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

THEY ARE NERVOUS ABOUT THE ARMY179croach upon the prerogatives of the “imperial leader” of thearmed forces, i.e., the tsar, who alone, independent of anyDuma, had the right to endorse the army and navy estimates.The Octobrists, Cadets and Lefts maintained that thiswas the prerogative of the Duma. Consequently, it was aquestion of the Black Hundreds headed by Nicholas II wantingto interpret restrictively the rights of the Duma, wantingto curtail the prerogatives of the Duma which had alreadybeen curtailed to an incredible extent. The Black-Hundred landlords and, at their head, the richest andblackest reactionary landlord, Nicholas Romanov, made aparticular minor question into a question of principle, aquestion of the prerogatives of the tsar, the prerogatives ofthe autocracy, accusing the bourgeoisie (and even the Octobristbourgeoisie) of trying to curtail the prerogatives ofthe tsar, to limit his power, “to separate the leader of thearmy from the army”, and so on.Whether the power of the tsar should be interpreted asabsolutely unlimited autocracy, quite in the old way, oras power with a most modest limitation—such was the pointof the dispute. And this dispute swelled a year ago almostto the dimensions of a “political crisis”, i.e., threats to kickout Stolypin whom the Black Hundreds accused of “constitutionalism”,threats to dissolve the Duma of the Octobrists,whom the Black Hundreds called “Young Turks”. 90Both the Duma and the Council of State approved theestimates of the naval general staff, i.e., they regarded thequestion as coming under their jurisdiction. Everyone waitedto see whether Nicholas II would endorse the decision ofthe Duma and the Council of State. On April 27, 1909,Nicholas II issued a rescript to Stolypin refusing to endorsethe estimates and charging the ministers to draw up “regulations”on the application of Article 96.In other words, the tsar for the hundredth time openlyand definitely took the side of the Black Hundreds and resistedthe slightest attempts to limit his power. His instructionto the ministers to draw up new regulations was abare-faced order to violate the law, to interpret it in sucha way that nothing would be left of it, to “interpret” it inthe style of the notorious Russian senatorial “interpreta-