The Stalin school of falsification - Marxists Internet Archive

Stalin School of Falsification - Chapter 14
is agreed that the Provisional Government is counter-revolutionary both in its personnel and in its
essence. Under the pressure of the masses it is acccmplishing revolutionary tasks, and to this extent, it
intrenches itself. We must not overlook that the masses are saying that the Provisional Government has
done everything. Voitinsky envisions a parliamentary method of the struggle for power! The government
will depart of its own accord, and no struggle for power will be necessary. We forget that for the time
being it is hiding its claws, and we ourselves are strengthening it. If we want to struggle against the
counter revo!ution, we must aim for the seizure of power, but without forcing events. How? By grouping
around the Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies so that gradually the Soviet assumes all functions,
and dominates all spheres of activity. It is necessary to teach the people to see that they are getting
everything from the Soviet.
The speaker concludes with a proposal to proclaim an All- National Militia.
VASSILIEV: We all have the same attitude to the Provi sional Government. But that is not the task of
the moment. On the agenda is the creation of a revolutionary provisional government. Having
accomplished the revolution, the people have created the Provisional Government, but this govern ment
is non-revolutionary not because Miliukov and Guchkov sit in it-no; even if they should go away-the
others likewise will not prove any more revolutionary. Our task, therefore, is to prepare a revolutionary
government. All government consists of executive and controlling power. We have an organ of
revolutionary control in the Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, but the executive power has not
yet been created among us. The longer it exists, the more powerful the Provisional Government will
become, for at its disposal are enormous resources, the entire state machinery. Our task is the formation
of a provisional revolutionary parliament which will put forth executive power. There must be created as
quickly as possible a permanent organ comprised of the representatives of the proletariat and of the
revolutionary Army of all Russia which would function as the provisional revolutionary parliament up to
the convocation of the Con stituent Assembly. The Provisional Government must be viewed as the
executive organ of the Provisional Revolution ary Parliament. It must not initiate a single important
measure without the knowledge and approval of the Provisional Revolutionary Parliament. The
Provisional Revolutionary Parliament must be empowered to issue, in agreement with the Provisional
Government, decrees on all vital questions.
Such a correlation between the Provisional Government and the Provisional Revolutionary Parliament
would deci sively do away with the question of dual power.
Will we go there? -- In 1905, we said that we will partici pate in a revolutionary government. There can
be talk not of giving support but of subordinating the Provisional Gov ernment to the Provisional
Revolutionary Parliament.
The speaker proposes the following draft resolution:
"1) Placing above all else the international solidarity of the working class, we heartily hail and
support the Manifesto of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies to the people of
the whole world, and its appeal to all pro letarians that they put an end to imperialism and to the
debauch of predatory passions in their own respective coun tries, and that they cotiperate with
might and main for the most rapid termination of the bloody slaughter. Only the peoples
themselves can conclude an honest and a stable peace.
"2) Revolutionary democratic Russia does not seek an inch of foreign soil, or a penny of foreign
property. But not an inch of our own soil or a penny of our own property can be taken away from
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