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

THE LAST WORD OF RUSSIAN LIBERALISM135tremendous”, that “the causes of mass discontent have notdisappeared: it is possible that they have even increasedin number and that their effect has grown stronger in proportionto the growth of political consciousness”. But, althoughthe historian has to admit this, the liberal gets the upperhand just the same: ...”among the masses, unfortunately, itturned out [during the revolution] that only a bolder secretdemagogy was effective, one which flattered the traditionalopinions and customary expectations of the masses. Thisdemagogy united in a purely artificial manner the intelligibleand legitimate mass slogan of ‘land’ with the unintelligibleand misinterpreted slogan of ‘liberty’. Under these circumstanceseven the grasping by people’s minds of the naturalconnection between the two slogans was only a source ofnew misunderstandings and gave rise to the same illusions,”and so on and so forth, right down to the “principle”: neitherrevolution nor reaction, but “a legal constitutional struggle”.The question of returning to the “old tactics of 1905” “mustbe answered with a categorical and emphatic negative”.As the reader sees, all the good intentions of the historianMilyukov to find strongpoints for party tactics among broadcircles of the population came to nothing as soon as it was aquestion of the peasantry and the proletariat. Mr. Milyukovgives the latter up as a bad job, admitting that “democraticconstitutionalism has a wider, better organised and morepolitically conscious social basis among the urban democracythan any other political party can show, with the exceptionof the Social-Democratic Party, which is relying on the workingclass.” But Mr. Milyukov does not lose hope of thepeasantry. “In spite of the existence of such obstacles” as“demagogy”, etc., he writes, “the possibility is not excludedof democratic constitutionalism acting parallel [Milyukov’sitalics] to the direct expressions of the desires of the popularmasses.”Parallel activity!—there you have the new catchword forold liberal tactics. Parallel lines never meet. The bourgeoisintellectuals have understood that their liberalism willnever meet the masses, i.e., will not become their voice andleader in Russia—“never”, because of the growth of politicalconsciousness after 1905. But the liberals of the Cadet typecontinue to count on the masses as a stepping stone to success,