the social revolution could be achieved. They accepted the traditional
Marxian view that the achievement of this political revolution must be
mainly the task of the bourgeoisie, and that the proletariat, and
especially the Socialists, should co-operate with the enlightened
bourgeoisie in attaining that political revolution without which there
could never be a Socialist commonwealth.

Plechanov was not blind to the dangers of compromise which must be faced in
basing the policy of a movement of the masses upon this reasoning. He
argued, however, that there was no choice in the matter at all; that the
iron law of historical inevitability and necessity determined the matter.
He pointed out that the bourgeoisie, represented by the Constitutional
Democrats in the political struggle, were compelled to wage relentless war
upon Absolutism, the abolition of which was as absolutely essential to the
realization of their class aims as it was to the realization of the class
aims of the proletariat. Hence, in this struggle, the capitalist class, as
yet too weak to accomplish the overthrow of autocracy and Czarism, and the
proletariat, equally dependent for success upon the overthrow of autocracy
and Czarism, and equally too weak to accomplish it unaided, had to face the
fact that historical development had given the two classes which were
destined to wage a long conflict an immediate unity of interest. Their
imperative needs at the moment were not conflicting needs, but identical
ones. To divide their forces, to refuse to co-operate with each other, was
to play the game of the Czar and his associates, argued Plechanov.

The Mensheviki favored participation in the Duma elections and co-operation
with the liberal and radical bourgeoisie parties, in so far as might be
necessary to overthrow the autocracy, and without sacrificing Socialist
principles. They pointed out that this position was evidently feared by the
bureaucracy far more than the position of the extremists among the Social