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

CAN THE BOLSHEVIKS RETAIN STATE POWER?117that by repudiating “workers’ control”, by repudiating the“dictatorship of the proletariat” they are for the dictatorshipof the bourgeoisie. There is no middle course; a middle courseis the futile dream of the petty-bourgeois democrat.Not a single central body, not a single Bolshevik hasever argued against centralisation of the Soviets, againsttheir amalgamation. None of us objects to having factorycommittees in each branch of production, or to their centralisation.Bazarov is wide of the mark.We laugh, have laughed, and will laugh not at “centralism”,and not at “plans”, but at reformism, because, afterthe experience of the coalition, your reformism is utterlyridiculous. And to say “not replace the apparatus but reformit” means to be a reformist, means to become not a revolutionarybut a reformist democrat. Reformism means nothingmore than concessions on the part of the ruling class, butnot its overthrow; it makes concessions, but power remainsin its hands.This is precisely what has been tried during six monthsof the coalition.This is what we laugh at. Having failed to obtain a thoroughgrasp of the doctrine of the class struggle, Bazarovallows himself to be caught by the bourgeoisie who sing inchorus “Just so, just so, we are by no means opposed to reform,we are in favour of the workers participating in country-widecontrol, we fully agree with that”, and good Bazarovobjectively sings the descant for the capitalists.This has always been and always will be the case withpeople who in the thick of intense class struggle want totake up a “middle” position. And it is because-the writersof Novaya Zhizn are incapable of understanding the classstruggle that their policy is such a ridiculous and eternaloscillation between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.Get busy on “plans”, dear citizens, that is not politics,that is not the class struggle; here you may be of use to thepeople. You have many economists on your paper. Unitewith those engineers and others who are willing to work onproblems of regulating production and distribution; devotethe centre page of your big “apparatus” (your paper) to apractical study of precise facts on the production and distributionof goods in Russia, on banks, syndicates, etc.,