Page:Vladimir Ilyich Lenin - Lessons of the Revolution (1918).djvu/24

 In reality, however, time passed and still the capitalist government did nothing to further the revolution. On the contrary, it succeeded, against the revolution, in renewing or rather confirming the secret predatory treaties, and in «reviving» them by additional no less secret negotiations with the diplomats of Anglo-French imperialism. It succeeded, against the revolution, in laying the foundation for a counter-revolutionary organization of the generals and officers of the active army,—or at all events in bringing them closer together. It succeeded, against the revolution, in calling into existence an organization of merchants and manufacturers who, gradually yielding under the pressure of the workmen, began at the same time to harrass production, and to prepare its complete cessation at the propitious moment.

But the organization of the more advanced workmen and peasants within the Soviets unswervingly went forward. The best men of the oppressed classes felt that the government, in spite of its understanding with the Petrograd Soviet, in spite of Kerensky's grandiloquence, in spite of the «contact committee», remained as ever the enemy of the people, the enemy of the revolution. The masses, too, felt that if the resistance of the capitalists remained unbroken, the cause of peace, the cause of freedom, the very cause of the revolution would be irreparably lost. Impatience and vindictive passions rose high in the masses.