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

460V. I. LENINthere are ignorant people who accept these bribes unconsciously,because they cannot even imagine that the old bourgeoissystem can and must be destroyed to the very foundationand that an entirely new, socialist society can andmust be built up on its ruins. Undoubtedly there are peoplelike that, but does that alter the situation?That is why the representatives of the propertied classesare staking their all, that is why these are the last anddecisive battles for them, and they would stop at no crimein their efforts to smash Soviet power. Does not the wholehistory of socialism, particularly of French socialism,which is so rich in revolutionary striving, show us thatwhen the working people themselves take power in theirhands the ruling classes resort to unheard-of crimes andshootings if it is a matter of protecting their money-bags.When these people talk to us about civil war we answerthem with ridicule; but when they spread their slogansamong the students we say—you are deceiving them!The class struggle did not accidentally assume its latestform, the form in which the exploited class takes all themeans of power in its own hands in order to completelydestroy its class enemy, the bourgeoisie, in order to sweepfrom the land of Russia not only the bureaucrats, but alsothe landowners, as the Russian peasants in several guberniashave done.We are told that the sabotage with which the bureaucratsand the landowners met the Council of People’s Commissarsis an indication of their unwillingness to assist socialism,as if it were not clear that the whole of this gang ofcapitalists and swindlers, vagabonds and saboteurs, representa single gang bribed by the bourgeoisie and resistingthe power of the working people. Of course, those who thoughtthat it was possible to leap straight from capitalism tosocialism, or those who imagined that it was possible toconvince the majority of the population that this couldbe achieved through the medium of the Constituent Assembly—thosewho believed in this bourgeois democratic fable,can go on blithely believing it, but let them not complainif life destroys this fable.Those who have come to understand what the classstruggle means, what the sabotage organised by the bureau-