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

CAN THE BOLSHEVIKS RETAIN STATE POWER?127The capitalists and landowners, with the kind helpof Plekhanov, Breshkovskaya, Tsereteli, Chernov and Co.,have done everything in their power to defile the democraticrepublic, to defile it by servility to wealth to such a degreethat the people are being overcome by apathy, indifference;it is all the same to them, because the hungry man cannotsee the difference between the republic and the monarchy;the freezing, barefooted, worn-out soldier sacrificing hislife for alien interests is not inclined to love the republic.But when every labourer, every unemployed worker,every cook, every ruined peasant sees, not from the newspapers,but with his own eyes, that the proletarian stateis not cringing to wealth but is helping the poor, that thisstate does not hesitate to adopt revolutionary measures,that it confiscates surplus stocks of provisions from theparasites-and distributes them to the hungry, that it forciblyinstalls the homeless in the houses of the rich, thatit compels the rich to pay for milk but does not give them adrop until the children of all poor families are sufficientlysupplied, that the land is being transferred to the workingpeople and the factories and banks are being placed underthe control of the workers, and that immediate and severepunishment is meted out to the millionaires who concealtheir wealth—when the poor see and feel this, no capitalistor kulak forces, no forces of world finance capital whichmanipulates thousands of millions, will vanquish the people’srevolution; on the contrary, the socialist revolution willtriumph all over the world for it is maturing in all countries.Our revolution will be invincible if it is not afraid ofitself, if it transfers all power to the proletariat, for behindus stand the immeasurably larger, more developed, moreorganised world forces of the proletariat which are temporarilyheld down by the war but not destroyed; on the contrary,the war has multiplied them.* **How can one be afraid that the Bolshevik government,that is to say, the proletarian government, which is assuredof the devoted support of the poor peasants, will be “sweptaway” by the capitalist gentlemen! What shortsightedness!