Page:Lenin - The Proletarian Revolution and Kautsky the Renegade (1920).pdf/67

 in the Socialist ranks; and when Kautsky was not yet a renegade.

But now "thrifty Agnes" has again to come to life, in the person of the "small master, living and feeling like a proletarian," and employing "only one" journeyman. The evil-minded Bolsheviks are hurting him, are taking away from him his vote! It is true that any electoral assembly, as Kautsky tells us, may, in the Soviet Republic admit into its midst a poor "little master" who, for instance, may be connected with this or that factory, if, by way of an exception, he is not an exploiter, and lives and feels like a proletarian. But can one rely upon the knowledge of actual conditions, upon the sense of justice of a factory meeting of common workers who are acting without a written code? Is it not clear that it is preferable to grant the vote to all exploiters, to all those who employ hired labor, than to risk doing wrong in respect of a "thrifty Agnes" and a "small master living and feeling like a proletarian?"

Let the contemptible scoundrels of apostasy abuse amidst the applause of the bourgeoisie and the Social Chauvinists, our Soviet constitution for disfranchising the exploiters. This is good, because it will accelerate and deepen the split between the revolutionary workers of Europe and the Scheidemanns and Kautskys, the Renaudels and Longuets, the Hendersons and Macdonalds and all the old leaders and old traitors of Socialism. The masses of the oppressed, the class-conscious and honest leaders of the revolutionary proletariats will be with us