V. I.

Lenin

Brothers, soldiers!

We are all worn out by this frightful war , which has cost millions of lives, crippled millions of
people and caused untold misery, ruin, and starvation.

And more and more people are beginning to ask themselves:
What started this war, what is it being waged for?

Every day it is becoming clearer to us, the workers and
peasants, who bear the brunt of the war, that it was started and
is being waged by the capitalists of all countries for the sake
of the capitalists’ interests, for the sake of world supremacy,
for the sake of markets for the manufacturers, factory owners
and bankers, for the sake of plundering the weak nationalities. They are carving up colonies and seizing
territories in the Balkans and in Turkey—and for this the
European peoples must be ruined, for this we must die, for this
we must witness the ruin, starvation and death of our families.

The capitalist class in all countries is deriving colossal,
staggering, scandalously high profits from contracts and war
supplies, from concessions in annexed countries, and from the
rising price of goods. The capitalist class has imposed
contribution on all the nations for decades ahead in the shape
of high interest on the billions lent in war loans. And we, the
workers and peasants, must die, suffer ruin, and starve, must
patiently bear all this and strengthen our oppressors, the
capitalists, by having the workers of the different countries
exterminate each other and feel hatred for each other.

Are we going to continue submissively to bear our yoke, to put
up with the war between the capitalist classes? Are we going to
let this war drag on by taking the side of our own national
governments, our own national bourgeoisies, our own national
capitalists, and thereby destroying the international unity of
the workers of all countries, of the whole world?

No, brother soldiers, it is time we opened our eyes, it is time
we took our fate into our own hands. In all countries popular
wrath against the capitalist class, which has drawn the people
into the war, is growing, spreading, and gaining strength. Not
only in Germany, but even in Britain, which before the war had
the reputation of being one of the freest countries, hundreds
and hundreds of true friends and representatives of the working
class are languishing in prison for having spoken the honest
truth against the war and against the capitalists. The [February] revolution in Russia is only the
first step of the first revolution; it should be followed and
will be followed by others.

The new government in Russia—which has overthrown Nicholas
II, who was as bad a crowned brigand as Wilhelm II—is a
government of the capitalists. It is waging just as predatory
and imperialist a war as the capitalists of Germany, Britain,
and other countries. It has endorsed the predatory secret
treaties concluded by Nicholas II with the capitalists of
Britain, France, and other countries; it is not publishing these
treaties for the world to know, just as the German Government is
not publishing its secret and equally predatory treaties with
Austria, Bulgaria, and so on.

On April 20 the Russian Provisional Government published a Note re-endorsing the old predatory
treaties concluded by the tsar and declaring its readiness to
fight the war to a victorious finish, thereby arousing the
indignation even of those who have hitherto trusted and
supported it.

But, in addition to the capitalist government, the Russian
revolution has given rise to spontaneous revolutionary organisations representing the vast majority of the workers and
peasants, namely, the Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies
in Petrograd and in the majority of Russia’s cities. Most of the
soldiers and some of the workers in Russia—like very many
workers and soldiers in Germany—still preserve an unreasoning trust in the government of the capitalists and in
their empty and lying talk of a peace without annexations, a war
of defence, and so on.

But, unlike the capitalists, the workers and poor peasants have
no interest in annexations or in protecting the profits of the
capitalists. And, therefore, every day, every step taken by the
capitalist government, both in Russia and in Germany, will
expose the deceit of the capitalists, will expose the fact that
as long as capitalist rule lasts there can be no really
democratic, non-coercive peace based on a real renunciation of
all annexations, i.e., on the liberation of all colonies without
exception, of all oppressed, forcibly annexed or underprivileged
nationalities without exception, and the war will in all
likelihood become still more acute and protracted.

Only if state power in both the, at present, hostile countries, for example, in both Russia and Germany, passes
wholly and exclusively into the hands of the revolutionary
Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, which are really
capable of rending the whole mesh of capitalist relations and
interests, will the workers of both the belligerent countries
acquire confidence in each other and be able to put a speedy
end to the war on the basis of a really democratic peace that
will really liberate all the nations and nationalitiea of the world.

Brothers, soldiers!

Let us do everything we can to hasten this, to achieve this
aim. Let us not fear sacrifices—any sacrifice for the workers’ revolution will be less painful than the sacrifices of
war. Every victorious step of the revolution will save hundreds
of thousands and millions of people from death, ruin, and
starvation.

Peace to the hovels, war on the palaces! Peace to the workers of
all countries! Long live the fraternal unity of the revolutionary
workers of all countries! Long live socialism!

Central Committee of the R.S.D.L P.

Petrograd Committee of the R.S.D.L.P.

Editorial Board of Pravda

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