V. I.

Lenin

At the present time the Duma has started discussing the budget. The bloc of
reactionaries with the betrayers of the people’s freedom forming the
pseudo-opposition showed its face during the very first day of the debates. We
find the same picture in the legal press—the Novoye Vremya people
hail the unity of all , except the “Left fanatics” (read:
the Social-Democrats and the Trudoviks...).

Nasha Gazeta [1] of the “Bezgolovy” fraternity goes into ecstasies. It was a “business” day that “made
up” for “the drawback of having the budget scrutinised by
separate estimates”....

The “opposition” trails in the wake of overt reaction. It
is just here that responsibility and the honourable role of true
representatives of the plundered people devolves upon the deputies of the
working class and democracy. Unfortunately, the first budgetary speeches of
our Duma comrades are very lame and deeply mistaken. In the next issue of
Proletary we shall deal in detail with these mistakes and indicate
what we believe to be the necessary line of action for Social-Democrats in
the budgetary debates and voting. [2]

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Notes:
[1]
Nasha Gazeta ( Our Newspaper )—a newspaper of a semi-Cadet trend, published in St. Petersburg from 1904 to 1908.

[2]
Proletary ( The Proletarian ), No. 29, April 16 (29), 1908, published a letter of the Central Committee of the R.S.D.L.P. to the
local organisations concerning the work of the Social-Democratic deputies
in the Duma.