V. I.

Lenin

The Cadet victories in the first city curias of Moscow and
St. Petersburg, then in the elections to the Council of State from the
industries, and lastly, the reactionaries ’ aid to the Cadets
against the Social-Democrats—a fact established beyond question—are all
signs of a very interesting political development of all the
classes of our society.

Let us recall the Social-Democrats’ main decision on the nature of the
Cadet Party, adopted in 1907: “The parties of the liberal-monarchist
bourgeoisie, and the most important of them—the Cadet Party—have
already turned definitely away from the revolution and aim at stopping it
through a deal with the counter-revolution; the social basis of these
parties is made up of the economically more progressive sections of the
bourgeoisie, above all the bourgeois intelligentsia, while a section of the
urban and rural petty bourgeoisie is still following these parties only by
force of tradition [blind habit] and because it is simply deceived by the
liberals.”

The correctness of this description has been fully borne out by
events. The democrats are ousting the Cadets from the second city curia
(where there are many democratic voters). The Cadets are ousting
the Octobrists from the first urban curia.

The more the reaction rages and the more openly the elections are
rigged, the more big capital goes over to the side of liberalism. The class
nature of the Cadet Party, indicated by the Marxists in 1906 and 1907, is
now being revealed clearly before the masses.

The error of those who considered the Cadets a party of urban
democrats is becoming obvious. The alliance of the Cadets and the reactionaries is gradually turning from a secret into an
open one: it is the reactionaries who are voting the Cadet
Mansyrev in against the Social-Democrat Priedkalns, and the Cadet Nikolayev
against the Social-Democrat Pokrovsky.

The strength of Social-Democratic policy, the invincibility of this
policy, is due to the fact that the entire development of
capitalist society is increasingly proving it correct. The Cadets are
rallying to the big bourgeoisie, which cannot be content for all
that it is counter-revolutionary. The democrats are moving to the
left , away from the Cadets.

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