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

358V. I. LENINthe masses. There can be no restrictions and no red tape, forthey have been formed by the will of the people, and thepeople are free to recall their representatives at any moment.The Soviets are superior to any parliament, they are superiorto any constituent assembly. (Commotion and cries: That’sa lie!) The Party of the Bolsheviks has always declared thatthe supreme body is the Soviets. That cannot be called a lie,because the revolutions in Europe that overthrew monarchiesformed bourgeois republics with the help of constituentassemblies. There has never before been a revolutionsuch as ours anywhere in the world. It is said that the Revolutionof October 25 created only “a Bolshevik government”.I might say that there are not only Bolsheviks in the Councilof People’s Commissars. Those of you who remember theFirst Congress of Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputieswill know that the Bolsheviks were then in the minority;but, having learned the meaning of the policy of compromisefrom experience, the Second Congress of Workers’ and Soldiers’Deputies, which represented the people, gave a majorityto the Bolshevik Party. When they tell me that bayonetsmay be directed against the Soviets and shout it fromthe columns of the hostile press, I simply laugh. Thebayonets are in the hands of the workers, the soldiers and thepeasants, and as long as they are they will never bedirected against the Soviets. Let the counter-revolutionturn its bayonets on the Soviets, it will not scarethem.Passing to the question of the Constituent Assembly,I must say that the Constituent Assembly can help only ifthe people themselves are free to develop and build up anew life. And I ask you: Is that the case?I am telling you what you all know: “The sabbath wasmade for man and not man for the sabbath”. Comrades, youknow how the Constituent Assembly was elected. It waselected by one of the most progressive election methods,for it is not individuals who were elected, but representativesof parties. This is a step forward, for revolutions are made byparties and not by individuals. When the elections to theConstituent Assembly took place there was only one party ofSocialist-Revolutionaries, the party which has the majorityin the Constituent Assembly. But that is not the case now.