LENIN ON ORGANIZATION 
elected or appointed such, although, in fact, they 
actually were leaders, since both during the 
period of propaganda and the period of struggle 
against the government they took upon them- 
selves the full weight of the work, went into the 
most dangerous positions and performed the most 
useful tasks. Leadership was not a result of 
their wish, but of confidence in their minds, their 
energy and loyalty on the part of their comrades. 
To fear the rise of an areopagus (and if we do 
not fear it, why write about it) who would des- 
potically control the movement, is sheer naivete. 
Whoever would pay the slightest attention to 
him?” 
We ask the readers in what does an ‘“areopagus” 
differ from anti-democratic tendencies? Is it not 
obvious that the noble principle of organization 
advocated by the “Rabochie Delo” is also naive and 
indecent? Naive, because nobody would pay the 
least attention to an “areopagus” or to people with 
“anti-democratic tendencies” if there were not “the 
confidence in their minds, their energy and loyalty 
on the part of their comrades”; indecent, because 
it is a piece of demagogic speculation on the vanity 
of some people, the ignorance of the actual state 
of the movement on the part of others and lack of 
preparation and ignorance of the history of the 
revolutionary movement on the part of others. The 
only serious principle of organization for the active 
members of our movement should be: strict con- 
spiracy, strict selection of members and the training 
106