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 from the domination of a "special force" for the suppression of a given class to the suppression of the oppressors by the whole force of the majority of the nation—the proletariat and the peasants. And it is precisely on this most obvious point, perhaps the most important so far as the problem of the State is concerned, that the teachings of Marx have been forgotten. It is entirely neglected in all the innumerable popular commentaries. It is not "proper" to speak about it, as if it were a piece of old-fashioned "naivete"; just as the Christians, having attained the position of a State religion "forget" the "naivete" of primitive Christianity, with its revolutionary democratic spirit.

The lowering of the pay of the highest State officials seems simply a naive, primitive demand of democracy. One of the "founders" of the newest Opportunism, the former Social-Democrat, E. Bernstein, has more than once exercised his talents in the repetition of the vulgar capitalist jeers at "primitive" Democracy. Like all Opportunists, like the present followers of Kautsky, he quite failed to understand that, first of all, the transition from Capitalism to Socialism is impossible without a "return," in a measure, to “primitive” Democracy. How can we otherwise pass on to the discharge of all the functions of Government by the majority of the population? And, secondly, he forgot that "primitive Democracy" on the basis of Capitalism and Capitalist culture is not the same primitive Democracy as in pre-historic or pre-capitalist times. Capitalist culture has created industry on a large scale in the shape of factories, railways, postal system, telephones, and so forth; and on this basis the great majority of functions of "the old State" have become enormously simplified and reduced, in practice, to very simple operations such as registration, filing and checking. Hence they will be quite within the reach of every literate person, and it will be possible to perform them for the usual "workingman's wage." This circumstance ought, and will, strip them of all their former glamour as "Governmental" and, therefore, privileged service.

The control of all officials, without exception, by the unreserved application of the principle of election and, at any time, recall; and~the approximation of their salaries to the "ordinary pay of the workers"—these are simple and "self-evident" democratic measures, which harmonize completely the interests of the workers and the majority of peasants; and, at the same time, serve as a bridge, leading from Capitalism to Socialism. These measures refer to the State, that is, to the purely political reconstruction of Society; but, of course, they only acquire their full meaning and importance when accompanied by the "expropriation