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

132THE LAST WORD OF RUSSIAN LIBERALISMThe Russian Social-Democrats drew the main lessons ofthe revolution in the London resolution on the non-proletarianparties. 73 In this resolution the Social-Democratic proletariatmade a clear and precise appraisal of the class relationsin the revolution, defined the social basis of all the majorparties and the general tasks of the workers’ movementin the fight for democracy. The resolution of the DecemberParty Conference of 1908 was a further development of thesefundamental views of Social-Democracy.Now, a year after this Conference, two and a half yearsafter the London Congress, it is extremely instructive to seethe views on the present position and the tasks of democracythat are being reached by the most influential representativesof Russian liberalism. The recent “conference” of leadingmembers of the Cadet Party is particularly interesting inthis respect. The “conference” endorsed the report of theleader of the party, Mr. Milyukov, who has now had it printedin Rech under the heading: “The Political Parties in theCountry and in the Duma”. This report is an extremelyimportant political document. In it we have what is henceforththe official platform of the Cadet Party. Furthermore,we have here an answer to questions which the Social-Democratic Party raised and settled long ago—an answersupplied by one of the shrewdest diplomats and politiciansin the liberal camp, and at the same time one of the mostadept historians, who has learned a thing or two from historicalmaterialism, by which he was unmistakably influenced... when he was a historian.The historian Milyukov tries to put the question on a thoroughlyscientific, i.e., materialist basis. To obtain “firm