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 to the masses what their tasks are, to estimate their state of mind and to choose exactly the moment for the overthrow of the Kerensky government.

To associate this task of taking power absolutely with the Congress of Soviets, to subordinate it to this Congress, is to play at insurrection by fixing its date in advance, by making it an easy matter for the government to prepare its troops, by giving the masses the illusion that a "resolution" by Congress can solve a question that can only be solved by the force of the insurgent working class.

We must fight against the illusions of constitutionalism and the hopes founded on the Congress of Soviets; we must renounce the frame of mind of waiting at all costs for this Congress; we must concentrate all our forces on explaining to the masses that an insurrection is inevitable; and we must prepare the insurrection itself. If the Bolsheviks, with the soviets of the two capitals on their side, were to renounce this task and were to wait resignedly for the calling of the Constituent Assembly (that is to say, the falsified constituent assembly) by the Kerensky government, then they would reduce to an empty phrase their propaganda for the slogan: "Power to the soviets." And politically, they would cover themselves with shame as the party of the revolutionary working class.

This is particularly true now that the elections at Moscow have given 49½ per cent. of the votes to the Bolsheviks; and that these latter, with the support of the Left S.R.'s (a support which has been a reality for some time now), have an undisputed majority in the country.