# On Firm Revolutionary Power

We stand for firm revolutionary power. No matter how much the capitalists and their lackeys intensify their shouting to the contrary about us, their lie will remain a lie.

It is only necessary that the phrase does not obscure the mind, does not clog the consciousness. When they speak of "revolution," of "the revolutionary people," of "revolutionary democracy," and so forth, in nine cases out of ten this is lying or self-deception. One must ask: the revolution of which class is being discussed? A revolution against whom?

Against tsarism? In this sense, now in Russia the majority of both landlords and capitalists are revolutionaries. When the deed is done, then even the reactionaries take their stand on the ground of the revolution's gains. There is no more frequent, more vile, and more harmful deception of the masses at the present time than deceiving them with praises of revolution in this sense.

Against the landlords? In this sense, the majority of the peasants and even the majority of the well-to-do peasants, i.e., in general, certainly nine-tenths of the population of Russia, are revolutionaries. Perhaps even a part of the capitalists is ready to become revolutionaries, on the basis of calculation: it is impossible to save the landlords now anyway, let us better side with the revolution in order to defend the inviolability of capital.

Against the capitalists? This is the main question. This is the essence, for without a revolution against the capitalists, all the chatter about "peace without annexations" and about a swift end to the war through such a peace is either naivety and ignorance, or stupidity and deception. Were it not for the war, Russia could live for years and even decades without a revolution against the capitalists. With the war, this is objectively impossible: either ruin, or revolution against the capitalists. Thus stands the question. Thus has life posed it.

By instinct, by feeling, by inclination, the majority of the population in Russia sympathizes with a revolution against the capitalists, namely the proletarians and semi-proletarians, i.e., the workers and the poorest peasants. But there is still no clear consciousness, nor, in connection with this, any resoluteness. To develop these is our main task.

The leaders of the petty bourgeoisie—the intelligentsia, the well-to-do peasantry, the present-day parties of the Narodniks (including the S.R.s) and the Mensheviks—do not now stand for a revolution against the capitalists, in part even being the most harmful opponents of it for the people. The coalition ministry signifies such an "experiment" as will help the whole people with particular swiftness to outlive the illusions of petty-bourgeois compromise with the capitalists.

The conclusion is clear: only the power of the proletariat, supported by the semi-proletarians, is capable of giving the country a truly firm and truly revolutionary power. It will be truly firm, for a stable and conscious majority of the people will stand behind it. It will be firm, for at its foundation there will not necessarily lie the shaky "compromise" of the capitalists with the small proprietors, of the millionaires with the petty bourgeoisie, of the Konovalovs and Shingaryovs with the Chernovs and Tseretelis.

It alone will be truly revolutionary, for it alone is in a position to show the people that, in a time of the greatest sufferings inflicted upon the masses, the power does not halt in trepidation before the profits of capital. It will be truly revolutionary, for it alone will engender, encourage, and multiply tenfold the revolutionary enthusiasm of the masses, if they see, touch, and feel daily and hourly that the power trusts the people, and does not fear it, helps the poor to improve their lives at once, draws the rich into equal participation in bearing the heavy burden of the people's sufferings.

We stand for firm revolutionary power.

We stand for the only possible and the only reliable firm revolutionary power.

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

Printed according to the text of the newspaper *Pravda*