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

318V. I. LENIN2CONCLUDING SPEECHComrade Chudnovsky said here that he had “taken theliberty” of making some sharp criticisms of the Commissars’actions. There can be no question at all as to whetheror not sharp criticism is to be allowed, for it is a revolutionary’sduty to engage in such criticism, and the People’sCommissars do not claim to be infallible.Comrade Chudnovsky said we could not accept an indecentpeace, but he failed to cite a single word or fact to showthat this peace was unacceptable. We said: peace can beconcluded only by the Council of People’s Commissars.When we began our talks with Dukhonin we were awarethat we were about to negotiate with an enemy, and we cannotprocrastinate when dealing with an enemy. We could notforetell the outcome of the talks. But we were fully determined.We had to take a decision on the spot, without leavingthe line. We had to act against an insubordinate generalthere and then. We could not get the Central ExecutiveCommittee together on the line; that was in no sense a violationof the Central Executive Committee’s prerogatives.You don’t wait for the outcome in a war, and it was a warwe were fighting against the counter-revolutionary generals,so we turned to the soldiers. We removed Dukhonin but weare not formalists or bureaucrats, and we are well awarethat it was not enough to remove him. He opposed us and weappealed over his head to the army masses. We authorisedthem to enter into armistice negotiations. But we did notconclude an armistice. The soldiers were warned to keep aneye on the counter-revolutionary generals.* I think any* See pp. 312-13 of this volume.—Ed.