V. I.

Lenin

Minister Skobelev has published an appeal to all workers of
Russia. In the name of “our” (that is what it says:
our) socialist ideal, in the name of the revolution, on behalf
of revolutionary democrats, and so on, and so forth, he urges
the workers to accept “courts of conciliation” and severely condemns all “unauthorised” actions.

This is how well the near-socialist Minister Skobelev ’the
Menshevik sings his part:

“ You [workers] have every reason to be outraged by the
enrichment of the propertied classes that has been taking place
during this war. The tsar’s government has wasted thousands of
millions of the people’s money. The revolutionary government
must restore this money to the people’s treasury.”

He sings well, but where will he alight?

Mr. Skobelev’s appeal was published on June 28. The coalition
Ministry was formed on May 6. But during all this time, in which
economic dislocation and an unprecedented catastrophe have been
advancing on the country with seven-league strides, the
government has not taken a single real step against the
capitalists who have made “thousands of millions”. To “restore” these
thousands of millions “to the people’s treasury” , a law should have been enacted on
May 7 abolishing all commercial and bank secrecy and establishing immediate control over the capitalist banks. and
syndicates, for otherwise it is impossible to find , let
alone “restore”, these thousands of millions.

Does the Menshevik Minister Skobelev really imagine that the
workers are babes in the wood whom one can feed with promises of
the impossible (for it is impossible to “restore” the “thousands of millions”—may God help us to end
plunder of the state and to restore at least one or two hundred millions) without doing the possible and the necessary
for weeks on end?

As luck would have it, on the very same day the Menshevik
Minister Skobelev presented the workers with another basketful
of the most florid republican, revolutionary and “socialist” phrases, Comrade Avilov, who wants to
“unite” the defencists (i.e., the chauvinists) with the workers, hit on the unusually, extraordinarily fortunate
idea of con tributing an article to Novaya Zhizn in which he gave facts without making deductions.

Nothing on earth could be more eloquent than these simple facts.

On May 5, the coalition Ministry was formed. In a solemn
declaration it promised control , and even “organisation of production”.

On May 16, the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet
adopted “directions” for its Ministers, demanding “the immediate [listen to this! I and most energetic
realisation [this is how it reads, believe it or not!] of
government regulation of production”, and so on, and so forth.

Energetic realisation began.

On May 19, Konovalov resigned, making a very “energetic” statement against “the extreme
socialists”! On June 1, the All-Russia conference of representatives of industry and commerce took place. The
conference declared emphatically against control. The three Deputy Ministers remaining after Konovalov’s resignation
began to “realise energetically”:
in the conflict of the Donets mine owners (who are wrecking the
industry by a “go-slow strike”), Stepanov, the first
Deputy Minister, backed the employers. After that the employers rejected all Skobelev’s conciliatory proposals.

Palchinsky, the second Deputy Minister, sabotaged the “fuel conference”.

Savvin, the third Deputy Minister, instituted “a crude and
even silly caricature” of regulation in the form of an “inter-departmental conference”.

On June 10, first Deputy Minister Stepanov presented a report” to the Provisional Government taking issue with the Executive Committee’s programme.

On June 21, the Congress of Soviets passed another resolution.

The people began to set up supply committees on their own
initiative, from below. From above, a chief “Economic
Council” was promised. Second Deputy Minister Palchinsky
explained: “It is hard to say when it [the Economic
Council] will begin to function.”

It sounds like mockery, but these are the facts.

The capitalists mock at the workers, at the people, by continuing the
policy of secret lock-outs and of concealing their outrageous
profits, and send the Skobelevs, Tseretelis and Chernovs to
“reassure” the workers with empty phrases.

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