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

CAN THE BOLSHEVIKS RETAIN STATE POWER?125You have become so muddled, citizens of Novaya Zhizn,you have allowed yourselves to be so scared, that you cannotthink straight in the extremely simple matter of countingeven up to three, let alone up to five.Either all power to the bourgeoisie—the slogan you havelong ceased to advocate, and which the bourgeoisie themselvesdare not even hint at, for they know that the peopleoverthrew this power with one hitch of the shoulder at thetime of the April 20-21 events, and would overthrow it nowwith thrice that determination and ruthlessness; or powerto the petty bourgeoisie, i.e., a coalition (alliance, agreement)between them and the bourgeoisie, for the pettybourgeoisie do not wish to and cannot take power alone andindependently, as has been proved by the experience of allrevolutions, and as is proved by economics, which explainsthat in a capitalist country it is possible to stand for capitaland it is possible to stand for labour, but it is impossibleto stand for long in between. In Russia this coalition hasfor six months tried scores of ways and failed.Or, finally, all power to the proletarians and the poorpeasants against the bourgeoisie in order to break theirresistance. This has not yet been tried, and you, gentlemenof Novaya Zhizn, are dissuading the people from this, youare trying to frighten them with your own fear of the bourgeoisie.No fourth way can be invented.If Novaya Zhizn, therefore, is afraid of the proletariandictatorship and rejects it because, as it claims, the proletarianpower may be defeated by the bourgeoisie, it istantamount to its surreptitiously reverting to the position ofcompromise with the capitalists! It is as clear as daylight,that whoever is afraid of resistance, whoever does notbelieve that it is possible to break this resistance, whoeverwarns the people: “beware of the resistance of the capitalists,you will not be able to cope with it”, is thereby againcalling for compromise with the capitalists.Novaya Zhizn is hopelessly and pitifully muddled, asare all the petty-bourgeois democrats who now realise thatthe coalition is bankrupt, dare not defend it openly and,at the same time, protected by the bourgeoisie, fear thetransfer of all power to the proletarians and poor peasants.