ion depends on the original historical creative work of the
majority of the population, and first of all of the majority of
the toilers. _The victory of the Socialist revolution will not be
assured unless the proletariat and the poorest peasantry manifest
sufficient consciousness, idealism, self-sacrifice, and
persistence._ With the creation of a new--the Soviet--type of
state, offering to the oppressed toiling masses the opportunity to
participate actively in the free construction of a new society, we
have solved only a small part of the difficult task. _The main
difficulty is in the economic domain; to raise the productivity of
labor, to establish strict and universal accounting and control of
production and distribution, and actually to socialize
production._[67]

Lenine recognizes, as every thoughtful person must, that this task of
organizing production and distribution cannot be undertaken by "the
proletariat and the poorest peasants." It requires a vast amount of highly
developed technical knowledge and skill, the result of long training and
superior education. This kind of service is so highly paid, in comparison
with the wages paid to the manual workers, that it lifts those who perform
the service and receive the high salaries into the ranks of the
bourgeoisie. Certainly, even though they are engaged in performing work of
the highest value and the most vital consequence, the specialists, experts,
and directing managers of industry are not of the "working class," as that
term is commonly employed. And no matter how we may speculate upon the
possible attainment of approximate equality of income in some future near
or remote, the fact is that the labor of such men can only be secured by
paying much more than is paid to the manual workers.

Quite wisely, the Bolshevik government decided that it must have such
services, no matter that they must be highly paid for; that they could only
be rendered by the hated bourgeoisie and that, in consequence, certain
compromises and relations with the bourgeoisie became necessary the moment
the services were engaged. The Bolshevik government recognized the
imperative necessity of the service which only highly paid specialists
could give and wisely decided that no prejudice or theory must be permitted
to block the necessary steps for Russia's reconstruction. In a spirit of
intelligent opportunism, therefore, they subordinated shibbol