Page:The Proletarian Revolution in Russia - Lenin, Trotsky and Chicherin - ed. Louis C. Fraina (1918).djvu/49

 fundamental bearings, the deeper juxtaposition of the interests of proletariat and bourgeoisie, in Russia and throughout the world.

The workers and soldiers of Petrograd, as well as of the rest of Russia, self-sacrificingly set themselves to the task of fighting Czarism,—for freedom, for land for the peasants, for peace as against the imperialistic slaughter. Anglo-French finance, in the interest of continuing and sharpening the slaughter, engaged in court intrigues, planned conspiracies, encouraged and gave hopes to the Guchkovs and Milyukovs, and proceeded to erect an entirely new government, which even obtained power after the proletariat had delivered the first blows against Czarism. Nor is this government a fortuitous assemblage of persons.

The persons in this new government are the representatives of a new class that has risen to political power in Russia, the class of the bourgeoisie and capitalistic landowners. This class has already and for a long time been ruling our country economically; in the Revolution of 1905–1907, in the counter-revolutionary period of 1907–1914, and then, with extraordinary rapidity, in the period of the war, this new class organized itself politically, swiftly taking into its hands local administrations, popular education, conventions of every type, the Duma, the war industry committees, etc. This bourgeois class was already practically in power in 1917; therefore the first blows against Czarism were sufficient to destroy it, and to clear the ground for the bourgeoisie. The imperialistic war, requiring an incredible exertion of strength, imparted to backward Russia a tremendous acceleration. At a single stroke, at least it seemed like "a single stroke," we caught up with Italy, England, France almost; we secured a "coalition," a "national" government (which means a government to carry on the imperialistic slaughter and deceive the people),—in short, a "parliamentary" government.

The government of Guchkov-Milyukov, the government of the junkers and the capitalists, can give neither bread nor peace nor liberty to the people. It constitutes a government for the continuation of the war of conquest, which openly declares that it will respect the international treaties of the Czar. These treaties have as their purpose: robbery. This government can at most postpone the crisis, but it can not free the country from hunger; it has no power to give freedom, no matter what has been promised, because it is connected with the interests of feudal land property and of capital.