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

AGAINST BOYCOTT33of constitutional illusions, is also necessary at the endof this period? That would be a “bright idea” in the veinof “analogical sociology” and not a serious conclusion. Boycottcannot now have the same meaning that it had at thebeginning of the Russian revolution. Today we can neitherwarn the people against constitutional illusions nor fightto prevent the revolution from being turned into the constitutional-monarchistblind alley. Boycott cannot haveits former vital spark. If there should be a boycott, it willin any case have a different significance, it will be filledin any case with a different political content.Moreover, our analysis of the historical peculiarity ofthe boycott provides one consideration against a boycottof the Third Duma. In the period at the beginning of theconstitutional turn the attention of the whole nation wasinevitably focused on the Duma. By means of the boycottwe fought and were bound to fight against this focusingof attention on the trend towards the blind alley, to fightagainst an infatuation that was due to ignorance, unenlightenment,weakness, or selfish counter-revolutionary activity.Today not only any nation-wide, but even any at allwidespread enthusiasm for the Duma in general or for theThird Duma in particular is completely ruled out. There isno need for any boycott here.IVAnd so the conditions for the applicability of a boycottshould be sought, undoubtedly, in the objective stateof affairs at the given moment. Comparing, from this pointof view, the autumn of 1907 with that of 1905, we cannothelp coming to the conclusion that we have no groundstoday for proclaiming a boycott. From the standpoint ofthe relation between the direct revolutionary path and theconstitutional-monarchist “zigzag”, from the standpoint ofmass upswing, and from the standpoint of the specific aimsof the fight against constitutional illusions, the presentstate of affairs differs sharply from that of two years ago.At that time the monarchist-constitutional turn of historywas nothing more than a police promise. Now it is