Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

“ The imperialist war is on the eve of the social revolution. And that not only because, by its horror, the war leads to proletarian insurrection—for no insurrection will create Socialism if the economic conditions do not permit the establishment of it—but because monopolist State capitalism is the material preparation for Socialism, the vestibule to Socialism, the step of the historical ladder which is separated from the step called Socialism by no intervening step. ”

“ Intelligent workers know perfectly well that the monarchists are working hand in glove with the bourgeoisie, and that the decisive victory of the proletariat (which the petit-bourgeois do not believe in which the capitalists fear; which some avowed revolutionaries wish for, in the hope that the Bolsheviks will not be able to keep power) —this victory, they know, will definitely annihilate the monarchists. And they know that the Bolsheviks will maintain power and will be able to use it for the greatest good of war-weary and war-shattered humanity. ”

“ If our Government really wished practically and seriously to enforce control—if its institutions were not condemned to "complete inaction" for fear of displeasing the capitalists—the State has nothing more to do than borrow wholesale from the considerable number of measures of control already worked out and tried. The only obstacle in the way—an obstacle that the Cadets, the S.R.'s and the Mensheviks conceal from the eyes of the people—is that this control would expose the unbridled profiteering of the capitalists and would dry it up at the source. ”

“ These peace conditions will not have the good fortune to please the capitalists, but they will receive such a warm welcome from the people, they will evoke such an explosion of enthusiasm in the whole world, such indignation against the interminable war of plunder waged by the bourgeoisie, that very probably we shall obtain at one stroke both an armistice and the opportunity to broach peace negotiations. ”

“ To hesitate, then, on the question of insurrection, to hesitate to recognise that insurrection is the only way of saving the revolution, is to hand oneself entirely to the bourgeoisie, to sink into that cowardly state of confidence which characterises revolutionary socialism, Menshevism and the apathy of the "moujik," and against which the Bolsheviks have directed their most violent attacks. ”

“ To admit the point of view of those who advocate national defence or even (like certain Bolsheviks) would go to the extent of coalition with the Social-Revolutionaries, in support of the provisional Government, would be, I am deeply convinced, to fall into the grossest error and at the same time to prove an absolute lack of principle. We will not become partisans of national defence until after the seizure of power by the proletariat, until after the offer of peace, until after the secret treaties have been cancelled and relations with the banks broken. ”

“ In Russia, which has just effected its revolution against Tsarism in the name of liberty and equality; in Russia, which has just in one blow become a democratic republic, what comes immediately under one's notice, what particularly excites the discontent, irritation, indignation and fury of the masses, is the ease with which the rich evade the discipline of the bread-rationing. Nothing is more easy than for them to avoid the law. ”

“ For to allow the peasant rebellion to be crushed by a government that the Dielo Naroda itself compares to that of Stolypine, is to lose the whole revolution, for ever and beyond recall. The growing anarchy and indifference to the masses is complained of. How can the masses not be indifferent to the elections when the peasant class is reduced to rebellion, and when the "Revolutionary Democracy" patiently puts up with the repression of this rebellion by armed force? ”

“ To doubt that the majority of the people are now with the Bolsheviks and following them towards the future, is to hesitate disgracefully and to reject in fact all the principles of proletarian revolutionism; it is to abjure Bolshevism.
"We are not strong enough to take control, but neither are the bourgeoisie strong enough to overrun the Constituent Assembly." ”

“ We are rushing to destruction; the war goes on and the disorganisation to which it gives rise in every branch of the national life spreads with ever-increasing rapidity.
And yet, only a little care and reflection are needed to convince us that means exist of combating disaster and famine; that these means are clear, simple, completely attainable and quite within the power of the people, and that if these means are not adopted it is only because their adoption would affect the huge profits of a handful of large landed proprietors and capitalists. ”

“ The regeneration of production in France, at the end of the eighteenth century, was linked up with moral and political regeneration, with the dictatorship of the revolutionary democracy and of the revolutionary proletariat (from which democracy was not yet separated and with which it was almost identical) , and with a ruthless struggle against every kind of reaction. The whole nation, and especially the oppressed classes, were uplifted by great revolutionary enthusiasm; everyone looked on the war as a just war, as a war of defence—which really it was. ”

“ The private life of the workers and of the exploited classes is not considered as "inviolable." The capitalist class has the right to demand that each worker should render an account; they have always a right to reveal to the public the income and expenditure of the workers. But the bourgeoisie will never allow the oppressed to control the oppressor, to investigate his income and expenditure; to reveal his state of luxury—even during the war when this very state of luxury is provoking famine in the country and the death of soldiers at the front. ”

“ And we, who have dozens of papers, freedom of meeting, a majority in the soviets; we, international proletarians, who, compared to our comrades all over the world, are in an exceptionally favourable position, we would refuse to support, by our own insurrection, the German revolutionaries. We would reason like the Schiedemanns and the Renaudels, would say: "It is better not to attempt a rising, for if we get shot, the world will lose reasonable, model internationalists, incomparable in fact!" ”

“ The monarchists are rejoicing as they see the approach of the struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie; but it has always been thus in all revolutions—this is absolutely inevitable. And if we allow ourselves to be frightened by this fact, we must give up, not only the hope of insurrection, but also the proletarian revolution itself. For, in capitalist society, this revolution cannot develop without calling forth the wicked joy of the monarchist clique who hope to have good fishing in troubled waters. ”

“ The war has worn out and tortured the workers of every country. In Italy, in Germany and in Austria, revolutionary explosions are becoming more and more frequent.
We alone, with our soviets of workers and soldiers' deputies, let us alone wait! ... Let us betray the interests of the German internationalists as we are betraying the Russian peasants who, by their rebellion against the great landowners, are calling upon us to arise, too, against the Kerensky government. ”

“ We are now within an ace of catastrophe. The stoppage is beginning to tell. How does it come about that in a country well supplied with cereals and raw materials and lacking manufactured goods, finished products and skilled workers, there arises especially at such a critical moment, a gigantic stoppage? Do we need further facts to demonstrate that, during six months of revolution, our democratic republic with its plethora of Trade Unions, organisations and institutions of all sorts proudly styling themselves "revolutionary democratic" has taken no serious steps to meet disaster and famine? ”

“ Kornilov's insurrection was the last important and cruel lesson which completed the thousands and thousands of daily lessons given to the workers and peasants by the capitalists and the landed gentry, and to the soldiers by their officers.
Discontent, indignation, exasperation continued to grow in the army, and among the peasants and workers. The "coalition" of the Social Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks with the bourgeoisie, a coalition which makes ceaseless promises only to break them, irritates the masses, opens their eyes and urges them to insurrection. ”

“ We shall then see that for State control to be realised in the twinkling of an eye, a government—if it is to be called "revolutionary-democratic" otherwise than in derision—has only to decree, in the very first week of its existence, the application of the essential measures of control, to establish effective sanctions against the capitalists who attempt evasion, and to invite the population itself to supervise them and see to it that they are compelled to carry out the provisions of the law. ”

“ The whole history of parliamentary bourgeois countries shows that the changes of ministry have only very little importance, for all effective work, all the administration, is in the hands of a gigantic army of bureaucrats. Now, this army is impregnated to the marrow with a spirit essentially anti-democratic, it is attached by thousands and thousands of ties to the big property-holders and to the bourgeoisie, on whom it depends in every sphere. ”

“ That is but a phrase, said he, for it often happens that circumstances impose a compromise on a party in battle, and it is stupid to condemn oneself never "to accept payment of a debt by instalments." But the duty of a truly revolutionary party is not to proclaim an impossible renunciation of every sort of compromise, but to know throughout all compromises, in so far as such are inevitable, how to remain faithful to its principles, to its class, to its revolutionary goal; to its duty of preparing for the revolution and of educating the mass whom it must lead to victory. ”

“ If insurrection is necessary to seize power, it must be begun immediately. It is very possible that precisely at this moment a seizure of power could take place without insurrection; it would be sufficient, perhaps, for the Moscow soviet to proclaim itself (with the Petrograd soviet) as the government. At Moscow victory is assured and there is no one to oppose us. At Petrograd we can wait. The government is in a position where it is impossible to do anything. ”

“ Invite the democracy and not the bureaucracy, the workers and the employees and not the "sugar kings," to display their initiative, that is what could and ought to be done in a few days, at a single stroke, if the S.R.'s and Mensheviks did not cloud the public conscience by plans of "coalition" precisely with these sugar kings, a coalition which renders inevitable the complete inaction of the government in the organisation of economic life. ”

“ To associate this task of taking power absolutely with the Congress of Soviets, to subordinate it to this Congress, is to play at insurrection by fixing its date in advance, by making it an easy matter for the government to prepare its troops, by giving the masses the illusion that a "resolution" by Congress can solve a question that can only be solved by the force of the insurgent working class. ”

“ Now is the time for action, we must wage the war against Kornilov as revolutionaries, carying the masses with us, awakening them, inflaming them (and Kerensky is afraid of the masses, he is afraid of the people) . It is precisely in the war against the Germans that action is now necessary: it is necessary immediately and unreservedly to propose peace to them on definite terms. If that is done, there will either be an early peace or else a revolutionary war [6] ; if not all the Mensheviks and Social-Revolutionaries will remain the lackeys of imperialism. ”

“ In republican Russia, thanks to the work of deceit of the S.R.'s and the Mensheviks, there still exists in the time of revolution, a government of capitalists and great landowners, alongside the soviets. Such is the bitter and menacing truth. Why be astonished if in Russia, where the people are succumbing beneath the burdens and scourges of the imperialists war, a peasant insurrection has broken out and is extending more and more? ”

“ One would believe, listening to these fellows, that the Bolsheviks propose something which has never yet been seen in history, which has never been tried—a pure Utopia: although in France, 150 years ago, men who were really "revolutionary democrats," who were really convinced of the just, defensive character of the war which they were waging, and whose power truly rested on the popular masses, were able to set up a revolutionary control over the rich and get results which compelled the admiration of the whole world. ”

“ Now in 1917, in the fourth year of a frightful and criminal war that has exhausted all the peoples, the international situation of the Russian revolution is such that proposals for a just peace through the Russian proletariat, victorious in civil war, would have ninety-nine chances out of a hundred to end in an armistice and peace—without it being necessary to shed any more seas of blood. ”

“ Let us forget what the Bolsheviks have shown hundreds of times, what has been proved by six months of revolution; let us forget that there is not and cannot be any other solution than the dictatorship of the Kornilovians or of the proletariat ”

“ The general obligation to work, established, regulated and directed by the Soviets of workers', peasants', and soldiers' deputies, is not Socialism yet, but it is already no longer capitalism. It is an immense step towards Socialism; a step after which—under a rule of true democracy—it would be impossible, without using unprecedented violence against the masses, to force a retreat to capitalism. ”