Page:Lenin - The Soviets at Work (1919).pdf/8

6 a small part of the difficult task. The main difficulty is in the economic domain: to raise the productivity of labor, to establish strict and uniform state accounting and control of production and distribution, and actually to socialize production.

The evolution of the Bolshevik party, which is today the governing party of Russia, shows with great clearness the nature of the crisis, which characterizes the present political situation and demands a new orientation by the Soviet authority; i. e., new methods applied to new problems.

The first problem of any rising party consists in convincing the majority of the population that its program and policies litre correct. This was the most important problem during czarism and during the period of compromises of the Tchernovs and Zeretellis, with Kerensky and Koshkin. At present this problem, which is, of course, far from solved, is, in the main, settled for the majority of the workers and peasants of Russia, who definitely side with the Bolsheviks, as was shown beyond doubt by the last Congress of the Soviets in Moscow.

The second problem of our party was the conquest of political power and the suppression of the resistance of the exploiters. This problem is not yet settled, and we cannot ignore that fact, for the Monarchists and Cadets on one