V. I.

Lenin

The Narodniks and Mensheviks, who are editing Izvestia ,
wish to be considered socialists, but do not even know how to be
democrats. In their issue No. 68, for May 17, they advise
“caution” with regard to the “slogan of partial re-elections”. They tell the workers that “deputies should be
elected for a fixed term—two or three months, say—but never [!] for a week, from one meeting to another”.

Is it proper for an official organ to worry about re-elections
and to advise “caution”? . .. Caution in what? In the expression
of popular distrust in that organ!

That is the first question.

The second question is: Should not an intelligent democrat deal
with the question of caution in the matter of re-elections (if
it is to be dealt with at all) from the point of view of
partyism ? Is it not his duty, for instance, to say: We,
Narodniks and Mensheviks, consider the line taken by our bloc to
be correct on such-and-such grounds, and that of the Bolsheviks
to be incorrect for such-and-such reasons? Why then do the
editors depart from democratic principles and, instead of
appealing to partyism, use such a strange argument as that
mistakes at elections are an “exception”? Don’t they know that
the “mistake” of having the Skobelevs and Chernovs join the
capitalist cabinet is being weighed and discussed by the workers
everywhere, that it is not an “exception” at all?

The third question is this: Is it not the duty of a democrat,
who wishes to raise the question of re-elections, to recognise
and emphasise the principle of democracy—the right of the population at any time to recall each and every
representative, each and every person holding elected office?

Will not the editors of Izvestia , if they still reckon
with the opinions of the founders of scientific socialism, Marx
and Engels, recall what those real socialists said with regard
to such a right?

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