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

184V. I. LENINwho are compromising with Kerensky and Co. has completelycollapsed? Can one imagine any way in which the peoplecould say more clearly to the Bolsheviks than they did bythis vote, “Lead us, we shall follow you”?And we, who have thus won the majority of the peopleover to our side, and who have gained the Soviets in boththe capital cities—are we to wait? What for? For Kerenskyand his Kornilovite generals to surrender Petrograd to theGermans, and thus enter directly or indirectly, openly orsecretly, into a conspiracy with both Buchanan and Wilhelmfor the purpose of completely stifling the Russian revolution.By the Moscow vote and by the re-elections to the Soviets,the people have expressed their confidence in us, but that isnot all. There are signs of growing apathy and indifference.That is understandable. It implies not the ebb of the revolution,as the Cadets and their henchmen vociferate, butthe ebb of confidence in resolutions and elections. In arevolution, the masses demand action, not words from theleading parties, they demand victories in the struggle, nottalk. The moment is approaching when the people may conceivethe idea that the Bolsheviks are no better than theothers, since they were unable to act when the people placedconfidence in them....The peasant revolt is spreading over the whole country.It is perfectly clear that the Cadets and their hangers-onare minimising it in every way and are claiming it to benothing but “riots” and “anarchy”. That lie is being refutedbecause in the revolt centres the land is beginning to behanded over to the peasants. “Riots” and “anarchy” havenever led to such splendid political results! The tremendousstrength of the peasant revolt is shown by the fact that thecompromisers and the Socialist-Revolutionaries of DyeloNaroda, and even Breshko-Breshkovskaya, have begun totalk of transferring the land to the peasants in order to checkthe movement before it has finally engulfed them.Are we to wait until the Cossack units of the KorniloviteKerensky (who was recently exposed as a Kornilovite bythe Socialist-Revolutionaries themselves) succeed in suppressingthis peasant revolt piecemeal?Apparently, many leaders of our Party have failed to notethe specific meaning of the slogan which we all adopted and