Vladimir Lenin
In the footsteps of Russkaya Volya
Written: April 13, 1917
First Published: Pravda No. 31, April 13, 1917
Online Version: marxists.org 1999
The methods of Russkaya Volya, a paper from which even the Cadets turn away in
disgust, find an increasing number of imitators. Look at Mr. Plekhanov's
Yedinstvo. Intent on "exposing" Pravda, Mr. Plekhanov takes Lenin's first
thesis, quotes the words saying that the war on Russia's part remains a
predatory imperialist war, and then triumphantly asks:
"And how about Germany? Lenin says nothing about that."
This, literally, is what he writes. The reader can scarcely believe the evidence
of his own eyes. Can it be that Mr. Plekhanov has sunk to the level of Novoye
Vremya and Russkaya Volya? Believe it or not, but the fact stares you in the
face.
Mr. Plekhanov's shamelessness knows no bounds. He is perfectly familiar with the
Bolshevik literature published abroad. He knows perfectly well that all
Bolsheviks, times without number, in their speeches, articles, and resolutions,
have always declared that the war on the party of Germany was just as predatory
and imperialist as it was on the part of the other belligerent "Great" Powers.
The German capitalists, and their chieftain, the crowned brigand Wilhelm, are
the same imperialist predators as the capitalists of other countries are.
We repeat: no intelligent person who knows anything at all about the Bolsheviks
can help knowing that this is our point of view. Mr. Plekhanov, too, knows this
perfectly well. He knows that Zinoviev's and Lenin's pamphlet, Socialism and
War, was published in Switzerland also in the German language, and smuggled into
Germany. And that pamphlet states as blunt as blunt can be that Germany is
carrying on a predatory war for the purpose of "plundering competitor
countries", that Germany is "a young and strong robber", that "the German
imperialists have brazenly violated the neutrality of Belgium, as belligerent
states have done always and everywhere, trampling upon all treaties and
obligations if necessary"; that "Kautsky reconciles in an unprincipled way the
fundamental idea of social-chauvinism - recognition of defence of the fatherland
in the present war - with a sham concession to the Lefts"; that
"opportunist-chauvinists have nowhere sunk to such foul apostasy as in Germany".
Mr. Plekhanov knows all this perfectly well, yet he sinks to the methods of
Novoye Vremya and Russkaya Volya, and tries to paint the followers of Pravda as
Germanophiles.
Making a mockery of Marxism, Mr. Plekhanov further quibbles over the question as
to who declared war on whom.
Mr. Plekhanov has forgotten that Marxists regard war as a continuation of the
policies pursued by definite governments representing definite classes.
That both Nicholas II and Wilhelm II represented the reactionary and capitalist
classes of their respective countries, that during the last few decades both had
been pursuing a policy of plundering foreign countries, plundering China,
subjugating Persia, carving up and partitioning Turkey, is a well-known fact.
Had Mr. Plekhanov touched, however lightly, upon the history of diplomacy and
foreign policies during the last few decades, he could not have failed to see
this, and would not have dared to deny it.
The war waged by Nicholas II and Wilhelm II has been just the continuation of
this predatory imperialist policy, which is so closely bound up with the banking
capital of the two countries.
And when war is waged between two groups of predators and oppressors merely for
division of the spoils of plunder, merely to see who will strangle more peoples,
who will grab more, the question as to who began this war, who was the first to
declare it and so forth, is of no economic or political significance.
Mr. Plekhanov, just like the German Plekhanovs, the Scheidemanns and Co., has
descended to the level of the most vulgar and ordinary bourgeois chauvinist who
refuses to see (if he ever did see) that war is a continuation of policy, that
war and policy are bound up with the interests of definite classes, and that one
must be able to understand who these classes are and what they are fighting for.
A vicious, shameless lie, a screen for the predatory policy of Nicholas II - a
policy which has not been abandoned by Lvov and Co. (they have even confirmed
the tsar's treaties!) - that is what Mr. Plekhanov's great wisdom amounts to.
This lie will mislead neither the class-conscious workers nor the
class-conscious soldiers.
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