V. I.

Lenin

127

To:   ALEXANDRA KOLLONTAI

March 16, 1917

Dear A. M., We have just received the second set of government telegrams about the
revolution of March 1 (14) in Petrograd. A week of bloody battles by the
workers—and Milyukov + Guchkov +
Kerensky [3] in power!! On the “old” European pattern....

Well, what of it! This “first stage of the first revolution (among
those engendered by the war)” will not be the last, nor will it be only
Russian. Of course, we shall continue to be against defence of the
fatherland, against the imperialist slaughter controlled by
Shingaryov [4] + Kerensky and Co.

All our watchwords remain the same. In the last issue of
Sotsial-Demokrat we actually spoke of the possibility of a
government “of Milyukov and Guchkov, if not of Milyukov and
Kerensky”. [1]

It turned out that it was both ... and : all three together. Lovely! We shall see how the party of people’s freedom (after
all, it’s in a majority in the new ministry, since
Konovalov [5] is even just a little “more Left”, while Kerensky is
certainly more Left!) will give the people freedom, bread and peace.... We
shall see!

The main thing now is the press and the organisation of the workers in
a revolutionary Social-Democratic party.
Chkhenkeli [6] must now (he promised!) provide funds for “defence of
the fatherland”. While Mr. Chkheidze, although he did utter ultra-Left
speeches during the revolution or on its eve (when Yefremov, too,
spoke in no less rrrevolutionary fashion), of course, does not
deserve one atom of confidence after all his “politics” with
Potresov and Co., with Chkhenkeli, etc. It would be the greatest misfortune
if the Cadets were now to promise a legal workers’ party, and if our people
accepted “unity” with Chkheidze and Co.!!

But this will not happen. First, the Cadets will not allow anyone a
legal workers’ party except the Potresovs and Co. Secondly, if they do
allow it, we shall set up as before our own separate party and
without fail combine legal work with illegal.

On no account a repetition of something like the Second
International! On no account with Kautsky! Definitely a more revolutionary programme and tactics (there are elements of it in
K. Liebknecht, the S.L.P. in America, the Dutch Marxists, etc.) and
definitely the combination of legal and illegal work. Republican
propaganda, the struggle against imperialism, as before
revolutionary propaganda, agitation and struggle with the aim of an
international proletarian revolution and the conquest of power by
the “Soviets of Workers’ Deputies” (and not the Cadet swindlers).

After the “great rebellion” of 1905—the “glorious revolution” [2] of 1917!...

Be so kind as to forward this letter to Lyudmila, and drop me a line as
to how far we are in agreement, or how far we differ, and also as to the
plans of A. M., etc. If our deputies [7] are allowed to return, one must definitely be brought for a
couple of weeks to Scandinavia. All the best.

Yours, Lenin

---
Notes:
[1]
See “A Turn in World Politics” (present edition, Vol. 23,
pp. 262–70).—- Ed .

[2]

“ Great rebellion” and “glorious revolution” were written by Lenin
in English.— Ed .

[3]
Milyukov, P. N. (1859–1913). See Note 51.

Guchkov, A. I. (1862–1936)—big capitalist, organiser and
leader of the Octobrist Party. After the bourgeois-democratic revolution of
February 1917 he became Minister of Military and Naval Affairs in the first
cabinet of the bourgeois Provisional Government.

Kerensky, A. F. (1881–1970)—Socialist-Revolutionary. After
the bourgeois-democratic revolution of February 4917 he became first a
minister, then Prime Minister of the bourgeois Provisional Government.

[4]
Shingaryov, A. I. (1869–1918)—Constitutional-Democrat, deputy to the Second, Third and Fourth Dumas. After the February 1917
revolution, Minister of Agriculture in the first cabinet and Minister of
Finance in the second cabinet of the bourgeois Provisional Government.

[5]
Konovalov, A. I. (b. 1875)—big textile manufacturer; Minister of Trade and Industry in the bourgeois Provisional Government.

[6]
Chkhenkeli, A. I. (1874–1959)—Menshevik, deputy to the
Third and Fourth Dumas. During the First World War, a social-chauvinist. After the February revolution of 1917, representative of
the bourgeois Provisional Government in the Transcaucasus.

[7]
Reference is to the Bolshevik deputies in the Fourth Duma,
A. Y. Badayev, M. K. Muranov, G. I. Petrovsky, F. N. Samoilov and
N. R. Shagov. (See Note 206.)