V. I.

Lenin

We must pass a resolution branding as a fraud [1] worthy of
Nicholas II such practices as those of the Soviet of
Soldiers ’
Deputies (the soldiers have one representative to every 500
people, while the workers have
1 : 1,000) [2] or the Trade Union
Bureau (1 representative to a members in the small unions and I to
a-b members in the large ones).

What sort of democrats are we if we tacitly put up with this
fraud ?

What is wrong with Nicholas II, for that matter, who also
“allowed” unequal representation from the peasants and from
the landowners??

By tolerating such things, we are prostituting democracy.

We must pass a resolution demanding equal suffrage (both in the
Soviets and at trade union congresses), branding the slightest
departure from equality as a fraud —using exactly this word—as a Nicholas II method . This resolution of the plenary
meeting of the Central Committee must be written in a language
everybody can understand and spread in leaflet form among the mass
of the workers.

We cannot tolerate a fraud of democracy if we call ourselves
“democrats”. We are not democrats but unprincipled people if
we tolerate this!!

---
Notes:
[1]

“ One representative, everywhere, to an equal number of electors” is the ABC of democracy. Anything else is a
fraud.
— Lenin

[2]
In view of the elections to the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and
Soldiers’ Deputies, the workers’ section of the Soviet on August 23
(September 5), 1917, raised the question of revising the system of
election to the Soviet under which workers elected one delegate
from 1,000 persons while soldiers elected one delegate from each
unit. As a result, the soldiers had a considerably greater number of
deputies to the Soviet than the workers. The workers’ section
adopted a resolution saying that the system of election to the Soviet
should be revised and organised on the principle of proportional
representation, that is, one delegate from every thousand voters.
The soldiers’ section, however, which met on August 25 (
September 7), voted down the proposal. The S.R.s succeeded in putting
through their own resolution, which left the electoral system
intact.