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

CONFERENCE OF ST. PETERSBURG ORGANISATION137On the question of “guarding” the Duma group the speakersaid that it was true that the group should be guarded.But for what purpose? Only in order that it should holdhigh the banner of Social-Democracy in the Duma, andthat it should wage an irreconcilable struggle in the Dumaagainst the counter-revolutionaries of all shades and descriptions,beginning with the Union people and endingwith the Cadets. But on no account in order that it shouldsupport the “Left” Octobrists and Cadets. If its existencedepended upon its having to support these groups, thatis, support a deal with the Stolypin autocracy, then it wouldbe better for it to end its existence honourably, explainingto the whole people why it was expelled from the Duma,should such expulsion follow.In his concluding remarks Lenin dealt chiefly with theprincipal mistake of Menshevism—the idea of a “nationalopposition”. The Russian bourgeoisie was never revolutionaryin the proper sense of the word, and for a quite understandablereason: owing to the position which the workingclass occupies in Russia and owing to the role of the workingclass in the revolution. After examining all the otherarguments of the Mensheviks he moved the resolution publishedin Proletary, No. 19.Proletary, No. 20,November 19, 1907Published accordingto the text in Proletary