The Stalin school of falsification - Marxists Internet Archive

Stalin School of Falsification
have acted as it did in 1848 and 1871. Who was there that believed that we would not meet with sabotage
on the part of the bourgeoisie? This was clear even to an infant. We, too, must apply force. We must
arrest bank directors and others. Even brief arrests of these people have already yielded very good
results.
This hardly surprises me, for I know how little capable they are of doing any fighting themselves. The
most important thing in their eyes is to safeguard their cozy posts. In Paris, they [the revolutionists] used
the guillotine while we will only take away the food cards of those who fail to obtain them from the trade
unions. Thereby we fulfill our duty. And now, at such a moment, when we are in power, we are faced
with a split. Zinoviev and Kamenev say that we will not seize power [in the entire country]. I am in no
mood to listen to this calmly. I view this as treason. What do they want? Do they want to plunge us into
[spontaneous] knife- play? Only the proletariat is able to lead the country.
As for conciliation, I cannot even speak about that serious ly. Trotsky long ago said that unification is
impossible. Trotsky understood this, and from that time on there has been no better Bolshevik.
Zinoviev says that we are not the Soviet power. We are, if you please, only the Bolsheviks, left alone
since the departure of the Social Revolutionists and the Mensheviks, and so forth and so on. But we are
not responsible for that. We have been elected by the Congress of the Soviets. This organization is
something new. Whoever wants to struggle enters into it. It does not comprise the people, it comprises
the vanguard whom the masses follow. We go with the masses-the active and not the weary masses. To
refrain now from extending the insurrection [is to capitulate] to the weary masses, but we are with the
vanguard. The Soviets take shape [in struggle]. The Soviets are the vanguard of the proletarian masses.
And now we are being invited to wed the City Duma-how absurd!
We are told that we want to "introduce" socialism-how absurd! We do not intend to institute peasant
socialism. We are told that we must "halt." But that is impossible. Some even say that we are not the
Soviet power. Then who are we? We are certainly not those who intend to unite with the Duma. We shall
have next the proposal to coalesce with the Rumcherod[41] and the Vikzhel.[42] This is horse-trading.
Perhaps we should also unite with General Kaledin? First con ciliate with the Conciliators and then they
will put a spoke in the wheels. That would he miserable horse-trading and not a Soviet power. That is
precisely how we must pose the question at the Conference. 99% of the workers follow us.
If you want a split, go ahead. If you get the majority, take power in the Central Executive Committee and
carry on. But we will go to the sailors.
We are in power. Who is capable of deserting now to the Novaya Zhizn?[43] [Only] spineless,
unprincipled people who are today with us and tomorrow with the Mensheviks. They say that we will be
unable to maintain power alone, and so on. But we are not alone. The whole of Europe is before us. We
must make the beginning. Only a socialist revolution is possible now. All these vacillations and doubts
[conciliations] are a piece of nonsense. When I spoke [at a mass meeting] and said !et us fight [the
saboteurs] with food cards, the faces of the soldiers lit up. [The Rights] declare that the soldiers are
incapable of fighting. But we get reports from speakers [who address the masses] that they have never be
fore seen such enthusiasm. Only we can create a plan of revolutionary work. Only we are capable of
waging a struggle. As for the Mensheviks, they will not follow us. At the coming Conference we must
put the question of the future course of the socialist revolution. We are confronted with Kaledin, we have
not yet conquered [finally]. When we are told [by the Vikzhel and the saboteurs and others] that "there is
no [central] power," then we must put them under arrest, and we'll do it. Then they can talk all they
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