Collected Works of V. I. Lenin - Vol. 13 - From Marx to Mao

123THE THIRD DUMAThe government is garnering the results of the infamouscrime which it committed against the people on June 3.The grotesque electoral law which, for the benefit of ahandful of landlords and capitalists, completely distortsthe will not only of the nation as a whole, but even of theenfranchised minority, has yielded the fruits that tsarismhankered for. At the time of writing this article 432 outof 442 deputies have been returned to the Duma, leavinganother 10 to be elected. The results of the elections can,therefore, be considered sufficiently clear. According toa fairly accurate estimate the members elected are 18 Social-Democrats,13 others of the Left, 46 Cadets, 55 membersof groups standing close to them, 92 Octobrists, 21members of groups belonging to allied trends, 171 membersof various Right-wing trends, including 32 members ofthe Union of the Russian People, 70 and 16 non-partydeputies.Thus, not counting an insignificant number of non-partydeputies, all the others may be divided into four groups:the extreme Left, constituting a little over 7 per cent, theLeft (Cadet) Centre 23 per cent, the Right (Octobrist)Centre 25.1 per cent, and the Right 40 per cent; the nonpartydeputies are a little less than 4 per cent.None of these groups by itself has an absolute majority.Does this result fully meet the wishes and expectations ofthose who inspired and drafted the new electoral law? Webelieve that this question should be answered in the affirmative,and that the new Russian “parliament”, fromthe point of view of the ruling groups supporting the tsar-