V. I.

Lenin

Theforeign press reported that at recent conferences in Tsarskoye Selo (after
the victory of January 9), with or without the tsar attending, the question of
the desirability of peace with Japan was animatedly discussed. In principle,
all who surround the adored monarch stand for peace now. The number of state
dignitaries who ten days ago were emphatically for continuing the war has now
dwindled considerably, and many of them have now become convinced advocates of
peace.

Wemention this for the information of the simple Social-Democrats of the
so-called Central Organ of our Party, who failed to understand that the phrases
about “peace at any price” , while remaining empty phrases
(for no one asked the opinion of the Social-Democrats, and their opinion counted
for nought), actually, in the present situation, have merely played into the
hands of the frightened adherents of the autocracy. Our new-Iskrists missed the
change of mood on the part of the whole European bourgeoisie (which began with
sympathy towards Japan and has long since started to shift in favour of Russia
through fear of the revolution—cf. Frankfurter Zeitung and
others). Now they miss the fact that the empty, hackneyed phrases about peace at
any price are beginning to be utilised also by the
St. Petersburg Ugryum-Burcheyevs [1] for their own purpose.

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Notes:
[1]
Ugryum-Burcheyev—a type of dull and narrow-minded dignitary depicted by Saltykov-Shchedrin in his story History of a Town .

Bythe St. Petersburg Ugryum-Burcheyevs Lenin meant members of the palace clique
of Tsar Nicholas II.