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

438V. I. LENINbourgeois system by inertia, they oppose these powerfulorganisations, the formation of which has never before beenwitnessed in any revolution in the world. All who are fightingthe landowners are joining forces with the Soviets ofPeasants’ Deputies. The Soviets embrace all who do not wishto stand idle and are devoting themselves to creative work.They have spread their network over the whole country, andthe denser this network of Soviets of the people, the lesswill it be possible to exploit the working people. For theexistence of the Soviets is incompatible with a prosperousbourgeois system. That is the source of all the contradictionsamong the bourgeoisie, who are fighting our Soviets solelyin their own interests.The transition from capitalism to a socialist system entailsa long and bitter struggle. Having overthrown tsarism, theRussian revolution was bound to go farther; it could notstop at the victory of the bourgeois revolution; for the war,and the untold sufferings it caused the exhausted peoples,created a soil favourable for the outbreak of the socialrevolution. Nothing, therefore, is more ludicrous than theassertion that the subsequent development of the revolution,and the revolt of the masses that followed, were caused bya party, by an individual, or, as they vociferate, by thewill of a “dictator”. The fire of revolution broke out solelybecause of the incredible sufferings of Russia, and becauseof the conditions created by the war, which sternly andinexorably faced the working people with the alternative oftaking a bold, desperate and fearless step, or of perishing,of dying from starvation.And revolutionary fire was manifest in the creation ofthe Soviets—the mainstay of the workers’ revolution. TheRussian people have made a gigantic advance, a leap fromtsarism to the Soviets. That is a fact, irrefutable and unpa^ralleled. While the bourgeois parliaments of all countries andstates, confined within the bounds of capitalism and privateproperty, have never anywhere supported a revolutionarymovement, the Soviets, having lit the fire of revolution,imperatively command the people to fight, take everythinginto their own hands, and organise themselves. In thecourse of a revolution called forth by the strength of theSoviets there are certain to be all kinds of errors and blunders.