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

420V. I. LENINProceeding to criticise nationalisation, Tsereteli adducedthree arguments: (1) “an army of officials”, (2) “gross injusticeto the small nationalities”, (3) “in the event of restoration”“a weapon would be placed in the hands of the enemyof the people” (1232). That is a conscientious expositionof the views of those who secured the adoption of ourParty programme, and as a Party man, Tsereteli had toexpound those views. We have shown above how untenablethose views are and how superficial this exclusively politicalcriticism is.In support of municipalisation Tsereteli adduced sixarguments: (1) under municipalisation “the actual expenditureof these resources [i.e., rent] to meet the people’s[!] needs will be ensured” (sic! p. 1233)—an optimisticassertion; (2) “the municipalities will strive to improvethe conditions of the unemployed”—as, for example, indemocratic and decentralised America (?); (3) “the municipalitiescan take over these [big] farms and organisemodel farms”, and (4) “during an agrarian crisis ... willlease land free of charge to landless, propertyless peasants”(sic! p. 1234). This is demagogy worse than thatof the S.R.’s; it is a programme of petty-bourgeois socialismin a bourgeois revolution. (5) “A bulwark of democracy”—likeCossack local self-government; (6) “the alienationof allotment land ... may give rise to a frightful counterrevolutionarymovement”—probably against the will of allthe peasants who declared for nationalisation.Sum and substance of the speeches of the Social-Democratsin the Second Duma: leading role on the question ofcompensation and of the connection between landlordismand the present state power, and an agrarian programmethat slips into Cadetism, betraying failure to understandthe economic and political conditions of the peasant revolution.Sum and substance of the entire debate on the agrarianquestion in the Second Duma: the Right landlords displayedthe clearest understanding of their class interests, themost distinct conception of both the economic and politicalconditions needed for the preservation of their classrule in bourgeois Russia. In effect, the liberals alignedthemselves with these landlords and sought to betray the