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

124V. I. LENINist autocracy, is a chambre introuvable* in the full senseof that word.The point is that with us, as in every country that hasan autocratic or semi-autocratic regime, there are reallytwo governments: an official one—a Ministry, and anotherone behind the scenes—the court camarilla. This latteralways and everywhere is backed by the most reactionarysections of society, by the feudal—in our country Black-Hundred—nobility, which draws its economic strength fromlarge-scale landownership with the semi-serf economy thisinvolves. Effete, depraved, and degenerate this social grouppresents a striking example of the most revolting parasitism.To what depths of depravity this degeneration candescend is borne out by the scandalous Moltke v. Hardentrial in Berlin, which revealed what a filthy cesspool theinfluential camarilla at the court of the semi-autocraticGerman Emperor Wilhelm II really was. It is no secret thatwith us in Russia similar abominations in correspondingcircles are no exception. The mass of the Right in the ThirdDuma—at least the overwhelming majority if not all ofthem—will defend the interests of precisely this social canker,these whited sepulchres, bequeathed to us from thedismal past. The preservation of a feudal economy, ofaristocratic privileges and the regime of the autocracy andnobility is a matter of life and death to these mastodonsand ichthyosauri, for to call them “zubri” 71 is to pay thema compliment.By using their all-powerful influence at court, the mastodonsand ichthyosauri usually try their utmost to takefull monopoly of possession of the official governmentas well—the Ministry. Usually a considerable part of theMinistry consists of their henchmen. Very often, however,the majority of the Ministry, as regards its compositiondoes not fully meet the requirements of the camarilla. Theantediluvian predator, the predator of the feudal era, findsa competitor here in the shape of a predator of the epochof primary accumulation—one just as coarse, greedy, andparasitic, but having a certain cultural veneer and, mostimportant of all, desirous also of seizing a sizable share* Second to none, as Louis XVIII in 1815 called the reactionaryFrench Chamber of Deputies.