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

DEBATE ON EXTENSION OF DUMA’S BUDGETARY POWERS433was it surprising that the Cadets withdrew their wording(in which, of course, nothing was mentioned about theirnot going into the extent of the changes which they themselveshad outlined!). But that the Social-Democrats could bea party to this kind of unanimity is incredible, and weshould like to believe that Stolichnaya Pochta did not tellthe truth, and that the Social-Democrats did not vote forthe Octobrists’ motion.However, there is a more important issue here than thequestion whether the Social-Democrats voted for or againstthe Octobrists. And that is the question of the mistakeundoubtedly committed by the Social-Democratic deputyPokrovsky 2nd. It is to this mistake and to the real politicalsignificance of the debate of January 12, 15, and 17,that we wish to draw the attention of our readers.The Russian Duma has no budgetary powers, for “by law”the rejection of a budget does not prevent it from being putinto execution. That law, promulgated by the counterrevolutionarygovernment after the defeat of the Decemberuprising (February 20, 1906, the notorious “FundamentalLaws”), makes a mockery of popular representation at thehands of the Black Hundreds, the tsar, and landlords.And the “Rules” of March 8, 1906, further emphasise thismockery by imposing a multitude of petty restraints on anexamination of the budget in the Duma and by even layingit down (Article 9) that “during the discussion of the draftstate budget, items of revenue and expenditure which havebeen inserted in the draft on the basis of existing laws,civil lists, and schedules, as well as royal commands issuedby way of supreme governance, cannot be excluded ormodified”. Is this not a mockery? Nothing that conforms tothe laws, to the civil lists, to schedules, or simply to theroyal commands, can be modified! Is it not ridiculous, afterthis, to talk about the budgetary powers of the RussianDuma?The question now arises—what were the tasks of thebourgeois democrats, if they are really fighting for freedom,in the face of such a situation? What were the tasksof the workers’ party?—in this article we are speaking onlyof the tasks of parliamentary struggle and of the parliamentaryrepresentatives of the respective parties.