V. I.

Lenin

“Bloody Day” in Warsaw and other towns of Poland, [2] the attempt on the life of Stolypin and the assassination of Min [3] have all roused universal interest in the question of “guerrilla
actions”—we use the term which has become current among Party
members and legitimised by the resolution of the Unity Congress.

The editorial board proposes to publish in the near future an article, or
series of articles, dealing as comprehensively as possible with this extremely
important question. [1]

In the meantime, so as not to leave our readers in ignorance of our views, we shall make the following brief remarks, which in
subsequent articles will be developed in detail and more precisely formulated.

First remark. Going to extremes is always bad, and there can be no doubt in the
mind of any socialist that the sentiments of the masses must be taken into
account when organising guerrilla actions. Therefore, we think that it is
absolutely necessary to take into account the opinion of the Bund (evidently in
agreement with the Polish Social-Democrats), which is familiar with the
conditions of work in Warsaw and the sentiments of the masses in that city,
namely, the opinion that the Polish Socialist Party “went too
far”. Whether it did so or not is a question of fact which we are not
competent to decide. It is never advisable to go too far, but it would be wrong
to conclude that because there have been individual cases of “going to
extremes” a certain form of struggle is no good.

On the whole, we consider that the intensification of guerrilla warfare in
Russia after the dissolution of the Duma is a gain. A ruthless guerrilla
war of extermination against the government’s perpetrators of violence
appears to us to be timely and expedient.

Second remark. The Central Committee of our Party is certainly mistaken, and
seriously mistaken, when it says in its footnote to the fourth
“letter” (to the Party organisations): “it goes without
saying that the Party, as heretofore, repudiates so-called ’guerrilla’ militant
actions.”

This is incorrect . We abide by the decisions of the Congress, but
under no circumstances shall we submit to decisions of the Central
Committee which violate the decisions of the Congress. Anyone who takes
the trouble to examine carefully the resolution of the Unity Congress entitled:
“On Guerrilla Actions” will see without any difficulty that our
Party repudiates one form of guerrilla action, recognises
another, and recommends a third.

It entirely repudiates the expropriation of private property. It does not repudiate the expropriation of government funds, but hedges it round with
particularly strict conditions (“if organs of revolutionary power
are formed in the given locality”, etc .).

Further, the resolution of the Congress recognises guerrilla actions
without expropriation of property, i.e., recognises “terror” , recognises guerrilla actions for the purpose
of killing the enemy. This recognition is clearly and unambiguously expressed in
the very first words of the resolution, following the preamble:

“The Congress resolves: (1) recognising that parallel with [our
italics throughout] the preparation of the revolutionary forces for the coming
uprising, the basis of which is the organisation of the masses of the working
class, an active struggle against government terror and the violence of the Black Hundreds will be inevitable , it is necessary...”
(then follows the prohibition of stealing, the expropriation of private funds,
etc.).

Our excerpt from the decision of the Congress is perfectly
clear. “Parallel with” work among the masses it recognises
“active struggle” against the perpetrators of violence, which undoubtedly means killing them by means of “guerrilla actions”.

The only restrictions that the resolution places on this second form of
guerrilla action (the killing of perpetrators of violence) are the following:
“to avoid the violation of the personal property of peaceful citizens except

[listen!] in those cases when it is an unintentional result of the struggle against the government
or when, as for instance in building barricades, it is called for by
the exigencies of the immediate struggle.”

Thus, when the immediate struggle requires it, the violation of
private property is permissible, e.g., the seizure of vehicles, etc., for
barricades. When there is no immediate struggle, the Congress instructs
us to avoid disturbing the personal safety of “peaceful”
citizens; but the Congress at once points to an exception : it does
not blame participants in guerrilla actions for “unintentional” disturbance of personal safety resulting from the
struggle against the government.

Lastly, the Congress definitely recommends to the Party a certain form
of guerrilla action, by resolving without qualifications or restrictions that:
“arms and military supplies that belong to the government must be seized whenever an opportunity presents itself.”

For instance: policemen carry arms that belong to the government. “The
opportunity presents itself....”

Third remark. We advise all the numerous fighting groups of our Party to cease
their inactivity and undertake a number of guerrilla actions in strict
conformity with the decision of the Congress, i. e., without any expropriation
of property, with the least possible “disturbance of the personal
safety” of peaceful citizens, but with the utmost disturbance of
the personal safety of spies, active members of the Black Hundreds,
army, navy and police officers, and so on, and so forth . As for
“arms” and “military supplies that belong to the government”,
they “must be seized whenever an opportunity presents itself”.

---
Notes:
[1]
See pp. 213-23 of this volume.— Ed .

[2]
The “ bloody day ” was August 2 (15), 1906, when attacks on the police were carried out in Warsaw, Lodz, Radom, Plotsk
and other Polish towns. The action was organised by the Polish Socialist Party
(P.P.S.) (see Lenin’s note on “The Guerrilla Action of the Polish
Socialist Party” in this volume, p. 194).

[3]
The attempt on the life of Stolypin was carried out by
Socialist-Revolutionary Maximalists on August 12 (25), 1906.

General Min, who was in charge of the suppression of the December armed uprising
in Moscow, was killed by a member of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party on August
13 (26), 1906.