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

136V. I. LENINthe absence of a formal offer of a just peace to all belligerents),will consent to “wait” for the Congress of Soviets or for theConstituent Assembly? Or are you in possession of factswhich permit you to conclude that the history of the Russianrevolution, which from February 28 to September 30had proceeded with extraordinary turbulence and unprecedentedrapidity, will, from October 1 to November 29, 62proceed at a super-tranquil, peaceful, legally balanced pacethat will preclude upheavals, spurts, military defeats andeconomic crises? Or will the army at the front, concerningwhich the non-Bolshevik officer Dubasov said officially,in the name of the front, “it will not fight”, quietly starveand freeze until the “appointed” date? Or will the peasantrevolt cease to be a factor of civil war because you call it“anarchy” and “pogrom”, or because Kerensky will send“military” forces against the peasants? Or is it possible,conceivable, that the government can work calmly, honestly,and without deception to convene the Constituent Assemblyin a peasant country when that same government is suppressingthe peasant revolt?Don’t laugh at the “confusion in the Smolny Institute”, 63gentlemen! There is no less confusion in your own ranks.You answer the formidable questions of civil war with confusedphrases and pitiful constitutional illusions. That iswhy I say that if the Bolsheviks were to give in to thesemoods they would ruin both their Party and their revolution.October 1, 1917.N. Lenin