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

388V. I. LENINing or of prohibiting wage-labour in capitalist society ischildish, but we must scotch wrong ideas at the point wherethey begin to go wrong, namely, beginning with “socialisation”and the prohibition of wage-labour,* and not withnationalisation.This same peasant Merkulov opposed the Cadet Bill ofthe 42, which coincides with municipalisation in that allotmentland is to remain private property and landlords’land is to be given out in tenure. This is “a kind of transitionalstage from one system to the other” ... “instead ofone we have two forms of ownership: private ownership andrenting, i.e., two forms of landownership that not onlydo not hang together, but are the very opposite of eachother” (823).5. THE NARODNIK INTELLECTUALSIn the speeches of the Narodnik intellectuals, particularlythose of the Popular Socialists, i.e., the Narodnikopportunists, two currents must be noted: on the one hand,sincere defence of the interests of the peasant masses—inthat respect their speeches, for understandable reasons, aremuch less impressive than those of the peasants who “donot engage in politics”; on the other hand, a certain Cadetsavour, a touch of intellectualist philistinism, an attemptto adopt the state point of view. It goes without saying that,in contrast to the peasants, their commitment to a doctrineis evident: they are fighting not on account of directly feltneeds and hardships, but to vindicate a certain theory, asystem of views which distorts the real issue of the struggle.“Land for the toilers,” proclaims Mr. Karavayev in hisfirst speech, and he characterises Stolypin’s agrarian legislationunder Article 87 as “the destruction of the villagecommune”, as pursuing a “political aim”; namely, “theformation of a special class of rural bourgeois”.“We know that these peasants are really the major props of reaction,a reliable prop of the bureaucracy; but in counting on this,the government has made a grave mistake: besides this there will be* There is no need for us to “scotch” this wrong idea, for the“sober minded” Trudoviks, headed by the “sober-minded”Peshekhonovs, have already scotched it.