The Stalin school of falsification - Marxists Internet Archive

Stalin School of Falscification - Chapter 12
convene the Congress of the Soviets; launch the insurrection and proclaim the Congress of the Soviets as
the organ of state power. Ilyich, at the time in hiding, was not in agreement and wrote that this garbage
[the Democratic Conference] must be dispersed and arrested. We understood that the matter was not
quite so simple, knowing full well that the Conference consisted one-half or at least one-third of
delegates from the front, and that by arresting and dis persing we could only spoil the whole business and
worsen the relations with the front. All the gullies, pits and ravines in our path were more easily to be
seen by us. But Ilyich is great [?] ; he is not afraid [?! ] of either pits, hollows, or ravines in his path; he
does not fear threats and says:
'Begin and go straight ahead.' But our faction saw that it was not to our advantage at the time to act in
this way; thatitwas necessary to walk around these obstacles in order to take the bull by the horns. And
despite all the demands of Ilyich, we proceeded along the road of ree~nforcement and came up [?] on
October 25 before the picture of the insurrection. Ilyich, smiling, looking at us slyly, said: 'Yes, you were
right.' This again astonished us. At times, Comrade Lenin, in questions of immense importance, admitted
his failings [?].. ." (The Fiftieth Anniversaryof V.1. Ulianov Lenin, 1920, 27ff.)
Stalin's speech has not entered into any collection of his "works." Yet it is instructive to the highest
degree. In the first place, it leaves no stone unturned of the latter-day legend alleging that the Central
Committee, under the leader ship of Lenin, smashed the "constitutional illusions" of Trotsky with regard
to the date and the method of the insur rection. According to Stalin -- according, that is, to the Stalin of
1920 -- it follows, on the contrary, that upon this question the Central Committee supported Trotsky
against Lenin.
In my recollections of Lenin published in 1924, I related how Lenin, when he arrived at the Smolny on
the night of the 25th, said to me: "Well, well -- it can be done that way too. Just take the power." The
"historian" Yaroslavsky in 1930 indignantly denied the authenticity of this story. For, you see, the
overturn had been accomplished by the Central Com mittee in accord with Lenin -- and against Trotsky;
how then could Lenin have said: "It can be done that way too"? Yet, from Stalin we learn that the Central
Committee "despite all the demands of Ilyich" pursued its line oriented upon the Congress of the Soviets
and "came up on October 25 before the picture of the insurrection"; while Lenin on arriving at the
Smolny announced: "Yes, you were right." Is it possible to imagine a more convincing, even if
involuntary, confirma tion of my story and a more crushing refutation of all the latter-day fictions?
However, the actual plan of the Central Committee was delineated inaccurately by Stalin even in 1920:
"to go forward on the road of re-enforcing the Soviets; convene the Congress of the Soviets; lanach the
insurrection and proclaim the Congress of the Soviets as the organ of state power" -- this constitutes,
after all, that very same mechan istic schema which was not unjustifiably stigmatized by Lenin because
of its "constitutional illusions." To call in advance the Congress of the Soviets in order only later to
summon the insurrection would have meant to facilitate for our opponents the opportunity for dealing a
blow at the Con gress of the Soviets before the insurrection. Involuntarily the question arises: Were not
Lenin's fears a result of one of his meetings with Stalin? As a matter of fact, the plan con ducted and
realized by me in action consisted in this: that in the process of mobilizing the masses under the slogan of
the Congress of the Soviets as the supreme organ in the country, amd tbnder the cover of this legal
campaign, we prepare the insurrection and strike the blow at a propitious moment, proximate to the
Congress of the Soviets but by no means necessarily after the opening of the Congress.
Whoever reads carefully the chapters in my History treat ing of the disagreements in the party on the eve
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