purity of Social-Democracy against
the Bolsheviks, who, they alleged, were leaning towards the petty-bourgeois
Socialist-Revolutionaries?

Andnow events are unmasking them. The Bolsheviks are openly urging the petty
bourgeoisie to follow the proletariat against the liberal bourgeoisie.

The Mensheviks refuse, and secretly (for no one knows the terms of the
bloc, and no one has authorised Comrade Dan) enter into a bloc with
all the petty-bourgeois groups, including the extreme Right wing (the
Popular Socialists), in order jointly to surrender those workers who are under
their influence to the leadership of the liberal bourgeoisie !

Allthe petty-bourgeois parties, including the Mensheviks (it
is not for nothing that Rech has already registered them as
part of the “opposition bloc” which has abandoned the revolution, and has classified the Popular Socialists and the
Mensheviks among the “moderate socialist parties”), prefer
bargaining with the liberals to fighting in the ranks of the
proletariat.

Letall class-conscious workers in St. Petersburg consider very carefully
whither the Mensheviks are leading the workers’ party!

What,may it be asked, is the result of the negotiations between the petty
bourgeoisie and the liberals?

Sofar, all we know from today’s papers (January 19) is that a meeting
took place in St. Petersburg yesterday of representatives of the
Socialist-Revolutionaries, the Trudovik Group, the Popular Socialists and the
Mensheviks (i.e., the entire new petty-bourgeois bloc), and the
Cadets According to this report, the Cadets have definitely refused to
cede three seats to the “Left bloc”. But the “Left” bloc
has refused to accept two seats.

Rech says in this connection: ’The representatives of the Bolshevik
Social-Democrats did not attend the conference ." That is true. We do
not associate with the petty bourgeoisie to betray the workers’ party to the
liberals!

Whatwill happen next? No one knows. Probably, the petty-bourgeois bloc and the
Cadets will go on with their bargaining.

Itis reported, however, that there is a workers’ committee in the
Socialist-Revolutionary Party, which emphatically condemns blocs with the
Cadets. What truth there is in this, we do not know, for the Socialist-Revolutionaries are deliberately concealing from the public both
the terms of their agreement with the Popular Socialists (no one even knows when
and by whom, exactly, this agreement was concluded!) and the trends in their own
party on the question of blocs with the Cadets.

Today(January 19), Rech has published a resolution adopted by the
St. Petersburg Committee of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party which confirms
the rumour that the workers ’ section of the Socialist-Revolutionary
Party is not in favour of blocs with the Cadets. The Rech report reads
as follows:

“TheSt. Petersburg Committee of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, having
entered into an agreement [which? when? on what terms?] [1] with the Trudovik and Popular

Socialist groups, has decided to submit to both sections of the
Social-Democratic Party—the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks—a proposal
that the socialist [?] groups enter into an agreement for the purpose of
conducting the pre[?]-election campaign in the most purposeful manner; and in
the event of no agreement being reached with the two sections, to enter into an
agreement with the Bolsheviks. In concluding this joint socialist agreement, the
representatives of the Socialist-Revolutionaries must insist [?!?] on the
impermissibility of agreements with the Cadets, and on the independent action of
the socialist alliance.

“If,however, the majority of the groups [?] consider that a technical
[!?] agreement with the Cadets is more expedient than independent action, the
St. Petersburg Committee of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party will submit [!]
to the decision of the majority [the majority of other parties!], but
will make it an absolute condition of the agreement that all the seats to which
the socialist groups will be entitled shall be ceded exclusively to the worker
curia.”

Aprize of 1,000,000 rubles might well be offered to anyone who could make
anything out of this rigmarole! Insist on the impermissibility of
agreements with the Cadets after having provisionally formed a bloc with the
Popular Socialists who are wholeheartedly in favour of the Cadets! Demand from
the Cadets three seats for the worker curia exclusively and at the same
time take part in a “conference” with the Cadets jointly with the
Popular Socialists and the Trudoviks, who do not make such a demand!
Boast of in dependence as a party as distinct from “groups” and at
the same time submit to the “majority”, i.e., to the three
groups (Trudoviks, Popular Socialists and Mensheviks)!

0 wise Oedipus, solve this riddle!

Andthe workers representing the Socialist-Revolutionary Party (in the Moscow
District of St. Petersburg) approve this petty-bourgeois eyewash, which
conceals the betrayal of their interests ·to the liberals! But these
workers add:

“We express our deep indignation with the Menshevik faction of the
Social-Democratic Party for its obstructionist behaviour towards other socialist
groups and parties.”

0simple-minded Socialist-Revolutionary proletarians!

Ifyou are indignant with the Mensheviks, why are you not indignant
with the St. Petersburg Committee of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party?
Both are dragging you under the wing of the liberals.

Theunderlying cause of this dissension within the petty-bourgeois bloc is
quite clear. There is a danger of a rupture with the Cadets. The Popular Socialists and the Mensheviks are, perhaps, not averse to accepting two
seats from the Cadets and to betraying the rest of the petty bourgeoisie, just
as the Mensheviks betrayed the proletariat!

That’swhat’s behind it all !

Fromrung to rung downwards. Betray the workers’ party and join the
petty-bourgeois bloc. Betray the petty-bourgeois democratic bloc and join the
Cadets! Go, and good riddance!

Atthe audience granted to him by Stolypin, Milyukov said: “May it please
Your Excellency to note that I have split the revolution and have torn the
moderates away from it. Haven’t I earned a tip, Your Grace?”... Stolypin:
“Well, yes, I will petition for your legalisation. I’ll tell you what,
Pavel Nikolayevich, you split that working-class rabble gently, and I will do it
with a club. And so ... between the two of us... Let’s shake hands on it,
Pavel Nikolayevich!”

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Notes:
[1]
Interpolations in square brackets (within passages quoted by Lenin)
have been introduced by Lenin unless otherwise indicated.— Ed .