ON THE ROAD TO
INSURRECTION
Letter to the Central Committee of the Russian
Social-Democratic Labour (Bolshevik) Party
MAYBE these lines will arrive too late, for events are developing at a really giddy speed. However, I am taking the risk of writing them, for I consider it to be a duty.
The Kornilov rising[2] is (at such a moment and in such a form) a formidable and, one might say, a really unbelievable dramatic stroke.
Like every sudden and complete change in the political outlook it demands a revision of our tactics. And, as in every revision, we must be more than careful not to fail our principles.
To admit the point of view of those who advocate national defence or even (like certain Bolsheviks) would go to the extent of coalition with the Social-Revolutionaries, in support of the provisional Government, would be, I am deeply convinced, to fall into the grossest error and at the same time to prove an absolute lack of principle. We will not become partisans of national defence until after the seizure of power by the proletariat, until after the offer of peace, until after the secret treaties have been cancelled and relations with the banks broken. Neither the capture of Riga,[3] nor the capture of Petrograd will make us partisans of national defence. Until the moment of the seizure of power by the proletariat, we are for the proletarian revolution, we are against the war, we are against the "defencists."
Even now, we must not support the revolution of Kerensky. It would be a failure of principle. How then, it will be said, must Kornilov not be fought ?—Certainly, yes. But between
- ↑ Old Russian calendar throughout.
- ↑ Terminated, September 1, 1917, by the arrest of the principal participants at G.H.Q.
- ↑ By the Germans, on August 21. The entire bourgeoisie drew therefrom arguments as to the need for a strong government, for the re-establishment of discipline in the army, &c., &c.
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