V. I. Lepsh.
DRAFT RESOLUTION.
I August 1915]
The modern war is born of imperialism. Capitalism has reached this, its highest stage. The productive forces of society and the scale of capital have outgrown the narrow confines of individual nation-states. Hence arises the great powers’ relentless drive to enslave foreign nations and seize colonies—sources of raw materials and outlets for capital. The entire world is merging into a single economic organism; the whole world is divided among a handful of great powers. The objective conditions for socialism have fully ripened, [and in the present war the great powers are locked in a struggle] to artificially postpone the demise of capitalism—and the present war is, in essence, a war waged by capitalists for privileges and monopolies that might delay the collapse of capitalism.
In striving to liberate labor from the yoke of capital, in championing the worldwide brotherhood of workers, socialists fight against all forms of oppression and national inequality. In an era when the bourgeoisie was progressive—when the historical agenda of the day called for the overthrow of feudalism, absolutism, and foreign national oppression—socialists, ever the most consistent and resolute democrats, recognized, in this sense—and only in this sense—the “defense of the fatherland.” And today as well, should a war break out in Eastern Europe or in the colonies between oppressed nations and their oppressors, the great powers, the sympathy of socialists would be wholly on the side of the oppressed.
Words:
“in Eastern Europe
or in the colonies” — a later insertion. Ed.

DRAFT RESOLUTION
But the present war is born of an entirely different historical epoch, one in which the bourgeoisie has passed from progressive to reactionary. On the part of both warring blocs, this war is a war of slaveholders for the preservation and consolidation of slavery: for the redivision of colonies, for the “right” to oppress foreign nations, for the privileges and monopolies of great-power capital, for the perpetuation of wage slavery through the fragmentation of workers across different countries and the [reactionary] suppression of those workers. Therefore, the talk of “defense of the fatherland” on the part of the [bourgeoisie] of both warring factions is nothing more than a deception of the people, perpetrated by the bourgeoisie.
Neither victory at any cost for either side nor a return to the status quo can protect the freedom of the majority of the world’s nations from imperialist oppression by that handful of great powers, nor can it secure for the working class even its modest cultural gains of today. The era of relatively peaceful capitalism has passed beyond recall. Imperialism brings to the working class an unprecedented intensification of class struggle, of want, of unemployment, of soaring prices, of the stranglehold of trusts, of militarism, and of political reaction—whose head is now raised in every country, even the most ostensibly free.
The true significance of the slogan “defense of the fatherland” in the present war is the defense of the “right” of the “own” national bourgeoisie to oppress foreign nations; it is a national‑liberal labor policy; it is an alliance between the tiny fraction of privileged workers and the “own” national bourgeoisie against the mass of proletarians and the exploited.** Socialists who pursue such a policy are, in fact, chauvinists—social‑chauvinists. The policy of voting for war credits, of entering into government, of Burgfrieden *** and the like, is a betrayal of socialism. Opportunism, nurtured by [all] the conditions of the bygone “peaceful” era, has now matured to the point of complete rupture with the [workers’ movement]; it has become the most formidable enemy of [socialism] and the direct foe of the proletariat’s liberation movement. The working class cannot attain its world‑historical goals without waging the most decisive struggle against [openly] **** [opportunism and social‑chauvinism (the majority of the social‑democratic parties in France, Germany, and Austria: Haenisch, the Fabians, and the trade unionists in England; Rubanovich, Plekhanov, and others in Russia)—a policy that has led many socialists astray. *
The Basel Manifesto of 1912, unanimously adopted by socialists around the globe in anticipation of precisely the kind of war between great powers that has now come to pass,** clearly recognized the imperialist, reactionary character of this war and [stated unequivocally] declared that it regarded as a crime for workers of one country to shoot at workers of another, and proclaimed the imminent onset of the proletarian revolution precisely in connection with this very war. And indeed, the war [has created] is creating a revolutionary situation, [has given rise to] is giving rise to revolutionary sentiments and fermentations among the masses, [has triggered] is triggering, everywhere among [socialists], in the better strata of the proletariat, a growing awareness of the deadly danger posed by opportunism and [has intensified] is intensifying the struggle against it. The rising desire for peace among the [masses] of working people expresses their***-disillusionment, [or marks the beginning of their realization] that the bourgeois lie about the defense of the fatherland is collapsing, and signals the dawn of a clearer understanding of the [revolutionary consciousness] of the masses. By harnessing this mood for their own revolutionary agitation, [without pausing in their revolutionary agitation before the consideration of the defeat of their ((fatherland»,] **** socialists will not delude the people with the hope of a quick, even somewhat lasting, democratic peace that excludes* national oppression, disarmament, and the like***** without the revolutionary overthrow of the present governments. Only the social revolution of the proletariat opens the way to peace and freedom for the nations.
The imperialist war ushers in an era of social revolution. All the objective****** conditions of the modern age place the revolutionary mass struggle of the proletariat squarely on the agenda of the day. [For-
*
In the German text: “The Center that has surrendered the position of Marxism to opportunism.”
The words in square brackets were added later, penned by Zinoviev. The words in round brackets were written by Lenin later, toward the end of the manuscript. Ed. -
** The words “between the great powers” were omitted in the German text. Ed.
*** The word “their” was added later. Ed.
**** The words in parentheses were added later by G. Zinoviev. Further down, in the margin on the left, she wrote in her own hand: “to wage the most resolute struggle against war”; the final words in the German text were completely omitted. Ed.
***** The words “disarmament and the like” were added later by G. Zinoviev. Ed.
****** The word “objective” was added later by Lenin. Ed.

GERMAN TRANSLATION OF THE DRAFT RESOLUTION
task] It is the duty of socialists—not abandoning a single means of the working class’s legal struggle—to subordinate all such means to this essential and paramount task: to develop the revolutionary consciousness of workers, to unite them in an international revolutionary struggle, to support and advance every revolutionary initiative, and to strive to transform the imperialist war [among peoples] between nations* into a civil war of the oppressed classes against their oppressors,** a war for the expropriation of the capitalist class, for the conquest of political power by the proletariat, for the realization of socialism.