Page:The Proletarian Revolution in Russia - Lenin, Trotsky and Chicherin - ed. Louis C. Fraina (1918).djvu/79

 preparation render a report on April 17 on the problems of the revolutionary proletariat.

The only thing that I could do to explain my position was to prepare a written "theses." I read them, and gave the text to Comrade Tseretelli. I read them twice, very slowly: first at the meeting of the Bolsheviki, then at the joint meeting of Bolsheviki and Mensheviki.

I am publishing these personal "theses," provided with very short explanatory notes, which were developed in more detail in the report:

1.—In our relation to war, which on the part of Russia and with the new government of Lvov, Guchkov & Co. unquestionably remains a predatory imperialistic war in virtue of the capitalistic character of this government, not the smallest concessions to "revolutionary defense" are permissible.

The class conscious proletariat can give its consent to a revolutionary war, which really justifies revolutionary defense, only under conditions of (a) the transference of all power to the proletariat and its ally the poorest peasantry; (b) the repudiation of annexations in fact and not in words; (c) the complete break with the interests of capital.

In view of the undoubted integrity of the mass of adherents of "revolutionary defense," who recognize war only as a necessity and not for the sake of conquests, in view of their deception by the bourgeoisie, it is necessary to explain their mistake to them in detail, to explain the indissoluble connection between capital and the imperialistic war, to prove to them that it is impossible to end the war by a truly democratic peace, not a peace of violence, without the overthrow of capital.

The organization of an extensive propaganda of these ideas is necessary in the active army.

2.—The peculiarity of the present moment in Russia consists in the transition from the first stage of the Revolution, which gave power to the bourgeoisie because of the insufficient class consciousness and organization of the proletariat, to the second stage, which must give power to the proletariat and poorest peasantry.

This transition is characterized by the maximum of "legality" (Russia now is the freest of all the belligerent nations of the world), by the absence of violence of the masses, and, finally, by the masses' trustful, unconscious attitude towards the government of capitalists, the worst enemies of peace and Socialism.