Collected Works of V. I. Lenin - Vol. 31 - From Marx to Mao

“LEFT-WING” COMMUNISM—AN INFANTILE DISORDER95that has not yet matured to the stage of practical politicalaction by the masses. However, from the standpoint of thispractical action by the masses, these differences are mostimportant. To take due account of these differences, andto determine the moment when the inevitable conflictsbetween these “friends”, which weaken and enfeeble allthe “friends” taken together, will have come to a head—that is the concern, the task, of a Communist who wantsto be, not merely a class-conscious and convinced propagandistof ideas, but a practical leader of the masses in therevolution. It is necessary to link the strictest devotion tothe ideas of communism with the ability to effect all thenecessary practical compromises, tacks, conciliatorymanoeuvres, zigzags, retreats and so on, in order to speedup the achievement and then loss of political power by theHendersons (the heroes of the Second International, if weare not to name individual representatives of petty-bourgeoisdemocracy who call themselves socialists); to acceleratetheir inevitable bankruptcy in practice, which will enlightenthe masses in the spirit of our ideas, in the direction ofcommunism; to accelerate the inevitable friction, quarrels,conflicts and complete disintegration among the Hendersons,the Lloyd Georges and the Churchills (the Mensheviks,the Socialist-Revolutionaries, the Constitutional-Democrats,the monarchists; the Scheidemanns, the bourgeoisie and theKappists, etc.); to select the proper moment when the discordamong these “pillars of sacrosanct private property” isat its height, so that, through a decisive offensive, theproletariat will defeat them all and capture politicalpower.History as a whole, and the history of revolutions inparticular, is always richer in content, more varied, moremultiform, more lively and ingenious than is imagined byeven the best parties, the most class-conscious vanguardsof the most advanced classes. This can readily be understood,because even the finest of vanguards express the classconsciousness,will, passion and imagination of tens ofthousands, whereas at moments of great upsurge and theexertion of all human capacities, revolutions are made bythe class-consciousness, will, passion and imagination oftens of millions, spurred on by a most acute struggle of