V. I.

Lenin

Theautocracy is wavering. The autocrat himself publicly admits this to
the people. That is the enormous significance of the tsar’s Manifesto of
February 26, and no amount of conventional phrases, none of the
reservations or subterfuges the Manifesto abounds in, can alter the
historic importance of the step that has been taken.

Thetsar begins in the old way—as yet in the old way:
“by the grace of God”... and concludes with a half-cowardly,
half-hypocritical appeal for help addressed to people invested with
public confidence . The tsar himself already feels that the days
when government in Russia could maintain itself by the grace of God are
passing never to return and that henceforth the only stable government
Russia can have is government by the will of the people .

Thetsar reaffirms his sacred vow to safeguard the age-old pillars of the
Russian Empire. Translated into Russian from the language of officialdom,
this means: to safeguard the autocracy. Alexander III once declared that
openly and without circumlocution (in the Manifesto of April 29, 1881),
when the revolutionary movement was receding and dwindling. Today, when
the battle-cry “Down with the autocracy” is resounding ever
more loudly and impressively, Nicholas II prefers to cover his declaration
with a small fig-leaf and to make a modest reference to his unforgettable
progenitor. A senseless and contemptible stratagem I

The question of whether or not the autocracy is to be has been raised
point-blank and carried into the streets. And every promise of
“reforms”—if they may be called “reforms”!— that begins with a promise to preserve the autocracy is a glaring lie, a mockery of the Russian people. But there is nothing that
could serve to expose the government in the eyes of the whole people
better than this governmental appeal to the people with hypocritical and
false promises.

Thetsar speaks (again using a fig-leaf) about the revolutionary movement,
complaining that “sedition” interferes with the work of
improving public welfare, agitates minds, tears the people away from
productive labour, ruins forces dear to the heart of the tsar, ruins the
youthful forces indispensable to the fatherland. And so, since
the ruined participants in the revolutionary movement are dear to the
tsar’s heart, there lore he at once promises to ruthlessly
suppress every deviation from the normal course of social life, i.e., to
brutally persecute free speech, workers’ strikes, and popular
demonstrations.

Thatis enough, more than enough. This Jesuitical speech speaks for
itself. We merely make so bold as to express the conviction that by being
spread throughout the length and breadth of Russia this “tsarist
pledge” will act as most splendid propaganda in favour of
revolutionary demands. There is only one answer that this pledge of the
tsar’s can evoke from anyone who has the least spark of honour left in
him: the demand for the immediate and unconditional release of
all persons who have been imprisoned, exiled or arrested—with or without trial, before or after sentence has been
passed—for political or religious considerations, or because of
strike activities or resistance to the authorities.

Wehave seen the hypocrisy of the tsar’s speech. Let us now see
what he speaks about.

Hespeaks mainly about three things. First, about tolerance. Our
fundamental laws which guarantee freedom of worship for all faiths are to
be confirmed and upheld. But the Russian Orthodox Church shall remain
dominant. Secondly, the tsar speaks about a revision of legislation
relating to rural affairs, about people who enjoy public confidence taking
part in this revision, and about joint efforts on the part of all his
subjects to raise moral standards in the family, the school, and public
life. Thirdly, about making it easier for the peasants to leave their village communes, about
releasing the peasants from the restrictions of collective liability.

Inanswer to Nicholas II’s three declarations, promises, and proposals,
Russian Social-Democracy replies with three demands which it long ago
raised, and has always defended and popularised to the best of its
ability, and which we must now reaffirm most emphatically in connection
with the tsar’s Manifesto and in answer to it.

First,we demand the immediate and unconditional recognition by law of the
freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, and an amnesty for all
“political prisoners” and members of religious sects. Until
that is done, all talk about tolerance and freedom of worship will remain
a miserable pretence and a discreditable lie. Until freedom of assembly,
speech, and the press is proclaimed, there will be no end to the shameful
Russian inquisition, which hounds the profession of officially
unsanctioned faiths, opinions, and doctrines. Down with the censorship!
Down with police and gendarme protection of the “established”
church! For these demands the class-conscious proletariat of Russia will
fight to the last drop of blood.

Secondly,we demand the convocation of a national Constituent Assembly
which will be elected by all citizens without exception and will establish
an elective form of government in Russia. Enough of this game of
conferences of local people, of landlords’ parliaments under the
governors, of representative government by the Marshals (and perhaps by
the delegates as well?) of the Nobility! Enough of this cat-and-mouse game
which the all-powerful officialdom has been playing with all kinds of
Zemstvos, now letting them go, now stroking them with its velvet paws!
Until a national assembly of deputies is called, all talk of public
confidence and moral standards in public life will be a pack of
lies. Until then the Russian working class will not abate its
revolutionary struggle against the Russian autocracy.

Thirdly,we demand the immediate and unconditional recognition by law of
the full equality of the peasants with all other social-estates, and the
convocation of peasant committees for the abolition of all
remnants of serfdom in the countryside and the adoption of serious measures to improve the
conditions of the peasantry.

Theabsence of rights for the peasantry, which constitutes nine-tenths of
the population of Russia, cannot be tolerated a day longer. The entire
working class and the entire country are suffering from this absence of
rights; it is on this that all the Asiatic backwardness in Russian life
rests; it is owing to this absence of rights that all the various
conferences and commissions produce no results ( or are injurious to the peasants ). Now, too, the tsar wants to escape by invoking the
former “conferences” of bureaucrats and noblemen; he even
speaks of “strong government” to guide the efforts of the
local forces. The peasants know full well from the example of the rural
superintendents what this “strong government” means. Not in
vain have the peasants endured forty years of poverty, want and constant
starvation after the benefactions bestowed on them by the committees of
nobles. Now the peasants will understand that all “reforms”
and improvements will re main a sham if they are not put into effect
by the peasants themselves . The peasants will understand—and we shall help them to understand—that only
peasant committees are capable of really abolishing not only
collective liability but all survivals of the corvée system and
serfdom, which are still oppressing tens of millions of people right into
the twentieth century. Freedom of assembly and freedom of the press are
quite enough for the urban workers: we shall be able to make good use of
these liberties!! But for the peasants, scattered in out-of-the-way
places, and cowed and reduced to a state of barbarism, this is not
enough—and the workers must help them, must explain to them that
they will unavoidably and inescapably remain miserable slaves until they
take their destiny into their own hands, until they take their first and
most important step and achieve the establishment of peasant committees for real and not sham emancipation of the peasantry.

Intelligentand experienced people have long observed that there. is no more precarious moment for a government in a revolutionary period than
the beginning of concessions, the beginning of waverings. Russian
political life of the last few years has brilliantly confirmed this. The
government began to waver on the question of the working-class movement, giving a
free hand to Zubatovism—and made a laughing-stock of itself, playing
splendidly into the hands of revolutionary agitation The government wanted
to make concessions on the student question—and made a laughing
stock of itself, advancing the revolutionisation of the students by
seven-league strides. The government is now repeating on a large scale the
very same method with regard to all questions of home policy—and it
will inevitably make a laughing-stock of itself, inevitably facilitate,
strengthen and add impetus to the revolutionary onslaught on the
autocracy!

*     * *
Thereis still another question we must deal with, and that is the
practical question of how to use the tsar’s Manifesto of February 26 for
purposes of agitation. The Russian Social-Democrats long ago answered the
question as to the means of struggle by saying: organisation and
agitation; neither were they put out by the jeers of naive people who
considered this “indefinite,” and held that the only “definite” means were pistol shots. And now, at a moment like
the present, when such a welcome cue for conducting agitation on a
nation-wide scale unexpectedly presents itself, one which so urgently
demands the exertion of our every effort—at such a moment, a
deficiency, the old self-same deficiency in organisation, in ability
rapidly to set our agitation going, makes itself felt more keenly than
ever.

Butwe shall yet make up for lost time, make up for it many times over!

Firstof all, we must reply to the Manifesto of February 26 with leaflets
published by central and local Party organisations. Whereas hitherto
leaflets were issued in tens of thousands for all Russia, they should now
be distributed in millions, so that the whole people may learn of the
answer of the class-conscious Russian proletariat to the tsar’s appeal to
the people. so that all may see our definite, practical demands in
juxtaposition with the speech of the tsar on the same subject .

Further.We must not allow reverential raptures of legal meetings of
well-intentioned Zemstvoists and noblemen, merchants and professors, etc., etc., to be the only reply to the
Manifesto of February 26. Nor will the replies that Social-Democratic
organisations will give in their leaflets prove sufficient. Let every study circle, every meeting of workers draw up its own answer and
ratify formally and solemnly the demands of Social-Democracy. Let the
decisions of these workers’ meetings (and, if possible, also of peasants’
meetings) be published in local leaflets and reported in our press. Let
all know that we consider answers from the workers and peasants themselves
the only answer from the people. And let all study circles begin to
prepare immediately to back up our fundamental demands with force .

Moreover,we must not allow messages of gratitude to the tsar to be drawn
up at all sorts of meetings, without counteraction. Our liberals have
falsified Russian public opinion long enough! Long enough have they lied,
saying not what they themselves think, or what the entire reasoning and
militant section of the people thinks! We must endeavour to get into their
meetings, declare our opinion there, too, as widely, publicly and openly
as possible, voice our protest against servile gratitude, give our
real answer to the tsar, and declare it by distributing leaflets
as well as by speaking publicly, whenever possible, at all such meetings
(even though the chairmen will try to stop such speeches).

Finally,we must try to bring the answer of the workers out on to the
street, to broadcast our demands through demonstrations, and to show
publicly the numbers and strength of the workers, their
class-consciousness and determination. Let the coming May Day celebration
be not only a general declaration of our proletarian demands, but also a
special and definite answer to the Manifesto of February 26!

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