Revolutionary Social-Democrats have long since pointed out that the fairy tales about Black-Hundred danger are deliberately invented and spread by the Cadets, who wish to divert from themselves the danger from the left.

The Social-Democrats were not heeded. The liberal press chorused and choruses about Black-Hundred danger. The petty-bourgeois radicals, the Populists, naively echoed the liberals. The opportunists of Social-Democracy also trailed behind the liberals and sometimes descended (as, for example, in Petersburg) to outright strikebreaking against the proletariat.

Now look at what the elections show!

Everyone now sees that the mood of the electors has shifted to the left. The Black-Hundreds have been beaten in the elections incomparably more severely than in the previous year. The revolutionary Social-Democrats proved right. Black-Hundred danger at the polls is a fairy tale launched by the Cadets, who behind the people's back are haggling with Stolypin. It is known that in Petersburg Mr. Vodovozov, who voted for the Cadets the previous year, has now turned away from them, publicly exposing Milyukov's visit to Stolypin! And Milyukov was forced to admit this fact. Milyukov continues only to conceal from the people what conditions for the legalization of the Cadets Stolypin offered him!

In their newspapers the Cadets are now bending over backwards to prove to Stolypin their moderation, modesty, loyalty, their independence from the "left," their readiness to fight them.

Is it not true—what a profitable and convenient policy? To cajole Stolypin and his friends, i.e., the Black-Hundreds, by means of renunciation of the "left," by means of struggle against the left in the press, at meetings, at elections. And to cajole the left—or rather simpletons and strikebreakers from the left—with cries about Black-Hundred danger: vote, they say, for the Cadets, so as not to split the votes!

Precisely such a policy the Cadets pursued also in Moscow. Mr. Kokoshkin, former member of the Duma and one of the most prominent Cadets, wrote on election day in the "Russian Bulletin":

"It is clear to everyone that the left bloc cannot attract to itself the votes of those non-partisan people who waver between the 'Octobrists' and the 'Cadets'; it cannot snatch a single vote from the 'Union of October 17.' But it can snatch votes from the Party of People's Freedom and thereby promote the triumph of reaction, and it is to this alone, and only to this practical result, that its activity would amount in case of success."

Thus wrote Mr. Kokoshkin in the morning on election day. And the elections showed that Mr. Kokoshkin spoke a glaring untruth. The result of the left bloc's activity showed that the triumph of the right was impossible in Moscow, no matter how many votes we had snatched from the Cadets!

The Moscow elections proved that the fairy tale about Black-Hundred danger is a Cadet lie, which henceforth can be repeated only by conscious strikebreakers from the left.

Take the vote figures by precinct. We cite them in full below in the note: "Preliminary data on the Moscow elections." These figures show that in 14 out of 16 precincts,[58] the number of votes cast for the Octobrists was less than half of the Cadet and left votes taken together. This means that in 14 precincts the left by their independent appearance in no way could have "promoted the triumph of reaction."

Mr. Kokoshkin was lying, slandering the left bloc as an accomplice of reaction!

Mr. Kokoshkin frightened the electors with a lying fabrication about Black-Hundred danger in order to distract the elector from voting for the left bloc.

Mr. Kokoshkin, like the Petersburg Cadets, fears even putting before a property-qualified elector a question on the merits, a question about the principled sympathy of the elector toward the party of Stolypin's interlocutors or toward Social-Democracy and the Laborites. Messrs. Kokoshkins, like the Petersburg Cadets, speculate not on the consciousness of the elector, but on the fearfulness of the petty-bourgeois, intoxicated by the howling of the liberal-servile press about Black-Hundred danger.

And the Moscow elections indeed were elections of frightened petty-bourgeois. Here is confirmation of this from a source which surely no one will suspect of sympathy toward the "Bolsheviks."

The "Exchange Gazette"[145] of January 29 published a letter from a correspondent specially sent by them on how "Moscow elects electors." Here is what this correspondent writes:

"Having broken ranks, the electors move far to the side and begin to exchange impressions.

'Well, so, you submitted for Gringmut, I suppose?' asks a contractor of his foreman.

'But what are you saying, Sergei Petrovich, we voted for the Cadets,' answered a short and round, like a little barrel, foreman.

'But why not for the left bloc?' presses the contractor.

'It's dangerous, the votes will be split,' answers the foreman."

That is why the city dweller voted in the mass for the Cadets in Moscow! The dweller voted against the left not out of antipathy toward them, but because "it's dangerous—the votes will be split," i.e., because he believed the Cadet liars, who have exploited the monopoly of daily liberal newspapers to fool the dweller.

The elections of January 28 in Moscow showed that the votes could not have been split, with four lists, in such a way as to pose danger of a Black victory.

The Cadets led by the nose the frightened dweller in Moscow. Let the Petersburg electors know this, let them not fall a second time for the bait of the Cadets, who are haggling with Stolypin!

We also call the readers' attention to a comparison of the data (for 9 precincts of Moscow—regrettably we do not have more complete data at hand) for 1906 and for 1907. It is known that all the Cadet yes-men and strikebreakers from the left howl about the senatorial clarifications, which, they say, prove that one cannot rely on the 1906 data, that in 1907 at the elections one must expect the worst, that Black-Hundred danger exists now.

And what did Moscow show? In 1906, for 9 precincts, votes cast numbered: for Cadets 13,220; for the right 5,669 (Octobrists) plus 690 (monarchists), total 6,359 (and it may have been even somewhat more, for from the figures we cite it is evident that for several precincts out of these nine there are no statistics at all on the number of monarchist votes).

In 1907, for those same precincts, votes cast numbered: against the Black 14,133 (including 11,451 for Cadets and 2,682 for the left), and for the Black 5,902 (including 4,412 for Octobrists and 1,490 for monarchists).

Thus, despite the senatorial clarifications, the number of voters in 1907 was even slightly higher than in 1906 (20,025 against 19,579). The number of votes against the Black is higher than in 1906 (14,133 against 13,220); the number of votes for the Black is lower than in 1906 (5,902 against 6,359).

The Moscow experience factually proves that one can fully rely on the 1906 data, for the 1907 data show a step toward the better.

But what do the figures for Petersburg for 1906 say? These figures show that in 9 precincts, yielding 114 electors, the maximum number of votes for the Black in 1906 was more than twice lower than the minimum number of votes for the Cadets.[59]

This means that even with the division of votes against the Black into Cadet and left votes, victory of the right is impossible in Petersburg.

Even the elections of electors by city voters in the Petersburg district, which took place on January 29, show that Black-Hundred danger is a lying Cadet fairy tale. Even among these electors, for whom it was most difficult to obtain lists and come to the elections, the Black received so few votes that they could not win under any division of votes. For the Cadets, a minimum of 1,099 votes were cast, for Social-Democrats—603, for Octobrists—652, for the "Union of the Russian People"—20. No matter what number of votes we subtract here from the Cadets, the right could not win!

And therefore we now declare with full decisiveness: those who call on Petersburg to vote for the Cadets in the name of Black-Hundred danger, so as not to divide the votes—those consciously lie and deceive the elector. Those who abstain from voting in Petersburg, even in a single precinct, in the name of Black-Hundred danger—those consciously lie and deceive the elector, covering up their strikebreaking against the left bloc.

In Petersburg, as in Moscow, there is no Black-Hundred danger, but there is Cadet danger. There is danger that the dark and frightened dweller will cast his vote for a Cadet not out of antipathy toward the left bloc, toward Social-Democrats and Laborites, but out of fear of vote-splitting inspired in him by the lying Cadet press.

With this "danger" must fight all those who desire conscious voting by electors in Petersburg.

In Petersburg there is no Black-Hundred danger; there is Cadet danger. Therefore, criminal strikebreaking against the left would be abstention in those three precincts (Vasileostrovsky, Rozhdestvensky, and Liteyni), where victory of the Black is possible with vote-splitting (judging by the 1906 data). These three precincts yield 46 electors out of the total 174 (160 from the city and 14 from the workers' curia). This means these precincts cannot influence the outcome of the elections. But influence the victory of the left or Cadets they very much can. Suppose Social-Democrats and Laborites win in 4 precincts—Spassky, Moscow, Petersburg, Vyborg (we take them at random). Then the left will have 74 electors (60 from the city and 14 from the workers). If the Cadets win in all remaining precincts, then they have 100 electors and elect all their deputies to the Duma! But if the Black win in the three precincts mentioned above (numbering 46), then the Cadets will have only 54, and the Cadets will be forced to unite with the left, getting two seats in the Duma out of six.

This means that whoever abstains in the three "Black" precincts of Petersburg, that person secretly serves the Cadets, that person is a strikebreaker against the left bloc!

Citizen electors! Do not believe those deceivers who tell you of the danger of splitting votes in Petersburg. Do not believe the lying tales of Black-Hundred danger in Petersburg.

In Petersburg there is no Black-Hundred danger. In Petersburg the right cannot win as a consequence of the splitting of votes between Cadets and the left.

Vote not out of fear before a "danger" invented by lying Cadets (who sneak in through the back entrance to Stolypin), vote according to conscience and conviction.

For the liberal bourgeois, who wish to impose upon the peasants a ruinous redemption, who betray the peasant cause into the hands of liberal landlords, who secretly haggle with Stolypin, conduct negotiations with the Black-Hundreds?

Or for the Social-Democratic workers' party, the party of the proletariat, supported by all the parties of the Laborites?

Citizens, vote for the left bloc!

*Zrenie* no. 2, February 4, 1907. Signed: N. Lenin

Printed from the text of the newspaper *Zrenie*