Collected Works of V. I. Lenin - Vol. 16 - From Marx to Mao

CONCERNING VEKHI127Good, is it not? The French movement of the end of theeighteenth century, please note, was not an example of thedemocratic movement of the masses in its profoundest andbroadest form, but an example of “intellectualist” revolution!Since democratic aims have never anywhere in theworld been achieved without a movement of a homogeneoustype it is perfectly obvious that the ideological leaders ofliberalism are breaking with democracy.The feature of the Russian intelligentsia that Vekhi inveighsagainst is the necessary accompaniment and expressionof any democratic movement. “The admixture of the politicalradicalism of intellectualist ideas to the social radicalismof popular instincts* was achieved with amazing rapidity”(141)—and this was “not simply a political mistake,not simply an error of tactics. The mistake here was a moralone.” Where there are no martyred popular masses, there canbe no democratic movement. And what distinguishes a democraticmovement from a mere “riot” is that it proceeds underthe banner of certain radical political ideas. Democraticmovements and democratic ideas are not only politically erroneous,are not only out of place tactically but are morallysinful—such in essence is the real opinion of Vekhi, whichdoes not differ one iota from the real opinions of Pobedonostsev.68 Pobedonostsev only said more honestly and candidlywhat Struve, Izgoyev, Frank and Co. are saying.When Vekhi proceeds to define more precisely the substanceof the hateful “intellectualist” ideas, it naturallyspeaks about “Left” ideas in general and Narodnik and Marxistideas in particular. The Narodniks are accused of “spuriouslove for the peasantry” and the Marxists “for the proletariat”(9). Both are blasted to smithereens for “idolisation ofthe people” (59, 59-60). To the odious “intellectual” “god is thepeople, the sole aim is the happiness of the majority” (159).“The stormy oratory of the atheistic Left bloc” (29)—thisis what impressed itself most on the memory of the CadetBulgakov in the Second Duma and particularly aroused hisindignation. And there is not the slightest doubt that Bulgakovhas expressed here, somewhat more conspicuously than* “Of the martyred popular masses” is the phrase used on the samepage, two lines down.