us a real representation!'" That would be a real "boycott". (Why, of course! To say "give us"! -- could anything be more "real" for a Zemstvo Balalaikin?[115] No wonder they laughed so heartily when Mr. Golovin told them how "easily he had dispelled" the Governor of Moscow's apprehensions lest the Zemstvo Congress declare itself a constituent assembly.)
Mr. Kolyubakin said: "The preceding speakers put the question as follows: 'Either go into the Bulygin Duma, or do nothing at all'" (Iskra puts the question exactly like these "preceding speakers" of the monarchist bourgeoisie's right
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wing). "We must appeal to the people, who will be unanimously opposed to the Bulygin Duma. . . . Appeal to the people, exercise freedom of speech and of assembly in actual practice. But by entering a disreputable institution you are disgracing yourselves. You will be in the minority there, and this minority will disgrace itself in the eyes of the population." In this speech one again senses the link between the boycott idea and an appeal to the peasantry, the significance of that idea as a turn away from the tsar and towards the people. And with admirable candour, Mr. Shchepkin hastened to rejoin to Mr. Kolyubakin's speech, which he so thoroughly understood: "Never mind if we make a mistake in the eyes of the people, if only we save the cause" (. . . the cause of the bourgeoisie, would probably have been the workers' interjection had they been present at this illustrious gathering). "I do not dispute that we may soon have to tread the revolutionary path. But the draft drawn up by the Bureau" (the draft resolution against a boycott) "seeks to avoid this, since we are not revolutionary either by upbringing or by inclination" (class upbringing, class inclination).
Mr. Shchepkin argues wisely! Better than the whole new-Iskra lot taken together, he understands that the crux of the matter is not the choice of ways and means, but the disparity of aims. It is necessary to "save the cause" of law and order -- that is what really matters. The revolutionary path, which may lead to the victory of the workers and peasants, cannot be risked.
On the other hand, that magniloquent windbag Mr. de Roberti talks exactly like a new-Iskra adherent: "What is to be done if, owing to its inefficacy, the draft becomes law? An armed uprising?" (Come, come, Mr. Roberti, how can one "link up an uprising with the Duma!"? What a pity you are not acquainted with our Bund, which would have explained to you that the two cannot be linked together.) "That, I believe, will undoubtedly come in due time. But at present, resistance can either be merely passive, or passive while always ready to become active." (Oh, what a charming radical! He ought to borrow the slogan "revolutionary self-government" from the new-Iskra -- what arias he could render on this theme, what arias! . . .) . . ."to elect only those who would enter with the determination to effect a revolution
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at all costs". That's the kind of people we are! Well, were we wrong when we said that Parvus met a friend in such an Osvobozhdeniye man, or that the new-Iskra had risen to the bait of the high-flown phrases of the magniloquent landed proprietors?