Vladimir Lenin
A Strong Revolutionary Government
We are for a strong revolutionary government. Whatever the capitalists and their
flunkeys may shout about us to the contrary, their lies will remain lies.
The thing is not to let phrases obscure one's consciousness, disorient one's
mind. When people speak about "revolution", "the revolutionary people",
"revolutionary democracy", and so on, nine times out of ten this is a lie or
self-deception. The question is-what class is making this revolution? A
revolution against whom?
Against tsarism? In that sense most of Russia's landowners and capitalists today
are revolutionaries. When the revolution is an accomplished fact, even
reactionaries come into line with it. There is no deception of the masses at
present more frequent, more detestable, and more harmful than that which lauds
the revolution against tsarism.
Against the landowners? In this sense most of the peasants, even most of the
well-to-do peasants, that is, probably nine- tenths of the population in Russia,
are revolutionaries. Very likely, some of the capitalists, too, are prepared to
become revolutionaries on the grounds that the landowners cannot be saved
anyway, so let us better side with the revolution and try to make things safe
for capitalism.
Against the capitalists? Now that is the real issue. That is the crux of the
matter, because without a revolution against the capitalists, all that prattle
about "peace without annexations" and the speedy termination of the war by such
a peace is either nafvet4 and ignorance, or stupidity and deception. But for the
war, Russia could have gone on living for years and decades without a revolution
against the capitalists. The war has made that objectively impossible. The
alternatives are either utter ruin or a revolution against the capitalists. That
is how the question stands. That is how the very trend of events poses it.
Instinctively, emotionally, and by attraction, the bulk of Russia's population,
namely, the proletarians and semi proletarians, i.e., the workers and poor
peasants, are in sympathy with a revolution against the capitalists. So far,
however, there is no clear consciousness of this, and, as a result, no
determination. To develop these is our chief task.
The leaders of the petty bourgeoisie-the intellectuals, the prosperous peasants,
the present parties of the Narodniks (the S.R.s included) and the Mensheviks-are
not at present in favour of a revolution against the capitalists and some of
them are even opposed to it, greatly to the detriment of the people's cause. The
coalition cabinet is the kind of "experiment" that is going to help the people
as a whole to quickly discard the illusion of petty-bourgeois conciliation with
the capitalists.
The conclusion is obvious: only assumption of power by the proletariat, backed
by the semi-proletarians, can give the country a really strong and really
revolutionary government. It will be really strong because it will be supported
by a solid and class-conscious majority of the people. It will be strong because
it will not, of necessity, have to be based on a precarious "agreement" between
capitalists and small proprietors, between millionaires and petty bourgeoisie,
between the Konovalovs-Shingaryovs and the Chernovs-Tseretelis.
It will be a truly revolutionary government, the only one capable of showing the
people that at a time when untold suffering is inflicted upon the masses it will
not be awed and deterred by capitalist profits. It will be a truly revolutionary
government because it alone will be capable of evoking and sustaining the
revolutionary enthusiasm of the masses and increasing it tenfold, provided the
masses, every day and every hour, see and feel that the government believes in
the people, is not afraid of them, that it helps the poor to improve their lot
right now, that it makes the rich bear an equal share of the heavy burden of the
people's suffering.
We are for a strong revolutionary government.
We are for a strong revolutionary government because it is the only possible and
the only reliable government.
Written: ~ 6 May, 1917
First Published: Pravda No. 50, May 6 (19), 1917
Transcription/Markup: Brian Basgen and David Walters
Online Version: Lenin Internet Archive (marxists.org) 1999
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