V. I.

Lenin

That is what the proclamation of the Executive Committee of the
Petrograd Soviet to the socialists of the world, published in
today’s papers, amounts to. It has a lot to say against
imperialism, but all these words are nullified by a single
little phrase which reads:

“ The Provisional Government of revolutionary Russia has adopted
this platform” (i.e., peace without annexations and indemnities
on the basis of self-determination of nations).

The gist of the matter is summed up in this one phrase. This
phrase is a defence of Russian imperialism, which it cloaks and whitewashes. As a matter of fact, our Provisional
Government, far from “adopting” a platform of peace without
annexations, is trampling upon it daily and hourly.

Our Provisional Government has “diplomatically” renounced
annexations, just as the government of the German capitalists,
those brigands Wilhelm and Bethmann-Hollweg, have done. In
words, both governments have renounced annexations. In practice,
both continue the policy of annexations. The German capitalist government forcibly holds Belgium, a part of France,
Serbia, Montenegro, Rumania, Poland, Danish provinces, Alsace,
etc.; the Russian capitalist government holds part of Galicia,
Turkish Armenia, Finland, Ukraine, etc. The British capitalist
government is the most annexationist government in the world,
for it forcibly keeps the greatest number of nationalities
within the British Empire:
India (three hundred million), Ireland, Turkish Mesopotamia, the
German colonies in Africa, etc.

The Executive Committee’s proclamation covers up its lies about
annexations with deceptive phrases, and thereby does great harm
to the cause of the proletariat and the revolution. First of
all, the proclamation does not differentiate between the
renunciation of annexations in words (in this sense, all capitalist governments, without exception, have
“adopted” the “platform of peace without annexations”) and
renunciation of annexations in deeds (in this sense, not one capitalist government in the world has
renounced annexations). Secondly, the proclamation—without
any justification, without any basis, contrary to the truth—whitewashes the Russian Provisional
Government of the capitalists, which is not a bit better (and,
probably, not worse) than any other capitalist government.

To cloak an unpleasant truth with a deceptive phrase is most
harmful and most dangerous to the cause of the proletariat, to
the cause of the toiling masses. The truth, however bitter, must
be faced squarely. A policy that does not meet this requirement
is a ruinous policy.

And the truth about annexations is that all capitalist governments, the Russian Provisional Government
included, are deceiving the people with promises—they renounce the policy of annexations in words, but continue it
in deeds. Any intelligent person can prove this truth for himself by simply making up a full list of the
annexations of, say, only three countries: Germany, Russia, and Britain.

Just try it, gentlemen!

By refusing to do this, by whitewashing one’s own government and blackening others, one becomes in effect a
defender of imperialism.

In conclusion we would remark that at the end of the proclamation we have another fly in the ointment, namely, the
assurance that “whatever the differences that have been rending
socialism during the three years of war, no faction of the
proletariat should decline to participate in the general
struggle for peace”.

This, too, we regret to say, is a deceptive phrase, an utterly
empty and meaningless one. Plekhanov and Scheidemann both assert
that they are ’fighting for peace”, a “peace with out annexations” at that. But it is clear to everyone that they are
both fighting to defend each his own imperialist government of
the capitalists. What good do we do the cause of the working
classes by uttering sugar-coated lies, by playing down the fact
that the Plekhanovs and the Scheidemauns have gone over to the
side of their respective capitalists? Is it not obvious that such glossing over of the truth amounts to
whitewashing imperialism and its defenders?

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