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

CAN THE BOLSHEVIKS RETAIN STATE POWER?115people with confidence in their own strength, to prove tothem in practice that they can and must themselves ensurethe proper, most strictly regulated and organised distributionof bread, all kinds of food, milk, clothing, housing,etc., in the interests of the poor. Unless this is done, Russiacannot be saved from collapse and ruin. The conscientious,bold, universal move to hand over administrative work toproletarians and semi-proletarians, will, however, rousesuch unprecedented revolutionary enthusiasm among thepeople, will so multiply the people’s forces in combatingdistress, that much that seemed impossible to our narrow,old, bureaucratic forces will become possible for the millions,who will begin to work for themselves and not for the capitalists,the gentry, the bureaucrats, and not out of fear of punishment.* **Pertinent to the question of the state apparatus is alsothe question of centralism raised with unusual vehemenceand ineptitude by Comrade Bazarov in Novaya Zhizn No. 138,of September 27, in an article entitled: “The Bolsheviks andthe Problem of Power”.Comrade Bazarov reasons as follows: “The Soviets arenot an apparatus suitable for all spheres of state life”, for,he says, seven months’ experience has shown, and “scoresand hundreds of documents in the possession of the EconomicDepartment of the St. Petersburg Executive Committee”have confirmed, that the Soviets, although actuallyenjoying “full power” in many places, “have not beenable to achieve anything like satisfactory results in combatingeconomic ruin”. What is needed is an apparatus “dividedup according to branches of production, with strict centralisationwithin each branch, and subordinated to one,country-wide centre”. “It is a matter”, if you please, “not ofreplacing the old apparatus, but merely of reforming it ...no matter how much the Bolsheviks may jeer at people witha plan....”All these arguments of Comrade Bazarov’s are positivelyamazing for their helplessness, they echo the arguments ofthe bourgeoisie and reflect their class point of view.In fact, to say that the Soviets have anywhere in Russia