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

410V. I. LENINsee that there was really no strike wave—but only an isolateddemonstration strike.The rule applying to the triennium that we are studyingis that the rise of the strike wave indicates crucial turningpointsin the entire social and political evolution of thecountry. The strike statistics show us graphically what wasthe principal driving force of this evolution. This does notmean, of course, that the form of the movement we are examiningwas the sole or the highest form—we know that thiswas not the case; nor does it mean that we can draw directconclusions from this form of the movement with regard toparticular questions of social and political evolution. But itdoes mean that what we have before us is a statistical picture(far from complete, of course) of the movement of the classwhich was the mainspring responsible for the general directiontaken by events. The movements of the other classes aregrouped around this centre; they follow it, their direction isdetermined (in a favourable or unfavourable way) by it,they depend on it.One has only to recall the principal moments in the politicalhistory of Russia during the triennium under review torealise that this conclusion is correct. Let us take the firstquarter of 1905. What did we see on the eve of this period?The well-known Zemstvo banquet campaign. Was it rightto regard the actions of the workers in that campaign as“the highest type of demonstration”? Was the talk aboutrefraining from causing “panic” among the liberals justified?Consider these questions in conjunction with the strike statistics(1903—87,000 strikers; 1904—25,000; January 1905—444,000, including 123,000 political strikers), and the answerwill be obvious. The above-mentioned controversy over thequestion of the tactics in the Zemstvo campaign only reflectedthe antagonism between the liberal and working-classmovements, an antagonism rooted in objective conditions.What do we see after the January upsurge?* The wellknownFebruary edicts, which marked the inauguration* The quarterly data would make it appear that there was onlyone upsurge. Actually, there were two: in January, with 444,000strikers, and in May, with 220,000 strikers. In the interval betweenthese two months, March accounted for the minimum number ofstrikers—73,000.