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

POLITICAL NOTES441crowning token of its contempt for “constitutionalism”,intends to apply for credits for frontier military reinforcementsnot to the whole Duma, but only to the Black-Hundred-Octobrist Committee.Here are some quotations from European newspapers,newspapers which are anything but socialist and which cannot be suspected of optimism with regard to the Russianrevolution:“The German victories over France (in 1870), as Bismarck onceremarked, fired the ambition of the Russian military, and they tooreached out for martial laurels. For political, religious, and historicalreasons, Turkey seemed a most suitable object for this purpose(the war with Turkey of 1877-78). Evidently, the same views areheld today by certain Russian circles who have forgotten the lessonsof the Japanese war and who do not understand the true needs of thecountry. As there are no more ‘brothers’ to be liberated in the Balkans,they have to devise other methods of influencing Russian publicopinion. And these methods, to tell the truth, are even more clumsythan the others: it is being made out that Russia is surrounded by internaland external enemies.“Russia’s ruling circles seek to bolster up their position by theold methods of forcibly suppressing the internal movement for emancipationand diverting public attention from the deplorable internalsituation by arousing nationalist sentiments and stirring up diplomaticconflicts, of which nobody knows what the outcome will be.”What is the significance of this new chauvinistic line inthe policy of the counter-revolutionary autocracy? AfterTsushima and Mukden, only people from under whose feetthe ground is definitely slipping can embark on such a policy.Notwithstanding all the efforts that have been made,the experience of two years of reaction has not created anyreliable support within the country for the Black-Hundredautocracy, nor any new class elements capable of rejuvenatingthe autocracy economically. And without this no atrocities,no frenzy of the counter-revolution can save the presentpolitical system in Russia.Stolypin, the Black-Hundred landlords, and the Octobristsall understand that unless they create new class supportsfor themselves they cannot remain in power. Hencetheir policy of utterly ruining the peasants and forciblybreaking up the village communes in order to clear the way