Page:Boris Zakharovich Shumyatsky - The Aims of the Bolsheviki (1919).djvu/16

 Turks, and Galicia from the Austrians. In fact, the capitalist Provisional Government openly supported these treaties, although at the head of it were people who called themselves Socialists. Now that the workers have assumed power and established the Soviets, these shameful secret treaties have been published. They have shown the world into what depths of lying and robbery it has been led by the capitalist classes.

The Bolsheviki looked upon the fraternising of the proletarians of all countries in the trenches as one of the most effective weapons in the struggle for peace. They made full use of this weapon, which has already initiated the revolutionary movement in Austria and Germany, to crush which the capitalists of these countries launched the last offensive against peaceful cities. The Bolsheviki say that this offensive is one of the last spasmodic efforts of capitalism. Like drowning men, the German, Ukrainian and other capitalists are grasping at a straw, and having gathered their last strength, are throwing themselves against the Russian Revolution.

The Mensheviki and Right Social-Revolutionaries held far other views on the war. They said that as the war had been foisted on us by Czarism, we were not able to bring it to a close. Therefore, they not only supported the war in so many words, but even whilst they were in power, drove the Russian army into an offensive which cost us. thousands of lives.

iii. The Question of the Organisation of the Country.—Russia is at present almost the only country in the world where a people's revolution is throbbing and seething. Therefore it is only natural that under such conditions, the question of the organisation of the