Collected Works of V. I. Lenin - Vol. 26 - From Marx to Mao

CAN THE BOLSHEVIKS RETAIN STATE POWER?97It is difficult to imagine that in a capitalist countrythe proletariat should be so little isolated from the pettybourgeoisie—and, mark you, in a revolution against thebourgeoisie—as the proletariat now is in Russia. The latestreturns of the voting by “curias” for and against coalitionwith the bourgeoisie in Tsereteli’s “Bulygin Duma”, i.e.,in the notorious “Democratic” Conference, constitute one ofthe objective and incontrovertible proofs of this. If we takethe Soviets’ curias we get:For coalitionAgainstSoviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’Deputies. . . . . . . . . . 83192Soviets of Peasants’ Deputies . . 102 70All Soviets 185 262So, the majority as a whole is on the side of the proletarianslogan: against coalition with the bourgeoisie. Wehave seen above that even the Cadets are obliged to admit thegrowth of Bolshevik influence in the Soviets. And here wehave the Conference convened by yesterday’s leaders in theSoviets, Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, who havean assured majority in the central institutions! Obviously,the actual degree to which the Bolsheviks predominate inthe Soviets is here understated.Both on the question of coalition with the bourgeoisieand on the question of immediately transferring the landedestates to peasant committees, the Bolsheviks already have amajority in the Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’Deputies, a majority of the people, a majority of the pettybourgeoisie. Rabochy Put No. 19, of September 24 quotesfrom No. 25 of the organ of the Socialist-RevolutionariesZnamya Truda 54 a report on a conference of local Sovietsof Peasants’ Deputies held in Petrograd on September 18.At this conference the Executive Committees of four Peasants’Soviets (Kostroma, Moscow, Samara and Taurida gubernias)voted for an unrestricted coalition. The ExecutiveCommittees of three gubernias and two armies (Vladimir,Ryazan and the Black Sea gubernias) voted in favour ofa coalition without the Cadets. The Executive Committees