Comrades! A revolution has taken place in Russia.

The workers of Petrograd and Moscow have once again come forward as pioneers of a great liberation movement. They have declared a political strike. They have taken to the streets with red banners. They have fought like lions against the tsarist police, the gendarmes, and that small portion of the troops which did not immediately go over to the people's side. More than 2,000 killed and wounded have been counted in Petrograd alone. With their blood, Russian workers have purchased freedom for our country.

The demands of the workers were: bread, freedom, peace.

Bread—because the people in Russia are starving, as they are in almost all the countries participating in the present plundering war.

Freedom—because the tsarist government, taking advantage of the war, has finally transformed all of Russia into one continuous prison.

Peace—because the workers of Russia, like the more conscious workers of other countries, do not wish to die any longer for the interests of a handful of rich men, do not wish to continue the criminal war, begun by crowned and uncrowned brigands.

The majority of soldiers in the Petersburg and Moscow garrisons went over to the side of the insurgent workers. Workers and peasants in soldiers' uniforms have fraternally extended their hands to workers and peasants without uniforms. The best part of the officer corps has joined the revolution.

Those officers who wished to march against the people were shot by soldiers.

The workers and soldiers made the revolution. But power, as has happened in other revolutions, was seized by the bourgeoisie at the outset. The State Duma, in which an enormous majority belongs to landowners and capitalists, did everything in its power to reconcile itself with Tsar Nicholas II. Even in the final moment, when civil war was already raging in the streets of Petrograd, the State Duma sent telegram after telegram to the tsar, begging him to make minor concessions and thereby preserve his crown. Not the State Duma—the Duma of landowners and the rich—but the insurgent workers and soldiers overthrew the tsar. Yet the new Provisional Government was appointed by the State Duma.

This Provisional Government consists of representatives of liberal capitalists and large landowners. The chief posts belong to: Prince Lvov (a large landowner and very moderate liberal), A. Guchkov (an associate of Stolypin, who at one time approved military courts against revolutionaries), Tereshchenko (the largest sugar factory owner and millionaire), Milyukov (who has always defended and now defends the plundering war into which our country was drawn by Tsar Nicholas and his gang). The "democrat" Kerensky is invited into the new government only to create the appearance of a "popular" government, to have a "democratic" loudmouth who would speak grand but empty words to the people, while Guchkovs and Lvovs go about their anti-popular business.

The new government wants the plundering war to continue. It is the agent of Russian, English, and French capitalists who—like German capitalists—want at all costs to "finish the fight" and bargain for themselves the richest spoils. It does not want and cannot give Russia peace.

The new government does not want to take the landowners' lands and give them to the people; it does not want to place the burdens of war on the rich. It therefore cannot give the people bread. Workers and the poor population in general are forced to continue starving as before.

The new government consists of capitalists and landowners. It does not want to give Russia full freedom. Under pressure from insurgent workers and soldiers, it promised to convene a Constituent Assembly, which would decide how to organize Russia. But it is delaying the appointment of elections to the Constituent Assembly, wishing to gain time and then deceive the people, as such governments have done more than once in history. It does not want to create a democratic republic in Russia. It wants only to seat on the throne, instead of the bad Tsar Nicholas II, a supposedly "good" Tsar Michael. It wants power in Russia to belong not to the people themselves, but to a new tsar together with the bourgeoisie.

Such is the new government.

But in Petrograd, alongside this government, another government is gradually being organized. Workers and soldiers have formed a Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. Each thousand workers or soldiers elects one deputy. This Soviet now sits in the Tauride Palace with more than 1,000 authorized representatives. And it is truly a popular representation.

This Soviet may at first make one or another mistake. But it inevitably comes to demand loudly and imperiously: peace, bread, a democratic republic.

The Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies is pushing for the immediate convocation of the Constituent Assembly, the participation of soldiers in the elections and in deciding the question of war or peace. The Soviet is pressing for the transfer of the tsar's and landowners' lands into the hands of the peasantry. The Soviet is pushing for a republic and does not want even to hear about the appointment of a new "good" tsar. The Soviet demands the right of universal and equal voting for all men and for all women. The Soviet has achieved the arrest of the tsar and tsarina. The Soviet wants to establish a monitoring committee which would check every step of the new government and which would itself become the government in practice. The Soviet is striving for an alliance with workers in all other countries to strike together against the capitalists. Revolutionary workers have gone to the front in great numbers in order, taking advantage of freedom, to come to agreement with soldiers about how to act together, how to end the war, how to ensure the people's rights, how to strengthen freedom in Russia. In Petrograd, the social-democratic newspaper *Pravda*{38} is appearing anew, which helps workers accomplish all these great tasks.

Such is the state of affairs now, comrades.

You, languishing in captivity, cannot remain indifferent. You must be prepared for the fact that an important task may soon fall to your lot as well.

Enemies of Russian freedom sometimes count on you. They say: about 2 million soldiers are in captivity; if they, upon returning home, go over to the tsar's side, we can again seat Nicholas on the throne or his "beloved" brother. History has witnessed cases where yesterday's enemy, having made peace with the deposed tsar, handed over to him his captured soldiers so that they might help him fight against their own people…{39}

Comrades! Everywhere where you have the opportunity, discuss the great events taking place in our homeland. Declare loudly that you, together with all the best part of Russian soldiers, do not want a tsar, that you demand a free republic, the gratuitous transfer of landowners' lands to the peasants, an 8-hour workday, the immediate convocation of the Constituent Assembly. Declare that you stand on the side of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, that upon returning to Russia, you will stand not for the tsar, but against the tsar, not for landowners and the rich, but against them.

Everywhere where there is the opportunity, organize yourselves, pass resolutions to this effect, explain to less-developed comrades what a great event has taken place in our country.

You have suffered enough sorrows before the war, during the war, and in captivity. Now we are moving toward better days. The dawn of freedom has broken.

Return to Russia as an army of revolution, as an army of the people, not as an army of the tsar. In 1905 too, captives returning from Japan became the best fighters for freedom.

Upon returning home, you will scatter throughout the entire country. Carry then to each remote corner, to each Russian village suffering from hunger, exactions, and outrages—the news of freedom. Enlighten your peasant brothers: drive out darkness from the village, call the peasant poor to support the urban and rural workers in their glorious struggle.

Having conquered the republic, the workers of Russia will unite with workers in all other countries and boldly lead all humanity toward socialism, toward such an order where there will be neither rich nor poor, when a handful of rich men will not be able to turn millions of people into their hired slaves.

Comrades! As soon as we are able, we shall hasten to leave for Russia to join the struggle of our brothers, the workers and soldiers. But even there we will not forget about you. We shall try to send you books, newspapers, and news from free Russia about what is happening in our country. We shall demand that sufficient money and bread be sent to you. And we shall tell the insurgent workers and soldiers: you can rely on your brothers now languishing in captivity. They are sons of the people, and they will go with us into battle for freedom, into battle for the republic, against the tsar.

Written in mid-March 1917.

Published in 1917 as a separate leaflet.

Printed according to the text of the leaflet.