Page:The Proletarian Revolution in Russia - Lenin, Trotsky and Chicherin - ed. Louis C. Fraina (1918).djvu/83

 gle against the attempts at conquest by the Governments of all nations must begin. The time has come in which the peoples must take into their own hands the questions of war and peace.

"Conscious of its own revolutionary strength, the democracy of Russia declares that it will fight with all means against the policy of conquest of its ruling classes and it summons the peoples of Europe to united, decisive action for peace.

"We appeal to our brothers, to the proletarians of the German-Austrian coalition, and above all to the German proletariat. The first day of the war you were made to believe that in raising your weapons against absolutist Russia you were defending European civilization against Asiatic despotism. In this many of you found the justification of the support that was accorded to the war. Now also this justification has vanished. Democratic Russia cannot menace freedom and civilization.

"We shall firmly defend our own liberty against all reactionary threats, whether they come from without or within. The Russian Revolution will not retreat before the bayonets of conquerors and it will not allow itself to be trampled to pieces by outside military force. We call upon you to throw off the yoke of your absolutist regime, as the Russian people have shaken off the autocracy of the Czar. Refuse to serve as the tools of conquest and power in the hands of the kings, junkers and bankers and we shall, with common efforts, put an end to the fearful butchery that dishonors humanity and darkens the great days of the birth of Russian liberty.

"Workingmen of all countries! In fraternally stretching out our hands to you across the mountains of our brothers' bodies, across the sea of innocent blood and tears, across the smoking ruins of cities and villages, across the destroyed gifts of civilization, we summon you to the work of renewing and solidifying international unity. In that lies the guaranty of our future triumph and of the complete liberation of humanity.

"Workers of all countries, unite!"

The appeal met with repudiation among the majority Socialists of Germany and Austria. The Berlin Vorwaerts, the central organ of the pro-war, social-patriotic Social Democracy, rebuked the Russian Revolution for its appeal to the German proletariat to overthrow the monarchy, and defended the monarchy! Great strikes and demonstrations were planned by the workers for May Day; Vorwaerts and the majority Socialist leaders opposed and discouraged the plans. The Social Democracy was allied all along the line with the German government in an imperialistic war of conquest.