Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

“ This government cannot give bread, since it is a bourgeois government. At best it may give the people, as the government of Germany has already done, "a magnificently organized hunger." But the people will not put up with hunger. The people will learn, and they will learn it very soon, that the bread exists and can be had, but by no other means than refusing to bend the knee before the sacred rights of capital and of private ownership in land. ”

“ It is identical in this, that the bourgeoisie does not make the revolution but steps in and tries to direct its course and policy, assuming control of the government; it is dissimilar in that the opposition of the proletariat to the bourgeoisie is not disorganized, inchoate, unaware of means and purposes: the masses do not disintegrate, becoming the helpless prey of the bourgeoisie, but are organized and disciplined through their own class organizations and class policy. ”

“ The government of Guchkov-Milyukov, the government of the junkers and the capitalists, can give neither bread nor peace nor liberty to the people. It constitutes a government for the continuation of the war of conquest, which openly declares that it will respect the international treaties of the Czar. These treaties have as their purpose: robbery. This government can at most postpone the crisis, but it can not free the country from hunger; it has no power to give freedom, no matter what has been promised, because it is connected with the interests of feudal land property and of capital. ”

“ The revolution seizes power and uses this power aggressively and uncompromisingly; it allows nothing to stand in its way save its own lack of strength. But the Council hesitates and compromises, until the day comes when the accomplished fact of reaction stares it in the face. The Council hampers and tries to control the independence and action of the masses, instead of directing them in a way that leaves the initiative to the masses—developing the action of the masses out of which class power arises. ”

“ The liberal representatives of the bourgeoisie were preparing a palace revolt, the "reformation" of Czarism, by means of which the Czar would recognize the right to power and rule of the bourgeoisie. These bourgeois liberals did not want to overthrow the monarchy, but to bend the monarchy to their will,—as the imperialistic bourgeoisie did in Germany. They did not want a revolution, being afraid that in that event the proletariat might seize power—and how prophetic was their fear! ”

“ The war was not started by the sinister will of robber capitalists, although it is fought purely in their interests and is not enriching anybody else. The war was a consequence of the development of international Capitalism in the course of the past fifty years, of its endless connections and ramifications.
We cannot wiggle out of an imperialistic war, we cannot have a democratic peace, but only a peace imposed by violence, until we overthrow the power of Capitalism, until the powers of government pass into the hands of a different class, the proletarian class. ”

“ I am deeply convinced that the Soviets of Soldiers,' Workmen's and Peasants' Delegates will realize the independence of the mass of the people much more rapidly and much more adequately than a parliamentary republic. They will, in a better way, and more practically and correctly, decide what steps could be and should be taken towards Socialism. Control of the banks, centralization of all the banks into one, this is not Socialism yet, but a step towards Socialism. ”

“ Admitting, if only for a moment, that the bourgeois ministers are models of righteousness and honesty, that they really believe implicitly in the possibility of a renunciation of annexations, while preserving Capitalism, and really want to renounce annexations,—making, for a moment, this truly Louis-Blanc admission, here is our question: Can any man of mature intellect be content with what people think of themselves, without verifying these thoughts by their acts? Is it possible for a Marxist not to distinguish between desires, assertions, objective realty? ”

“ If we organize and conduct an energetic propaganda, not only the proletariat but nine-tenths of the peasantry will rise against the re-establishment of the police, against an immovable and privileged bureaucracy, against an army which is separate from the nation. And such will be the new type of government. The substitution of a national militia for the police is a change which results logically from the whole course of the revolution and which has been adopted in most Russian communities. ”

“ Only by the separate and independent action of the proletarian, communistic party, only through the proletarian class struggle freed from the hesitancy and fears of the petite bourgeoisie, can we develop the necessary tactic. Only the unity of the proletariat, indeed, but a unity in action and not in words, is capable of "making it hot" for the petty bourgeois elements, so that under certain conditions they might be compelled to take over all power ”

“ Indeed, reality shows us both the transition of power to the bourgeoisie ("completed" bourgeois-democratic revolution of an ordinary type) and the existence, together with the present bourgeois government, of an accessory government, which represents the "revolutionary-democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry." This latter, which is "also a government," of its own accord has yielded power to the bourgeoisie and attached itself to the bourgeois government. ”

“ The workers and soldiers of Petrograd, as well as of the rest of Russia, self-sacrificingly set themselves to the task of fighting Czarism,—for freedom, for land for the peasants, for peace as against the imperialistic slaughter. Anglo-French finance, in the interest of continuing and sharpening the slaughter, engaged in court intrigues, planned conspiracies, encouraged and gave hopes to the Guchkovs and Milyukovs, and proceeded to erect an entirely new government, which even obtained power after the proletariat had delivered the first blows against Czarism. ”

“ But they who always had preached Socialism now shelve Socialism as a problem of the future, conceiving Socialism as an abstract problem of the days to come instead of as a dynamic theory of immediate revolutionary struggle. The Revolution was a proletarian revolution in fact—this was the great circumstance. Where revolutions do not act immediately and aggressively, particularly the proletarian revolution, reaction appears and controls the situation; and the formerly revolutionary representatives of the masses accept and strengthen this reaction. ”

“ Throughout this period, passing through the two great revolutions, there runs, a veritable red thread of Russian political history, this great question: shall the working class lead the peasantry forward toward Socialism, or shall the liberal bourgeoisie drag the peasantry back into a conciliation with Capitalism? ”

“ That is the type of man to whom we must repeat ad nauseam that it is not a question of his own personal desires, but that what is at stake is the position of the masses, their class or political position, that the important thing is the connection between the war and capitalistic interests, with their international system of banks, etc. This is the only adequate way of fighting the "revolutionary defense" group, the only way which promises results, not quick results, but actual and durable results. ”

“ The argument of "revolutionary defense" used by the moderates to justify participation in this imperialistic war is simply one more symptom, one of the most fundamental and striking symptoms, of the petty bourgeois tide which has been swamping almost everything. It is, indeed, the worst obstacle to the furtherance of the movement and to the success of the Russian Revolution. Whoever stops short at that point and does not dare to keep his independence, is lost to the Revolution. ”

“ Representing the interests and ideology of the industrial masses, and in continual and active contect with them, the Bolsheviki developed that general, creative and dynamic mass action out of which revolutions arise and develop uncompromisingly. Bolshevism insisted that the bourgeoisie was counter-revolutionary; that precisely as the Revolution had been made by the proletariat, it could be established and continued only by the proletariat in a merciless struggle against the bourgeoisie ”

“ This is the government of a democracy which is taking the law into its own hands, which relies on itself alone and will not wait while certain gentlemen, Cadets and professors, elaborate nice little laws for a bourgeois republic of the parliamentary type, or while the pedants and routine worshippers of petty bourgeois Socialism, like Plekhanov and Kautsky, refuse to deviate from Marx' teachings in governmental matters. ”

“ Unless women feel called upon to take an active part not only in political life generally, but and particularly in continuous general social work, it is idle to speak not only of Socialism but of complete democracy. Certain special functions of the police, such as the care of the side, of abandoned children, the supervision of foodstuffs, etc., will never be satisfactorily discharged until women are on a footing of perfect equality with men, not only on paper but in reality. ”

“ Revolutionary defense is, on the one hand, the result of the deception practiced on the masses by the bourgeoisie, the result of the peasants' and workers' unthinking confidence; and, on the other, it is an expression of the interests and standpoint of the petite bourgeosie. The bourgeoisie deceives the people by playing upon the generous pride of the Revolution and pretending that, from a social and political point of view, the character of the war changed completely from the day when the Revolution substituted the bourgeois republic for the Czar's monarchy. ”

“ Nor can it any longer be doubted that the war is an imperialistic war on both sides; only the capitalists and their adherents, the social-patriotic "Socialists" who support the war and their governments and abandon Socialism, can deny or suppress this fact. Both the German and the Anglo-French bourgeoisie are waging war for the conquest of foreign territory, for the suppression of small nations, for the financial supremacy of the world, for the division and re-distribution of colonies. ”

“ We must point out to the masses that the policy of Louis Blanc will destroy and is destroying the onward success of the Revolution; that even the newly-won liberties will be lost, unless the masses understand the danger of petit bourgeois illusions and unite with the class conscious workers in their judicious, gradual, well-planned, yet firm and immediate, steps toward the realization of Socialism. ”

“ The Bolsheviki were completely revolutionary, not in the sense of revolutionary phrases, but in the sense of representing the industrial proletariat and the great masses which alone constitute the instrument of the revolution. ”

“ We know it can only be done by co-operation with the workers, under their lead, and not "in agreement" with the capitalists.
Only the revolutionary proletariat can actually carry out the above plan of the impoverished peasants. For the revolutionary proletariat is actually going about the task of abolishing hired labor, and by the only real approach, namely, by overthrowing Capitalism, and not by forbidding the hiring of labor. The revolutionary proletariat is actually going to confiscate the lands, the property on them, the agricultural corporations—which is exactly what the peasants want. ”

“ A revolutionary government of the Soviets alone can act properly on the problem of the war. The Provisional Government, a government of capitalists, is continuing the war in the interests of capitalists. Just as German capitalists, with their crowned robber, Wilhelm, at the head, so the capitalists of all other countries carry on the war for the division of capitalist profits and for world domination. Hundreds of millions of men, almost all the world, are drawn into this criminal war. ”

“ They worked out a program, a practical program of action in accord with the immediate problems of the Revolution and out of which would necessarily arise the struggle and power for the larger, ultimate objectives. Revolutions do not rally round dogmas, but programs. The sense of reality of the revolutionist is expressed in this, that he translates his revolutionary aspirations into a revolutionary program in accord with the historic conditions, and which can rally and unite the masses for action and the conquest of power. Revolutions make their own laws, their own programs. ”

“ The moderates in the Council are tangled and paralyzed in the coils of pseudo-Marxism: Russia's primitive capitalist development is not yet prepared for Socialism, therefore the bourgeoisie must rule, a theory completely neglecting the fact that the coming of Socialism consists of a process of struggles in which the detemining factor is the matuarity and class power of the proletariat. While indulging in this speculative theory, the moderates ignored the fact that the proletariat, and not the bourgeoisie, had made the Revolution; that the bourgeoisie were inimical to the Revolution ”

“ The significance of the Councils is misunderstood for another reason, because they constitute an entirely new form of power, a new type of government.
To this day, the most perfect type of bourgeois government has been the parliamentary democratic republic: power vested in a parliament, with the usual machinery of government, the usual system and organs of administration,—a standing army, a police and a bureaucracy, practically unchangeable, privileged, and standing above the nation. ”

“ He who is guided in his activity only by a simple formula, "the bourgeois-democratic revolution has not been completed," assumes by that very fact something like a guarantee that the petite bourgeoisie is surely capable of securing its independence from the bourgeoisie. ”

“ We must make it clear to the masses that the social and political complexion of the war is not determined by the good will of certain individuals or certain groups, but by the class which conducts the war, by the class policy of which the war seems to be a product, by the alliances of capitalists, the dominant economic force in modern society, by the imperialistic character of international Capitalism, by Russia's financial and diplomatic dependence upon England and France, etc. ”

“ All the power of government, from the smallest villages up to Petrograd, must be vested in the Council of Workers' and Peasants' Delegates. Neither the police nor officials not responsible to the people and placed over the people,—but the people itself shall govern the country, the people fully armed and united by the Soviets. The Soviet alone shall establish the necessary order, its power alone be obeyed and rejected by the workers and peasants. ”

“ Only the proletariat, leading on the poorest peasants (the semi-proletariat) may terminate the war with a democratic peace, may heal its wounds, and may undertake the steps toward Socialism that have become absolutely unavoidable and non-postponable. ”

“ When this fact will cease to be a fact, when the peasantry will separate from the bourgeoisie, take the land and use their power against the bourgeoisie—then it will be a new stage of a bourgeois-democratic revolution. ”