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

80V. I. LENINthe difference that he now feels behind him not only the supportof the old guard, his hired spies and plunderers of thepublic purse, but also the support of the moneyed gang,headed by the Krupenskys and Guchkovs, which is operatingjointly in the Third Duma in the name of the Russian people.The bandits’ venture has everything in its favour. Therevolutionary movement in Russia has been terribly enfeebledand the beast on the throne need have no concern onits account to distract him from his coveted prey. The West-European bourgeoisie, which had once petitioned the tsarto leave Finland in peace, will not lift a finger to halt thebandits. Only just recently it has been given assurances thatthe tsar’s intentions are honest and “constitutional” by thevery people who, at that time, exhorted Europe to condemnthe tsar’s policy in Finland. Calling themselves “representativesof the Russian intelligentsia” and “representativesof the Russian people”, the Cadet leaders have solemnly assuredthe European bourgeoisie that they, and the Russianpeople with them, are at one with the tsar. The Russianliberals have done everything to ensure that Europe remainsas indifferent to the new attacks of the two-headed ravageron Finland as it was to his excursions against free Persia.Free Persia has rebuffed tsarism by her own efforts. TheFinnish people—and the Finnish proletariat in the lead—are preparing a strong rebuff to the successes of Bobrikov.The Finnish proletariat is aware that it will have to fightin extremely difficult conditions. It knows that the West-European bourgeoisie who are flirting with the autocracywill not interfere; that the moneyed section of Russian society,partly bribed by Stolypin’s policy, partly corruptedby the lies of the Cadets, will not lend Finland the moralsupport which she enjoyed prior to 1905; that the insolenceof the Russian Government has grown beyond measure sinceit managed to strike a blow at the revolutionary army inRussia proper.But the Finnish proletariat also knows that the outcomeof a political struggle is not decided by a single engagement,that it sometimes entails long years of stubborn effort andthe winner in the long run is the side which has the forceof historical development behind it. The freedom of Finlandwill triumph because without it the freedom of Russia is