Page:Nikolai Lenin - On the Road to Insurrection (1926).pdf/121



2em

OMRADES,—

The period we are now passing through is so critical, events succeed one another with such incredible rapidity, that the writer whose fate it is to be placed somewhat out of the full current of history, runs a constant risk of being behind the times or of appearing to be badly informed, especially if his writings are not published immediately. Nevertheless, I find myself compelled to address this letter to the Bolsheviks (though perhaps it will not be printed); for the hesitations, against which I consider it my duty to set myself with the utmost energy, are a crying scandal, and may have the most disastrous effect on the party, on the progress of the international proletariat and on the revolution. It is possible that I am too late: in any case, I intend to mention the information at my disposal and the times of its receipt.

It was only on the morning of Monday, October 16, that I was able to see a comrade who had been present the evening before, at Petrograd, at a most important Bolshevik meeting and who gave me detailed information about the debates. The question discussed was that of the insurrection, which was also the subject of comment of the whole press on Sunday. The assembly included representatives of all the principal branches of Bolshevik activity in the capital. And only a negligible minority—two comrades to be exact—was against the insurrection. The reasons put forward by these comrades are so weak, show such disorder, such timidity, such a forgetting of the fundamental principals of Bolshevism and of revolutionary proletarian internationalism, that one asks oneself how such shameful hesitations can be explained. Nevertheless, the fact exists, and since a revolutionary party should have no tolerance of hesitation on so serious a matter, and this pair of comrades against our principles might cause some disturbance in our midst, it is necessary to examine their arguments, reveal the nature of their hesitations and show how infamous they are. That is what I am going to try to do in the following lines.

"We have not a majority amongst the people, and consequently the insurrection cannot be successful."