The Proletarian Revolution in Russia/Part 3/Chapter 2
II
THE DUAL AUTHORITY
(Lenin)
The most peculiar feature, the distinguishing mark of our Revolution is the condition of dual authority it has established. This is a primary fact on which there must be clarity; without an understanding of this fact no progress is possible. The old "formulas" of Bolshevism, for instance, must be rounded out and corrected, for while they were true in general, their actual working out has been shown to be different. No one could have been aware, before the fact, of the condition of dual authority.
This dual power manifests itself through the existence of two different governments: the main, actual government, the government of the bourgeoisie, the Provisional Government, which holds in its hands all the machinery of power, and a supplementary, secondary, "controlling" government, the Councils of Workers and Soldiers, which does not have at its disposal any of the machinery of state power but which has the immediate and indubitable support of the majority of the nation, of the armed workers and soldiers.
The Revolution that overthrew Czarism and placed power in the hands of the bourgeoisie almost led to a revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry. And this second government, the government of the Councils, representing the proletariat and the peasantry, is a revolutionary dictatorship, that is, its authority rests directly on revolutionary usurpation exercised through the immediate pressure of the masses from below, not on laws promulgated by some central government power. The source of power is not in laws previously discussed and passed by parliament, but, as in the Paris Commune, in the direct pressure and action of the masses; the preservation of order is no longer the function of an army and police, but of the workers and peasants themselves, of the armed nation.
But this power, and this is another peculiar and a most important feature of the Russian Revolution,—enjoying the ful confidence of the people,—has, both by a direct understanding with the Provisional Government and by a series of virtual concessions, voluntarily placed the powers of the state in the hands of the bourgeoisie and a bourgeois government. It is still surrendering positions to the bourgeoisie, has voluntarily accepted the domination of the bourgeoisie and agreed to support it, limiting itself to the role of a supervising body. Why? Is it because Cheidse, Tseretelli, Steklof & Co. are making a "mistake"? No such thing. A philistine may think that way, not a Marxist. The reason is to be foimd in the insufficient class consciousness and organization of the workers and peasants. The "mistake" of the leaders mentioned lies in their petit bourgeois position, in their inspiring the workers with bourgeois illusions instead of fighting to destroy these illusions, in their strengthening the influence of the bourgeoisie over the masses instead of liberating the masses from this influence.
This most peculiar situation, unparalleled in history, has led to the simultaneous existence and co-action of two dictatorships: a dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry, the Councils of Workers' and Soldiers' Delegates, and a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, for the Provisional Government is not based on statutes nor on the expressed will of the nation, but was simply the assumption of power by a definite class, the bourgeoisie.
There is not the slightest doubt but that such a combination can not last long. There can not be any dualism of authority in the government. One of the two powers is bound to dwindle to nothing, and the bourgeoisie is already straining all its energies in an endeavor to weaken and finally annihilate the Councils of Workers' and Soldiers' Delegates and concentrate all authority in a bourgeois government.
The Provisional Government must be overthrown. It is an oligarchical, bourgeois government, not a popular one. It must not be overthrown at once, for it is being maintained by a straight and clear agreement, in form and in fact, by the Soviets, chiefly with the principal Soviet, that of Petrograd. It must not be "overthrown" in the customary manner, for it is based on the "support" of the second government, the government of the Soviets, and this second government is the only possible revolutionary government, since it expresses directly the consciousness and the will of the great majority of the workers and peasants. In order to become a power, the class conscious workers must win over a majority to their side: as you cannot resort to force against the masses, there is no other way to lead them on. We are not Blanquists,[1] we do not stand for a seizure of power by the minority. We are Marxists, and therefore advocates of the proletarian class struggle as against the petit bourgeois vaporings and illusions, against the chauvinism of the "national defense" attitude, against a dependence on the petty bourgeoisie.
Let us form a proletarian conununistic party, the elements for which have already been provided by the best advocates of Bolshevism; let us unite for the proletarian class war, and from among the proletarians, from among the poorest peasants, we shall draw to our cause an ever-increasing host. For life itself will destroy more and more of the petit bourgeois illusions of the "Social Democrats" Cheidse, Tseretelli, Steklof, etc., of the "Social-Revolutionists," and of the petty bourgeoisie in its more regular expressions. The petite bourgeoisie—the "Social Democrats," Social-Revolutionists, and others—stagger and hesitate, and thus muddle the work of enlightenment and liberation. That is the actual class relation between the forces that determine the outlines of our tasks.
The condition of dual authority is merely a transitional symptom in the development of the Revolution, which has gone farther than the usual bourgeois democratic revolution, but not as yet far enough to establish a complete dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry.
The class significance and class explanation of this transitional and unstable situation will be understood when we bear in mind the following:
Like every other revolution, our Revolution demanded the greatest heroism and self-sacrifice on the part of the masses in the struggle against Czarism, and set in motion an unusually large number of human beings. One of the chief symptoms, from the point of view of science and practical politics, of every real revolution is the unusually brusk and sudden increase in the number of just plain people who cease to remain indifferent and assume an active, individual, efficient role in political life, in the upbuilding of the state.
This is the case of Russia. Russia is in a state of ebullition. Millions of people who politically had been asleep for the past ten years, either lashed by the political whip of Czarism or doomed to slave labor on farms or in factories, awoke and threw themselves into the political strife. And who were these millions of people? Mostly small landlords, petty bourgeois, half way between capitalists and workers. Russia has a larger proportion of small middle class people than any other European nation. This gigantic middle class tide drowned everything, overwhelmed the class conscious proletariat not only by sheer superiority of numbers but also modifying the proletariat's point of view, that is, instilled in huge masses of workers the political ideals of the petty bourgeoisie.
The petty bourgeosie in real life is dependent upon the bourgeoisie, living as an employing, not as a working class (as far as its position in social production is concerned). Its thinking processes are those of the bourgeoisie.
An attitude of unreasoning confidence in the capitalists, the worst foes of peace and Socialism—such is at present the attitude of the Russian masses, such is the feeling which has been growing with revolutionary speed on the social-economic soil of the most middle-class nation of Europe. Such is the basis for the agreement existing between the Provisional Government and the Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Delegates; and when I say "agreement," I do not mean a formal agreement but a tacit understanding, a practical support, a naively trustful relinquishment of power. [This describes the situation before the Soviets accepted coalition on May 18.—F.] This sort of agreement has given to Guchkov a fat job and actual power, and to the Council … promises, a position of dignity (for the time being), flattery, beautiful phrases, assurances, and other marks of esteem on the part of the various Kerenskys.
The weakness of the proletariat in point of numbers, its lack of class consciousness and of organization,—such is the reverse of the medal in Russia.
All popular parties, with the exception of the revolutionary Socialists, have been parties of the small middle class. The same is true of the party of the Mensheviki (Cheidse, Tseretelli, etc.). Independent revolutionists (Steklof and others) floated with the tide and did not succeed in stemming it.
Owing to the peculiar situation I have described, it behooves Marxists to resort to special emergency tactics, for Marxists do not consider personalities but merely objective facts: masses and classes.
This peculiar situation makes it imperative "to pour vinegar and bile into the sweeiened water of revolutionary democratic eloquence," to quote the apt words of my fellow-committeeman Teodorovitch at the All-Russian Convention of railroad workers in Petrograd. We must formulate criticisms and expose the mistakes of the petty bourgeois parties, the Social-Revolutionary and Social Democratic parties; we must train and bring together what will be the elements of a class conscious proletarian communistic party, we must rescue the proletariat from its mental asphyxiation by bourgeois ideas.
In appearance this is nothing more than propaganda work. In reality, this is the most practical form of revolutionary activity, for a revolution can not possibly get anywhere when it stops, gets drunk on words, treads everlastingly the same spot, handicapped as it is not by opposition from the outside or by bourgeois repression (Guchkov is only talking of taking stem measures against the soldiers), but simply by the unthinking confidence of the masses.
It is only by destroying this unthinking confidence (and we can only destroy it by education), it is by resorting to intellectual persuasion, by pointing out the teachings of life itself, that we will succeed in emancipating ourselves from this continuous spree of mere revolutionary words. Then only will we be able to move forward, then will we behold a real proletarian consciousness, mass consciousness, a courageous and resolute spirit of initiative in every local group; then the people will take the law in their own hands and bring forth, develop and fortify freedom, democracy and the principle of national ownership of land.
Bourgeois and feudal governments have developed a sort of international technique for keeping the people enslaved. They employ two methods. The first is violence. Nicholas I, the man with the club, and Nicholas II, the Bloody, showed to the Russian people how far one could go in the use of the hangman's noose. But there is another method employed most cleverly by the English and French bourgeoisie, who gained their experience through a series of great revolutions and revolutionary convulsions among the masses. It consists in fooling the people, in flattering them, in using big words, in making them innumerable promises, in doling out to them insignificant sops called reforms, in making them unimportant concessions for the sake of retaining the essential things.
And this is what gives to the present situation in Russia its peculiar interest: we are witnessing a vertiginous change from one method to the other, from violent oppression of the people to flattery and deceitful promises. … The cat listens, and continues its meal.
Milyukov and Guchkov retain the power, protect the capitalists' profits, conduct an imperialistic war in the interests of Anglo-French Capitalism, and silence by promises, eloquence and impressive declarations "blunderbusses" like Cheidse, Tseretelli, Steklof, who threaten, exort, conjure, beseech, demand, make statements. … The cat listens, and continues its meal.
But from day to day the unthinking confidence and the gullible thoughtlessness of the people will dwindle away, especially among the proletarians and poorest peasants, whom their very life, their social and economic position, has taught to distrust capitalist assurances.
The leaders of the petty bourgeoisie "must" teach the people to trust the bourgeoisie and the bourgeois government. Proletarians must be taught to distrust them.
- ↑ Blanqui was a French "Socialist" whose conception of the Revolution was a conspiracy of a few resolute, intelligent spirits who would suddenly and arbitrarily seize the powers of the state and then drag the masses along with them.—L. C. F.