Page:The Proletarian Revolution in Russia - Lenin, Trotsky and Chicherin - ed. Louis C. Fraina (1918).djvu/241



Constitutional illusions is a term designating the political error comprised in people accepting as existing, normal, regular, legal, in short, as "constitutional," an order which, in reality, does not exist. At first glance, it would seem that in Russia at present, in July, 1917, when there is not, as yet, any such thing as a constitution, that there could be no question of constitutional illusions being formed. But that is a grave mistake. In fact, the key to the present political situation in Russia lies in the circumstances that exceedingly large masses of the people are permeated with constitutional illusions. It is utterly impossible to understand anything in the present political situation without having grasped this fact. It is impossible to take a single step toward properly stating the tactical problems of the present unless we first systematically and unsparingly expose these constitutional invasions, disclosing their very roots, in order to secure a proper political perspective.

Let us consider the most important aspects of contemporary constitutional illusions, analyzing them carefully.

The first aspect: Our country is on the eve of a Constituent Assembly. That is why everything that is now happening has a temporary, transitory and indecisive character. Everything will soon be changed and definitely determined by the Constituent Assembly. The second aspect: That certain parties, for instance, the Social-Revolutionists or the Mensheviki, or their allies, have an evident and undeniable majority among the people or in "influential" organizations, such as the Soviets; and for that reason the will of these parties or organizations, being in general the will of the majority of the people, cannot be overcome or, more than that, violated in a republican, democratic, revolutionary Russia.

The convoking of the Constituent Assembly was promised by the Provisional Government of the first period, of Lvov-Guchkov. It acknowledged as its principal aim precisely the Constituent As-