V. I.

Lenin

The capitalist newspapers, led by Rech , are falling over backwards in their attempt to scare the people with the
spectre of “anarchy”. Not a day passes without Rech screaming about anarchy, whipping up rumours and reports of casual
and minor breaches of the law, and frightening the people with the
spectre of a frightened bourgeoisie.

In the wake of the Rech and of the capitalist papers comes the press of the Narodniks (including the
Socialist-Revolutionaries) and the Mensheviks. They, too, have
allowed themselves to be frightened. The editorial in today’s
Izcestia of the Petrograd Soviet, whose leaders are all
members of these parties, shows this paper to have definitely
taken sides wit the peddlers of “bourgeois terrors”. It has
talked itself into a statement, which , to put it mildly, is
grossly exaggerating:

“ There is demoralisation in the army. In some places there is
disorderly seizure of the land, and destruction and looting of
livestock and farm implements. Arbitrary action is on the
increase.”

By arbitrary action the Narodniks and Mensheviks, that is, the
parties of the petty bourgeoisie, mean, among other things, the
seizure by the peasants in the local areas of all the land
without waiting for the Constituent Assembly. It was this bogy
(“arbitrary action”) that Minister Shingaryov once trotted out
in his famous telegram, which was widely featured in the press
(see Pravda
No. 33). [1]

Arbitrary action, anarchy—what terrifying words! But let
any Narodnik or Menshevik who wishes to think for himself consider for a minute the following question.

Before the revolution the land belonged to the landowners. That
was not called anarchy. And what did that lead to? It led to a break-down all along the line, to “anarchy” in
the fullest sense of the word, i.e., to the utter ruin of the
country, the ruin of the majority of the population.

Is a way out of this conceivable other than by the widest application of energy, initiative and determination on
the part of the majority of the population? Obviously, it is not.

What does all this add up to?

1. The tsar’s supporters stand for the absolute rule of the
landowners in the countryside and for their keeping all the
land. They are not afraid of the “anarchy” which this actually entailed.

2. The Cadet Shingaryov, representing all the capitalists and
landowners (with the exception of a small group of tsarists),
advocates “agricultural conciliation chambers under the rural
supply committees for the purpose of effecting voluntary
agreements between the tillers of the land and the landowners” (see his telegram). The petty-bourgeois
politicians—the Narodniks and Mensheviks—are following in Shingaryov’s footsteps when they advise the
peasants “to wait” until the Constituent Assembly meets and
when they call the immediate confiscation of the land by the
peasants in the local areas “anarchy”.

3. The party of the proletariat (the Bolsheviks) stands for the
immediate seizure of the land by the peasants in the local
areas and recommends the greatest possible degree of organisation. We see no “anarchy” in this, for it is this
decision, and this decision alone, that happens to be a
majority decision of the local population.

Since when has a majority decision come to be called “anarchy”?
Would it not be more correct to apply this appellation to the
minority decision which both the tsarists and
Shingaryov are proposing in various forms?

When Shingaryov tries to force the peasants into a “voluntary”
“reconciliation” with the landowners, he is imposing a minority
decision, because there is an average of 300 peasant families in
Russia to every one family of the big landowners. If I tell
three hundred families to come to a “voluntary” “agreement” with
one family of a rich exploiter, I am offering a decision in favour of the minority, and that means anarchy.

In raising this hullabaloo about “anarchy”, you capitalists are
trying to disguise the fact that you stand for the interests of
the one against those of the three hundred. This is the crux of
the matter.

We may be told: But you want to have the matter decided by the
local people alone, without waiting for the Constituent
Assembly! And that is anarchy!

To this we reply: And what does Shingaryov want? He, too, wants
the matter settled locally (by a “voluntary agreement” between
the peasants and the landowners) without waiting for the
Constituent Assembly!

On this point Shingaryov and we do not differ—we are both
for a final decision by the Constituent Assembly and a preliminary decision—to be enforced—by the local
people. We differ with Shingaryov only in saying that 300 shall
decide and 1 shall submit, whereas Shingaryov says: if the 300
decide, that will be “arbitrary action”, so let the 300 “agree”
with the 1.

How low the Narodniks and Mensheviks must have fallen to help
Shingaryov and Co. spread bourgeois terrors.

Fear of the people—that is what these alarmists and panicmongers are actuated by.

There is no reason to fear the people. The decision of the
majority of workers and peasants is not anarchy. Such a
decision is the only possible guarantee of democracy in general,
and of success in the search for effective ways of combating the
debacle in particular.

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Notes:
[1]


— Lenin