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

HOW TO ORGANISE COMPETITION?413advice and instruction, of exercising practical control overthe translation of words into deeds.In this very respect it is utterly impossible to dispensewith the help and the leading role of the practical organisersfrom among the “people”, from among the factory workersand working peasants. “It is not the gods who make pots”—this is the truth that the workers and peasants should getwell drilled into their minds. They must understand thatthe whole thing now is practical work; that the historicalmoment has arrived when theory is being transformed intopractice, vitalised by practice, corrected by practice, testedby practice; when the words of Marx, “Every step of realmovement is more important than a dozen programmes”, 152become particularly true—every step in really curbing inpractice, restricting, fully registering the rich and the roguesand keeping them under control is worth more than a dozenexcellent arguments about socialism. For, “theory, my friend,is grey, but green is the eternal tree of life”. 153Competition must be arranged between practical organisersfrom among the workers and peasants. Every attemptto establish stereotyped forms and to impose uniformityfrom above, as intellectuals are so inclined to do, must becombated. Stereotyped forms and uniformity imposed fromabove have nothing in common with democratic and socialistcentralism. The unity of essentials, of fundamentals,of the substance, is not disturbed but ensured by varietyin details, in specific local features, in methods of approach,in methods of exercising control, in ways of exterminatingand rendering harmless the parasites (the rich and the rogues,slovenly and hysterical intellectuals, etc., etc.).The Paris Commune gave a great example of how tocombine initiative, independence, freedom of action andvigour from below with voluntary centralism free fromstereotyped forms. Our Soviets are following the same road.But they are still “timid”; they have not yet got into theirstride, have not yet “bitten into” their new, great, creativetask of building the socialist system. The Soviets must setto work more boldly and display greater initiative. All“communes”—factories, villages, consumers’ societies, andcommittees of supplies—must compete with each other aspractical organisers of accounting and control of labour and