Capitalism and Socialism are mobilizing for the great, the final and decisive struggle. The call to action of the proletarian revolution in Russia will soon—now, perhaps—marshal the iron battalions of the international proletariat.
***
The material comprised in this volume, consists largely of a mass of articles written by Lenin and Trotzky during the actual course of the Revolution; the material accordingly is not alone a record of history, but a maker of history—original sources. I have knit the material together by means of supplementary chapters of my own. The bulk of the material is here published for the first time in this country, either in Russian or in English; a small part has already appeared in The Novy Mir, The New International and The Class Struggle. I wish to express my appreciation to A. Menshoy, Nicholas I. Hourwich and Gregory Weinstein, editors of The Novy Mir, who provided me with a part of this material, and to John Reed, who provided me with the material comprised in Chapter III of Part One, the final chapter of Part Three, and the chapters by Trotzky in Part Six.
Louis C. Fraina.
October, 1918
