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

54V. I. LENINis impossible for them to “carry” the bourgeoisie with them.Moreover, the upper strata of the petty bourgeoisie and themore well-to-do strata of the democratic petty bourgeoisieare patently against a new revolution. This fact is soobvious that there is no need to dwell on it here. TheLieberdans, Tseretelis and Chernovs illustrate this mostclearly.The class relations have changed. This is the crux of thematter.Different classes now stand “on the one and the otherside of the barricade”.That is the main thing.That, and that alone, is the scientific reason for speakingof a new revolution which—arguing purely theoretically,taking the question in the abstract—could be accomplishedlegally if, for instance, the Constituent Assembly, convokedby the bourgeoisie, produced a majority opposed to thebourgeoisie, if the majority belonged to the parties of theworkers and poor peasants.The objective relations of the classes, their role (economicand political) outside and inside representativeinstitutions of the given type; the rise or decline of therevolution; the relation of extra-parliamentary to parliamentarymeans of struggle—these are the chief, the basicobjective facts which must be considered if the tacticsof boycott or participation are to be deduced in aMarxist way and not arbitrarily, according to our “sympathies”.The experience of our revolution clearly demonstrateshow to approach the boycott question in a Marxist way.Why did the boycott of the Bulygin Duma 33 prove correcttactics?Because it was in accordance with the objective alignmentof social forces in their development. It providedthe maturing revolution with a slogan for the overthrow ofan old order which, to distract the people from the revolution,was convoking a clumsily fabricated compromise institution(the Bulygin Duma) which did not show promise of anyearnest “anchoring” in parliamentarism. The extra-parliamentarymeans of struggle of the proletariat and the peasantrywere stronger. These are the elements that went