V. I.

Lenin

Geneva, January 10 (23)

Theworking class, which would seem to have stood aside for a long
time from the bourgeois opposition movement, has raised its
voice. With incredible speed the broad masses of the workers have
caught up with their advanced comrades, the class-conscious
Social-Democrats. The workers’ movement in St. Petersburg these
days has made gigantic strides. Economic demands are giving way to
political demands. The strike is turning into a general strike and
it has led to an unheard-of colossal demonstration; the prestige of
the tsarist name has been ruined for good. The uprising has
begun. Force against force. Street fighting is raging, barricades
are being thrown up, rifles are crackling, guns are roaring. Rivers
of blood are flowing, the civil war for freedom is blazing up.
Moscow and the South, the Caucasus and Poland are ready to join the
proletariat of St. Petersburg. The slogan of the workers has become:
Death or freedom! Today and tomorrow a great deal will be
decided. The situation changes with every hour. The telegraph brings
breath-taking news, and all words now seem feeble in comparison with
the events we are living through. Everyone must be ready to do his
duty as a revolutionary and as a Social-Democrat.

Longlive the revolution!

Longlive the insurgent proletariat!

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