V. I. Lenin

Interview Granted To An Izvestia Correspondent In
Connection With The Left Socialist-Revolutionary
Revolt [1]

Brief Report

Revolution with remarkable consistency drives every proposition
to its logical conclusion and ruthlessly exposes the utter
futility and criminality of all wrong tactics.

The Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, carried away by nigh-sounding phrases, have for several months now been
screaming: " Down with the Brest peace! To arms against the
Germans!"

We replied that under present conditions, in the present period
of history, the Russian people cannot fight and do not want to
fight.

Closing their eyes to the facts, they continued with insane
obstinacy to persist in their own line, not sensing that they
were drawing further and further away from the masses of the
people, and determined at all costs, even by brute force, to
impose their will on these masses, the will of their Central
Committee, which included criminal adventurers, hysterical
intellectuals, and so on.

And the further they drew away from the people, the more they
earned the sympathies of the bourgeoisie, which was hoping to
accomplish its designs by their hand.

Their criminal terrorist act and revolt have fully and completely opened the eyes of the broad masses to the abyss into
which the criminal tactics of the Left Socialist-Revolutionary
adventurers are dragging Soviet Russia, the Russia of the
people.

On the day of the revolt, I myself and many other comrades had
occasion to hear even the most backward sections of the people
expressing their profound disgust of the Left
Socialist-Revolutionaries.

One simple old woman said indignantly on hearing of the
assassination of Mirbach:

" The devils, so they've driven us into war after all!"

It at once became perfectly clear and obvious to everybody that
the Socialist-Revolutionaries' terroristic act had brought
Russia to the brink of war. That, in fact, was what the masses
thought of the action of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries.

They are trying by underhand methods to embroil us in war with
the Germans at a time when we cannot fight and do not want to
fight. The masses will never forgive the Left
Socialist-Revolutionaries for trampling so brutally on the will
of the people and trying to force them into war.

And if anybody was well pleased with the action of the Left
Socialist-Revolutionaries and rubbed his hands with glee, it was
only the whiteguards and the servitors of the imperialist
bourgeoisie; whereas the worker and peasant masses have been
rallying ever closer and more solidly around the
Communist-Bolshevik Party, the authentic spokesman of the will
of the masses.

Endnotes

[1]
The counter-revolutionary insurrection of the Left
Socialist-Revolutionaries in Moscow (July 6-7, 1918) was
organised in accordance with the decision of the C.C. of the
Left S.R.s of June 24. It was part of a general attack by the
internal counter-revolution and the imperialists of the Entente
against Soviet Russia, and the insurrectionists were secretly
supported by foreign diplomatic missions.

The insurrection was launched during the Fifth All-Russia
Congress of Soviets, at which the anti-Soviet speeches of the
Left S.R.s received no support from the overwhelming majority of
delegates. Defeated at the Congress, the Lefb S.R.s pursued
their aim of sabotaging the Brest Peace Treaty and dragging
Soviet Russia into war with Germany by assassinating the German
Ambassador in Moscow Count Mirbach on July 6. This was followed
up by an insurrection. The main rebel force was a detachment
commanded by D.I. Popov, a Left S.R. and member of the
Cheka. About 1,800 people took part in the insurrection,
bombarding the Kremlin with artillery and seizing the telephone
exchange and telegraph office. During the two hours that they
remained in control there, they sent out several provocatory
manifestos, bulletins and telegrams in the name of the Left
S.R. Central Committee alleging that the Left S.R.s had taken
over power and that their action had been welcomed by the whole
population.

The Fifth Congress of Soviets instructed the government to
suppress the insurrection at once, and the group of Left S.R.s
at the Congress was arrested. Thanks to the energetic measure
taken by the Soviet Government and the united action of the
Moscow workers and garrison the insurrection was put down within
twenty four hours. By 2 p. m. on July 7 it was all over.

The Left S.R.s also tried to start insurrections in Petrograd,
Vologda and other cities A telegram from the Left S . R. Central
Committee stating that the Left S.R.s had seized power in
Moscow, was sent to M. A. Muravyov, a Left S.B. and Commander of
the Eastern Front. On the pretext of attacking the Germans, he
tried to seize Simbirsk (now Ulyanovsk) and march his forces on
Moscow in support of the insurrectionists. Like the other
insurrections, Muravyov's reckless attempt was quickly supressed.

When the Fifth Congress of Soviets reassembled after the defeat
of the insurrection, it passed a decision expelling from the
Soviets the Left S.R.s who had supported the adventuristic line
of their leadership. Numerous telegrams in which the workers and
peasants expressed their approval of the suppression of the
revolt and their readiness to take up arms to defend Soviet
power reached the Congress from all parts of the country.