LENIN ON ORGANIZATION 
THE AMATEURISHNESS OF THE ECONOMISTS 
AND AN ORGANIZATION OF 
REVOLUTIONARIES. 
(From “What Is to Be Done?”’—February, 1902). 
a) Why “Amateurish”? 
_... We will attempt to answer this question 
by giving a brief description of the activities of a 
typical Social Democratic circle during the years 
1894-1901. We have already described the un- 
bounded enthusiasm displayed for Marxism by the 
student youth of that period. This enthusiasm 
Marxism aroused not only, indeed not so much, as 
a theory, or because it was a reply to the question, 
what is to be done?—but as a call to arms. The 
new soldiers went into the fight armed with amaz- 
ingly primitive weapons and with astonishingly 
little preparation. Indeed, in the majority of cases 
there were neither weapons nor preparation of any 
kind. They went to war like peasants from the 
plough, armed with simple cudgels. A circle of 
students, unconnected with the older active mem- 
bers of the movement, unconnected with groups 
in other places or even in other districts of the 
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