I
CLASS CHARACTER OF THE REVOLUTION
(Lenin)
The historical period through which we are passing is characterized by the following fundamental features:[1]
1.—The Imperial government, which represented only a small group of large landholders having in its control all the machinery of power, army, police and bureaucracy, has been defeated and overthrown, but not entirely done away with. Monarchism, as such, has not been destroyed. The Romanoff coterie is still engaged in monarchistic intrigues. The grip of the large landholders on the land has not been definitely broken.
The powers of government in Russia have passed into the hands of a new class: the bourgeoisie and the bourgeois-inclined landholders. To that extent the bourgeois democratic revolution in Russia is a closed chapter.
The bourgeoisie in power concluded an alliance with purely monarchistic elements which, from 1906 to 1914, had shown themselves unusually faithful to Nicholas the Bloody and Stolypin the Hangman. The new bourgeois government of Lvov and his associates (Guchkov and other politicians more conservative than the Cadets) actually initiated negotiations with the Romanoffs aiming at a restoration of the monarchy in Russia, while using the revolutionary vocabulary. And that government has appointed to positions of authority partisans of the old regime.
All the governmental machinery, army, police and bureaucracy, is being turned over to the bourgeoisie by this government with the least possible modifications and reforms.
The new government is trying to prevent by every means at its disposal the development of mass action and the assumption of power from below by the people, which alone would insure the success of the Revolution.
- ↑ This chapter describes the situation prevailing until the end of April, 1917.—L. C. F.
