Page:Vladimir Ilyich Lenin - On Organization (1926).pdf/84

question one of catching the organization, and stick to it, then I must tell you that it is far more difficult to catch ten wise men than it is to catch a hundred fools. And this premise I will defend however much you instigate the crowd against me for my "anti-democratic" views, etc. As I have already said, in relation to organization by "wise men," I mean professional revolutionaries, whether they come from the students or from the workers. And now I assert: 1) that no movement can be stable without a stable organization of leaders to maintain continuity; 2) that the wider the masses drawn into the struggle and forming the basis of the movement are, the greater is the necessity for such an organization and the more stable must it be (for the easier it is for a demagogue to side-track the more backward sections of the masses); 3) that the organization must chiefly consist of persons who are engaged in revolution as a profession; 4) that in a country with a despotic government the more narrow we make the membership of this organization, allowing only such persons to be members who are engaged in revolution as a profession and who have been professionally trained in the art of combatting the political police, the more difficult will it be to "catch" the organization and, 5) the wider will be the circle of persons, either from the working class or from other classes of society, who will be able to join the movement and perform active work in it.