LENIN ON ORGANIZATION 
It might be objected that such a powerful and 
strictly secret organization, concentrating all the 
threads of conspiratorial activity in its hands,—an 
organization of necessity centralized, may too easily 
launch into a premature attack, may thoughtlessly 
bring the movement into action sooner than the 
growth of political discontent, the degree of unrest 
and hatred among the working class, etc., warrant. 
To this we reply: abstractly speaking, of course, it 
cannot be denied that a fighting organization might 
thoughtlessly launch into an unplanned fight, which 
might end in a defeat which under different circum- 
stances might not be inevitable. But in such a 
question we cannot confine ourselves to abstract 
consideration, since every engagement involves the 
abstract possibility of defeat; and there is no way 
of lessening the chance of defeat except by organ- 
ized preparation for the fight. If, however, we 
consider the question from the point of view of the 
concrete conditions prevailing in modern Russia, 
we are forced to the definite conclusion that a 
strong revolutionary organization is absolutely 
essential, just in order to lend the movement 
stability and to shield it from the possibility of 
thoughtless attacks. Because such an organiza- 
tion is lacking, and because of the rapid elemental 
growth of the revolutionary movement, we now 
observe two opposite extremes (which, as is fitting, 
“meet”): at one time we have an absolutely bank- 
rupt “provocatory terrorism” endeavoring “in an 
organization which is developing and strengthening 
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