Page:The Proletarian Revolution in Russia - Lenin, Trotsky and Chicherin - ed. Louis C. Fraina (1918).djvu/478

 we may believe that the German revolution will develop such power and will be so well organized that it will solve a hundred international problems. Only we must know how to march in line with the German revolution, not to run ahead of it and injure it, but to help it. And our comrades, the communists of the Ukraine, must bear this in mind. Our principal work must be carrying on propaganda, but a daring, persistent propaganda.

We must not forget that Germany forms the most important link in the revolutionary chain. The success of the world revolution depends to the greatest degree upon Germany. We must not fail to consider the changes and excrescences accompanying every revolution. In every country the revolution follows its particular ways and these ways are so different and tortuous that in many countries the revolution can be delayed one or two years. Every country must pass through definite political stages in order to arrive at the very same point—the inevitable proletarian revolution. And although the international proletariat is now awakening and making important progress, we must confess that our position is particularly difficult because our enemies direct their attacks against us as their principal enemy. Now they are preparing to fight, not against the hostile armies, but against international Bolshevism.

We must direct our entire attention at present to our southern front, where the fate, not only of Russia, but also of the international revolution, is to be decided. We have many prospects of victory. But what favors us most of all is the fact that a change has taken place in the popular feeling. The people have grasped the fact that in defending Soviet Russia it is not defending the interests of the capitalists, but its own interests, its own country and desires, its factories and shops, its life and liberty. The discipline of the Red Army is gaining, but it is not a discipline of the club, but the discipline of Socialism, the discipline of a society of equals.

The army is turning out thousands of officers who have gone through the course of study in the new proletarian military schools, and other thousands who have only gone through the hard school of war itself. Our southern front is the front against the whole Anglo-French Imperialism, against the most important opponent we have in the world. But we do not fear this opponent, for we know that it will soon face the struggle with its "internal enemy." Three months ago it was said that only the half-crazy Bolsheviki could believe in the German revolution; but today we see how in the course of a few months Germany has changed from a mighty empire to a rotten tree trunk. The force that has overthrown Germany is also working in England. It is only weak today, but with every step that the English and French advance in Russia this force will steadily rise to power and will even become more terrible than the Spanish influenza.

The seriousness of the situation must be apparent to every worker who knows what he is aiming at and he must make the masses see it, too. The mass of workers and peasants is mature enough to be allowed to know the whole truth. The danger is great, but we must, and shall overcome it, and for this purpose we must develop and solidify the Red Army without halting. We must make it ten times as strong and large