Page:The Proletarian Revolution in Russia - Lenin, Trotsky and Chicherin - ed. Louis C. Fraina (1918).djvu/57

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THE COUNCIL OF WORKERS AND SOLDIERS
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devote ourselves not only to encouraging the farm laborers to establish special Councils of their own, but to establishing organizations of the poorest peasants that shall be distinct from those of the more well-to-do-peasants.

2.—Another ally of the Russian proletariat is the proletariat not only of the warring countries, but all countries. At present they are in the clutches of the war, and unfortunately are being betrayed by the social-patriotic "Socialists" who have deserted to the bourgeoisie. But the liberation of the proletariat from the influence of the social-patriots was furthered by every month of the imperialistic war, and the Russian Revolution will necessarily accelerate this process tremendously.

The proletariat of Russia must go hand in hand with these two allies, is, in fact, already so proceeding. The proletariat must utilize the peculiar opportunity of the present moment of transition for the conquest, first, of a democratic republic and the emancipation of the peasantry, and then for the realization of Socialism, which alone can give peace, bread and liberty to the peoples exhausted by the war,

III

The papers of April 16 contain the following resolution adopted by the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Council of Soldiers' Delegates:

"Whereas, we have received from comrades information concerning the spreading of subversive propaganda, proceeding under the cover of the flag of the Revolution, and sometimes even under the flag of the Social-Democracy, and conceiming particularly the propaganda of the so-called Leninites; and,

"Whereas, we consider this propaganda to be just as harmful as any counter-revolutionary propaganda from the Right; and,

"Whereas, we recognize the imposibility of taking any repressive measures against propaganda as long as it remains within the bounds of propaganda, therefore,

"We, the Executive Committee of the Soviet of Soldiers' Delegates, declare that it is absolutely necessary to take every possible step to oppose this propaganda with our own propaganda and agitation. We should aim at making our organization so strong that it will be able at any moment to oppose with our own activity every counter-revolutionary activity, no matter from what quarter it may proceed. We declare emphatically that the Executive Committee