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

FEAR OF COLLAPSE OF THE OLD AND FIGHT FOR THE NEW403earnest is the only real teacher. The greater the extremes of theexploiters’ resistance, the more vigorously, firmly, ruthlesslyand successfully will they be suppressed by the exploited.The more varied the exploiters’ attempts to uphold the old,the sooner will the proletariat learn to ferret out its enemiesfrom their last nook and corner, to pull up the roots of theirdomination, and cut the very ground which could (and hadto) breed wage-slavery, mass poverty and the profiteeringand effrontery of the money-bags.The strength of the proletariat and the peasantry alliedto it grows with the resistance of the bourgeoisie and itsretainers. As their enemies, the exploiters, step up theirresistance, the exploited mature and gain in strength; theygrow and learn and they cast out the “old Adam” of wageslavery.Victory will be on the side of the exploited, for ontheir side is life, numerical strength, the strength of the mass,the strength of the inexhaustible sources of all that isselfless, dedicated and honest, all that is surging forward andawakening to the building of the new, all the vast reservesof energy and talent latent in the so-called “common people”,the workers and peasants. Victory will be theirs.Written December 24-27, 1917(January 6-9, 1918)First published on January 22Published according1929 in Pravda No. 18 to the manuscriptSigned: Lenin