On the day of departure, Vladimir Ilyich returned once more to the continuation of his "Letters From Afar" and began the 5th letter under the title "The Tasks of the Revolutionary Proletarian Organization."
This letter remained unfinished.
It is preserved in a copy
6 indicated in the above copying book, according to which text we
reproduce it here.
18.
LENIN.
LETTERS FROM AFAR.
LETTER FIVE.
TASKS OF THE REVOLUTIONARY PROLETARIAN
STATE ORGANIZATION.
[April 8 (March 26) [Sunday].
In the previous letters, the tasks of the revolutionary proletariat
in Russia at the present moment were outlined as follows: (1) to be able to approach in the most correct way the next stage of the revolution or the second revolution, which
(2) must transfer state power from the hands of the government of landlords and capitalists (Guchkovs, Lvovs, Milyukovs, Kerenskys) to the hands of the government of workers and the poorest peasants. (3) This latter government must be organized
according to the type of Soviets of workers' and peasants' deputies, namely,
(4) it must smash, completely eliminate the old and usual
state machine in all bourgeois states, the army, the police, the bureaucracy (officialdom), replacing this machine
(5) not only with a mass, but also with a completely universal organization
of the armed people.
(6) Only such a government, "such" in its class composition ("the revolutionary-democratic
dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry") and in its organs
of administration ("proletarian militia"), is able to successfully
solve the extremely difficult and unconditionally urgent, main-

LENIN COLLECTION.
the most important task of the moment, namely: to achieve peace, and not
an imperialist peace, not a deal between the imperialist
powers on the division of the spoils plundered by the capitalists and their governments, but a truly lasting democratic peace,
which is not achievable without a proletarian revolution in a number of countries.
(7) In Russia, the victory of the proletariat is achievable in the very near
future only on the condition that the first step of it is the support
of the workers by the vast majority of the peasantry in its struggle
for the confiscation of all landlord landownership (and the nationalization
of all land, if we assume that the agrarian program of the "104" remained in its essence the agrarian program of the peasantry). (8) In connection with such a peasant revolution and on the basis
of it, further steps by the proletariat are possible and necessary
in alliance with the poorest part of the peasantry, steps directed
towards control of production and distribution of the most important
products, towards the introduction of "universal labor conscription," etc.
These steps are unconditionally inevitably dictated by those
conditions that the war has created and that will even worsen in
many respects the postwar period; and in their totality and in their development, these steps would be a transition to socialism,
which is not directly, immediately, without transitional measures, achievable in Russia, but is fully achievable and
vitally necessary as a result of this kind of transitional measures. (9) The task of immediate
and special organization in the villages of Soviets of workers' deputies,
i.e., Soviets of agricultural hired workers, separately from the Soviets of the remaining peasant deputies, is put forward
with extreme urgency.
Such, in brief, is the program outlined by us, based on
an accounting of the class forces of the Russian and world revolutions, as well as
on the experience of 1871 and 1905.
Let us now try to take a general look at this program as a whole, pausing in passing on how K. Kautsky approached this
theme, the largest theorist of the "2nd" (1889-1914)
International and the most prominent representative of the current observed in
all countries of the "center," the "swamp," wavering between
social-chauvinists and revolutionary internationalists.
Kautsky approached this topic in his journal "New Times"
(Die Neue Zeit, No. of April 6, 1917, according to the new style), in the article:
"Perspectives of the Russian Revolution."

LENIN. - LETTERS FROM AFAR.

"First of all," writes Kautsky, "we must clarify for ourselves the tasks facing the revolutionary proletarian regime"
(state organization).
"Two things," the author continues, "are imperatively necessary
to the proletariat: democracy and socialism."
Kautsky presents this completely indisputable proposition,
unfortunately, in an excessively general form, so that it essentially
gives nothing and clarifies nothing. Milyukov and Kerensky,
members of the bourgeois and imperialist government, would gladly
sign this general proposition, one in the first part, the other -
in the second.
[The manuscript breaks off here.]

On the same day, i.e., April 8, at a meeting of departing émigrés,
Lenin's proposed farewell letter to the Swiss workers was adopted. It was then printed in the Swiss socialist
newspapers and reproduced in the "Collected Works."
In the interests of exhaustive completeness of the documents of this period,
we reproduce it here once more.
19.
LENIN. FAREWELL LETTER TO SWISS
WORKERS.
Leaving Switzerland for Russia, to continue revolutionaryinternationalist work in our homeland, we,
members of the R.S.D.L.P., united by the Central Committee,
unlike another party bearing the same name, but united by the "Organizing Committee," send you
fraternal greetings and expressions of deep comradely gratitude
for the comradely attitude towards the émigrés.
If open social-patriots and opportunists, Swiss
Grutlians, who, like social-patriots of all countries, have moved from the camp of the proletariat to the camp of the bourgeoisie, if these
people openly invited you to fight against the harmful influence of foreigners on the Swiss labor movement; - if
disguised social-patriots and opportunists, who make up
the majority among the leaders of the Swiss socialist party,
conducted the same policy in a disguised form, then we must declare that on the part of the revolutionary socialist
workers of Switzerland, standing on an internationalist
point of view, we have met with ardent sympathy and have derived
much benefit for ourselves from the comradely interaction with them.
We have always been particularly careful in our statements on
those questions of the Swiss movement, for familiarization with which

LENIN - FAREWELL LETTER TO SWISS WORKERS.

requires lengthy work in the local movement.
But those of us, who in numbers scarcely more than 10-15 people, were
members of the Swiss Labour Party, considered it our duty
on general and fundamental issues of the international and socialist
movement, to resolutely defend our point of view, the point of view of the "Zimmerwald Left," to resolutely fight
not only against social-patriotism, but also against the direction
of the so-called "center," to which R. Grimm belongs.
F. Schneider, J. Schmidt and others in Switzerland, Kautsky, Haase,
"Arbeitsgemeinschaft" in Germany, Longuet, Pressmann and others in
France, Snowden, Ramsay MacDonald and others in England, Turati,
Treves and their friends in Italy, the aforementioned party of the "Organizational Committee" (Axelrod, Martov, Chkheidze, Skobelev
and others) in Russia.
We worked in solidarity with those revolutionary Social Democrats of Switzerland, who were grouped partly around the journal "Freie-
Jugend," who composed and distributed the referendum motives
(in German and French) demanding the convocation in April 1917 of a party congress to resolve the issue of
attitude towards the war,—who introduced at the Zurich cantonal congress in Töss a resolution of the young and "left" on the war
issue,—who published and distributed in some localities of French Switzerland in March 1917 a leaflet in
German and French "Our conditions of peace" etc.
We send fraternal greetings to these comrades, with whom
we worked hand in hand, as like-minded people.
For us, there was and is not the slightest doubt that the imperialist government of England will not allow Russian internationalists, irreconcilable
opponents of Russia's continuation of the imperialist war, into Russia under any circumstances.
In connection with this, we must dwell briefly on our understanding of the tasks of the Russian revolution.
We consider it all the more necessary to do this, since through the Swiss
workers we can and must address the German, French, and Italian workers, who speak the same languages,
in which the population of Switzerland speaks, enjoying up to now
the benefits of peace and relatively greatest political freedom.
We remain absolutely true to the statement that we made in the central organ of our party, in the newspaper "Social-

LENIN COLLECTION.
Democrat," published in Geneva, in "No. 47 of October 13
1915.
We said there that if revolution wins in Russia and a republican government is in power, wishing
to continue the imperialist war, the war for the sake of conquering Constantinople, Armenia,
Galicia, etc.
etc., then we will be resolute opponents of such a government, we will be against "defense of the fatherland" in such a war.
Approximately such a case has arrived.
The new government of Russia, which was negotiating with Nicholas II's brother
about restoring the monarchy in Russia, and in which the most important
decisive posts belong to the monarchists Lvov and Guchkov, this government is trying to deceive the workers by means
of the slogan "the Germans must overthrow
Wilhelm" (correct, but why not add: the English, Italians, etc. — their
kings, and the Russians — their monarchists Lvov and Guchkov). This
government is trying by means of such a slogan and not publishing those
imperialist, predatory treaties that tsarism concluded with France, England and others, and which are
confirmed by the government of Guchkov - Milyukov -
Kerensky , — to pass off its imperialist war with Germany as "defensive" (i.e. fair, legitimate even from the point of view of the proletariat), — to pass off as "defense" of the Republic (which does not yet exist in Russia and which the Lvovs and Guchkovs have not even promised to establish yet) the defense of the predatory, imperialist, predatory goals of Russian capital, English and etc.
If the latest telegraphic communications are telling the truth,
indicating that between the open Russian socialpatriots (like Plekhanov, Zasulich, Potresov, etc.) and the party of the "center," the party of the "Organizational Committee," the party
of Chkheidze, Skobelev, etc., something like rapprochement has occurred, on
the basis of the slogan: "Until the Germans overthrow Wilhelm, our war
is defensive," — if this is true, then we will wage the struggle against the party of Chkheidze, Skobelev and others with redoubled
energy, a struggle that we have always waged with this party for its
opportunistic, wavering, shaky political behavior.
Our slogan: no support for the government of Guchkov— Miliukov.
He who says that such support is necessary

LENIN. -- FAREWELL LETTER TO THE SWISS WORKERS.

is deceiving the people, as necessary for the struggle against the restoration of tsarism.
On the contrary, it was precisely the Guchkov government that had already negotiated
about restoring the monarchy in Russia.
Only the armed forces and organization of the proletariat are able to prevent Guchkov and Co. from restoring
the monarchy in Russia.
Only the revolutionary proletariat of Russia and all of Europe, remaining true to internationalism, is capable of saving humanity
from the horrors of imperialist war.
We do not close our eyes to the enormous difficulties standing
before the revolutionary-internationalist vanguard of the proletariat of Russia.
In a time like the one we are experiencing, the most abrupt and rapid changes are possible.
In No. 47 of "Social-Democrat" we answered directly and clearly to the naturally
arising question: what would our party do if the revolution put it in power immediately? We answered: 1) we
would immediately offer peace to all the warring peoples; 2) we
would announce our peace terms, consisting in the immediate liberation of all colonies and of all oppressed and disenfranchised peoples; 3) we would immediately begin and bring to completion the liberation of peoples oppressed by Great Russians; 4) we are not for a minute deceived that such conditions would be unacceptable not only for the monarchical, but also for the republican bourgeoisie of Germany, and not only for Germany, but also for the capitalist governments of England and France.
We would have to wage a revolutionary struggle against the German—and not only the German—bourgeoisie. We would wage it. We are not pacifists. We are opponents of imperialist wars
over the division of spoils between capitalists, but we have always
declared it absurd if the revolutionary proletariat were to
renounce revolutionary wars, which may prove necessary in the interests of socialism.
The task that we outlined in No. 47 of the "Social-
Democrat" is gigantically great. It can only be solved in a long series of great class battles between the proletariat
and the bourgeoisie.
But not our impatience, not our desires, but the objective conditions created by the imperialist war,
have led all of humanity into a dead end, have put it before a dilemma: either to allow millions more people to perish and to completely destroy all of European culture, or to transfer
power

LENIN'S COLLECTION.
in all civilized countries into the hands of the revolutionary
proletariat, to carry out the socialist revolution.
The Russian proletariat has been given the great honor of
beginning a series of revolutions, objectively inevitably engendered
by the imperialist war. But we are absolutely alien to the
thought of considering the Russian proletariat as the chosen revolutionary
proletariat among the workers of other countries. We know perfectly well
that the proletariat of Russia is less organized, prepared, and conscious
than the workers of other countries. Not special qualities, but only
particularly formed historical conditions have made the proletariat
of Russia, perhaps for a very short time, the vanguard of the revolutionary
proletariat of the entire world.
Russia is a peasant country, one of the most backward
European countries. Socialism cannot win immediately there. But the peasant character of the country, with
the enormous preserved land Fund of the noble landlords,
based on the experience of 1905, can give a huge scope to the bourgeois-democratic revolution in Russia and make
our revolution a prologue to the world socialist revolution, a step to it.
In the struggle for these ideas, fully confirmed both by the experience
of 1905 and by the spring of 1917, our party was formed, irreconcilably
opposing all other parties, and for these ideas we will
fight in the future.
Socialism cannot win directly and immediately in Russia. But the peasant mass can bring the inevitable and
ripe agrarian revolution to the confiscation of the entire vast
landlord landownership. We have always put forward this slogan, and it has now been put forward by the St. Petersburg] and Central]
Committees of our party and the newspaper of our party "Pravda".
The proletariat will fight for this slogan, by no means
closing its eyes to the inevitability of fierce class clashes between agricultural wage workers
and the poorest peasants and well-to-do peasants who joined them,
whom the Stolypin (1907-
1914) agrarian "reform" strengthened. One must not forget that 104 peasant
deputies in the first Duma (1906) and in the second (1907) put forward a revolutionary agrarian project demanding national-

LENIN. -- FAREWELL LETTER TO SWISS WORKERS.

ization of all lands and their management through local committees elected on the basis of complete democracy.
Such a revolution in itself would by no means yet be socialist. But it would give a huge impetus to the world
workers' movement. It would greatly strengthen the position
of the socialist revolution in Russia and its influence on agricultural
workers and on the poorest peasants. It would give the urban proletariat, relying on this influence, the opportunity
to develop such revolutionary organizations as the Soviets of workers' deputies, to replace them with the old instruments of oppression of the bourgeois states, the army, the police, the bureaucracy, to carry out--
under the pressure of the unbearably heavy imperialist war
and its consequences--a series of revolutionary measures to control
the production and distribution of products.
The Russian proletariat cannot by its own forces and completely complete the socialist revolution.
But it can give the Russian revolution such scope that will create the best conditions for it, which, in a certain sense, will begin it. It can ease the situation for entering
into decisive battles with its main, most reliable collaborator,
the European and American socialist proletariat.
Let the faint-hearted give way to despair over the temporary
victory in European socialism of such disgusting lackeys
of the imperialist bourgeoisie as Scheidemanns, Legiens, Davids and Co.
in Germany, Sambat, Guedes, Renaudel and Co. in France, Fabians
and "Labourites" in England. We are firmly convinced that this dirty
foam on the world workers' movement will be quickly swept away
by the waves of revolution.
In Germany, the mood of the proletarian masses is already seething,
which has given so much to humanity and socialism with its stubborn,
persistent, sustained, organizational work during long decades of European "calm" 1871-
1914. The future of German socialism is not represented by the traitors
Scheidemanns, Legiens, Davids and Co., and not by such vacillating,
oppressed by the routine of the "peaceful" period of politics, as
Haase, Kautsky and the like.
This future belongs to the trend that gave
Karl Liebknecht, which created the Spartacus group, which
conducted propaganda in the Bremen Arbeiterpolitik.

401
LENIN'S COLLECTION.
The objective conditions of the imperialist war serve as a guarantee
that the revolution will not be limited to the first stage
of the Russian revolution, that the revolution will not be limited to Russia.
The German proletariat is the truest, most reliable ally of the Russian and world proletarian
revolution.
When our party put forward in November 1914 the slogan "turning the imperialist war into a civil war,"
of the oppressed against the oppressors for socialism, this slogan was
met with hostility and malicious ridicule by social patriots,
with a mistrustful-skeptical, characterless-wait-and-see silence by the social-democratic "center."
The German social-chauvinist, social-imperialist David called it "crazy,"
and the representative of Russian and Anglo-French social-chauvinism,
socialism in words, imperialism in deeds, Mr. Plekhanov
called it "a dream-farce" (Mittelding zwischen Traum und
Komödie). And the representatives of the "center" got away with silence
or with vulgar jokes about "this straight line drawn in empty space."
Now, after March 1917, only the blind can fail to see that this slogan is true. The transformation of the imperialist war
into a civil war is becoming a fact.
Long live the beginning proletarian revolution in Europe!
On behalf of the departing comrades, members of the R.S.-D.R.
Party (united by the Central Committee), who adopted this
letter at a meeting on April 8, new style, 1917.
N. Lenin.