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

198V. I. LENINEven the bourgeois press, even Russkaya Volya, wascompelled to admit the wonderful results of such a solution(the only real solution) of the bread problem, by publishinginformation to the effect that the railway stations in TambovGubernia were swamped with grain.... And this afterthe peasants had revolted!To doubt now that the majority of the people are followingand will follow the Bolsheviks is shameful vacillationand in practice is the abandoning of all the principles ofproletarian revolutionism, the complete renunciation ofBolshevism.“We are not strong enough to seize power, and the bourgeoisieis not strong enough to hinder the convening of the Constituent Assembly.”The first part of this argument is a simple paraphrase ofthe preceding one. It does not gain in strength or power ofconviction, when the confusion of its authors and theirfear of the bourgeoisie are expressed in terms of pessimismin respect of the workers and optimism in respect of thebourgeoisie. If the officer cadets and the Cossacks say thatthey will fight against the Bolsheviks to the last drop ofblood, this deserves full credence; if, however, the workersand soldiers at hundreds of meetings express full confidence inthe Bolsheviks and affirm their readiness to defend the transferof power to the Soviets, then it is “timely” to recall thatvoting is one thing and fighting another!If you argue like that, of course, you “refute” the possibilityof an uprising. But, we may ask, in what way doesthis peculiarly orientated “pessimism” with its peculiar urgediffer from a political shift to the side of the bourgeoisie?Look at the facts. Remember the Bolshevik declarations,repeated thousands of times and now “forgotten” byour pessimists. We have said thousands of times that theSoviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies are a force, thatthey are the vanguard of the revolution, that they cantake power. Thousands of times have we upbraided theMensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries for phrase-mongeringabout the “plenipotentiary organs of democracy” accompaniedby fear to transfer power to the Soviets.