Page:The Proletarian Revolution in Russia - Lenin, Trotsky and Chicherin - ed. Louis C. Fraina (1918).djvu/386

 change of the products of the cities with the cooperatives of small peasants in the country, is economically quite feasible, provided we have a few months to devote energetically to the job. Such an organization will make Socialism unconquerable in Russia, and will provide a permanent basis for the formation of a powerful red army of peasants and workers.

21. A truly Socialistic war could not, at this moment, have any other character than that of a war between the Socialistic republic and the bourgeois countries, with the distinct object, approved by te red army, of overthrowing the bourgeoisie in the other countries.

But we cannot at present attack this object. In reality, we should now fight for Livland and Courland. No Marxist, no Socialist of any kind, can deny, without contradicting the basic principles of Socialism, that the interests of Socialism transcend the right of self-determination of a nation. Our republic has done and continues to all in its power to obtain for Finland and for the Ukraine the right to determine their own lot. But, granting that the existence of the Socialist Republic is threatened by the violation of the right of Poland, Lithuania, and Finland to determine their own fate, it is nevertheless self-evident that the interests of the Socialist Republic transcend all other considerations. We are not enthusiastic about the peace based on the liberation of Poland, making German Imperialism stronger as opposed to England, Belgium, Serbia, etc. The peace based on the liberation of Poland, Lithuania, and Courland would be a patriotic peace from the standpoint of Russia, but it would none the less be a peace with the German annexationists and imperialists.