41
THE TRUDOVIKS AND THE WORKER DEMOCRATS
III
Concerning the attitude of the liberals towards the bour-
geois democracy, and of the Cadets towards the Trudoviks,
the conference of the latter said nothing clear and definite.
38
The Trudoviks do not seem to realise that it was the depend-
ence of the democratic peasantry upon the liberals that was
one of the principal causes of the failure of the emancipation
movement in 1905-06, and that this movement cannot be
successful so long as wide and leading sections of the
peasantry are unaware of the difference between democracy
and liberalism, and do not free themselves from the tute-
lage and domination of the liberals.
Mr. Vodovozov touched upon this question of cardinal
importance in an extremely cursory and unsatisfactory man-
ner. He says that “the Cadet Party serves primarily the in-
terests of the urban population”. This is not true. This
definition of the class roots and political role of the Cadet
Party is utterly worthless.
The Cadet Party is the party of the liberal-monarchist
bourgeoisie. The social basis of this party (as well as of
the “Progressists”) is the economically more progressive (as
compared with the Octobrists) sections of the bourgeoisie,
but above all the bourgeois intelligentsia. However, a sec-
tion of the urban and rural petty bourgeoisie still follows
the Cadets only by tradition (i.e., by mere habit, blind
repetition of what was done yesterday), and because they
are simply deceived by the liberals.
By calling themselves democrats, the Cadets are deceiv-
ing themselves and the people. Actually the Cadets are
counter-revolutionary liberals.
This has been fully proved by the entire history of Russia,
particularly in the twentieth century, and above all in 1905-
06. And the publication Vekhi
39
demonstrated it, exposed it,
particularly clearly and completely. Nor can any “reserva-
tions” of the Cadet diplomats in regard to Vekhi alter this
fact.
The first phase of the liberation movement in Russia, the
first decade of the twentieth century, revealed that the
mass of the population, while gravitating towards democ-
racy, is not sufficiently class-conscious, cannot distinguish
V. I. L E N I N
42
between liberalism and democracy, and submits to the lead-
ership of the liberals. So long and insofar as there is no
change in this respect, all talk of democratic reform in Rus-
sia is pointless. It would be just idle talk.
How does Mr. Vodovozov counter these premises, on which
I based my article? “In the present conditions,” he writes,
“the Trudoviks consider it extremely tactless [!! ] to say too
much about the counter-revolutionary nature of the Ca-
dets....”
Well, well! What has “tact” got to do with it? And why
“too much”? If it is true that the Cadets are counter-revolu-
tionary liberals, this truth must be told. Whether we should
say a lot or only a little about the counter-revolutionary
Rights and the counter-revolutionary liberals is not a seri-
ous question at all. Whenever a publicist speaks of the
Rights, and whenever he speaks of the liberals, he must tell
the truth. The Trudoviks told the truth about the Rights.
We praise them for this. As regards the liberals, the Trudo-
viks themselves began to speak of them, but they did not
speak the whole truth!
That is the only thing for which we reproach the Trudo-
viks.
“Too much” or too little—that is quite beside the point.
Let the Trudoviks devote a thousand lines to the Rights and
five lines to the liberals—we shall have no objections to
that. That is not the reason for our objections to the Tru-
doviks. What we objected to is that in those “five lines”
(you must blame yourself, Mr. Vodovozov, for bringing into
the controversy your unfortunate expression “too much”!)
the truth about the liberals was not told.
Mr. Vodovozov avoided answering the real question: are
the Cadets counter-revolutionary or not?
It is a big mistake on the part of the Trudoviks to evade
this question, for that implies in fact that a section of the
democrats and a section of the former Marxists are de-
pendent on the liberals.
This question is inexorably posed by the entire history
of the first decade of the twentieth century.
In Russia today, new democratic elements are growing up
everywhere, among the most diverse sections of the popula-
tion. That is a fact. As they grow these democratic elements
43
THE TRUDOVIKS AND THE WORKER DEMOCRATS
must be educated in the spirit of consistent democracy.
Such education will be impossible unless we explain the
true nature of the liberals, who have at their disposal hun-
dreds of press organs and a hundred seats in the Duma, thus
constantly exerting an influence along falsely democratic
lines upon an incomparably greater number of people than
we can reach with our propaganda.
The democrats must rally their forces. We shall always
praise the Trudoviks for their democratic speeches about the
Rights. But theirs will be an inconsistent democracy if,
when they speak of the liberals, they do so
in liberal fashion,
instead of using a language worthy of democrats.
It is not two, but three camps that are contending in the
elections. Do not lump the second camp (the liberals) with
the third camp (the democrats), Trudovik gentlemen. Do
not obscure the distinction between them—the liberals are
doing “too much” as it is towards that objectionable end.
Pravda Nos. 1 3 and 1 4 ,
Published according
May 8 and 9 , 1 9 1 2
to the Pravda text
Signed: P. P.