44
POLITICAL PARTIES IN RUSSIA
The Duma elections are compelling all the parties to inten-
sify their agitation and rally their forces, so that they may
return the greatest possible number of deputies of “their
own” party.
In Russia, as in all other countries, the election campaign
is attended by the most brazen self-advertisement. All the
bourgeois parties, that is, those which uphold the econom-
ic privileges of the capitalists, are advertising themselves
in the same way as individual capitalists advertise their
goods. Look at the commercial advertisements in any news-
paper—you will see that the capitalists think up the most
“striking”, bombastic and fashionable names for their mer-
chandise, which they praise in the most unrestrained man-
ner, stopping at no lie or invention whatever.
The general public—at any rate in the big cities and trade
centres—has long since become used to commercial adver-
tisement and knows its worth. Unfortunately, political
advertisement misleads an incomparably greater number of
people; it is much harder to expose and its deception much
more lasting. The names of some parties, both in Europe and
in Russia, are chosen with a direct eye to advertisement,
and their “programmes” are quite often written for the sole
purpose of hoodwinking the public. The greater the degree
of political liberty in a capitalist country and the more
democracy there is, i.e., the greater the power of the people
and of their representatives, the more shameless, in many
cases, is the self-advertisement of parties.
That being so, how is one to see what is what in the fight
between the various parties? Does not this fight, with its
fraud and advertising, indicate that representative insti-
tutions, parliaments, assemblies of people’s representa-
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POLITICAL PARTIES IN RUSSIA
tives, are in general useless and even harmful, as rabid reac-
tionaries, the enemies of parliamentarism make out? No. In
the absence of representative institutions there is much more
deception, political lying and fraudulent trickery of all
kinds, and the people have much fewer means of exposing
the deception and finding out the truth.
To see what is what in the fight between the parties, one
must not take words at their face value but must study the
actual history of the parties, must study not so much what
they say about themselves as their deeds, the way in which
they go about solving various political problems, and their
behaviour in matters affecting the vital interests of the vari-
ous classes of society—landlords, capitalists, peasants, work-
ers, etc.
The greater the degree of political liberty in a country
and the more stable and democratic its representative insti-
tutions, the easier it is for the mass of the people to find
its bearings in the fight between the parties and to learn
politics, i.e., to expose the deception and find out the truth.
The division of any society into different political parties
is revealed most clearly of all in times of profound crises
shaking the whole country. For at such times governments
are compelled to seek support among the various classes of
society; all phrase-mongering, all that is petty and extra-
neous, is brushed aside by the gravity of the struggle; the
parties strain every nerve and appeal to the masses, and the
masses, guided by their unerring instinct and enlightened
by the experience of an open struggle, follow the parties
that represent the interests of a particular class.
The epochs of such crises always determine the party
alignment of the social forces of the country concerned for
many years or even decades ahead. In Germany, for instance,
such crises were the wars of 1866 and 1870
40
; in Russia, the
events of 1905. We cannot understand the essence of our
political parties, nor gain a clear idea as to which classes
a particular party in Russia represents, unless we go back
to the events of that year.
Let us begin our brief survey of the political parties
in Russia with the parties of the extreme Right.
On the extreme right flank, we find the Union of the Rus-
sian People.
V. I. L E N I N
46
The programme of this party is set forth as follows in
Russkoye Znamya, the Union’s newspaper published by
A. I. Dubrovin:
“The Union of the Russian People, which on June 3, 1907, was
accorded the honour of being called upon from the height of the Tsar’s
throne to be its reliable bulwark, and to serve as an example of law
and order to all and in everything, proclaims that the will of the
Tsar can only be exercised: (1) if the Tsar’s autocratic power, which
is indissolubly and vitally bound up with the Russian Orthodox
Church, canonically established, manifests itself in full measure;
(2) if the Russian nationality is dominant not only in the inner guber-
nias, but also in the border regions; (3) if there is a Duma, composed
exclusively of Russians, as the main assistant of the monarch in his
work for building up the state; (4) if the principles of the Union of
the Russian People with regard to the Jews are fully observed; and
(5) if all officials who are opposed to the Tsar’s autocratic power
are removed from government service.”
We have faithfully copied this solemn declaration of the
Rights, on the one hand, so that the reader may be directly
acquainted with the original and, on the other, because the
fundamental motives stated in it are valid for all the parties
of the majority in the Third Duma, i.e., for the nationalists
and the Octobrists as well. This will be seen from what we
say further on.
The programme of the Union of the Russian People in
effect repeats the old slogan of the days of serfdom, that is,
Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationhood. In regard to the ques-
tion on which the Union is generally set apart from other
kindred parties—namely, recognition or rejection of “con-
stitutional” principles in the Russian political system—it
is particularly important to note that the Union is by no
means opposed to representative institutions in general. It
is evident from the programme quoted above that the Union
favours a Duma that will play the part of “assistant”.
Moreover, the specific feature of the Russian Constitu-
tion—if we may call it that—is expressed by the Dubrovin-
ite correctly, i.e., in keeping with the actual state of affairs.
It is this stand that is taken by both the nationalists
and the Octobrists in their practical policies. The controver-
sy between these parties over the “Constitution” is largely
a fight over words. The Rights are not opposed to a Duma;
they only stress with particular zeal that it must be an
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