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

AGRARIAN PROGRAMME OF SOCIAL-DEMOCRACY371ties of the period of the Second Duma already, in essence,take the stand of recognising capitalism, of taking it forgranted), but because it stands for the Junker type of capitalistdevelopment in order to strengthen the power andto increase the incomes of the landlords, in order to placethe edifice of autocracy upon a new and stronger foundation.There is no contradiction between what these gentlemensay and what they do; our reactionaries, too, are“businessmen”, as Lassalle said of the German reactionariesin contrast to the liberals.What is the attitude of these people towards the ideaof nationalising the land? Towards, say, the partialnationalisation with compensation demanded by the Cadetsin the First Duma, leaving, like the Mensheviks, privateownership of small holdings and creating a state landreserve out of the rest of the land? Did they not perceivein the nationalisation idea the possibility of strengtheningthe bureaucracy, of consolidating the central bourgeoisgovernment against the proletariat, of restoring “statefeudalism” and the “Chinese experiment”?On the contrary, every hint at nationalisation of theland infuriates them, and they fight it in such a way thatone would think they had borrowed their arguments fromPlekhanov. Take the nobleman Vetchinin, a Right landlord.“I think,” he said at the 39th session on May 16, 1907,“that the question of compulsory alienation must be decidedin the negative sense from the point of view of thelaw. The advocates of that opinion forget that the violationof the rights of private owners is characteristic of statesthat are at a low stage of social and political development.It is sufficient to recall the Muscovy period, when the tsaroften took land away from private owners and later grantedit to his favourites and to the monasteries. What did thatattitude of the government lead to? The consequences werefrightful” (619).Such was the use made of Plekhanov’s “restoration ofMuscovy Rus”! Nor is Vetchinin the only one to harp onthis string. In the First Duma, the landlord N. Lvov, whowas elected as a Cadet and then went over to the Right,and after the dissolution of the First Duma negotiatedwith Stolypin for a place in the Ministry—that personage