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

FROM A PUBLICIST’S DIARY55into shaping the correct tactics of boycotting the BulyginDuma, tactics which took account of the objective situation.Why did the tactics of boycotting the Third Duma proveincorrect?Because they were based only on the “catchiness” ofthe boycott slogan and on the revulsion felt towards thebrutal reaction of the June Third “pigsty”. 34 The objectivesituation, however, was such that on the one hand therevolution was in a state of collapse and declining fast.For the upsurge of the revolution a parliamentary base(even inside a “pigsty”) was of tremendous political importance,since extra-parliamentary means of propaganda,agitation and organisation were almost nonexistent orextremely weak. On the other hand, the most openly reactionarynature of the Third Duma did not prevent it frombeing an organ reflecting real class relations, namely, theStolypin 35 combination of the monarchy and the bourgeoisie.This new relation of classes was something the countryhad to get rid of.These very elements shaped the tactics of participationin the Third Duma that took proper account of the objectivesituation.It is sufficient to give thought to these lessons gainedfrom experience and the conditions required by a Marxistapproach to the question of boycott or participation, torealise that participation in the Democratic Conference,the Democratic Council or the Pre-parliament would bewrong tactics.On the one hand, a new revolution is maturing. Thewar is on the upgrade. The extra-parliamentary means ofpropaganda, agitation and organisation are tremendous.The “parliamentary” tribune in the given Pre-parliament isinsignificant. On the other hand, this Pre-parliament neitherreflects nor serves a new relation of classes; for instance,the peasantry is here more poorly represented than in thealready existing organs (Soviets of Peasants’ Deputies).The Pre-parliament is in substance a Bonapartist fraud,not only because the filthy gang of the Lieberdans, Tseretelisand Chernovs, together with Kerensky and Co. havegiven this Tsereteli-Bulygin Duma a fake, hand-picked