Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Three Constitutions or Three Systems of Government

Published: Published in leaflet form in June-July 1905. Published according to the text of the leaflet.
Source: Lenin Collected Works, Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1962, Moscow, Volume 8, pages 557-559.
Translated: Bernard Isaacs and The Late Isidor Lasker
Transcription\Markup: R. Cymbala
Public Domain: Lenin Internet Archive (2003). You 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.

RUSSIAN SOCIAL-DEMOCRATIC LABOUR PARTY

Workers of all countries, unite!

What do the police and officials want?

The absolute monarchy.

What do the most liberal of the bourgeois (the people of the Osvobozhdeniye, or the Constitutional-Democratic Party) want?

The constitutional monarchy.

What do the class-conscious workers (the Social-Democrats) want?

The democratic republic.

OF WHAT DO THESE SYSTEMS OF GOVERNMENT CONSIST?

• ABSOLUTE MONARCHY
  1. The tsar—an absolute monarch.
  2. A Council of State (officials appointed by the tsar).
  3. A State Duma, or consultative body of popular representatives (indirect, unequal, and non-universal elections).
• CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY
  1. The tsar—a constitutional monarch.
  2. An Upper House of popular representatives (in direct, not quite equal and not quite universal elections).
  3. A Lower House (universal, direct, and equal elections by secret ballot).
• DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC
  1. No tsar.
  2. No Upper House.
  3. A single republican house (universal, direct, and equal elections by secret ballot).

WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THESE SYSTEMS OF GOVERNMENT?

• ABSOLUTE MONARCHY
  1. 1 and 2. Complete power of the police and the officials over the people.
  2. 3. Consultative voice of the big bourgeoisie and the rich landlords.
  3. No power for the people.
• CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY
  1. One-third of the power in the hands of the police and the officials, headed by the tsar.
  2. One-third of the power in the hands of the big bourgeoisie and the rich landlords.
  3. One-third of the power in the hands of the whole people.
• DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC
  1. No independent power for either the police or the officials; their complete subordination to the people.
  2. No privileges for either the capitalists or the landlords.
  3. All power— wholly, completely and indivisibly— in the bands of the whole people.

WHAT PURPOSE SHALL THESE SYSTEMS OF GOVERNMENT SERVE?

• ABSOLUTE MONARCHY
  • That the courtiers, the police, and the officials may live on the fat of the land;
  • that the rich may rob the workers and peasants at their own free will;
  • that the people may remain for ever without rights and live in darkness and ignorance.
• CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY
  • That the police and the officials may be dependent on the capitalists and landlords;
  • that the capital ists, landlords, and rich peasants may freely and easily rob the workers of town and country, by right and not by arbitrary rule.
• DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC
  • That the free and enlightened people may learn to run things themselves, and, principally, that the working class may be free to struggle for socialism, for a system under which there will be neither rich nor poor and all the land, all the factories and works, will belong to all the working people.