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

286V. I. LENINthe Socialist-Revolutionaries are sincere, but it is, afterall, a fact that Kaledin and Milyukov are behind them.The firmer your stand, soldiers and workers, the morewe shall gain. Otherwise they will say to us: “If they’velet out Milyukov, they can’t be strong.” Earlier on we saidthat if we took power, we intended to close down the bourgeoisnewspapers. To tolerate the existence of these papersis to cease being a socialist. Those who say: “Open the bourgeoisnewspapers”, fail to understand that we are movingat full speed to socialism. After all, tsarist newspaperswere closed down after the overthrow of tsarism. Now wehave thrown off the bourgeois yoke. We did not invent thesocial revolution: it was proclaimed by the Congress of theSoviets—no one protested, all adopted the decree proclaimingit. The bourgeoisie proclaimed liberty, equality andfraternity. The workers say: “We want something else.”We are told that we are retreating. No, comrades, it is theSocialist-Revolutionaries who are returning to Kerensky.We are told that there are new elements in our resolution.Of course there are, because we are advancing to socialism.When the Socialist-Revolutionaries made speeches in theFirst and the Second Duma, they were also ridiculed forsaying something new.There should be a monopoly of private advertisements.The members of the printers’ union look at them from thepoint of view of income. They will get it, but in anotherform. We cannot provide the bourgeoisie with an opportunityfor slandering us. We must appoint a commission rightaway to probe the ties between the banks and the bourgeoisnewspapers. What kind of freedom do these newspaperswant? Isn’t it freedom to buy rolls of newsprint and hirecrowds of penpushers? We must escape from the freedom ofa press dependent on capital. This is a matter of principle. Ifwe are to advance to socialism we cannot allow Kaledin’sbombs to be reinforced by the bombs of falsehood.Of course, our draft law is not perfect. But it will beapplied everywhere by the Soviets in accordance with theirlocal conditions. We are not bureaucrats and do not wantto insist on the letter of the law everywhere, as was the practicein the old government offices. I recall the Socialist-Revolutionaries saying that people in the countryside knew