Page:Vladimir Ilyich Lenin - Lessons of the Revolution (1918).djvu/47

 duction and distribution, the limitation of the issue of paper money, regular exchange of bread for commodities, etc.

Measures of this kind, in this direction, are universally acknowledged to be inevitable. They have been begun in many places and in widely different ways, and everywhere their realization is obstinately resisted by the landlords and capitalists, aided by the Kerensky government—a thoroughly bourgeois and Bonapartist government—as well as the direct and indirect pressure of Russian and «Allied» finance.

I. Prilajaiev recently, wrote in the  («Cause of the People»—№ 147), lamenting the resignation of Pechekhonov, the failure of price-fixing, the collapse of the bread monopoly:

«Courage and resolution—that is what all our governments, of whatever complexion, have lacked… The revolutionary democracy need not hesitate; it should take the initiative itself, and intervene in the economic chaos… Here if anywhere at all a firm policy and a resolute power are indispensable».

Yes, what is true is certainly true! Golden words. It has not, however, occurred to the author that the question of a firm policy, of a daring spirit, of determination, is mot a question of personalities, but a question of the  that is capable of daring and decisive action. The only such class is the proletariat. With the daring and resoluteness of power, its unflinching policy is nothing less than