Page:The Proletarian Revolution in Russia - Lenin, Trotsky and Chicherin - ed. Louis C. Fraina (1918).djvu/43



The first revolution arising out of the general imperialistic war has broken out And this first revolution will certainly not be the last.

The first phase of this first revolution, namely, the Russian Revolution of March, 1917, has been completed. Nor will this first phase be the last phase of our Revolution.

How could this "miracle" happen in eight days—the period indicated by M. Milyukov in his boastful telegram to all the representatives of Russia abroad,—the "miracle" involved in the destruction of a monarchy that had maintained itself for centuries and continued to maintain itself during three years of powerful, universal class wars, the revolutionary period of 1905–1907?

In nature and in history there are no miracles; yet, every great convulsion of history, including every great revolution, presents such a wealth of events and material, such unexpectedly peculiar transformations in the forms of conflict and of the alignment of the fighting forces, that there is much that must appear miraculous to the ordinary mind.

In order that the Czarism should be destroyed in a few days, there was required the co-ordinating action of a whole series of conditions of an historical importance, and world-wide in bearing. Let us point out the principal ones.

The main condition for the realization of the "miracle" of the Russian Revolution was the series of revolutionary struggles during the years 1905–1907, slandered so much by the present masters of the situation, the Guchkovs and Milyukovs, the same gentlemen now pleased with the "glorious revolution" of 1917. But if the Revolution of 1905 had not effectively prepared the ground and shown to all parties what action means, exposing the supporters of the Czar in all their infamy and brutality, a rapid victory would have been impossible in 1917.