LENIN ON ORGANIZATION
In order to prepare himself fully for his work the
worker revolutionary should also become a profes-
sional revolutionary. Therefore B-v. is wrong when
he says that because a worker is engaged in the
factory for 1115 hours a day, other revolutionary
functions (apart from agitation) “willy-nilly fall
mainly upon the shoulders of an extremely limited
number of intellectuals.” This happens by no
means “willy-nilly,” but solely because of our own
backwardness, because we fail to recognize that it
is our duty to assist every worker who distinguishes
himself by his capacities to become a professional
agitator, organizer, propangadist, distributor, etec.,
etc. We are indeed in this respect shamefully prof-
ligate of our forces; we do not know how to preserve
that which we should be looking after and develop-
ing with every possible care. Look at the Germans!
Their forces are a hundred times greater than
ours; yet they perfectly understand that real
agitators are by no means frequently thrown up
out of the “average” mass. They therefore at once
endeavor to place every capable worker under such
conditions as will insure his capacities receiving the
fullest development and the fullest employment.
They make him a professional agitator, he ‘is
encouraged to widen his sphere of activities, and to
extend it from the factory to the whole industry,
from one locality to the whole country. He acquires
experience and skill in his own profession, he
broadens his vision and knowledge, he observes at
close range outstanding leaders from other local-
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