Vladimir Lenin
Resolution Of The Central Committee of the R.S.D.L.P. (Bolsheviks) Adopted April
21 (May 4), 1917
Having considered the situation which has arisen in Petrograd after the
imperialist, annexationist, and predatory Note of the Provisional Government of
April 18, 1917, and after a number of meetings and demonstrations of the people
held in the streets of Petrograd on April 20, the Central Committee of the
R.S.D.L.P. resolves:
1.Party propagandists and speakers must refute the despicable lies of the
capitalist papers and of the papers supporting the capitalists to the effect
that we are holding out the threat of civil war. This is a despicable lie, for
only at the present moment, as long as the capitalists and their government
cannot and dare not use force against the masses, as long as the mass of
soldiers and workers are freely expressing their will and freely electing and
displacing all authorities-at such a moment any thought of civil war would be
naïve, senseless, preposterous; at such a moment there must be compliance with
the will of the majority of the population and free criticism of this will by
the discontented minority; should violence be resorted to, the responsibility
will fall on the Provisional Government and its supporters.
2. By their outcries against civil war the government of the capitalists and its
newspapers are only trying to conceal the reluctance of the capitalists, who
admittedly constitute an insignificant minority of the people, to submit to the
will of the majority.
3. In order to learn the will of the majority of the population in Petrograd,
where there is now an unusually large number of soldiers who are familiar with
the sentiment of the peasants and correctly express it, a popular vote must at
once be arranged in all the districts of Petrograd and its suburbs to ascertain
what the attitude is towards the government's Note, what support the various
parties enjoy, and what kind of Provisional Government is desired.
4. All Party propagandists must advocate these views and this proposal at
factories, in regiments, in the streets, etc., by means of peaceful discussion
and peaceful demonstrations, as well as meetings everywhere; we must endeavour
to organise regular voting in factories and regiments, taking care that order
and comradely discipline are strictly ob served.
5. Party propagandists must again and again protest against the despicable
slander spread by the capitalists alleging that our Party stands for a separate
peace with Germany. We consider Wilhelm II as bad a crowned brigand meriting
execution as Nicholas II, and the German Guchkovs, i.e., the German capitalists,
just as much annexationists, robbers, and imperialists as the Russian, British,
and all other capitalists. We are against negotiating with the capitalists, we
are for negotiating and fraternising with the revolutionary workers and soldiers
of all countries. We are convinced that the reason why the Guchkov-Milyukov
government is trying to aggravate the situation is because it knows that the
workers' revolution in Germany is beginning, and that this revolution will be a
blow to the capitalists of all countries.
6. When the Provisional Government spreads rumours about utter and unavoidable
economic chaos, it is not only trying to frighten the people into leaving the
power in the hands of this Provisional Government, but is also vaguely,
fumblingly expressing the profound and indubitable truth that all the nations of
the world have been led into a blind alley, that the war waged in the interests
of the capitalists has driven them to the brink of an abyss, and that there is
really no way out except through the transfer of power to the revolutionary
class, i.e., to the revolutionary proletariat, which is capable of adopting
revolutionary measures.
If there are any stocks of grain, etc., in the country, the new government of
the workers and soldiers will know how to dispose of them too. But if the
capitalist war has brought economic ruin to a stage where there is no bread at
all, the capitalist government will only aggravate the condition of the people
instead of improving it.
7. We consider the policy of the present majority of leaders of the Soviet of
Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, of the Narodnik and Menshevik parties, to be
profoundly erroneous, since confidence in the Provisional Government, attempts
to compromise with it, dickering over amendments, etc., would in fact mean only
so many more useless scraps of paper and useless delays; and besides, this
policy threat ens to create a divergence between the will of the Soviet on the
one hand, and that of the majority of revolutionary soldiers at the front and in
Petrograd and of the majority of workers, on the other.
8. We call upon those workers and soldiers who believe that the Soviet must
change its policy and renounce the policy of confidence in and compromise with
the capitalist government, to hold new elections of delegates to the Soviet of
Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies and to send to that body only people who would
steadfastly hold to a quite definite opinion consonant with the actual will of
the majority.
Spoken: April 21, 1917
First Published: Pravda No. 37, April 22 (May 5), 1917
Transcription/Markup: David Walters and Brian Basgen
Online Version: Lenin Internet Archive (marxists.org) 1999
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