V. I. Lenin

The Black-Hundred bandits of the Winter

Palace {1} and the Octobrist tricksters of the Third Duma have begun a
new campaign against Finland. To do away with the constitution that,
protects the rights of the Finns against the tyranny of the Russian
autocrats, to put Finland on a par with the rest of Russia deprived of
rights by the exceptional laws—such is the purpose of this crusade which
has been inaugurated by the tsar’s ukase deciding the question of military
service over the head of the Finnish Diet and by the appointment of new
senators from Russian officialdom. It would be a waste of time to dwell on
the arguments with which these bandits and tricksters are trying to prove
the legality and justice of the demands which are presented to Finland
under the threat of a million bayonets. The essence of the matter is not in
these arguments but in the aim that as being pursued. In the person of free
and democratic Finland the tsarist government and its associates want to
efface the last trace of the popular gains of 1905. Hence the
cause of the whole Russian people is at stake in these days when the
Cossack regiments and artillery batteries are hastily occupying the urban
centres of Finland.

The Russian revolution, supported by the Finns, compelled the tsar to
relax the stranglehold which he had kept on the Finnish people for a number
of years. The tsar, who wanted to extend his despotic power over Finland,
to whose constitution his ancestors and he himself had taken the oath, was
compelled to sanction not only the expulsion of

Bobrikov’s {2} executioners from Finnish soil and the repeal of his own
unlawful ukases, but also the introduction of universal and equal suffrage
in Finland. After crushing the Russian revolution the tsar is
harking back to the past, but with the difference that he now feels behind him not only the sup port of the
old guard, his hired spies and plunderers of the public purse, but also the
support of the moneyed gang, headed by the Krupenskys and Guchkovs, which
is operating jointly in the Third Duma in the name of the Russian people.

Thebandits’ venture has everything in its favour. The revolutionary
movement in Russia has been terribly enfeebled and the beast on the throne
need have no concern on its account to distract him from his coveted
prey. The West-European bourgeoisie, which had once petitioned the tsar to
leave Finland in peace, will not lift a finger to halt the bandits. Only
just recently it has been given assurances that the tsar’s
intentions are honest and “constitutional” by the very people who, at
that time, exhorted Europe to condemn the tsar’s policy in Finland. Calling
themselves “representatives of the Russian intelligentsia” and
“representatives of the Russian people”, the Cadet leaders have solemnly
as sured the European bourgeoisie that they, and the Russian people with
them, are at one with the tsar . The Russian liberals have done
everything to ensure that Europe remains as indifferent to the new attacks
of the two-headed ravager on Finland as it was to his excursions against
free Persia.

Free Persia has rebuffed tsarism by her own efforts. The Finnish
people—and the Finnish proletariat in the lead—are preparing a strong
rebuff to the successors of Bobrikov.

The Finnish proletariat is aware that it will have to fight in
extremely difficult conditions. It knows that the West-European bourgeoisie
who are flirting with the autocracy will not interfere; that the moneyed
section of Russian society, partly bribed by Stolypin’s policy, partly
corrupted by the lies of the Cadets, will not lend Finland the moral
support which she enjoyed prior to 1905; that the insolence of the Russian
Government has grown beyond measure since it managed to strike a blow at
the revolutionary army in Russia proper.

Butthe Finnish proletariat also knows that the outcome of a political
struggle is not decided by a single engagement, that it sometimes entails
long years of stubborn effort and the winner in the long run is the side
which has the force of historical development behind it. The freedom of
Finland will triumph because without it the freedom of Russia is inconceivable, while without the triumph of freedom in Russia the economic
development of the latter is inconceivable.

The Finnish proletariat also knows from glorious experience how to wage
a long, stubborn revolutionary struggle for freedom, designed to wear down,
disorganise and discredit the vile enemy until circumstances permit the
delivery of a decisive blow.

Atthe same time the proletariat of Finland knows that from the outset
of its new struggle it will have on its side the socialist proletariat of
all Russia, ready, however onerous the conditions of the contemporary
moment, to do their duty, their whole duty .

The Social-Democratic group in the Diet has sent a deputation to the
Social-Democratic group in the Third Duma in order jointly to discuss a
plan of action against the coercionists. From the lofty tribune of the Puma
our deputies will raise their voice, as they did last year, to brand the
tsarist government and unmask its hypocritical allies in the Duma. Let then
all the Social-Democratic organisations and all workers exert every effort
so that the voice of our deputies in the Taurida

Palace {3} is not a cry in the wilderness, so that the enemies of Russian
and Finnish liberty see that the whole Russian proletariat is one with the
Finnish people. The duty of the comrades in each locality is to use every
opportunity that presents itself to make manifest the attitude of the
proletariat of Russia to the Finnish question. Beginning with appeals to
the Russian and Finnish Social-Democratic groups, and proceeding to more
active forms of protests, the Party will find ways enough to break the
disgraceful conspiracy of silence in which the Russian counter-revolution
is rending the body of the Finnish people.

Thestruggle in Finland is a struggle for the freedom of all
Russia. Whatever bitter moments the new struggle will cost the heroic
Finnish proletariat, it will bind with new ties of solidarity the working
class of Finland and Russia, preparing them for the moment when they will
be strong enough to finish what they began in the October days of 1905 and
what they tried to continue in the glorious days of Kronstadt and Sveaborg.

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Notes:
{1}
The Winter Palace —the tsar’s residence in St. Petersburg.

{2}
Bobrikov, N. I .—tsarist Governor-General in Finland from
1898 to 1904; established the police-gendarmerie regime there.

{3}
The Taurida Palace was the building in St. Petersburg in which
the Duma sessions were held.