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

S.R. PARTY CHEATS PEASANTS ONCE AGAIN231establishment of a new local government body). The guberniacommittee includes a member of the circuit court and a magistrate,and also a representative of the ministry who isappointed by the minister, etc. The central land committeeconsists of 27 members “invited to sit on it by the ProvisionalGovernment”! This includes one each from the 11 politicalparties, with the majority (6 out of 11) going to theCadets and those to the right of them. Isn’t this an obviousswindle on the part of Lvov, Shingaryov (who signed thebill) and their friends? Isn’t this simply flouting democracyto please the landed proprietors?Does this not bear out the repeated Bolshevik statementthat the will of the peasantry can be correctly expressedand implemented only by the Soviets of Peasants’ Deputies,elected by the mass of working people and subject to recall atany time?The Socialist-Revolutionaries, who were returned in amajority to the All-Russia Executive Committee of theSoviets of Peasants’ Deputies by the unsuspecting peasants,have now betrayed them; they have sold out the peasantSoviets, gone over to the landowners, and accepted the landcommittee law of Prince Lvov, the landed proprietor. Thereinlies the second big fraud which the Socialist-Revolutionarieshave worked on the peasants.This makes it all the more imperative for us, the workers’party, to reiterate the Bolshevik demand: all power inthe countryside to the Soviets of Peasants’ Deputies andAgricultural Labourers’ Deputies!The peasant mandates demand the confiscation, that is,the alienation of landed estates without compensation, andthe confiscation of stud farms, private pedigree stockbreedingand poultry farms, the transfer to state use of allhighly efficient farms, and the confiscation of all livestock andimplements on the landed estates.Instead, the S.R. ministerial bill treats the peasants toa preservation of rent, which is still to go into landlords’coffers.“Rent,” says Clause 33 of the S.R. bill, “shall be paid tothe committees, which shall hand over the remainder [aftervarious payments to the Treasury, etc.] to the rightfulowner.”