Lenin: A Riddle (original) (raw)

V. I. Lenin

A Riddle


Published: First published in Pravda No. 79, June 24 (11), 1917. Published according to the Pravda text.
Source: Lenin Collected Works, Progress Publishers,1977, Moscow,Volume 25, page 76.
Translated:
Transcription\Markup: R. Cymbala
Public Domain: Lenin Internet Archive. 2002You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work, as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source. • README


What is the difference between an ordinary bourgeois government and a government which is extraordinary, revolutionary, and which does not regard itself as bourgeois?

Answer:

An ordinary bourgeois government can ban demonstrations only on constitutional grounds and after declaring martial law.

An extraordinary and near-socialist government can ban demonstrations without any grounds and on the strength of “facts” known to it alone.


Notes