At the end of the general-Principles part of the programme (after the words: “on the standpoint of the proletariat”) insert:

World capitalism has now, approximately since the beginning of the 20th century, reached the stage of imperialism. Imperialism, or the epoch of finance capital, is a capitalist economy so highly developed, when monopoly associations of capitalists – syndicates, cartels, trusts – have acquired decisive importance, banking capital of enormous concentration has merged with industrial capital, the export of capital to foreign countries has developed on a very large scale, the whole world is already territorially divided up among the richest countries, and the economic division of the world among international trusts has begun.

Imperialist wars – i.e., wars for domination over the world, for markets for banking capital, for the strangulation of small and weak nations – are inevitable under such a state of affairs. And it is precisely such that the first great imperialist war of 1914–1917 is.

And the extremely high stage of development of world capitalism in general; the replacement of free competition by monopoly capitalism; the preparation by the banks, and also by the capitalists’ associations, of an apparatus for the social regulation of the process of production and distribution of products; the growth of high prices and the oppression of the working class by the syndicates, connected with the growth of capitalist monopolies, the gigantic hindrance to its economic and political struggle; and the horrors, calamities, ruin, and brutalisation engendered by the imperialist war – all this makes the stage of capitalist development now reached an era of proletarian, socialist revolution.

This era has begun.

Only a proletarian, socialist revolution can lead mankind out of the deadlock created by imperialism and imperialist wars. Whatever the difficulties of the revolution, and its possible temporary failures, or waves of counter-revolution, the final victory of the proletariat is inevitable.

On the order of the day of the present epoch is placed therefore, by virtue of objective conditions, the comprehensive direct preparation of the proletariat for the conquest of political power, for the implementation of the economic and political measures that constitute the content of the socialist revolution.

The fulfilment of this task, which requires the fullest confidence, the closest fraternal union, and the immediate unity of revolutionary action of the working class of all advanced countries, is impossible without an immediate and fundamental break with that bourgeois distortion of socialism which has triumphed in the top layers of the overwhelming majority of the official Social-Democratic parties. On the one hand, this distortion is the current of social-chauvinism{72}, socialism in words, chauvinism in deeds, the cloak of the slogan “defence of the fatherland” for the defence of the predatory interests of “one’s own” national bourgeoisie, and, on the other hand, the equally widespread and international current of the so-called “Centre”{73}, which stands for unity with the social-chauvinists, for the preservation or reform of the bankrupt Second International, a current that vacillates between social-chauvinism and the revolutionary-internationalist struggle of the proletariat for the realisation of the socialist system.

In the Minimum Programme, the entire beginning (from the words: “On the road” up to § 1) is to be deleted and replaced by the following:

At the present moment in Russia, when the Provisional Government, belonging to the capitalist class and enjoying the confidence – of necessity shaky – of the broad masses of the petty-bourgeois population, has pledged itself to convene a Constituent Assembly, the party of the proletariat is faced with the immediate task of fighting for a state system that best ensures both the economic development and the rights of the people in general, and the possibility of a most painless transition to socialism in particular.

The party of the proletariat cannot confine itself to a bourgeois-parliamentary democratic republic, which everywhere in the world preserves and seeks to perpetuate the monarchist instruments for the oppression of the masses, namely: the police, the standing army, and a privileged bureaucracy.

The party fights for a more democratic, proletarian-peasant republic, in which the police and the standing army are completely abolished and replaced by the universal arming of the people, a universal militia; all officials become not only elected but also subject to recall at any time at the demand of a majority of their electors; the remuneration of all officials, without exception, is fixed at a level not exceeding the average pay of a good worker; parliamentary-representative institutions are gradually replaced by Soviets of people’s representatives (from various classes and professions, or from various localities), which both legislate and implement their own laws.

The constitution of the democratic Russian republic must ensure:

§ 1. The autocracy of the people; the entire supreme power in the state must belong to the representatives of the people, elected and subject to recall at any time by the people, and constituting a single popular assembly, a single chamber.

§ 2. – add:
Proportional representation at all elections; the right of recall of all, without exception, delegates and elected officials at any time by decision of a majority of their electors.

§ 3. – add:
Abolition of all local and regional authorities appointed by the state.[9]

In § 8, the last sentence is to be worded as follows:
The introduction of the native language in all local public and state institutions; the abolition of an obligatory state language.

§ 9 is to be amended as follows:
The right of free secession and of the formation of an independent state for all nations composing the state. The republic of the Russian people must attract other peoples or nationalities not by violence, but exclusively by voluntary agreement to create a common state. The unity and fraternal union of the workers of all countries does not tolerate either direct or indirect violence against other nationalities.

§ 11 is to be amended as follows:
Election of judges and officials, both in the civil service and in the army, by the people; their right of recall at any time by decision of a majority of their electors.

§ 12 is to be amended as follows:
Replacement of the police and the standing army by the universal arming of the people; workers and employees must receive their usual pay from the capitalists for the time devoted to public service in the people’s militia.

After the financial section of the programme (after the words: “on incomes and inheritances”) insert:
The high stage of capitalist development already attained in banking and in the trustified branches of industry, on the one hand, and, on the other, the dislocation caused by the imperialist war and everywhere giving rise to a demand for state and public control over the production and distribution of the most important products, impels the party to demand the nationalisation of banks, syndicates (trusts), etc.

The agrarian programme is to be formulated as follows:
The beginning is to remain as before (from the words: “With the aim of eliminating the survivals” up to the words: “the party demands”), and the continuation is to be replaced by the following:
1) fights with all its strength for the immediate and complete confiscation of all landed estates in Russia (as well as appanage, church, cabinet, etc., etc.);
2) advocates the immediate transfer of all land into the hands of the peasantry, organised in Soviets of Peasants’ Deputies or in other organs of local self-government which are genuinely fully democratically elected and entirely independent of landlords and officials;
3) demands the nationalisation of all land in the state; nationalisation, meaning the transfer of the right of ownership of all land to the state, transfers the right of land disposal to local democratic institutions;
4) supports the initiative of those peasant committees which, in a number of localities in Russia, are transferring the landlords’ livestock and implements into the hands of the peasantry organised in these committees for socially regulated use in the cultivation of all land;
5) advises the proletarians and semi-proletarians of the countryside to strive for the establishment, on each landed estate, of a sufficiently large model farm to be run at public expense by the Soviets of Agricultural Workers’ Deputies under the guidance of agronomists and with the application of the best technical means.

The party in all cases and in every situation, etc., to the end of the paragraph (“exploitation”).

Finally, the end of the agrarian programme, from the words: “the party in all cases and in every situation of democratic agrarian transformations” to the words: “all exploitation”, is to remain as before.

The entire end of the programme, the two last paragraphs, from the words: “striving to achieve” to the end, are to be deleted entirely.