Page:Vladimir Ilyich Lenin - Lessons of the Revolution (1918).djvu/27

 While Pechekhonov and Skobelev (of the duped parties) were fooling both themselves and the people into believing highflown phrases that they would take away the capitalists' 100% profit, that «their resistance is broken», etc.,—the capitalists went on fortifying themselves. Nothing, absolutely nothing was done to check them, all during that time. The renegade Ministers proved to be mere talking machines to blind the oppressed classes, and the entire governmental apparatus remained in the hands of the bureaucrats and the bourgeoisie. The notorious Palchinsky, assistant Minister of Commerce, was a typical representative of this machine, blocking as he did any and every measure directed against the capitalists. The Ministers kept on chatting—and all remained as before.

Minister Tseretelli was especially utilized by the bourgeoisie in its fight against the revolution. He was dispatched to «pacify» Cronstadt, where the revolutionists had dared to remove the commissar appointed by the government. At that time the bourgeois press launched an incredibly clamorous, malicious, furious campaign of falsehood and invective against Cronstadt, accusing it of intending to «split off from Russia»; repeating this and similar absurdities in a thousand variations, to frighten the petty bourgeoisie and the unsophisticated philistines. The most typical representative of this dull, panic-stricken class, Tseretelli, innocently took the bait and energetically went to work to «subdue and pa-