The Stalin school of falsification - Marxists Internet Archive

Stalin School of Falsification
conciliation with the bourgeoisie have stood at the helm of power but now we stand at the helm without
conciliation. I regard as superfluous comrade Lunacharsky's remarks about there be -- no harm in giving
the City Dumas fifty seats [in the All-Russian Central Executive Committee]. What does giving 50 seats
imply? Surely we are not taking them in so as to furnish the premises. We stand for the Soviet power. I,
too, should like to ask how petroleum will come pouring to us through faucets by the name of Kamkov?
Just how will the doors of granaries open to us through the medium of the Social Revolutionists? In all
this, there is an utter lack of principle. Why not give them 60 seats? Why not 25 or 35? The revolutionary
masses will not follow this call.
BOKI: Several mentions have been made here of a Conference. This is too high-sounding a name for it.
It will be hard to call a full session tomorrow. Let us call together here, tomorrow at 7 o'clock in the
evening, a session of the Committee plus local representatives in the Petersburg Committee.
TROTSKY: We have had rather profound differences in our party prior to the insurrection, within the
Central Committee as well as in the broad party circles. The same things were said; the same expressions
were used then as now in arguing against the insurrection as hopeless. The old arguments are now being
repeated after the victorious insurrection, this time in favor of a coalition. There will be no technical
apparatus, mind you. You lay the colors on thick in order to frighten, in order to hinder the proletariat
from utilizing its victory. It is true [that the apparatus is not ours]. We have had to waste so much time
with Kerensky's miserable detachments because we lacked a technical apparatus. But under the given
conditions we have already created a magnificent apparatus. At present we are victorious both here and
in Moscow. Petrograd is now secure against any surprises of a military nature.
I repeat that we shall be able to draw the petty bourgeoisie behind us only by showing that we have in
our hands a material fighting force. We can conquer the bourgeoisie only by overthrowing it. This is the
law of the class struggle.
This is the guarantee of our victory. Then and only then will the Vikzhel follow us. The same might be
said about other technical branches. The apparatus will place itself at our service only when it sees that
we are a force.
The October Revolution does not consist in setting the old apparatus in motion again. Our task is to
rebuild the entire apparatus from top to bottom. For our proletarian tasks to become a living reality, we
need our own apparatus, made up of the flesh and blood of our own class. We created such an apparatus
of our own against Kerensky and against Krasnov beneath Petrograd. You keep repeating that we cannot
sit on bayonets. But in order for us to carry on these discussions with you here it is indispensable to have
bayonets at Tsarskoye Selo.
All government is based on force and not conciliation. Our government is the force exercised by the
majority of the people against the minority. This is beyond dispute. This is the A B C of Marxism. They
prevented me from communication with Moscow by direct wire and then they let through the shock
troops. They betray us in the most acute moments of the struggle. And it is proposed to us, now that we
have conquered, that we admit them into the very strong hold of the government.
[Motion: To limit the speakers to 10 minutes.]
NOCIN: We, Bolsheviks, recognize that our revolution is not a bourgeois revolution. But we will
conquer not alone but together with the peasants. It is for this reason that they must possess jointly what
has been jointly gained by the blood of workers and soldiers. That is to say, power. Our party must be the
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