Translation: DeepSeek v4 Pro
Date: 1917-01

g.
R E M A R K S
O N T H E
A R T I C L E :
M A X
W E B E R
" R U S S I A ' S T R A N S I T I O N
T O P S E U D O - C O N S T I T U T I O N A L I S M " .
Europe is pregnant with revolution. A revolutionary situation
is already at hand: the governments are at an impasse.
The horrors of war
High cost of living
The burden of debts (hundreds of billions)
The bourgeois public, the opportunists, the social-patriots think
that the revolution in Russia was something "extra-European"
in the sense that this revolution seemingly did not affect
Europe, that it belongs to the past, and not to the future
of Europe.
A great delusion! That was once the case in a backward country,
where the proletariat was still too weak for victory and yet
strong enough to lead the bourgeois-democratic revolution. This must again be the case, this
will certainly be the case in the most advanced countries of Europe, where
the proletariat has long been strong enough to lead
the exploited masses to social revolution, to the seizure
of power, to the expropriation of the bourgeoisie, the banks (Finance
Capital) and large enterprises. The old men, perhaps, will not
live to see this. But the youth, certainly...

Max Weber, p. 259 (95) note. It would be more correct to
translate "uyezd" as B e z i r k (and not "Kreis") 25.
281 (53) (note] 42-a)— 283: beki and meki 26. cf. 284
(120)
284 (56) note]. "Putsch" (December 1905) 27...
— same 465 (1) heading 28
"Mass burning of manor houses": 179 (15) 29
319 (155), note] 232-a (Wilhelm II on expropriation) 30 cf. 390 (226) 31
(343 (115): (note] 86-b)
"The Lenin group and part of the Socialist-Revolutionaries
had long been preparing this senseless uprising" 32. ..
Max Weber (Dr. Professor) (1906): "On the Assessment of the Current
Political Development of Russia"...

Editorial Notes

25 Lenin paraphrases in his own words note 43 in the article by Max
Weber "Russlands Uebergang zum Scheinkonstitutionalismus" in "Archiv für
Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik", Vol. 23, 1906. (Max Weber, "Russia's Transition
to Pseudo-Constitutionalism", see "Archive for Social Science and
Social Policy", Vol. 23, 1906). All subsequent page references
from Lenin refer to this same edition of the Archive from Weber's articles. The corresponding volume of the Archive is indicated in parentheses.
26 In note 42a on p. 281 (53) of M. Weber's "Zur Lage der bürgerlichen Demokratie in Russland", published in "Archive", Vol. 22
(M. Weber, "On the Situation of Bourgeois Democracy in Russia"), it states:
"The split began at the second party congress (1903) with the struggle for
"Iskra", published in Geneva until 1903 by Axelrod, Lenin,
Martov, Plekhanov, Vera Zasulich and "Starover". Only Plekhanov, Martov and Lenin were re-elected. The latter two stood on
opposite positions both on questions of party organization
(Lenin was a "centralist") and tactics (Lenin was considered a "Jacobin",
Martov — a "Girondist"). Plekhanov, however, tried to reconcile both, but
in the end also sided with Martov. Lenin left and founded "Vpered",
but Plekhanov also left the editorial board of "Iskra" in 1905 and after
that published (alone) "Dnevnik Sotsial-Demokrata" (irregular issues
of 1/2 sheet, in octavo), which stood "above the parties".
27
On the page indicated by Lenin, note 44a states:
"... 'Revolution' was demanded by 'Nachalo' (No. 3), published with the close participation of
Plekhanov, and it furiously attacked the bourgeois liberals,
because they were not for it — knowing that the masses understand something quite concrete by the word 'revolution'. If the masses rise up and
the putsch ends in failure, if thousands of beardless ideologues in Moscow
lie on the pavement, as today (December 27), then the uprising will be
declared 'unfortunate frivolity' and the opinion will be expressed that
only in the case of sympathy from the bourgeoisie can the revolution have
success. If the masses then ask in astonishment what, in that case,
the demand for 'revolution' meant, they will hear with astonishment that
it means something highly abstract, very far from what they understood by this word; if only they had listened to the
orthodox, and not to the Socialist-Revolutionaries or the Leninist
heretics! Exactly the same way a defender of miracles, when cornered, saves
himself by declaring the true and ultimately sole 'miracle' to be precisely 'development' and the everyday course of things. Such an ambivalent
tactic is not the product of any dishonesty. Plekhanov had already expressed the same
thing in the November issue of his 'Dnevnik' (No. 3,
pp. 16 and 21)."
28 This refers to the heading of Weber's article: "Russia's Transition
to Pseudo-Constitutionalism".
29 At this point, Weber states: "Much more important for the political
assessment of events is the question of what has actually been achieved by this
regime. The larger uprisings have, of course, been suppressed everywhere. The mass
burning of manor houses ceased, after it had caused losses,
the extent of which can only be determined approximately (for 17 European
governorates (out of 61) a sum of 31.3 million rubles was officially indicated, in Saratov — a maximum of 9 1/2 million rubles) and which the insurance
companies refused to compensate, citing the war clause, which
is a sharp contrast compared to America, after the earthquake
in San Francisco" (Vol. 23).
30 Weber writes: "This newspaper ('Novoye Vremya') had, among other things, the
impudence to print in No. 10741 a 'Report from its correspondent',
allegedly that Emperor Wilhelm expressed to Mr. Kokovtsev, whom he received during
his passage through Berlin, his regret, when he received a negative
answer to the question of whether any project
for the expropriation of property was being prepared: 'A pity, that would have untied my hands. You
in Russia forget that this is a question of international significance'"
(Vol. 23).
31 Lenin has in mind the following passage: "The 'Tatar' report,
which was f a b r i c a t e d , apparently, by Deputy Minister Gurko in
a newspaper considered a s e m i - o f f i c i a l o r g a n (' R o s s i y a ' ), about the readiness of Austria and Germany to undertake intervention in favor of the old regime, and which
was incomprehensibly mentioned also by Petrunkevich, intensified the nervousness of the Duma."
See note 14 to the present document.