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

112V. I. LENINIn addition to that we have a “magic way” to enlarge ourstate apparatus tenfold at once, at one stroke, a way which nocapitalist state ever possessed or could possess. This magicway is to draw the working people, to draw the poor, into thedaily work of state administration.To explain how easy it will be to employ this magic wayand how faultlessly it will operate, let us take the simplestand most striking example possible.The state is to forcibly evict a certain family from a flatand move another in. This often happens in the capitaliststate, and it will also happen in our proletarian or socialiststate.The capitalist state evicts a working-class family whichhas lost its breadwinner and cannot pay the rent. The bailiffappears with police, or militia, a whole squad of them. Toeffect an eviction in a working-class district a whole detachmentof Cossacks is required. Why? Because the bailiff andthe militiaman refuse to go without a very strong militaryguard. They know that the scene of an eviction arouses suchfury among the neighbours, among thousands and thousandsof people who have been driven to the verge of desperation,arouses such hatred towards the capitalists and the capitaliststate, that the bailiff and the squad of militiamen runthe risk of being torn to pieces at any minute. Large militaryforces are required, several regiments must be broughtinto a big city, and the troops must come from some distant,outlying region so that the soldiers will not be familiar withthe life of the urban poor, so that the soldiers will not be“infected” with socialism.The proletarian state has to forcibly move a very poorfamily into a rich man’s flat. Let us suppose that our squadof workers’ militia is fifteen strong; two sailors, two soldiers,two class-conscious workers (of whom, let us suppose,only one is a member of our Party, or a sympathiser), oneintellectual, and eight from the poor working people, ofwhom at least five must be women, domestic servants, unskilledlabourers, and so forth. The squad arrives at the richman’s flat, inspects it and finds that it consists of five roomsoccupied by two men and two women—“You must squeezeup a bit into two rooms this winter, citizens, and preparetwo rooms for two families now living in cellars. Until the