V. I.

Lenin

Worker Comrades:

The European war has been in progress for over a year. All things
considered, it will last for a long time, because, while Germany is best
prepared and at present the strongest, the Quadruple Entente (Russia,
Britain, France, end Italy) has more men and money, and besides, freely gets
war material from the United States of America, the world’s richest
Country.

What is this war being fought for, which is bringing mankind unparalleled
suffering? The government and the bourgeoisie of each belligerent country
are squandering millions of rubles on hooks and newspapers so as to lay the
blame on the foe, arouse the people’s furious hatred of the enemy, and
stop at no lie so as to depict themselves as the side that has been unjustly
attacked and is now “defending” itself. In reality, this is a
war between two groups of predatory Great Powers, and it is being fought for
the partitioning of colonies, the enslavement of other nations, and
advantages and privileges of the world market. This is a most reactionary
war, a war o modern slave-holders aimed at preserving and consolidating
capitalist. slavery. Britain and France are lying when they assert that they
are warring for Belgium’s freedom. In reality, they have long been
preparing the war, and are waging it with the purpose of robbing Germany and
stripping her of her colonies; they have signed a treaty with Italy and
Russia on the pillage and carving up of Turkey and Austria. The tsarist
monarchy in Russia is waging a predatory war aimed at seizing Galicia,
taking territory away from Turkey, enslaving Persia, Mongolia,
etc. Germany is waging war with the purpose of grabbing British, Belgian,
and French colonies. Whether Germany or Russia wins, or whether there is a
“draw”, the war will bring humanity fresh oppression of hundreds
and hundreds of millions of people in the colonies, in Persia, Turkey and
China, a fresh enslavement of nations, and new chains for the working class
of all countries.

What are the tasks of the working class with regard to this war? The
answer to this question is provided in a resolution unanimously adopted by
the socialists of the whole world, at the Basic International Socialist
Congress of 1912. This resolution was adopted in anticipation of a war of
the very kind as started in 1914. This resolution says that the war is
reactionary, that it is being prepared in the interests of “capitalist
profits”, that the workers consider it “a crime to shoot each
other down”, that the war will lead to “a proletarian revolution”, that an example for the workers’ tactics was set by
the Paris Commune of 1871, and by October-December 1905, in Russia, i.e., by
a revolution.

All class-conscious workers in Russia are on the side of the Russian
Social-Democratic Labour group in the Duma, whose members (Petrovsky,
Badayev, Muranov, Samoilov, and Shagov) have been exiled by the tsar to
Siberia for revolutionary propaganda against the war and against the
government. It is only in such revolutionary propaganda, and in
revolutionary activities leading to a revolt of the masses, that the
salvation of humanity from the horrors of the present and the future wars
lies. Only the revolutionary overthrow of the bourgeois governments, in the
first place of the most reactionary, brutal, and barbarous tsarist
government, will open the road to socialism and peace among nations.

The conscious or unwitting servants of the bourgeoisie are lying when
they wish to persuade the people that the revolutionary overthrow of the
tsarist monarchy can lead only to victories for and consolidation of the
German reactionary monarchy and the German bourgeoisie. Although the leaders
of the German socialists, like many leading socialists in Russia, have gone
over to the side of their “own” bourgeoisie and are helping to
deceive the people with fables of a war of “defence”, there is
mounting among the working masses of Germany an ever stronger protest and indignation against their government. The German socialists who have
not gone over to the side of the bourgeoisie have declared in the press
that they consider the tactics of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour
group in the Duma “heroic”. In Germany, calls against the war
and against the government are being published illegally. Tens and
hundreds of the finest socialists of Germany, including Clara Zetkin, the
well-known representative of the women’s labour movement, have been
thrown into prison by the German Government for propaganda in a
revolutionary spirit. In all the belligerent countries without exception,
indignation is mounting in the working masses, and the example of
revolutionary activities set by the Social-Democrats of Russia, and even
more so any success of the revolution in Russia, will not fail to advance
the great cause of socialism, of the victory of the proletariat over the
bloodstained bourgeois exploiters.

The war is filling the pockets of the capitalists, into whose pockets
gold is pouring from the treasuries of the Great Powers. The war is
provoking a blind bitterness against the enemy, the bourgeoisie doing its
best to direct the indignation of the people into such channels, to divert
their attention from the chief enemy—the government and the
ruling classes of their own country. However, the war which brings in its
train endless misery and suffering for the toiling masses, enlightens and
steels the finest representatives of the working class. If perish we must,
let its perish in the struggle for our own cause, for the cause of the
workers, for the socialist revolution, and not for the interests of the
capitalists, the landowners, and tsars—this is what every
class-conscious worker sees and feels. Revolutionary Social-Democratic work
may be difficult at present, but it is possible. It is advancing throughout
the world, and in this alone lies salvation.

Down with the tsarist monarchy, which has drawn Russia into a criminal
war, and which oppresses the peoples! Long live the world brotherhood of the
workers, and the international revolution of the proletariat!

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