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

NOTES OF A PUBLICIST71it would be absurd to suspect of Bolshevik sympathies orof prejudiced and uncompromising hostility towards theCadets.In today’s issue of Tovarishch (No. 351), Mr. Zhilkinconveys the impressions of a “cheerful” (sic! Mr. Zhilkinunderstands “cheerfulness” in much the same way as Gornor Nevedomsky) provincial in the following words:“The Octobrist landlords I spoke to argue as follows: ‘It’s allright to vote for the Cadets. The good thing about them is that they aretractable. In the First Duma they wanted too much. In the Secondthey backed down. They even made cuts in their programme.In the Third they’ll give way still more. I daresay they’ll come to somearrangement. Besides, to tell the truth, there isn’t any Octobristwhose election we could ensure.“‘Let the Cadets get elected. The difference between us isn’t verygreat. They are sure to go to the right in the Third Duma.... We’refriendly with the Octobrists out of necessity.... What public speakersor big men do they have?’”Those who judge of parties by their names, programmes,promises, and speeches, or are content with crude Bernsteinised“Marxism”, which consists in reiterating the axiomabout support for bourgeois democracy in a bourgeois revolution,may cherish hopes in regard to a democratic coalitionof the Lefts and the Cadets in the Third Duma. Butthose with the slightest revolutionary flair and thoughtfulattitude towards the lessons of our revolution, or thosewho are really guided by the principle of the class struggleand judge of parties by their class character, will not be inthe least surprised to find that the party of bourgeois intellectualsis fit only to perform flunkey services for theparty of the big bourgeois. The Gorns and Nevedomskysare capable of believing that the Cadets’ differences withthe democrats are an exception, and their differences withthe Octobrists a rule. It is exactly the other way round.The Cadets are true kin to the Octobrists by their veryclass nature. Cadet democracy is sheer window-dressing,a temporary reflection of the democracy of the masses, or adownright hoax, which the Russian Bernsteinians andpetty bourgeois, especially those from the newspaper Tovarishch,fall for.And so, if you view the matter from this angle, if yougrasp the true historical role of the Cadet—that bourgeois