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

THIRD ALL-RUSSIA CONGRESS OF SOVIETS467That would be the rejection of socialism. We acted quitesimply; not fearing to call forth the reproaches of the “educated”people, or rather of the uneducated supporters of thebourgeoisie who were trading in the remnants of theirknowledge, we said we had at our disposal armed workersand peasants. This morning they must occupy all theprivate banks. (Applause.) After they have done that, afterpower is in our hands, only after this, we shall discuss whatmeasures to adopt. In the morning the banks were occupiedand in the evening the Central Executive Committee issueda decree: “The banks are declared national property”—state control, the socialisation of banking, its transfer toSoviet power, took place.There was not a man among us who could imagine that anintricate and subtle apparatus like banking, which grewout of the capitalist system of economy in the course ofcenturies, could be broken or transformed in a few days.We never said that. And when scientists, or pseudo-scientists,shook their heads and prophesied, we said: you can prophesywhat you like. We know only one way for the proletarianrevolution, namely, to occupy the enemy’s positions—to learn to rule by experience, from our mistakes. We do notin the least belittle the difficulties in our path, but wehave done the main thing. The source of capitalist wealthhas been undermined in the place of its distribution. Afterall this, the repudiation of the state loans, the overthrowof the financial yoke, was a very easy step. The transitionto confiscation of the factories, after workers’ control hadbeen introduced, was also very easy. When we were accusedof breaking up production into separate departments byintroducing workers’ control, we brushed aside this nonsense.In introducing workers’ control, we knew that it would takemuch time before it spread to the whole of Russia, but wewanted to show that we recognise only one road—changesfrom below; we wanted the workers themselves, from below,to draw up the new, basic economic principles. Much timewill be required for this.From workers’ control we passed on to the creation of aSupreme Economic Council. Only this measure, togetherwith the nationalisation of the banks and railways whichwill be carried out within the next few days, will make it