Page:The Proletarian Revolution in Russia - Lenin, Trotsky and Chicherin - ed. Louis C. Fraina (1918).djvu/243

 considered a centrist by the S.-R.'s!) at the Peasants' Convention and at the Executive Committee of the All-Russian Soviet of Peasants' Delegates to "soothe" the peasants and to feed them with promises.

The bourgeois class differs from the petite bourgeoisie in that it acquires from its economic and political experience a knowledge of the conditions for the preservation of "order" (that is, the subjugation of the masses), under the capitalistic regime.

The bourgeois class is composed of business people,—people with large commercial interests, accustomed to approach even political problems from a strictly business standpoint, with distrust of words and with the ability to take the bull by the horns.

The Constituent Assembly in Russia at present would give a large majority to the peasants, who are more left than the Social-Revolutionists. The bourgeoisie knows this. Knowing this, it cannot help but struggle more strenuously against an early convocation of the Constituent Assembly. To conduct an imperialistic war in the spirit of the secret treaties concluded by Nicholas II, to uphold the private control of land or to make compensation for its "confiscation"—to do all this is an impossible or unbelievably difficult task through the Constituent Assembly. The war cannot wait. The class struggle cannot wait. This was visibly demonstrated even during the short period of time from March 12 to May 2.

From the very beginning of the Revolution, two points of view on the Constituent Assembly were discernible. The Social-Revolutionists and Mensheviki, who are saturated through and through with constitutional illusions, viewed the problems with the confidence of the petty bourgeois, unwilling to recognize the class struggle. The Constituent Assembly will convene, and—enough! After that, the devil only knows!

And the Bolsheviki declared: only insofar as the power and authority of the Soviets are strengthened, only to that extent will the convocation and the success of the Constituent Assembly be assured.

The Mensheviki and the Social-Revolutionists place the centre of gravity in the juridicial act: in the proclamations, promises and declarations concerning the Constituent Assembly.

The Bolsheviki place the centre of gravity in the class struggle: if the Soviets are victorious, the Constituent Assembly will be assured; if they are not, it will not be assured.

So it happened. The bourgeois conducted a continuous strug-