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

468V. I. LENINpossible for us to begin work to build up a new socialisteconomy. We know perfectly well the difficulties thatconfront us in this work; but we assert that only those whoset to work to carry out this task relying on the experienceand the instinct of the working people are socialists in deed.The people will commit many mistakes, but the main thinghas been done. They know that when they appeal to Sovietpower they will get whole-hearted support against the exploiters.There is not a single measure intended to ease theirwork that was not entirely supported by Soviet power. Sovietpower does not know everything and cannot handleeverything in time, and very often it is confronted withdifficult tasks. Very often delegations of workers and peasantscome to the government and ask, for example, whatto do with such-and-such a piece of land. And frequently Imyself have felt embarrassed when I saw that they had novery definite views. And I said to them: you are the power,do all you want to do, take all you want, we shall supportyou, but take care of production, see that production isuseful. Take up useful work, you will make mistakes, butyou will learn. And the workers have already begun tolearn; they have already begun to fight against the saboteurs.Education has been turned into a fence which hindersthe advance of the working classes; it will be pulleddown.Undoubtedly, the war is corrupting people both in therear and at the front; people who are working on war suppliesare paid far above the rates, and this attracts all thosewho hid themselves to keep out of the war, the vagabondand semi-vagabond elements who are imbued with one desire,to “grab” something and clear out. But these elementsare the worst that has remained of the old capitalist systemand are the vehicles of all the old evils; these we mustkick out, remove, and we must put in the factories all thebest proletarian elements and form them into nuclei of futuresocialist Russia. This is not an easy task, it will giverise to many conflicts, to much friction and many clashes.We, the Council of People’s Commissars, and I personally,have heard complaints and threats from them, but we haveremained calm, knowing that now we have a judge to whomwe can appeal. That judge is the Soviets of Workers’ and