V. I.

Lenin

The political crisis that developed between April 19 and 21 must
be regarded, at least in its initial stage, as having passed.

The petty-bourgeois mass, angered by the capitalists, first
swung away from them towards the workers; but two days later they again followed the Menshevik
and Narodnik leaders, who stand for “confidence” in and “compromise” with the
capitalists.

These leaders have compromised, completely surrendered all their
positions, contenting themselves with the empty and purely
verbal reservations of the capitalists.

The causes of the crisis have not been removed, and the
recurrence of such crises is unavoidable.

The nature of the crisis is that the petty-bourgeois mass is
vacillating between its age-old faith in the capitalists and its
resentment against them, a tendency to place its faith in the
revolutionary proletariat.

The capitalists are dragging out the war and covering up the
fact by phrase-mongering. Only the revolutionary proletariat can
put an end to, and is working towards putting an end to the war
by means of a world revolution of the workers, a revolution
which is obviously mounting in our country, ripening in Germany,
and drawing closer in a number of other countries.

The slogan “Down with the Provisional Government!” is an
incorrect one at the present moment because, in the absence of a
solid (i.e., a class-conscious and organised) majority of the
people on the side of the revolutionary proletariat, such a
slogan is either an empty phrase, or, objectively, amounts to
attempts of an adventurist character. [2]

We shall favour the transfer of power to the proletarians and
semi-proletarians only when the Soviets of Workers’ and
Soldiers’ Deputies adopt our policy and are willing to take the
power into their own hands.

The organisation of our Party, the consolidation of the
proletarian forces, clearly proved inadequate at the time of
tile crisis.

The slogans of the moment are:

(1) To explain the proletarian line and the proletarian
way of ending the war; (2) To criticise the petty-bourgeois policy of placing
trust in the government of the capitalists and compromising
with it; (3) To carry on propaganda and agitation from group to group
in every regiment, in every factory, and, particularly, among the most backward masses, such as
domestic servants, unskilled labourers, etc., since it was
their backing in the first place that the bourgeoisie tried
to gain during the crisis; (4) To organise, organise and once more
organise the proletariat, in every factory, in every district and in every city quarter.

The resolution of the Petrograd Soviet of April 21 banning all
street meetings and demonstrations for two days must be
unconditionally obeyed by every member of our Party. The Central
Committee already distributed yesterday morning, and is today
publishing in Pravda, a resolution which states that “at such a moment any thought of civil war would be senseless
and preposterous”, that all demonstrations must be peaceful
ones, and that the responsibility for violence will fall on the
Provisional Government and its supporters. [1]

Our Party therefore considers that the above mentioned resolution of the Soviet of
Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies as a whole (and especially the
part banning armed demonstrations and shooting In the air) is
entirely correct and must be unconditionally obeyed.

We call upon all the workers and soldiers to consider carefully
the results of the crisis of the last two days and to send as
delegates to the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies and
to the Executive Committee only such comrades as express the
will of the majority, in all cases where a delegate does not
express the opinion of the majority, new elections should be
held in the factories and barracks.

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Notes:
[1]



— Ed .

[2]