Page:The Proletarian Revolution in Russia - Lenin, Trotsky and Chicherin - ed. Louis C. Fraina (1918).djvu/240

 firmness of course, audacity and resolution, is not a personal question: it is a question of the class which is capable of showing courage and decision. That class is the proletariat, and the proletariat alone. Courage and resolution, firmness of course and power, mean nothing else than the dictatorship of the proletariat and of the poorest peasants.

Just what would such a dictatorship mean? Simply that the opposition of counter-revolutionary Kornilovism would be broken, and the democratization of the army re-established and perfected. Of the soldiers, 99 per cent would be enthusiastic participants in such a dictatorship two days after its establishment. The dictatorship would give the land to the peasants and full power to the local peasant committees. How can one in his senses doubt the fact that the peasants would support a dictatorship of the proletariat? That which the Social-Revolutionist, Pyeshekhonov, simply promised, "the opposition of the capitalists is broken: (the exact words of Pyeshekhonov in his celebrated speech before the Congress of Soviets) would be really accomplished by this dictatorship, would be translated into reality, without in any way pushing aside the already developing democratic organizations for the control of production, of the food supply, of administration, etc. On the contrary, a dictatorship of the proletariat would support and strengthen these organizations, brushing aside all obstacles to their work. Only this dictatorship of the proletariat and poorest peasants is capable of destroying the opposition of the capitalists, of actively displaying marvels of courage and stability of power, of securing a triumphant and unlimited, truly heroic support of the masses, both in the army and among the peasants.

Power to the Soviets—that alone can assure the further development of the Revolution, in accordance with the experience and decisions of the majority of the masses.

Power to the Soviets signifies the complete handing over of the government and the control of its functions to the workers and peasants, whom no one would dare oppose; a government of the Soviets, which would quickly learn by experience and its own practice to distribute land, products and bread.