V. I.

Lenin

Theforces are in equilibrium, we wrote a fortnight ago, [1] when the first news of
the all-Russia political strike came in, and it was becoming evident that the
government dare not make immediate use of its military forces.

Theforces are in equilibrium, we repeated a week ago, [2] when the Manifesto of
October 17 was the latest in the political news, betokening to the
whole people and to the world at large that tsarism was in the grip of
irresolution, and was in retreat.

However,equilibrium of forces in no way precludes a struggle; on the contrary
it makes the struggle more acute. The sole purpose of the government’s retreat
is, as we have already said, to enable it to choose what it considers a new and
a more favourable situation for a battle. The proclamation of the
“liberties” that adorn the scrap of paper known as the Manifesto of
October 17 is merely an attempt to prepare the moral conditions for a
struggle against the revolution, while Trepov, at the head of the all-Russia
Black Hundreds, prepares the material conditions for that struggle.

Thedenouement is at hand, the new political situation is taking shape at
breath-taking speed, one that marks only revolutionary epochs. In words, the
government has begun to fall back, but in deed it has immediately begun to
prepare for an offensive. Promises of a constitution have been followed by the
most brutal and ugly acts of violence, which have seemed purposely designed to
give the people a still more striking object lesson of the real significance of
the

autocracy’s real power. The contrast between promises, words and scraps of
paper, on the one hand, and the facts of reality on the other has become
infinitely more manifest. Events have begun to provide telling
confirmation of a truth we long ago proclaimed to our readers, and shall
repeat over and over again, namely, that until tsarism’s actual power is
overthrown, all its concessions, and even a constituent assembly, are a
phantom, a mirage, a piece of deception.

Therevolutionary workers of St. Petersburg made this perfectly clear in one of
those daily bulletins [3] that have not yet reached us, but are being
referred to more and more frequently by foreign newspapers, astounded and
frightened by the might of the proletariat. “We have been granted freedom
of assembly,” the strike committee has written (we are translating from the
English back into the Russian, so some inaccuracy is of course inevitable in the
rendering), “but our meetings are surrounded by soldiers. We have been
granted freedom of the press, but censorship continues. Freedom of learning has
been promised, but the University is occupied by troops. Inviolability of the
person has been promised, but the prisons are packed with arrested people. We
have been granted Witte, but Trepov still exists. ’We have been granted a
constitution, but the autocracy still exists. We have been granted everything,
but we have nothing.”

The“Manifesto” has been suspended by Trepov. The constitution has
been held up by Trepov. The real significance of the liberties granted has been
clarified by the selfsame Trepov. The amnesty has been mangled by Trepov.

Butwho is this Trepov? Is he some extraordinary personality, whose removal is
of special significance? Nothing of the kind. He is just a most ordinary
policeman, who is doing the autocracy’s everyday work, with the military and the
police at his disposal.

Whyis it that this most ordinary policeman and his routine “job”
have suddenly acquired such extraordinary importance? It is because the
revolution has made immense progress, and had brought the denouement
closer. Led by the proletariat, the people are becoming politically more mature
with every day, nay with every hour, or, if you will, not by the year but by the
week. While to a people that was politically asleep, Trepov was just a most ordinary policeman, to a people that
has grown aware that it is a political force, he has become insufferable, for he
personifies all the brutality, criminality and senselessness of tsarism.

Revolutionteaches. It provides all classes of the people and all the nations of
Russia with excellent object lessons on the subject of the nature of a constitution . Revolution teaches by bringing to the fore the immediate and
pressing political tasks, in their most manifest and compelling forms; it
compels the masses to realise these tasks, and makes the people’s very existence
impossible, without fulfilment of these tasks; it unmasks the worthlessness of
all and sundry pretences, evasions, promises and acknowledgements. “We
have been granted everything, but we have nothing.” Indeed, we have been
“granted” only promises, since we have no real power. We have come
close to liberty, have compelled all and sundry, even the tsar, to acknowledge
the need for liberty. What we want, however, is not recognition of that need,
but liberty itself. What we want is not a scrap of paper with promises of
legislative powers for the people’s representatives, but actual sovereignty of
the people. The closer we approach that sovereignty, the more intolerable its
absence becomes. The more tempting the tsar’s manifestoes are, the more
unbearable is his rule.

Thestruggle is approaching its denouement, the answer to the question whether
actual power is to remain with the tsar s government. As for recognition of the
revolution, it has now been generally recognised. It was recognised quite long
ago by Mr. Struve and the Osvobozhdeniye gentry. It is now recognised
by Mr. Witte and by Nicholas Romanov. “I promise you anything you wish,”
says the tsar, “only let me retain power, let me fulfil my own promises.”
That is the gist of the tsar’s Manifesto, and it obviously had to spark off a
determined struggle. “I grant you everything except power,” tsarism
declares. “Everything is illusory except power,” the revolutionary people
reply.

Thereal significance of the seeming senselessness into which Russian affairs
have fallen lies in tsarism’s desire to deceive the people and evade revolution
by striking a bargain with the bourgeoisie. The tsar is making ever greater
promises to the bourgeoisie, in the hope that the propertied classes, to the man, will at last turn towards “law and
order”. However, whilst that “law and order” is exemplified in the excesses of Trepov and his Black Hundreds, the tsar’s
appeal seems likely to remain a voice crying in the wilderness. The tsar
stands in need of both Witte and Trepov in equal measure—Witte to
attract some, and. Trepov to intimidate others; Witte for promises, and
Trepov for action; Witte for the bourgeoisie, and Trepov for the
proletariat. Before our eyes there is again unfolding, only this time on a
far higher level of development, a scene the same as that witnessed at the
beginning of the Moscow strikes—the liberals are doing the
negotiating, while the workers are doing the fighting.

Trepovhas an excellent understanding of his role and his real significance. He
may have been somewhat too precipitate for the diplomatic Witte, but then he has
been afraid of being left behind by the rapid development of the revolution. He
has been even obliged to make haste, for he realises that the forces at his
disposal are on the wane.

Simultaneouslywith its Manifesto on the Constitution, the autocracy has begun
to take steps to preclude a constitution. The Black Hundreds have got down to
work in a way Russia has never seen before. Reports of massacres, pogroms, and
acts of unparalleled brutality are pouring in from all parts of the country. The
white terror is rampant. Wherever they can, the police are inciting and
organising the dregs of capitalist society for pillage and violence, plying the
scum of the urban population with liquor, staging anti-Jewish pogroms,
exhorting to violence against “students” and rebels, and helping in
“giving a lesson” to Zemstvo members. Counter-revolution is working
at full blast. Trepov has proved worthy of his salt. Machine-guns are opening
fire (Odessa), eyes are being put out (Kiev), people are being hurled from the
upper storeys into the streets below, houses are being taken by assault and then
sacked, fires are started and nobody allowed to put them out, and those who dare
offer resistance to the Black Hundreds are being shot down. From Poland to
Siberia, from the shores of the Gulf of Finland to the Black Sea—the
picture is the same.

Butsimultaneously with this spate of Black-Hundred brutality, this orgy staged
by the autocracy, these last convulsions of the tsarist monster, fresh onslaughts are being launched by the
proletariat, which, as always, only appears to quieten down after each upsurge
of the movement. In actual fact, it is only mustering its forces and preparing
to deal. a decisive blow. For reasons already mentioned, police atrocities in
Russia have acquired a character quite different from that of the past. Parallel
with the outbursts of Cossack vengeance and Trepov’s vindictiveness, the power
of the tsar is disintegrating apace. This is to be seen in the provinces, in
Finland, and in St. Petersburg; it is apparent in places where the people are
the most downtrodden and the least developed politically, in the marginal areas
with a non-Russian population, as well as in the capital, which promises to
become a scene of the revolution’s greatest drama.

Indeed,compare the following two telegraph messages, which we quote from a
Vienna bourgeois liberal newspaper [4] :

“ Tver . The premises of the Zemstvo were attacked by a mob in the
presence of Governor Sleptsov. After a siege the mob set fire to the
building. The firemen refused to extinguish the flames, while the troops stood
by without taking any measures to curb the ruffians.” (Of course we cannot vouch
for the absolute accuracy of this particular report, but it is an undeniable
fact that similar things, and others a hundred times worse, are being
perpetrated on all sides.)

“Kazan . The police have been disarmed by the people. Arms taken from the police have been distributed among the
population. A people’s militia has been set up. Perfect order prevails.”

Isnot a comparison of these two reports instructive? In one case there is
vengeance, atrocities, and pogroms; in the other, the tsar’s authority has been
overturned and a victorious uprising organised.

Finlandpresents a similar picture, only on a far greater scale. The tsar’s
viceroy has been expelled, and the lackey senators removed by the people. The
Russian gendarmes are being driven out and are trying to take reprisals (a
telegram from Haparanda, dated November 4, N. S.) by damaging railway
communications. In such cases armed detachments of the people’s militia are sent
to arrest the disorderly gendarmes. A meeting of Tornio citizens has decided to organise the import of weapons and free literature.

Thou sands and tens of thousands in town and countryside are enrolling in the Finnish
militia. The Russian garrison of a strong fortress (Sveaborg) are reported
to have expressed sympathy with the insurgents, and turned the fortress
over to the people’s militia. Finland is rejoicing. The tsar is making
concessions. He is prepared to summon the Diet, has repealed the unlawful
manifesto of February 15, 1899, and has accepted the “resignation” of the senators ousted by the people. Meanwhile,
Novoye Vremya is advising the government to blockade all Finnish
ports, and to crush the uprising by armed force. According to foreign press
reports, numerous Russian troops have been quartered in Helsingfors (it
cannot be ascertained to what extent they can be relied on to crush the
uprising). There are reports that Russian warships have entered the inner
harbour of Helsingfors.

St. Petersburg. Here Trepov is wreaking vengeance for the rejoicings of the
revolutionary people (over the concessions wrested from the tsar). Atrocities
are being perpetrated by the Cossacks, and massacres are on the increase. The
police are openly organising the Black Hundreds. The workers intended to hold a
gigantic demonstration on Sunday, November 5 (October 23), to pay public homage
to their heroes, their comrades who had fallen in the struggle for liberty. For
its part, the government prepared a gigantic blood-bath. It was preparing for
St. Petersburg something similar to what had already taken place on a smaller
scale in Moscow (the massacre at the funeral of Bauman, the workers’
leader). Trepov wanted to take advantage of the situation before his forces were
weakened by part of them being dispatched to Finland, and while the workers
were preparing to demonstrate, not to fight.

The St. Petersburg workers saw through the enemy’s scheme, and the demonstration
was called off. The workers’ committee decided that the final battle should not
take place at the time Trepov deigned to choose. The committee were quite right
in thinking that a number of reasons (including the uprising in Finland) made
postponement of the struggle disadvantageous to Trepov and advantageous to
us. Meanwhile arming of the people has proceeded apace, and propaganda in the
army has met with remarkable success. A hundred and fifty ratings of the 14th and the 18th Naval Depots are
stated to have been arrested, and during the last week and a half ninety-two
reports are said to have been submitted concerning sympathy for revolutionaries
shown by officers. Handbills calling on soldiers to go over to the side of the
people are being distributed even among patrols “guarding”
St. Petersburg. Freedom of the press, which was promised within limits
prescribed by Trepov, is being extended to a greater degree by the mighty arm of
the revolutionary proletariat. According to messages in the foreign press, only
those St. Petersburg newspapers came out on Saturday, October 22 (November 4),
which accepted the workers’ demand that they ignore the censorship. Two
St. Petersburg German-language papers that wished to remain “loyal”
(i.e., servile) could not come out. From the moment the St. Petersburg strikers’
union, but not Trepov, began to determine the bounds of legality, the
“legal” papers began speaking up in extremely bold tones. “The
strike has been only suspended,” reads a cable to the Neue Freie Presse
of October 23 (November 5). “The strike, it is reported, will be resumed
when the time for a final blow at the old order arrives. Concessions no longer
make the least impression on the proletariat. The situation is highly
dangerous. Revolutionary ideas are gaining an increasing hold on the
masses. The working class feels that it is master of the situation. Those who
are afraid of impending disaster are beginning to leave the city
[St. Petersburg].”

Thedenouement is at hand. The victory of the people’s uprising is not far off
now. Revolutionary Social-Democracy’s slogans are being put into effect with
unexpected rapidity. Let Trepov go on dashing to and fro between revolutionary
Finland and revolutionary St. Petersburg, between the revolutionary marginal
areas and the revolutionary provinces. Let him try to choose a single safe place
for untrammelled military operations. Let the tsar’s Manifesto be circulated
more widely; let the news of the events in the revolutionary centres become more
widespread—that will win us new supporters, and bring fresh vacillation
and disintegration into the dwindling ranks of the tsar’s adherents.

Theall-Russia political strike has performed its tasks excellently by
furthering the uprising, by inflicting frightful wounds on tsarism, and by frustrating the disgusting comedy of the disgusting
State Duma. The general rehearsal is over. The indications are that we
are now on the eve of the drama itself. Witte is wallowing in a spate of
words, while Trepov is wallowing in rivers of blood. The tsar is running
short of promises he might yet make, while Trepov is running short of
Black-Hundred forces he might send into the final battle. The ranks of the
army of revolution are swelling all the time. Its forces are being steeled
in individual engagements, and the red flag is rising higher and higher
over the new Russia.

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Notes:
[1]
See pp. 394-95 of this volume.— Ed .

[2]
See p. 428 of this volume.— Ed .

[3]
Lenin is referring to Izvestia Sovieta Rabochikh Deputatov ( Bulletin of the Soviet of Workers’ Deputies )—official
organ of the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers’ Deputies, published from October
17 (30) till December 14 (27), 1905. It was made up and printed by the workers
at the print-shops of various bourgeois newspapers. In all, ten issues appeared,
the eleventh being confiscated by the police while it was being printed.

[4]
The reference is to the Neue Frete Presse , a liberal-bourgeois newspaper, published in Vienna from 1864 onwards.