Page:Lenin - The Proletarian Revolution and Kautsky the Renegade (1920).pdf/39

 from among the least intelligent section of the "middle" peasant and artisan class may and, indeed, do follow the exploiters, has been shown hitherto by all revolutions, including the Commune of Paris (since there were proletarians also among the troops of Versailles, which the most learned Kautsky seems to have forgotten).

In these circumstances to suppose that in any serious revolution the issue is decided by the simple relation between majority and minority, is the acme of stupidity, a typical delusion of an ordinary bourgeois Liberal, as well as a deception of the masses from whom a well-established historical truth is concealed. This truth is that in any and every serious revolution a long, obstinate, desperate resistance of the exploiters, who for many years will yet enjoy great advantages over the exploited, constitutes the rule. Never, except in the sentimental Utopia of the sentimental Mr. Kautsky, will the exploiters submit to the decision of the exploited majority without making use of their advantages in a last desperate battle, or in a series of battles.

The transition from Capitalism to Communism forms a whole historical epoch. Until it is complete, the exploiters will still retain the hope of a restoration, and this hope will inevitably express itself in attempts at restoration. After the first serious defeat the overthrown exploiters who did not expect their overthrow, did not believe in it, did not admit even the thought of it, will with ten-fold energy, with mad passion, and with a hate intensified to an extreme degree, throw themselves into the fray in order to get back their lost paradise for themselves and their families, who formerly led such a pleasant life, and who are now condemned by the "rascals," the "mob," to ruin or penury (or "ordinary" labor). And these capitalist exploiters will necessarily be followed by a wide stream of the petty bourgeoisie, as to whom decades of historical experience of all countries bear witness that are constantly oscillating and hesitating, to-day following