Page:Lenin - What Is To Be Done - tr. Joe Fineberg (1929).pdf/152

 order that every one may set to work to build from every side. And now we are again being dragged away from a practical solution towards something that is correct in principle, indisputable and great, but absolutely inadequate and absolutely incomprehensible to the broad masses of workers, namely, to "build up strong political organisations!" This is not the point that is now being discussed, most worthy author! The point is, How to train and what training it should be?

It is not true to say that "we have been carrying on our work mainly among intelligent workers, while the masses have been engaged almost exclusively in the economic struggle." Presented in such a form, this postulate goes wrong on the point which Svoboda always goes wrong on, and which is radically wrong, and that is, it sets up the intelligent workers in contrast to the "masses." Even the intelligent workers have been "engaged almost exclusively in the economic struggle" during the past few years. Moreover, the masses will never learn to conduct the political struggle until we help to train leaders for this struggle, both from among the intelligent workers and from among the intellectuals; and such leaders can be trained solely by systematic and every-day appreciation of all aspects of our political life, of all attempts at protest and struggle on the part of various classes and on various pretexts. Therefore, to talk about "training political organisations" and at the same time to contrast a "paper organisation" of a political newspaper to "live political work in the localities" is simply ridiculous! Why, Iskra has adapted its "plan" for a newspaper to the "plan" for creating a "militant preparedness" to support the unemployed movement, peasant revolts, discontent among the Zemstvoists, "popular indignation against the reckless tsarist Bashi-Buzuks," etc. Every one who is at all acquainted with the movement knows perfectly well that the majority of local organisations never dream of these things, that many of the prospects of "live political work" have never been realised by a single organisation, that the attempt to call attention to the growth of discontent and protest among the Zemstvo intelligentsia rouses feelings of consternation and amazement in Nadezhdin ("Good Lord, is this newspaper intended for the Zemstvoists?"—The Eve of the Revolution, p. 129), among the Economists (Letter to Iskra No. 12) and among many of the practical workers. Under these circumstances, it is possible to "begin" only by stirring up people to think about all these things, to stir them up to summarise