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

110V. I. LENINment of capitalist wage-slavery, certifying that the workmanbelongs to some parasite.The Soviets will introduce work-books for the rich andthen gradually for the whole population (in a peasant countrywork-books will probably not be needed for a long timefor the overwhelming majority of the peasants). The workbookwill cease to be the badge of the “common herd”, adocument of the “lower” orders, a certificate of wage-slavery.It will become a document certifying that in the new societythere are no longer any “workmen”, nor, on the other hand,are there any longer men who do not work.The rich will be obliged to get a work-book from theworkers’ or office employees’ union with which their occupationis most closely connected, and every week, or otherdefinite fixed period, they will have to get from that uniona certificate to the effect that they are performing theirwork conscientiously; without this they will not be able toreceive bread ration cards or provisions in general. Theproletarian state will say: we need good organisers of bankingand the amalgamation of enterprises (in this matterthe capitalists have more experience, and it is easier to workwith experienced people), and we need far, far more engineers,agronomists, technicians and scientifically trainedspecialists of every kind than were needed before. We shallgive all these specialists work to which they are accustomedand which they can cope with; in all probability we shallintroduce complete wage equality only gradually and shallpay these specialists higher salaries during the transitionperiod. We shall place them, however, under comprehensiveworkers’ control and we shall achieve the complete andabsolute operation of the rule “He who does not work, neithershall he eat.” We shall not invent the organisational form ofthe work, but take it ready-made from capitalism—we shalltake over the banks, syndicates, the best factories, experimentalstations, academies, and so forth; all that we shallhave to do is to borrow the best models furnished by theadvanced countries.Of course, we shall not in the least descend to a utopia,we are not deserting the soil of most sober, practical reasonwhen we say that the entire capitalist class will offer themost stubborn resistance, but this resistance will be broken