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LENIN ON ORGANIZATION

(c) The Scope of Organizational Work.

B-v (8) speaks elsewhere of the "lack of suitable revolutionary forces experienced not only in St. Petersburg, but throughout the whole of Russia." Nobody, perhaps, will contest this statement. But the question is, how is it to be explained? B-v writes:

We will not attempt to go into the historical causes of this phenomenon; we will only state that society, demoralized by protracted political reaction and disintegrated by economic changes, which are still proceeding, is throwing up an extremely small number of persons suitable for revolutionary work; the working class is throwing up revolutionary workers who to some extent supply the ranks of the illegal organizations, but the number of such revolutionaries does not correspond with the number the times require. All the more so, since the working man, engaged as he is in the factory for 11½ hours a day, because of his very situation is able to fulfill the functions primarily of an agitator, while propaganda and organization, the procuring and reproduction of illegal literature, the issue of manifestos, etc., willy nilly fall mainly upon the shoulders of an extremely limited number of intellectuals." ("Rabochie Delo," No. 6, pp. 38–39).

We disagree with the view of B-v. in many respects, and especially with the words we have in heavier type, for they show particularly clearly

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