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

38V. I. LENINoped and simplified by capitalism itself, by such capitalistcreations as banks, big factories, trusts, railways, thepost office, consumers’ societies, and trade unions. If theSoviets punish those capitalists who evade the most detailedaccounting or who deceive the people, punish them byconfiscating all their property and arresting them for ashort time, that will be sufficient to break all the resistanceof the bourgeoisie by bloodless means. For it is throughthe banks, once they are nationalised, through the unionsof employees, through the post office, the consumers’ societies,and the trade unions, that control and the accountingwill become universal, all-powerful, and irresistible.And Russia’s Soviets, the alliance of her workers andpoor peasants, are not alone in the steps they take towardssocialism. If we were alone, we should not be able toaccomplish this task peacefully, for it is essentially an internationaltask. But we have enormous reserves, the armiesof the most advanced workers in other countries, whereRussia’s break with imperialism and the imperialist warwill inevitably accelerate the workers’ socialist revolutionthat is maturing.* **Some speak about “rivers of blood” in a civil war. Thisis mentioned in the resolution of the Kornilovite Cadetsquoted above. This phrase is repeated in a thousand waysby all the bourgeois and opportunists. Since the Kornilovrevolt all the class-conscious workers laugh, will continueto laugh and cannot help laughing at it.However, the question of “rivers of blood” in the presenttime of war can and must be studied by an approximatecomputation of forces, consequences, and results; it mustbe taken seriously and not as an empty stock phrase, notas simply the hypocrisy of the Cadets, who have done everythingin their power to enable Kornilov to drown Russiain “rivers of blood”, and to restore the dictatorship of thebourgeoisie, the power of the landowners, and the monarchy.“Rivers of blood,” they say. Let us analyse this aspectof the question as well.Let us assume that the vacillations of the Mensheviksand Socialist-Revolutionaries continue; that these parties