Vladimir Lenin
Petrograd City Conference of the R.S.D.L.P. (B.)
Dates Spoken: April 14 - 22, 1917
First Published (in full): 1925 in a book of the same name (publishing date for
each document indicated)
Online Version: Lenin Internet Archive (marxists.org) 1999
Transcription/Markup: David Walters and Brian Basgen
On the present situation and the attitude towards the provisional government
Concluding remarks in debate concerning the present situation
Two remarks during debate concerning the attitude towards the provisional
government
Resolution on the attitude towards the provisional government
Two remarks during debate of the question of the municipal elections
Resolution on the municipal question
Draft Resolution on the attitude towards SRs and SDs
Draft Resolution on the war
Draft Resolution on the War
I
The present war is, on the part of both groups of the belligerent powers, an
imperialist war, i.e., one waged by the capitalists for world domination, for
division of the capitalists' spoils, for profitable markets for finance and
banking capital, and for the subjugation of the weaker nationalities.
The transfer of state power in Russia from Nicholas II to the [provisional]
government of Guchkov, Lvov, and others, to the government of the landowners and
capitalists, did not and could not alter the class character and meaning of the
war as far as Russia is concerned.
The fact that the new government is carrying on the same imperialist war, i.e.,
an aggressive war of conquest, became glaringly apparent when the government not
only failed to publish the secret treaties between ex-Tsar Nicholas II and the
capitalist governments of Britain, France, etc., but even formally confirmed
these treaties. This was done without consulting the will of the people and with
the express purpose of deceiving them, for it is well known that the secret
treaties concluded by the ex-tsar are outrageously predatory treaties that give
the Russian capitalists a free hand to rob China, Persia, Turkey, Austria, etc.
For this reason no proletarian party that does not wish to break completely with
internationalism, i.e., with the fraternal solidarity of the workers of all
countries in their struggle against the yoke of Capital, can support the present
war, or the present government, or its loans, no matter in what glowing terms
these loans may be described.
Nor can any trust be placed in the present government's promise to renounce
annexations, i.e., the conquest of foreign countries or the forcible retention
of any nationality within the confines of Russia. For, in the first place, the
capitalists, bound together by the thousand threads of Russian and Anglo-French
banking capital, and intent on protecting the interests of capital, cannot
renounce annexations in this war without at the same time ceasing to be
capitalists, without renouncing the profits from the thou sands of millions
invested in loans, concessions, war industries, etc. And secondly, the new
government, after renouncing annexations to mislead the people, declared through
Milyukov (Moscow, April 9, 1917) that it had no intention of renouncing them.
Finally, as revealed by Dyelo Naroda, a newspaper in which Minister Kerensky
co-operates, Milyukov has not even sent his statement on the renunciation of
annexations to other countries.
Therefore, in warning the people against the capitalists' empty promises, the
Conference declares that it is necessary to make a clear distinction between a
renunciation of annexations in word and a renunciation of annexations in deed,
i.e., the immediate publication of all the secret predatory treaties, of all
acts of foreign policy, and the taking of immediate steps to fully liberate all
peoples who are being oppressed, kept bound to Russia by force or kept in a
state of subjection by the capitalist class, which is continuing the policy of
ex-Tsar Nicholas II, a policy that is a disgrace to our nation.
II
The "revolutionary defencism", which in Russia has now permeated almost all the
Narodnik parties (the Popular Socialists, Trudoviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries),
the opportunist party of the Menshevik Social-Democrats (the Organising
Committee, Chkheidze, Tsereteli, etc.), and the majority of the non-party
revolutionaries, reflects, in point of class significance, the interests and
point of view of the petty bourgeoisie, the small proprietors, and the
well-to-do peasants, who, like the capitalists, profit by oppressing weak
peoples. On the other hand, it is a result of the deception of the masses by the
capitalists, who instead of publishing the secret treaties confine themselves to
promises and glib talk.
It must be admitted that the great mass of "revolutionary defencists" are
honest, i.e., they are really opposed to annexations, to conquests, to
oppressing weak peoples; they are really working for a democratic non-coercive
peace among all the belligerents. This must be admitted for the reason that the
class position of the urban and rural proletarians and semi-proletarians (i.e.,
of the people who earn their living, wholly or partly, by selling their
labour-power to the capitalists) makes these classes uninterested in capitalist
profits.
Therefore, while recognising that any concessions to "revolutionary defencism"
are absolutely impermissible and virtually signify a complete break with
internationalism and socialism, the Conference declares that our Party will
preach abstention from violence as long as the Russian capitalists and their
Provisional Government confine themselves to threats of violence against the
people (for example, Guchkov's unhappily notorious decree threatening the
soldiers with punishment for arbitrary displacement of superiors), as long as
the capitalists have not started using violence against the Soviets of Workers',
Soldiers', Peasants', Agricultural Labourers', and other Deputies, which
organise themselves freely, and freely elect and dismiss all public officers.
Our Party will fight against the profound and fatal error of "revolutionary
defencism" solely by means of comradely persuasion, bringing home the truth that
the attitude of unreasoning trust of the broad masses in the government of the
capitalists, who are the worst enemies of peace and socialism, is, in
present-day Russia, the chief obstacle to a speedy termination of the war.
III
As for that most important issue of all, namely, how to end the war - a
criminal, predatory capitalist war that has brought mankind to the brink of
ruin, famine and destruction - as quickly as possible, by a truly democratic,
non- coercive peace, the Conference recognises and declares the following:
It is utterly senseless to suppose that this war can be ended by a unilateral
refusal of the soldiers of any one country to continue the war, by a unilateral
cessation, of military operations, by the mere act of "sticking the bayonet into
the ground".
Our Party will patiently but persistently explain to the people the truth that
wars are waged by governments, that wars are always indissolubly bound up with
the policies of definite classes, and, therefore, this war, started by crowned
brigands, by monarchs like Nicholas II, and by uncrowned brigands - the
capitalists, can be terminated by a truly democratic, non-coercive peace only
when the entire state power passes to a class that is really not interested in
safe guarding capitalist profits, to the class of the proletarians and
semi-proletarians, which is really capable of putting an end to the oppressive
rule of Capital.
This class alone is capable of really renouncing annexations, of breaking free
from the meshes of finance and banking capital, and, under certain
circumstances, not merely in word but In deed, converting this predatory war
into a revolutionary proletarian war, a war aimed, not at crushing weak peoples,
but to free the workers and peasants of the whole world from the yoke of
Capital.
The Conference reiterates its protests against the base slander spread by the
capitalists against our Party to the effect that we are in favour of a separate
peace with Germany. We consider the German capitalists to be as predatory as the
Russian, British, French, and other capitalists, and Emperor Wilhelm II to be as
bad a crowned brigand as Nicholas II or the British, Italian, Rumanian, and all
other monarchs. We have proclaimed this view of our Party not only in Russian
but also in German, in the translation of Zinoviev's and Lenin's pamphlet
Socialism and War.
Moreover, as editors of the Central Organ of our Party, and in the name of the
Party, the above-named comrades had declared (Sotsial-Demokrat, Geneva, October
13, 1915 No. 47) that if the revolution placed our Party in power while the war
was still on, we would forthwith propose openly to Germany, together with all
the other nations, a non-coercive, i.e., democratic, peace, and that in the
event of the German, British, French and other capitalists declining such a
peace, we would ourselves start a revolutionary war, and call upon the workers
of all countries to join us.
The Conference fully endorses this declaration.
The Conference takes cognisance of the fact that in no other belligerent country
in the world is there such freedom as there now is in Russia, or such
revolutionary mass organisations as ...
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