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

420V. I. LENINMartov, too, wrote of the sympathy of the bourgeoisie as“the main cause”), in no way prevented the defeat of theworkers when the force of their onslaught diminished. “Youare strong when society sympathises with you,” the liberalssay to the workers. “Society sympathises with you whenyou are strong,” the Marxists say to the workers.The last quarter of 1905 seems to be an exception: althoughit was the period of the greatest advance, the workers suffereddefeat. But this is only a seeming exception, for thisperiod again combines the month of upsurge in October,when the workers were victorious in the economic sphereas well ($57,000, —22,000 strikers won and lost respectively)with the two months of November ($25,000, —47,000) andDecember ($12,000, —31,000), when the economic strugglewas on the decline and the workers were defeated. Furthermore,November—a month that was a turning-point,a month of the greatest wavering, of the most even balancebetween the contending forces, and of the greatest uncertaintyas regards total results and the general trend of thefurther history of Russia as a whole and of the history ofthe relations between employers and workers in particular—was a month that shows a larger percentage of strikesending in compromise than any other month in 1905: of179,000 workers involved in economic strikes in that month,106,000, or 59.2 per cent, ended by compromising.*The first quarter of 1906 again seems to be an exception:the greatest decline in the economic struggle coupled with,proportionately, the largest number of workers winning theirstrikes ($34,000, —11,000). But here, too, we have the combinationof a month in which the workers suffered defeat—namely, January ($4,000, —6,000)—with months in whichthe workers scored victories: February ($14,000, —2,000)and March ($16,000, —2,500). The number of workers involvedin economic strikes is on the decline throughout thisperiod (January, 26,600; February, 23,300; March, 23,200);but there were already clear indications of an upward trendin the movement as a whole (the total number of strikersamounted to 190,000 in January, 27,000 in February, and52,000 in March).* The total number of workers involved in economic strikes wasas follows: October, 190,000; November, 179,000; December, 61,000.