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

384V. I. LENINand battles which had been growing in intensity in all partsof the country during the preceding twelve months. Evendry statistics bear witness to this fact. The number of personswho took part in purely political strikes (i.e., in whichno economic demands were presented) was: in January 1905,123,000; in October, 328,000; in December, 372,000. And yetthere are people who want us to believe that this growth was“artificial”! We are treated to a fairy-tale to the effect thatsuch a growth of the mass political struggle, in addition tothe mutinies in the armed forces, is possible without its inevitabledevelopment into an armed uprising! No, this isnot a history of the revolution, it is a liberal libel on therevolution.IIIConcerning the October strike, Martov writes: “Just atthis time, when general excitement reigns among the workingmasses ... an attempt is made to merge the struggle for politicalliberty and the economic struggle into a single whole.Comrade Rosa Luxemburg’s opinion notwithstanding, thisrevealed, not the strong, but the weak side of the movement.”The attempt to introduce the eight-hour working day byrevolutionary means ended in failure and “disorganised”the workers. “The general strike of the post and telegraphemployees in November 1905 acted in the same direction.”This is the way Martov writes history.It is sufficient to glance at the statistics given aboveto see the falsity of this history. Throughout all the threeyears of the revolution we observe that every time the politicalcrisis becomes acute there is an upsurge, not only ofthe political, but also of the economic strike struggle.Not the weakness, but the strength of the movement layin the combination of the two forms of struggle. The oppositeview is the view of the liberal bourgeois, for the very thinghe wanted was that the workers should take part in politics,without, however, the broad masses being drawn into therevolution and into the struggle against the bourgeoisie.It was precisely after October 11 that the liberal Zemstvomovement finally split; the landlords and industrialistsformed the openly counter-revolutionary party of the “Octo-