Vladimir Lenin 



Speech At A Meeting At The Putilov Works
May 12 (25), 1917 
Brief Newspaper Report 



Spoken: 12 May, 1917 
First Published: Soldatskaya Pravda No. 26, May 19 (June 1), 1917 



 
Lenin set forth the Bolsheviks' views on the war, on peace, and the coalition 
government.
In the first part of his speech Lenin briefly stated the reasons for his journey 
via Germany, then passed on to the war and made clear its predatory nature. He 
then dwelt on the question of how to end the war and developed the idea that the 
only way of doing this was by an alliance of the workers of all the belligerent 
countries.
Lenin next dealt with the question as to what stood in the way of such an 
alliance and outlined the road by which such an alliance of the workers could 
and should be achieved. 
The way to this was not by an agreement between the workers and the capitalists, 
and between the soldier-peasants and the landowners, but by a struggle of the 
workers and peasants against their oppressors.
The coalition government was an agreement between the socialists and the 
capitalists, it meant suppression of the revolution.
Seizure of power by the workers and the peasants could solve our country's most 
pressing problems for her-the problem of the land, of its transfer to the 
peasants, and other questions connected with the war, such as food supply, 
improving the condition of the workers, etc.
 



Transcription/Markup: David Walters and Brian Basgen 
Online Version: Lenin Internet Archive (marxists.org) 1999 


