# A Gift for the Newborn… "New" Government{23}

*Rech*, in a serious (suryozny, as the folk say) editorial:

"Let us hope that no great upheavals will be needed in our relations with the allies to prove to the adherents of the formula 'without annexations and indemnities' (read: the new government) its practical inapplicability."

And yet they are right, the capitalists who speak through the speeches of *Rech*. This formula is indeed "practically inapplicable"... without the practical application of revolution against capital!

From the speech of Milyukov, who did not leave, but who was made to leave:

"No matter what fine formulas of friendship toward the allies we may write, if the army remains inactive, this will be a de facto betrayal of our obligation. And conversely, no matter what terrible formulas betraying loyalty we may write, if the army actually fights, then this, of course, will be a de facto fulfillment of our obligations toward the allies..."

Correct! He sometimes grasps the essence of the matter, this citizen Milyukov... Citizens Chernov and Tsereteli, do you really not understand what conclusion follows from this regarding your actual attitude toward the imperialist war?

From the speech of Shulgin at the session of the organizing counter-revolution:

"We prefer to be beggars, but beggars in our own country. If you can preserve this country for us and save it, strip us bare, we shall not weep over it."

Do not try to intimidate us, Mr. Shulgin! Even when we are in power, we shall not "strip you bare," but shall provide you with good clothing and good food, on the condition of work that is fully within your strength and customary to you! Intimidation works against the Chernovs and Tseretelis, but you "will not intimidate" us!

From the speech of Maklakov at the same session ("of members of the State Duma"):

"Russia has proved unworthy of the freedom it has won."

Read: the peasants and workers have not satisfied Messrs. Maklakov and Co. They want the Chernovs and Tseretelis to "reconcile" the masses with the Maklakovs. This will not succeed!

From the same speech:

"Many can be reproached, but in Russia we cannot do without the bourgeoisie, nor without the proletariat, nor without individual currents, nor without individual persons."

Excuse me, citizen Maklakov, but "we" (the party of the proletariat) "can do in Russia" "without the bourgeoisie." Live a while—you will see and acknowledge that otherwise it was impossible to exit the imperialist war.

From the same speech:

"We see a mass of base instincts coming to the surface: we see an unwillingness to work, an unwillingness to recognize one's duty to the motherland. We see that during a cruel war the country is a country of festivities, meetings, and talk—a country that denies authority and does not wish to obey it."

Correct! A mass of "base instincts," especially among the landowners and capitalists. There are base instincts among the petty bourgeoisie as well: for example, the instinct to enter a coalition ministry with the capitalists. There are base instincts among the proletarians and semi-proletarians too: for example, the slow liberation from illusions of a petty-bourgeois character, the slow transition to the conviction that "power" must be taken entirely into the hands of precisely this and only this class.

From the same speech:

"Power will shift further and further to the left, while the country will shift further and further to the right."

By "the country" Maklakov means the capitalists. In this sense he is right. But the "country" of the workers and poorest peasants, I assure you, citizen, is 1,000 times more left than the Chernovs and Tseretelis, and 100 times more left than us. Live a while—you will see.

*Pravda* No. 50, May 19 (6), 1917.

Printed according to the text of the newspaper *Pravda*