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

SPEECH AT THE 1ST ALL-RUSSIA CONGRESS OF THE NAVY343which the Bolsheviks reproduced the principles stated inthe peasant mandates in their entirety. This was a departurefrom the Social-Democratic programme, for the mandateswere drawn up in the spirit of the Socialist-Revolutionaries’programme, but this was proof that the people’s power hadno intention of imposing its will on the people but tried tomeet them half-way.Whatever the solution of the land problem, whateverthe programme serving as a basis for the transfer of the landto the peasants, it would in no way hamper the strong allianceof the workers and peasants. The important thing wasthat if the peasants had pressed for the abolition of landownershipfor ages, it had to be abolished.The speaker emphasised the tremendous importance ofhaving a strong alliance of workers and peasants, for thequestion of land was closely bound up with that of industry,and the agrarian revolution had to go hand in hand witha ploughing up of capitalist relations.The onward march of the Russian revolution had shownthat the slavish policy of conciliating the landowners andcapitalists had been a soap bubble. The will of the majoritywould be uppermost; it would be carried- out by a workingpeople’s alliance, an honest alliance of workers and peasantson the basis of their common interests. Parties came andwent, but the working people remained, and the speakerurged dedication to the strengthening of this alliance.Let the Navy, he said, dedicate itself to keeping thisalliance as the foundation of state affairs; if it remainedsound, nothing could frustrate the cause of transition tosocialism.Turning to the nationalities question, Lenin said, weshould take note of Russia’s highly patchy national composition,with the Russians making up only about 40 per cent,and the majority consisting of other nationalities. Nationaloppression under the tsars, unmatched in savagery andabsurdity, turned the rightless nationalities into great reservoirsof fierce hatred for the monarchs. It was not surprisingthat all Russians had been included in their hatred for thosewho went to the extent of prohibiting the use of the mothertongue, and doomed masses of people to illiteracy. It wasassumed that the privileged Russians would try to retain