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

44V. I. LENINif a boycott of the Third Duma were to be justified or causedby the collapse of revolutionary expectations in regardto the First or the Second Dumas, by the collapse of a “lawful”,“strong”, “stable”, and “genuine” constitution, it wouldbe Menshevism of the worst kind.VIWe have left an examination of the strongest and theonly Marxist arguments in favour of a boycott to the last.Active boycott has no meaning apart from a broad revolutionaryupswing. Granted. But a broad upswing evolvesfrom one that is not broad. Signs of a certain upswing arein evidence. The boycott slogan ought to be launched byus, since that slogan supports, develops, and expands theincipient upswing.Such, in my opinion, is the basic argument which, in amore or less clear form, determines the tendency towardsboycott among Social-Democrats. Moreover, the comradeswho stand closest to direct proletarian work proceed notfrom any argumentation “constructed” according to a certaintype, but from a sum total of impressions derived fromtheir contact with the working-class masses.One of the few questions on which so far it seems thereare not, or were not, disagreements between the two factionsof the Social-Democrats, is that of the reason forthe protracted lull in the development of our revolution.“The proletariat has not recovered”—that is the reason.Indeed, the brunt of the October-December struggle wasborne by the proletariat alone. The proletariat alonefought in a systematic, organised, and unremitting way forthe whole nation. No wonder that in a country with thesmallest percentage of proletarian population (by Europeanstandards), the proletariat should have found itselfutterly exhausted by such a struggle. Besides, ever sinceDecember the combined forces of governmental and bourgeoisreaction have been striking their hardest all the timeat the proletariat. Police persecutions and executions havedecimated the ranks of the proletariat in the course of eighteenmonths, while systematic lock-outs, beginning with