V. I.

Lenin

The Note of the Provisional Government on war to a victorious finish
has aroused indignation even among those who nourished illusory
hopes for a possible renunciation of annexations on the part of
the government of capitalists. The newspapers that have been
acting as mouthpieces of this petty-bourgeois policy of illusory
hopes are today either mumbling in dismay, like Rabochaya Gazeta , or are trying to turn this indignation against
individuals.

Novaya Zhizn [1] writes: “There is no place in the government of
democratic Russia for a champion of the interests of international capital! We are sure the Soviet of Workers’ and
Soldiers’ Deputies will act promptly in taking the most
energetic measures towards rendering Mr. Milyukov harmless.” And
Dyelo Naroda expresses the same piece of philistine wisdom in the
following words. Milyukov’s Note, it says, “tries to reduce to
nought a statement of the greatest international importance
approved by the entire cabinet’.

Icons versus cannons. Phrases versus capital. The government’s
statement renouncing annexations was a piece of utterly
worthless diplomatic verbiage, which might deceive an ignorant
muzhik , but could not “confuse” the leaders of the petty-bourgeois
Social-Democratic and Socialist-Revolutionary parties, the
writers of Novaya Zhizn and Dyelo Naroda , unless they were willing to be deceived. What empty phrases are
these about there being “no place in the government of democratic Russia for a champion of the interests of
international capital!” Educated people ought to be ashamed of
themselves, writing such nonsense.

The whole Provisional Government is a government of the
capitalist class. It is a matter of class, not of persons. To
attack Milyukov personally, to demand, directly or indirectly, his dismissal, is
a silly comedy, for no change of personalities can change anything so long as the classes in power are
unchanged.

To draw a line between the “democracy” of Russia, Britain, France, etc., and the championing of capital is to sink
to the level, of the economic and political wisdom of a
Gapon . [2]

It is pardonable for ignorant muzhiks to demand of the capitalist a “promise” that he “live righteously” and not
capitalistically, that he should not “champion the interests of capital”. But for the leaders of the Petrograd
Soviet, for the writers of Novaya Zhizn and
Dyelo Naroda to adopt such methods means to nourish the
illusory hopes which the people place in the capitalists, hopes
that are most harmful and ruinous to the cause of freedom, to
the cause of the revolution.

---
Notes:
[1]



[2]