Delivered: 29 July, 1918.
First Published:
Published in 1919 in the book All-Russia Central Executive
Committee. Fifth Convocation. Verbatim Report, Moscow; Published
according to the text of the book checked with the verbatim
report.
Source: Lenin’s Collected Works, Progress Publishers, Moscow, Volume 28, 1965, pages 17-33
Translated (and edited): Jim Riordan
Transcription/HTML Markup: David Walters
Online Version: V.I.Lenin Internet Archive, 2002
(Applause, which grows into ovation.) Comrades, this is not the first time we have pointed out in the Party press, in Soviet institutions and in our agitation among the people that the period up to the new harvest will be the most difficult, arduous and crucial phase in the socialist revolution that has begun in Russia. Now, I think, we must say that this crucial situation has reached its climax. That is because it has now become perfectly clear once and for all who are the supporters of the imperialist world, of the imperialist countries, and who are the supporters of the Soviet Socialist Republic. It should first be said that from the military standpoint the position of the Soviet Republic has only now become quite clear. Many at first regarded the Czechoslovak revolt[2] as just one of the episodes in the chain of counterrevolutionary revolts. We did not sufficiently appreciate the news in the papers about the participation in this revolt of British and French capital, of the British and French imperialists. We must now recall how events developed in Murmansk, among the Siberian troops and in the Kuban, how the British and French, in alliance with the Czechs, with the closest co-operation of the British bourgeoisie, endeavoured to overthrow the Soviets. All these facts now show that the Czechoslovak movement was one link in the chain long since forged by the systematic policy of the British and French imperialists to throttle Soviet Russia so as to again drag Russia into the ring of imperialist wars. This crisis must now be resolved by the broad mass of the people of Soviet Russia, for we are today laced not only with a struggle to preserve the Soviet Socialist Republic from the Czech attack, as one particular counter-revolutionary assault, and not even from counterrevolutionary assaults in general, but with a struggle against the onslaught of the whole imperialist world.
I should like first of all to remind you of the fact that the direct participation of the British and French imperialists in the Czechoslovak revolt has long been established; I would remind you of an article printed by Prukopnik Svobody, the central organ of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, on June 28 and reprinted in our press[3]:
“ On March 7, the Department of the National Council received the first instalment from the French Consul to the amount of three million rubies.
This money was handed to a certain Mr. Sip, an official of the Department of the National Council.
On March 9, this same Sip received another two million and on March 25 another million, and on March 26, Mr. Bohumil-Cermák, Vice-President of the National Council, received one million; on April 3, Mr. Sip received another million.
In all, from March 7 to April 4, the French Consul paid the Department of the National Council 8 million rubles.
No dates are indicated for the following payments: Mr. Sip one million, Mr. Bohumil-Cermák one million and Mr. Sip another million.
In addition, a sum of 188,000 rubles was paid to an unknown person. Total: 3,188,000 rubles. Together with the above-mentioned 8 million we get a total of 11,188,000 rubles paid by the French Government to the Department of the National Council.
From the British Consul the Department received £,80,000. Thus, from March 7 to the date of action, the leaders of the Czech National Council received about 15 million rubles from the French and British governments, and for this sum the Czechoslovak army was sold to the French and British imperialists.”
The majority of you, of course, read this report in the newspapers at the time it was published. We certainly never doubted that the imperialists and financial magnates of Britain and France would do their very utmost to overthrow the Soviet government and place every possible obstacle in its way. But at that time the picture was not yet complete to show that what we are faced with here is a systematic, methodical and evidently long-planned counter-revolutionary military and financial campaign against the Soviet Republic, which all the representatives of British and French imperialism had evidently been preparing for months The general trend of events becomes clear now when we review them as a whole, when we compare the Czechoslovak counter-revolutionary movement with the Murmansk landing-where we know the British have disembarked over ten thousand soldiers, and under the pretext of defending Murmansk have actually begun to advance, have occupied Kem and Soroki, have moved to the east of Soroki, and have begun to shoot our Soviet officials-and when we read in the newspapers that many thousands of railwaymen and other workers of the Far North are fleeing from these saviours and liberators, or, to give them their true name, these new imperialist bandits who are rending Russia from another end. And quite recently we received new confirmation of the character of the Anglo-French offensive against Russia.
For geographical considerations alone it is clear that the form of this imperialist offensive against Russia cannot be the same as it was in the case of Germany. There are no common frontiers with Russia, as in the case of Germany; troop strength is less. In her wars of conquest, Britain has been compelled for many decades, owing to the primarily colonial and naval character of her military might, to employ different methods of attack, to attempt chiefly to cut off her victim’s supply sources, and to prefer the method of strangulation, under pretext of aid, to open, direct, blunt and outright military force. From information recently received, it is clear that Alexeyev, who has long been notorious among the Russian soldiers and workers and who recently seized the village of Tikhoretskaya, has undoubtedly been utilising the aid of British arid French imperialism. There the revolt was more clear-cut, again apparently because British and French imperialism had a hand in it.
Lastly, we received news yesterday that in Baku the British and French imperialists have succeeded in making a very effective move. They have managed to secure a majority of about thirty votes in the Baku Soviet, over our Party, over the Bolsheviks, and those Left Socialist-Revolutionaries[4] unfortunately, very few in number-who refused to fall in with the despicable gambles and treachery of the Moscow Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, and who have remained loyal to the Soviet government in the struggle against imperialism and war. Over this nucleus in the Baku Soviet which is loyal to the Soviet government and which up to now constituted the majority, the British and French imperialists have now secured a majority of thirty votes, owing to the fact that the greater part of the Dashmktsutyun Party,[5] the Armenian quasi-socialists, have sided with them against us. (Reads telegram.)
“On July 26, on the orders of People’s Commissar Korganov, the Adji-Kabul detachment retired from Adji-Kabul to a position near Alyat. After the withdrawal of the Shomakha detachment from Shemakha and Maraza the enemy began to advance along the River Pirsagat valley; the first skirmish with the enemy’s vanguard occurred near the village of Kubala.
Simultaneously from the south, from the direction of the Kura, a large force of cavalry began to advance towards Pirsagat. Under the circumstances, to hold Adji-Kabul we would have had to deploy all our available forces on three sides: to the west of Adji-Kabul, and to the north and south of the Navagi-Pirsagat valley. Such an extension of the front would have left us without reserves and would have made it impossible for us to strike at the enemy as we have no cavalry, and would even have endangered the group at Adji-Kabul if the front had been broken from the north or south. In view of this situation, and in order to conserve the strength of the troops, orders were given to the detachment to retreat from Adji-Kabul to a position near Alyat. The retreat was carried out in good order. Important railway installations and the Adji-Kabul station as well as the kerosene and oil tanks, have been blown up. In Daghestan, the enemy is on the move as part of the general offensive. On July 24, the enemy advanced in large forces in four directions. After twenty-four hours’ fighting we occupied the enemy’s trenches; the foe dispersed into the woods and nightfall prevented further pursuit. Oil July 24, news of successes was received from Shura, where fighting is going on around the town; the enemy is tting up a stubborn and organised resistance, and is commanded by former Dagbestan officers. Daghestan peasants are taking an active part in the fighting around Shura.
The Bight-wing parties in Baku have raised their heads and are vigorously campaigning to call in the British. This campaign is strongly backed by the army officers and is being conducted among the forces at the front. Anglophil agitation has disorganized the army. The British orientation has recently been making great headway among the worn-out and despairing people.
Under the influence of the unscrupulous and provocative activities of the Right-wing parties, the Caspian flotilla has adopted several contradictory resolutions in regard to the British. Deceived by British hirelings and volunteer agents, until quite recently it blindly believed in the sincerity of British support.
Latest reports say that the British are advancing in Persia and have occupied Resht (Giljan), where for four days they have been engaged against Knchuk-Khan and the German and Turkish bands. who have joined forces with him, headed by Mussavatists[6] who had fled from Baku. After the Resht battle the British applied to us for assistance, but our representatives in Persia refused. The British got the upper hand in Resht. But they have practically no forces in Persia. We know they have only fifty men in Enzeli. They need petrol, in exchange for which they are offering us cars. Without petrol they are stuck.
On July 25, a second session of the Soviet was held to discuss the political and military situation, and at the insistence of the rightwing parties the question of the British was raised Comrade Shahumyan, Commissar Extraordinary for the Caucasus, citing the resolution of the Fifth Congress of Soviets and Stalin’s telegram on behalf of the Central Council of People’s Commissars, spoke against inviting the British and demanded that this question be struck from the agenda. Comrade Shahumyan’s move was defeated by a small majority, whereupon, as representative of the central government, he entered a vigorous protest. The session heard the report of the delegates who had visited the front. By 259 votes of the Right Socialist-Revolutionaries, Right Dashnaks and Mensheviks against 236 votes of the Bolsheviks Left Socialist-Revolutionaries and Left Dashnaks, a resolution was adopted to invite the British and form a government comprising members of all parties represented in the Soviet and recognising the Power of the Council of People’s Commissars. The resolution was sharpy condemned by the Left wing. Shahumyan declared that he regarded it as a shameful betrayal and stark ingratitude towards the workers and peasants of Russia and that as the central government’s representative, he renounced all responsibility for the decision. A statement was made on behalf of the group of the Bolsheviks, Left Socialist-Revolutionaries and Left Dashnaks to the effect that they would not join the coalition government and that the Council of People’s Commissars would resign. Comrade Shahumyan declared in the name of the three Left groups that a government which had in fact broken with the Russian Soviet government by inviting the British imperialists would receive no support from Soviet Russia. By its treacherous policy of inviting the British, the local Soviet had lost Russia and the parties supporting the Soviet government.
The Right-wing parties were thrown into utter confusion at the decision of the Council of People’s Commissars to resign. When news of this situation got around there was an abrupt change of sentiment in the districts and at the front. The sailors realised they had been duped by traitors who want to break with Russia and bring down the Soviet government. The people are having second thoughts about the British. Yesterday, an urgent meeting of the Executive Committee was held over the resignation of the Council of People’s Commissars. It was decided that all the People’s Commissars should remain at their posts and continue their former functions pending decision of the question of power at the Soviet’s session on July 31. The Executive Committee has decided to take urgent t measures to combat the threatening counter-revolution. The foe is carrying on activities under the wing or the A nglo-French parties.
Press Bureau of the Baku Council of People’s Commissars,”
Not unlike the groups here. who call themselves socialists but have never broken off relations with the bourgeoisie there, too. these people came out in favour of inviting the British troops to defend Baku.[7] We already know only too well the meaning of such an invitation to imperialist troops to defend the Soviet Republic. We know the meaning of this invitation extended by the bourgeoisie a section of the Socialist-Revolutionaries, and by the Mensheviks. We know the meaning of this invitation extended by the Menshevik leaders in Tiflis, Georgia.
We may now say that the Bolshevik, the Communist Party is the only party which has never invited imperialists and has never entered into a rapacious alliance with them but has only retreated before these cutthroats when they pressed too hard. (Applause.) We know our Communist comrades in the Caucasus were in a very difficult position because the Mensheviks betrayed them everywhere by entering into direct alliance with the German imperialists, on the pretext, of course of defending Georgia’s independence.
You are all aware that this independence of Georgia has become a sheer fraud. In actual fact it amounts to the occupation and complete seizure of Georgia by the German imperialists, an alliance of German bayonets with the Menshevik government against the Bolshevik workers and peasants. And, therefore., our Baku comrades were a thousand times right in refusing to close their eyes to the danger of the situation and saying: W(,. would never be opposed to peace with an imperialist power on the basis of ceding part of our territory, provided this would not harm us, would not bind our troops in an alliance with the bayonets of the aggressors and would not prevent us from carrying on our Socialist reconstruction.
But since, as the question now stands, by inviting the British, supposedly for the defence of Baku, they are inviting a power which has now swallowed up the whole of Persia and which has long been moving up its forces for seizing the Southern Caucasus—that is, surrendering themselves to British and French imperialism—we cannot doubt or hesitate for a moment any must say that, however difficult the position of our Baku comrades may be, by refusing to conclude such a peace they have taken the only step worthy of true socialists. This resolute rejection of any agreement whatsoever with the British and French imperialists was the only true course for our Baku comrades to take, for you cannot invite them without converting your independent socialist government, even though on severed territory, into a slave of imperialist war.
We therefore do riot entertain the slightest doubt as to the significance of the Baku events in the general scheme of things. Yesterday, news was received that counter-revolutionary revolts have broken out in a number of towns in Central Asia with the obvious complicity of the British entrenched in India, who, having brought Afghanistan completely under their sway, long ago created a base for extending their colonial possessions, strangling nations, and attacking Soviet Russia. And now, when these separate links have become quite clear to us, the present military and general strategic position of our Republic has been fully revealed. Murmansk in the North, the Czechoslovak front in the East, Turkestan. Baku and Astrakhan in the South-East—we see that practically all the links in the chain forged by British and French imperialism have been joined.
We now clearly see that the landowners, the capitalists and the kulaks, all of whom, of course. for perfectly natural reasons have a burning hatred for the Soviet government are acting here, toe, in ways greatly resembling those of the landowners, capitalists and kulaks in the Ukraine and in other regions severed from Russia. As the lackeys of British and French imperialism they have done their utmost to undermine the Soviet government at all costs. Realising they could not do it with forces inside Russia alone, they decided to act not by words or appeals in the spirit o the Martov gentry, but by restoring to more effective methods of struggle—military hostilities. That is where our attention should he chiefly directed: that is Where we should concentrate all our agitation arid propaganda; and we should shift the centre of the whole of our Soviet work accordingly.
The fundamental fact is that it is the imperialist forces of the other coalition that are now at work, not the German, but the Anglo-French, which have seized part of our territory and are using it as a base. Up to now their geographical position has prevented them from attacking Russia by the direct route; now British and French imperialism, which for four years has been drenching the whole world in blood in a bid for world supremacy, has by an indirect route approached within easy reach of Russia, with the object of strangling the Soviet Republic and once more plunging Russia into imperialist war. You are all perfectly aware, comrades, that from the very beginning of the October Revolution our chief aim has been to put a stop to the imperialist war; but we never harboured the illusion that the forces of the proletariat and the revolutionary people of any one country, however heroic and however organised and disciplined they might be, could overthrew international imperialism. That can be done only by the joint efforts of the workers of the world.
What we have done, however, is to sever all connections with the capitalists of the whole world in one country. Our government is net tied by a single thread to any kind of imperialist and never will be, whatever future course our revolution may take. The revolutionary movement against imperialism during the eight months of our rule has made tremendous strides, and in one of the chief centres of imperialism, Germany, matters in January 1918 came to an armed clash and the bloody suppression of that movement. We have done our revolutionary duty as no revolutionary government in any country has ever done on an international world-wide scale. But we never deceived ourselves into thinking this could be done by the efforts of one country alone. We knew that our efforts were inevitably leading to a world-wide revolution, and that the war begun by the imperialist governments could not be stepped by the efforts of those governments themselves. It can be stopped only by the efforts of all workers; and when we came to power, our task as the proletarian Communist Party, at a time when capitalist bourgeois rule still remained in the ether countries-our immediate task, I repeat, was to retain that power, that torch of socialism, so that it might scatter as many sparks as possible to add to the growing flames of socialist revolution.
This was everywhere an extremely difficult task; and what enabled us to accomplish it was the fact that the proletariat rallied to the defence of the gains of the Socialist Republic. This task has led to a particularly arduous and critical situation, for the socialist revolution, in the direct sense of the term, has not yet begun in any country, although it is more imminent in countries like Italy and Austria. But as it has net yet begun, we are faced with a new success to British and French, and therefore world, imperialism. Whereas from the West, German imperialism continues to stand as a military, annexatory, imperialist force, from the North-East and South of Russia, British and French imperialism has been able to dig itself in and is making it patently obvious to us that this force is prepared once more to plunge Russia into imperialist war, is prepared to crush Russia, the independent socialist state that is continuing its socialist work and propaganda on a scale hitherto unparalleled anywhere in the world. Against this, British and French imperialism has won a big victory, and, surrounding us on all sides, it is doing its utmost to crush Soviet Russia. We are fully aware that British and French imperialism’s victory is inseparably connected with the class struggle.
We have always said, and revolutions bear it outthat when the foundations of the exploiters’ economic power are at stake, their property, which places the labour of tens of millions of workers and peasants at their disposal and enables the landowners and capitalists to enrich themselves, when, I repeat the private property of the capitalists and landowners is at stake, they forget all talk about love for one’s country and independence. We know full well that the Cadets, the Right Socialist-Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks have beaten the record in concluding alliances with the imperialist powers, in concluding predatory treaties and betraying the country to Anglo-French imperialism. The Ukraine and Tiflis are good examples The alliance of the Mensheviks and Right Socialist-Revolutionaries with the Czechs is sufficient proof of this. And the action of the Left Socialist-R revolutionaries, when they tried to embroil the Russian Republic in war in the interests of the Yaroslavl white guards,[8] shows quite clearly that when their class profits are at stake, the bourgeoisie will sell their country and strike a bargain with any foreigner against their own people. This truth has time and again been borne out by the history of the Russian revolution, after the history of revolution over a hundred years had shown that that is the law of the class interests, of the class policy of the bourgeoisie at all times and in all countries. It is therefore by no means surprising that the present aggravation of the Soviet Republic’s international position is connected with the aggravation of the class struggle at home.
We have often said that, in this respect, in regard to the aggravation of the food crisis, the period until the new harvest will be the most difficult. Russia is being flayed with the scourge of famine, which has attained unparalleled proportions precisely because it is the plan of the imperialist robbers to cut off her granaries. Their calculations are well founded and are aimed at getting social and class support in the grain-producing outlying regions; they seek areas where the kulaks predominate—the rich peasants, who have battened on the war and who live by the labour of others, the labour of the poor. You know that these people have piled up hundreds of thousands of rubles and that they have huge stocks of grain. You know that it is these people who have battened on national misfortunes and who had greater opportunity to rob and increase their profits the more the population of the capital suffered—it is these kulaks who have constituted the chief and most formidable buttress of the counter-revolutionary movement in Russia. Here the class struggle has reached its deepest source. There is not a village left where the class struggle is not. raging between a miserable handful of kulaks on the one hand and the vast labouring majority-the poor and those middle peasants who have no grain surpluses, who have consumed them long ago, and who did not go in for profiteering—on the other. This class struggle has penetrated every village.
When we were determining our political plans and publishing our decrees-the vast majority of those present here are, of course, familiar with them—when, I repeat, we drafted and passed the decrees on the organisation of the poor peasants,[9] it was clear to us we were coming up against the most decisive and fundamental issue of the whole revolution, the most decisive and fundamental issue, the issue of power-whether power would remain in the hands of the workers; whether they could gain the support of all the poor peasants, with whom they have no differences; whether they would succeed in winning over the peasants with whom they have no disagreement, and unite this whole mass, which is dispersed, disunited and scattered through the villages-in which respect it lags behind the urban workers; whether they could unite them against the other camp, the camp of the landowners, the imperialists and kulaks.
Before our very eyes the poor peasants have begun to rally together very quickly. It is said that revolution teaches. The class struggle does indeed teach in practice that any false note in the position of any party immediately lands that party where, it deserves to be. We have clearly seen the policy of the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party, who, because of their spinelessness and stupidity, started to vacillate at a time when the food problem was at its height, and that party disappeared from the scene as a party and became a pawn in the hands of the Yaroslavl white guards. (Applause.)
Comrades, the wave of revolts sweeping Russia is easy to understand in the light of this sharpening of the class struggle over the food crisis at the very time when we know the new harvest is a bumper one but cannot yet be gathered, and when the hunger-tormented people of Petrograd and Moscow are being driven to revolt by the kulaks and the bourgeoisie, who are making the most desperate efforts, crying “Now or never!” There is the revolt in Yaroslavl. And we can see the influence of the British and French; we see the calculations of the counterrevolutionary landowners and bourgeoisie. Wherever the question of grain arose, they obstructed the grain monopoly, without which there can be. no socialism. That. is just where the bourgeoisie are bound to unite; here the bourgeoisie have a stronger backing than the country yokel. The decisive fight between the forces of socialism and bourgeois society is bound to come in any case, whatever happens, if not today, then tomorrow, on one issue or another. Only pseudo-socialists, like our Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, for example, can waver. When socialists waver over this question, over this fundamental question, it means they are only pseudo-socialists, and are not worth a brass farthing. The effect of the revolution has virtually been to turn such socialists into more pawns in the hands of the French generals, pawns whose role was demonstrated by the former Central Committee of the former Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party.
Comrades, the result of these combined efforts of the counter-revolutionary Russian bourgeoisie and the British and French imperialists has been that the Civil War-in our country is now coming from a quarter which not all of us anticipated and from which not all of us clearly realised it might come, and it has merged with the war from without into one indivisible whole. The kulak revolt, the Czechoslovak mutiny and the Murmansk movement are all part of one and the same war that is bearing down on Russia. We escaped from war in one quarter by incurring tremendous losses and signing an incredibly harsh peace treaty; we knew we were concluding a predatory peace,[10] but we said we would be able to continue our propaganda and our constructive work, and in that way cause the imperialist world’s disintegration. We have succeeded in doing so. Germany is now negotiating with us as to how many thousand millions to extort from Russia on the basis of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty, but she has recognised all the acts of nationalisation we proclaimed under the decree of June 28.[11] She has not raised the question of private ownership of land in the Republic; this point must be stressed as a counterblast to the fantastic lies spread by Spiridonova and similar leaders of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, lies that have brought grist to the mill of the landowners and are now being repeated by the most ignorant and backward Black-Hundred[12] elements. These lies must be nailed.
The fact of the matter is that, burdensome as the peace treaty may be, we have won freedom to carry on socialist construction at home, and have taken steps in this direction which are now becoming known in Western Europe and constitute elements of propaganda that are incomparably more effective than any before.
So, having got out of war in one quarter, with one coalition, we have been at once subjected to an imperialist assault from another quarter. Imperialism is a world-wide phenomenon; it is a struggle for the division of the whole world, of the whole earth, for the domination of one or another group of robbers. Now another group of vultures, the Anglo-French, are hurling themselves at our throats and threatening to drag us into war again. Their war is merging with the Civil War into one continuous whole, and that is the chief source of our difficulties at present, when the question of war, of military hostilities, has again come to the fore as the cardinal and fundamental question of the revolution. There lies the whole difficulty, for the people are tired of war, exhausted by it as never before. The Russian people’s state of extreme war fatigue and exhaustion is rather like that of a man who has been thrashed within an inch of his life, and who cannot be expected to show any energy or working capacity. And in the same way this nearly four years’ war, overwhelming a country which had been despoiled, tormented, and defiled by tsarism, by the autocracy, the bourgeoisie and Kerensky, has for many reasons naturally aroused a feeling of abhorrence in the Russian people, and is one of the chief sources of the tremendous difficulties we are now experiencing.
Yet such a turn of events definitely made for war. We have again been plunged into war, we are in a state of war; and it is not only civil war, war against the kulaks, the landowners and the capitalists who have united against us-now we are faced with British and French imperialism. The imperialists are still not in a position to throw their armies against Russia-they are prevented by geographical conditions; but they are devoting all they can, all their millions, all their diplomatic connections and forces, to aid our enemies. We are in a state of war, and we can emerge triumphant. But here we come up against a formidable enemy, one of the most difficult to cope with war-weariness, hatred and abhorrence of war; and this must be overcome, otherwise we shall not be able to tackle this problem-the problem of war-which does not depend on our will. Our country has again been plunged into war, and the outcome of the revolution will now entirely depend on who is the victor. The principal protagonists are the Czechs, but the real directors, the real motive and actuating power are the British and French imperialists. The whole question of the existence of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, the whole question of the Russian socialist revolution has been reduced to a question of war. There lie tremendous difficulties, considering the state in which the people have emerged from the imperialist war. Our task is now perfectly clear. Any deceit would be tremendously harmful; we consider it a crime to conceal this bitter truth from the workers arid peasants. On the contrary, let the truth be brought home to them all as clearly and graphically as possible.
Yes, there have been cases when our troops displayed criminal weakness, as, for example, during the capture of Simbirsk by the Czechs, when our forces retreated. We know the troops are tired of war and loathe it; but it is also natural and inevitable that until imperialism is defeated internationally, it should attempt to drag Russia into imperialist war, endeavour to make a shambles of her. Whether we like it or not, the question stands as follows: we are in a war, and on the outcome of that war hangs the fate of the revolution. That should be the first and last word in our propaganda work, in all our political, revolutionary, and construction activities. We have done very much in a short time, but the job is not yet over. All our activities must he entirely and completely geared to this question, on which the fate and outcome of the revolution, the fate of the Russian and world revolution now depends. Of course, world imperialism cannot get out of the present war without a number of revolutions; this war cannot end otherwise than by the ultimate victory of socialism. But our task now is to maintain, protect and uphold this force of socialism, this torch of socialism, this source of socialism which is so actively influencing the whole world. And as matters now stand, this task is a military task.
This is not the first time we have been in such a situation, and many of us have said that however severe the price we had to pay for peace, however grave the sacrifices it demanded of us, however much the enemy was striving to rob us of more and more territory, Russia so far, in the face of great odds, was enjoying peace and in a position to consolidate her socialist gains. We have even gone farther in this direction than many of us expected. For example, our workers’ control has advanced a long way from its early forms, and today we are about to witness the conversion of the state administration into a socialist system. We have made great strides in our practical affairs. We now have the workers completely running industry. But circumstances have prevented us from continuing that work in peace; they have once again plunged us into war, and we must strain every nerve and summon everyone to arms. It would be a disgrace for any Communist to be in two minds over this.
Vacillation among the peasants does not surprise us. The peasants have not been through the same school of life as the workers, who have been accustomed for decades to look upon the capitalist as their class enemy, and who have learned to unite their forces to combat him. We know the peasants have riot been through such a university. At one time they sided with the workers but today we are witnessing a period of vacillation, when the peasants are splitting up. We know any number of instances of kulaks selling grain to the peasants below the fixed prices in order to create the impression that they, the kulaks, are defending the peasants’ interests. None of this surprises us. But the Communist worker will not waver, the working class will stand firm; and if a kulak spirit prevails among the peasants, it is quite understandable. Where the Czechs rule and the Bolsheviks no longer are, we have the following picture: at first the Czechs are hailed practically as deliverers; but after a few weeks of this bourgeois rule, a tremendous movement against the Czechs and in favour of the Soviet government arises, because the peasants begin to realise that all talk about freedom of trade and a Constituent Assembly means only one thing-the rule of the landowners and capitalists.
Our job is to get the workers to rally and to create an organisation under which within the next few weeks evertheing will be devoted to solving the war issue. We are now at war with British and French imperialism and with evertheing bourgeois and capitalist in Russia, with everyone endeavouring to frustrate the socialist revolution and embroil us in war. The situation is one where all the gains of the workers and peasants are at stake. We may be confident that we shall have the broad sympathy and support of the proletariat, and then the danger will be completely averted, and new ranks of the proletariat will come forward to stand up for their class and save the socialist revolution. As matters now stand, the struggle is being fought over two major issues, and all the main party differences have been obliterated in the fires of revolution. The Left Socialist-Revolutionary who keeps insistently reminding us that he is on the left, concealing himself behind a cloud of revolutionary phrases, while actually revolting against the Soviet government, is just the same a hireling of the Yaroslavl whiteguards. That is what he is in history and the revolutionary struggle! Today only two classes confront each other in the battle arena: the class struggle is between the proletariat, which is protecting the interests of the working people, and those protecting the interests of the landowners and capitalists. All talk about a Constituent Assembly, about an independent state and so on, which is being used to dupe the ignorant masses, has been exposed by the experience of the Czech and Caucasian Menshevik movements. Behind all this talk stand the same forces-the landowners and capitalists; and the Czech mutiny brings in its train the rule of the landowners and capitalists, just as the German occupation does. That is what the war is about!
Comrades, the workers must close their ranks more firmly than ever and set an example of organisation and discipline in this struggle. Russia is still the only country which has severed all ties with the imperialists. True, we are bleeding from grave wounds. We have retreated in the face of the imperialist brute, playing for time, striking a blow at it here and there. But, as the Socialist Soviet Republic, we have remained independent. Performing our socialist work, we opposed the imperialism of the whole world; and this struggle is becoming clearer and clearer to the workers of the world, and their mounting indignation is bringing them nearer and nearer to the future revolution. It is over this that the struggle is being waged, because our Republic is the only country in the world not to march hand in hand with imperialism and not to allow millions of people to be slaughtered to decide whether the French or the Germans will rule the world. Our Republic is the only country to have broken away by force, by revolutionary means, from the world imperialist war, and to have raised the banner of socialist revolution. But it is being dragged back into the imperialist war, and being forced into the trenches. Let the Czechs fight the Germans, let the Russian bourgeoisie make their choice, let Milyukov decide, perhaps even in concurrence with Spiridonova and Kamkov, which imperialists to side with. But we declare we must be prepared to lay down our lives to prevent them deciding this question, for the salvation of the whole socialist revolution is at stake. (Applause.) I know there is a change of spirit among the peasants of the Saratov, Samara, and Simbirsk gubernias, where fatigue was most marked and fitness for military action was lowest of all. After experiencing the ravages of the Cossacks and Czechs, and having a real taste of what the Constituent Assembly and the cries “Down with the Brest Peace Treaty!” mean, they have realised that all this only leads to the return of the landowner, to the capitalist mounting the throne-and they are now becoming the most ardent champions of Soviet power. I have not the slightest doubt that the Petrograd and Moscow workers, who are marching at the head of the revolution, will understand the situation, will understand the gravity of the times and will act with greater determination than ever, and that the proletariat will smash both the Anglo-French and the Czech offensive in the interests of the socialist revolution. (Applause.).
[1] The session was called because of the critical position of the Soviet Republic which was cut off from her main sources of food supply, raw materials and fuel as a result of the foreign armed intervention and whiteguard revolts. A unanimous resolution was passed on Lenin’s report, moved by the Communist group.
[2] Reference is to a counter-revolutionary revolt of the Czechoslovak army corps engineered by the Entente with the active assistance of the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries. The corps was formed in Russia from Czech and Slovak prisoners of war before the October Socialist Revolution. In the summer of 1918 the corps numbered more than 60,000 men (the total number of Czechoslovak prisoners of war was 200,000). After the establishment of Soviet power the corps was financed by the Entente. Tomás Masaryk, President of the Czechoslovak National Council and leader of the Czech bourgeois nationalists, proclaimed the corps part of the French army, and Entente representatives raised the question of its evacuation to France. The Soviet Government agreed to the evacuation, provided the Russian troops were allowed to return home from France. The agreement of March 26, 1918, allowed the corps to leave Russia via Vladivostok on the condition that it surrender its arms. But the commanders of the corps did not keep their word and provoked an armed revolt at the end of May on the instigation of the Entente. The governments of the U.S.A., Britain and France openly supported the revolt in every possible way, while French officers took a direct part in it. Acting in close contact with the whiteguards and kulaks, the mutineers occupied a large part of the Urals, the Volga area and Siberia and restored bourgeois rule. In the occupied areas they formed whiteguard governments with Menshevik and SocialistRevolutionary participation-the Siberian government in Omsk, the Committee of Constituent Assembly members in Samara, etc.
On June 11, the Central Executive Committee of the Czechoslovak Communist groups in Russia addressed an appeal to the soldiers of the corps exposing the counter-revolutionary nature of the revolt and calling on them to join Czechoslovak units of the Red Army. Most Czech and Slovak prisoners of war were sympathetic to Soviet power and did not fall for the counter-revolutionary propaganda of the corps commanders. Realising they had been deceived, many left the corps, refusing to fight against Soviet power. About 12,000 fought for the Red Army.
The Volga area was liberated in the autumn of 1918. The whiteguard Czechs were completely routed along with Kolchak’s troops.
[3] Lenin refers to the article “The French Millions”, which appeared in the issue of June 28, 1918, of the Czechoslovak Communist newspaper Prukop nik Svobody (The Banner of Freedom) published in Moscow in 1918-19. On the same day, the article was reprinted in lull in Pravda and partly in Izvestia of the All-Russia Central Executive Committee.
[4] Reference is to a counter-revolutionary revolt of the Czechoslovak army corps engineered by the Entente with the active assistance of the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries. The corps was formed in Russia from Czech and Slovak prisoners of war before the October Socialist Revolution. In the summer of 1918 the corps numbered more than 60,000 men (the total number of Czechoslovak prisoners of war was 200,000). After the establishment of Soviet power the corps was financed by the Entente. Tomás Masaryk, President of the Czechoslovak National Council and leader of the Czech bourgeois nationalists, proclaimed the corps part of the French army, and Entente representatives raised the question of its evacuation to France. The Soviet Government agreed to the evacuation, provided the Russian troops were allowed to return home from France. The agreement of March 26, 1918, allowed the corps to leave Russia via Vladivostok on the condition that it surrender its arms. But the commanders of the corps did not keep their word and provoked an armed revolt at the end of May on the instigation of the Entente. The governments of the U.S.A., Britain and France openly supported the revolt in every possible way, while French officers took a direct part in it. Acting in close contact with the whiteguards and kulaks, the mutineers occupied a large part of the Urals, the Volga area and Siberia and restored bourgeois rule. In the occupied areas they formed whiteguard governments with Menshevik and SocialistRevolutionary participation-the Siberian government in Omsk, the Committee of Constituent Assembly members in Samara, etc.
On June 11, the Central’. Executive Committee of the Czechoslovak Communist groups in Russia addressed an appeal to the soldiers of the corps exposing the counter-revolutionary nature of the revolt and calling on them to join Czechoslovak units of Lenin refers to the counter-revolutionary revolt of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries which took place on July 6-7, 1918, as the Fifth All-Russia Congress of Soviets was meeting in Moscow.
The Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party was formed at its First National Congress held in November 1917. Until then its members had belonged to the Left wing of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party which had emerged during the First World War and was headed by M. A. Spiridonova, B. D. Kamkov and M. A. Natanson (Bobrov). At the Second All-Russia Congress of Soviets, Left Socialist-Revolutionaries constituted the majority in the SocialistRevolutionary group. The group split over the question of Congress attendance. The Right Socialist-Revolutionaries left the Congress on the directives of the Central Committee of their party and the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries stayed and voted together with the Bolsheviks on the major items of the agenda. But they rejected the Bolsheviks’ invitation to join the Soviet Government. After long hesitation and so as to retain influence among the peasants, the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries came to an agreement with the Bolsheviks and their representatives took posts in the Council of People’s Commissars. They clashed with the Bolsheviks, however, on the fundamental questions of the socialist revolution and opposed the dictatorship of the proletariat. In January and February 1918 the Central Committee of the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party campaigned against the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty. Following its conclusion and ratification by the Fourth Congress of Soviets in March 1918 the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries resigned from the Council of People’s Commissars, but retained their posts on the boards of People ’s Commissariats and in local government bodies. As the socialist revolution developed in the countryside they went into opposition to Soviet power.
On June 24 the party’s Central Committee decided on revolt.
Defeated at the Fifth Congress of Soviets, the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries decided to torpedo the Brest-Litovak Peace Treaty and embroil the country in a war with Germany. On July 6 they assassinated the German Ambassador, Count Mirbach, in Moscow.
They followed this up with armed revolt. Their strike force was a unit under the command of the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Popov, a Cheka worker. They bombarded the Kremlin and seized the Telephone Exchange and the Telegraph Office which they held for two hours. They issued several provocative messages, bulletins and telegrams announcing that power had passed into their hands and that the entire population had greeted them enthusiastically.
The Fifth Congress of Soviets instructed the government to take urgent measures to suppress the revolt. The Left SocialistRevolutionary group at the Congress was arrested. Twenty-four hours after it had begun, by 2 p. m. July 7, the revolt was put down due to the steps taken by the Soviet Government and the concerted action of the Moscow workers and garrison. The revolt was part of the anti-Soviet campaign of the counter-revolutionaries at home and the imperialists abroad, and was secretly supported by foreign diplomatic missions. The Left Socialist-Revolutionaries tried to start revolts also in Petrograd, Vologda and other towns.
Following the suppression of the revolt the Fifth All-Russia Congress of Soviets adopted a decision to remove from the Soviets all Left Socialist-Revolutionaries who supported the reckless policy of their leaders. The Congress received numerous telegrams from workers and peasants all over the country welcoming the suppression of the revolt and expressing their readiness to defend Soviet power by arms.
[5] Dashnaktsutyun Party-Armenian nationalist party which arose in the early nineties of the last century and strove for liberation of the Turkish Armenians from subjugation to the sultan of Turkey. Besides the bourgeoisie it included many national intellectuals, petty bourgeoisie and working people who fell for the nationalist and socialist phrase-mongering. During the Revolution of 1905-07 the party drew close to the Socialist-Revolutionaries. In 1907 a congress of the party adopted a Narodnik type of “socialist” programme.
After the February 1917 revolution the Dashnaks supported the Provisional Government policy and, following the October Revolution, they joined with the block of Mensheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mussavatists. Between 1918 and 1920 they headed the counter-revolutionary nationalist government of Armenia. Their policy tended to turn Armenia into a colony of the imperialists and bridgehead for the British and French imperialists and Russian whiteguards in the struggle against the Soviet Republic. In November 1920 the people of Armenia led by the Bolsheviks and Red Army units brought down the Dashnak government. After Soviet power had triumphed in Transcaucasia the Dasbnaktsutvun organisations were broken up.
[6] Mussauatists—members of the nationalist Mussavat Party of the Azerbaijanian bourgeoisie and landowners, which was formed in 1912. During the October Revolution and Civil War it was the main counter-revolutionary force in Azerbaijan. After the fall of Soviet government in 1918, the Mussavatists came to power with the help of the Turkish and British interventionists. On April 28, 1920, the working people of Azerbaijan and Red Army units overthrew the Mussavatist government.
[7] On July 25, 1918, an emergency session of the Baku Soviet discussed the political and military situation in Baku in connection with the Turkish offensive. Under the pretext of defending Baku, the Mensheviks, Dashnaks and Socialist-Revolutionaries demanded that British-troops be called in "for help". The Bolshevik leaders of the Soviet government in Baku, S. G. Shahumyan, WA. Azizbekov, P. A. Djaparidze, Y. D. Zevin and others, rejected these treacherous demands. They declared that-to “invite” the British interventionists into Baku would he betraying the Soviet Republic and insisted on taking urgent measures to defend Baku with the forces available. The Bolsheviks, however, were narrowly defeated and a resolution was carried to call in the British.
Finding themselves outvoted, the Bolsheviks announced their resignation from the Council of People’s Commissars. But they soon realised their mistake and decided to stay on and utilise every opportunity to isolate and defeat the traitors. At its emergency meeting the Executive of the Baku Soviet decided that the People’s Commissars should retain their posts until settlement of the question of power. The Baku city Bolshevik conference held on July 27 decided not to relinquish power without a fight, urgently to organise the city’s defence under the leadership of the Council of People’s Commissars, announce general mobilisation and call on the workers to defend the city and Soviet government. In pursuance of this decision the Baku Council of People’s Commissars declared martial law in the city, instructed the Cheka to cut short counter-revolutionary propaganda and called on the workers of Baku to take to arms in defence of the city.
However, the efforts of the Communists and many Baku workers were frustrated by the treachery of the Dashnaks, SocialistRevolutionaries and Mensheviks. The Dashnak units left the front and the Turkish troops advanced ---through the exposed section. On July 31 Soviet power in Baku fell to the foreign interventionists and their agents. Among other causes of its fall were the failure of the Party organisations of Azerbaijan and the Baku Council of People’s Commissars to secure a firm alliance between the Baku proletariat and the working peasants of Azerbaijan and their mistakes over the national question, which were taken advantage of by the Mussavatists, Dashnaks and other counter-revolutionaries to deceive the people.
Socialist-Revolutionaries, Mensheviks and Dasimaks, the agents of the Entente, formed a counter-revolutionary government—the Dictatorship of the Central Caspianr Area. The Soviet leaders in Azerbaijan were arrested. On the night of September 19-20 twenty-six Baku Commissars (S. C. Shabumyan, M. A. Aziz bekov, P. A. Djaparidze, 1. T. Fioletov, Y. D. Zevin, G. N. Korganov, M. (I. Vezirov and others) were shot by the British with the direct connivance of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks.
[8] This refers to the whiteguard revolt in Yaroslavl which began on July 6, 1918. It was organised by the counter-revolutionary Union for the Defence of the Country and Freedom which was led by the Right Socialist-Revolutionary B. V. Savinkov. This revolt, like other counter-revolutionary revolts in Russia at that time, was supported by the Entente imperialists with the active participation of the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries. The Union received large sums of money from them. The revolt was part of the general plan of intervention in Russia and was timed to coincide with the revolt of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries in Moscow (see Note 4). It was also planned to start simultaneous revolts in Murom, Kostroma, Rybinsk and other towns of the Volga area and central Russia.
On the eve of the revolt Socialist-Revolutionaries, Mensheviks and whiteguard officers gathered in Yaroslavl in large numbers. The Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, being most influential, filled a number of responsible posts. On July 6, the mutineers occupied the centre of the town, the arsenal, the Post and Telegraph Office and other buildings. Party and Soviet workers were killed. The mutineers tried to seize the workers’ districts but encountered stubborn and organised resistance. Party organisations of the factories rallied the people, and armed workers and Red Army units went into battle. The Soviet Government sent military units and armed workers’ detachments from Moscow, Petrograd, Ivanovo-Voznesensk, Kostroma, Vologda and Rybinsk. On July 21, 1918, the revolt was put down.
[9] Lenin refers to the decree On the Organisation of the Village Poor and Supply to them of Grain, Prime Necessities and Agricultural implements which was endorsed by the All-Russia Central Executive Committee on June 11, 1918. The decree provided for the establishment of the Poor Peasants’ Committees on local initiative. It charged the Committees with the task of taking stock of the food supplies of the peasant farms, ascertaining the kulaks’ food resources and assisting the Soviet supply bodies in requisitioning surpluses, as well as protecting and delivering confiscated grain to the state granaries. The Committees were also to supply the poor peasants with food at the expense of the kulak farms, distribute farm implements and manufactured goods, look after sowing and harvesting, protect the crops and combat grain profiteering. By the autumn of 1918 over 80,000 Poor Peasants’ Committees were functioning in the localities. They formed the strongholds and organs of the proletarian dictatorship in the countryside. Their establishment marked the extensive development of the socialist revolution in the villages. They played an outstanding part in suppressing the kulak counter-revolution and undermining the economic power of the kulaks through their partial expropriation. In a comparatively short period of time the Committees confiscated and turned over to the poor and middle peasants 50 million hectares of land, and requisitioned the hulk of the kulaks’ farm implements for distribution among the poor and economically weak middle peasants. Great credit is due to the Committees for carrying through the abolition of landed proprietorship and supplying foodstuffs to the hungry industrial centres and the Red Army. The Poor Peasants’ Committees were active in establishing collective agricultural enterprises, the artels and communes, which together with the state farms were the first stones laid in the foundation of the socialist countryside. According to incomplete data, the number of collective farms increased from 240 at the time the Poor Peasants’ Committees were created to 1,600 at the end of 1918. The Committees took the initiative in forming Red Army units by recruiting volunteers from among the poor peasants. They also helped to consolidate local Soviets and purge them of kulak elements.
The Poor Peasants’ Committees were vastly important in strengthening the worker-peasant alliance and in winning over the middle peasants to the Soviet side. As Lenin pointed out, in their activities the Poor Peasants’ Committees were to rely on the middle as well as the poor peasants. They paved the way for a change-over from the policy of neutralising the middle peasants to a firm alliance with them.
By the autumn of 1918 the Poor Peasants’ Committees, which played a historic role in the socialist revolution, had outlived their usefulness. The Soviets were consolidated with the help of the Committees and the extensive network of rural Party cells. In view of this and also of the need to “consummate Soviet construction by establishing a uniform pattern of Soviets on the entire territory of the Soviet Republic” the Extraordinary Sixth AllRussia Congress of Soviets held in November 1918 decided to merge the Poor Peasants’ Committees with the volost and village Soviets.
[10] Lenin refers to the decree On the Organisation of the Village Poor and Supply to them of Grain, Prime Necessities and Agricultural implements which was endorsed by the All-Russia Central Executive Committee on June 11, 1918. The decree provided for the establishment of the Poor Peasants’ Committees on local initiative. It charged the Committees with the task of taking stock of the food supplies of the peasant farms, ascertaining the kulaks’ food resources and assisting the Soviet supply bodies in requisitioning surpluses, as well as protecting and delivering confiscated grain to the state granaries. The Committees were also to supply the poor peasants with food at the expense of the kulak farms, distribute farm implements and manufactured goods, look after sowing and harvesting, protect the crops and combat grain profiteering. By the autumn of 1918 over 80,000 Poor Peasants’ Committees were functioning in the localities. They formed the strongholds and organs of the proletarian dictatorship in the countryside. Their establishment marked the extensive development of the socialist revolution in the villages. They played an outstanding part in suppressing the kulak counter-revolution and undermining Lenin refers to the peace treaty concluded between Soviet Russia and the countries of the Quadruple Alliance (Germany, AustriaHungary, Bulgaria and Turkey) on March 3, 1918, in Brest-Litovsk and ratified on March 15 by the Extraordinary Fourth All Russia Congress of Soviets. The peace terms were very harsh. Germany and Austria-Hungary were to get Poland, nearly the whole of the Baltic region and part of Byelorussia. The Ukraine was to be severed from Russia and become dependent on Germany. Turkey was to get Ardahan, Batumi and Kars. In August 1918 Germany forced Soviet Russia to conclude a supplementary treaty and financial agreement which contained even harsher terms.
The Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty was concluded despite dogged resistance from Trotsky and the anti-Party group of “Left Communists.” Credit for its conclusion was due to Lenin’s efforts to overcome opposition. The peace was a judicious political compromise. It brought a respite from the war and enabled the Soviet government to demobilise the old, demoralised army and create a new Red Army, to launch socialist construction and gather strength for the coming struggle against internal counter-revolution and foreign intervention. The signing of the treaty also promoted the peace struggle, enhanced the revolutionary mood in the armies and among the people of all countries in the war. On November 13, following the revolution in Germany, which led to the downfall of the monarchy, the All-Russia Central Executive Committee repealed the treaty.
[11] Lenin refers to the historic decree of the Council of People’s Commissars on the nationalisation of large-scale industry, approved on June 28, 1918, and published in Izvestia No. 134 on June 30. Under the decree all big factories with basic capital of 200,0001,000,000 rubles and over were nationalised. The decree consummated the socialisation of the major means of production. It was preceded by the nationalisation of banks, big metallurgical plants, sugar refineries, coal and oil industries, water transport, etc. While establishing state ownership of large-scale industry, the Council of People’s Commissars left the nationalised enterprises, pending their transfer to Soviet economic bodies, “in the hands of their former owners for free use on lease terms”. The owners were held responsible for the maintenance and proper operation of the enterprises. The workers, technical staff and managers were brought into the service of the Soviet Republic. The Supreme Economic Council was obliged to draw up at short notice and circulate to all the nationalised enterprises detailed instructions on how to run them. Despite the enormous difficulties involved, the nationalisation was completed quickly due to the organisational measures of the Communist Party and the enthusiasm of the workers. By August 31 more than 3,000 enterprises had been nationalised.
The decree also announced the nationalisation of all privately-owned railways and communal services (water supply, gasworks, trams, etc.), which came under the control of local Soviets.
[12] Black hundreds-monarchist gangs in tsarist Russia formed by the police to fight the revolutionary movement. They murdered revolutionaries, hounded progressives among the intellectuals and organised anti-Jewish pogroms.