I am surprised that Lenin made no mention of the so-called Legal Marxists (i.e. Pyotr Struve, Nikolai Berdyaev, Sergei Bulgakov,Mikhail Tugan-Baranovsky and Semyon Frank) who took up (and pushing to its extreme) Plekhanov's thesis that before Russia could ever hope to become socialist, it would have to undergo a, perhaps, prolonged capitalist stage of development first. Therefore, in their view, Russian Marxists should concern themselves primarily with the building of capitalism in Russia. While, initially, these people were members of the Russian Social Democratic and Labor Party (alongside people like Plekhanov, Martov, and Lenin), they eventually drifted over to the Cadets (Constitutional Democrats), who were the main liberal party in Russia at that time. Thus they examplified how Marxism could be turned into an apologetic for capitalism.
^^^^^^ CB: Here are a couple of places tht he takes up Cadets. I think there are other places. I remember Krupskaya talking about Struve in _Reminisences_. John Reed discusses all the groups in _Ten Days that Shook the World_
V. I. Lenin The Cadet Maklakov and the Social-Democrat Petrovsky
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Published: Za Pravdu No. 47, November 29, 1913. Signed: M.. Published according to the Za Pravdu text. Source: Lenin Collected Works, Progress Publishers, 1977, Moscow, Volume 19, pages 511-512. Translated: The Late George Hanna Transcription\Markup: R. Cymbala Public Domain: Lenin Internet Archive (2004). 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. Other Formats: Text • README
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It is some considerable time now since the Social-Democrat Petrovsky spoke in the State Duma on the question of the rules and was deprived of the right to speak by the Chairman for “unparliamentary language” addressed to the Minister, and so forth. As a “topic of the day” in the narrow sense of the term this matter is perhaps out of date. But the fact of the matter is that the speeches delivered by Petrovsky and the Cadet Maklakov deserve more attention than ordinary “news of the day”.
The Cadet Maklakov spoke in the State Duma on the question of the new rules. This gentleman was the author of the rules and the spokesman for the Rules Committee. On a number of questions the Cadet Maklakov spoke against the Cadet group in the Duma, and with the aid of the Octobrists and the Rights secured the adoption of most reactionary rules directed against the opposition.
This is not new. It has long been common knowledge that V. Maklakov is a favourite of the Octobrists and that he is an Octobrist at heart. But the extremely important fact of our public life that is revealed by this long-known circumstance deserves the closest attention.
Here we have one of the most prominent Cadets himself suppressing the freedom of the Duma with the aid of the Rights and Octobrists on a question on which the Duma is relatively less impotent than on other questions. The Social-Democrat Petrovsky was a thousand times right in speaking sharply against such an old hand at shady politics.
http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1913/nov/29.htm
V. I. Lenin Who Is for Alliances With the Cadets?
http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1906/jun/24.htm