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

STRIKE STATISTICS IN RUSSIA417that the weakness lay in the insufficiency of this combination,in the insufficient number of workers involved in economicstrikes. The statistical data furnish graphic confirmationof the correctness of the Marxist view, for they revealthe “general law” of the three-year period—namely, that themovement becomes intensified as a result of the intensificationof the economic struggle. And there is a logical connectionbetween this “general law” and the basic features ofevery capitalist society, in which there always exist backwardsections which can be aroused only by the most extraordinaryaccentuation of the movement, and it is onlyby means of economic demands that the backward sectionscan be drawn into the struggle.If we compare the upsurge in the last quarter of 1905with the one before it and the one after it, i.e., with the firstquarter of 1905 and the second quarter of 1906, we see clearlythat the upsurge in October-December had a narrower economicbase than either the one before or the one after, i.e.,as regards the number of workers involved in economic strikesas a percentage of the total number of strikers. Undoubtedly,the demand for an eight-hour day antagonised manyelements among the bourgeoisie who might have sympathisedwith the other aspirations of the workers. But there isalso no doubt that this demand attracted many elements,not of the bourgeoisie, who had not so far been drawn intothe movement. These elements were responsible for 430,000workers taking part in economic strikes in the last quarterof 1905, their number dropping to 73,000 in the first quarterof 1906 and increasing again to 222,000 in the second quarterof 1906. Consequently, the weakness lay not in the absenceof sympathy on the part of the bourgeoisie, but in the insufficient,or insufficiently timely, support on the part of nonbourgeoiselements.It is in the nature of liberals to be dismayed by the factthat a movement of the kind we are discussing always antagonisescertain elements of the bourgeoisie. It is in the natureof Marxists to note the fact that this kind of movementalways attracts large sections outside the ranks of the bourgeoisie.Suum cuique—to each his own.The official statistics dealing with the results of thestrikes are highly instructive as regards the vicissitudes