Page:Vladimir Ilyich Lenin - Lessons of the Revolution (1918).djvu/40

 Either rout the Soviets, let them die an ignominious death, or give all power to the Soviets—this I proclaimed before the All-Russian Congress of Soviets in June, 1917; and the history of July and August has incontrovertibly borne out the correctness of that utterance. The power to the Soviets—this power alone can claim stability, inasmuch as it truly rests upon the majority of the population, in spite of all the lies spread broadcast by the lackeys of the bourgeoisie, such as Potressov, Plekhanov, etc., who call it «widening the base» of the government when the power is actually surrendered to an insignificant minority of the people—the bourgeoisie and the exploiters.

Only the Soviet power could be firm, the only power which it would be impossible to overthrow, even in stormiest moments of the most tempestuous revolution; only such a power could ensure the steady, ever-spreading development of the revolution, the peaceable struggle of the parties within the Soviets. So long as such a power is lacking, the inevitable consequences will be irresolution, instability, vacillation, endless «crises of power», the futile comedy of «Ministerial leap-frog», and outbursts from both left and right.

But the slogan «All Power to the Soviets» is frequently, if not almost always, interpreted very incorrectly to mean: a Ministry recruited from the parties of the Soviet majority. We shall consider at length this highly-mistaken notion.