V. I.

Lenin

I

“ Victory”! Hence ...
chaos of phrases, moods, “exaltations” ... “ revolutionary democracy ” = reactionary democracy— “all like children”
( Zemlya i Volya No. 36)
(May 6, 1917)

(α) Ministry (support of the capitalists) — (β) for the offensive— Verses “From Springtime
Moods” by Ilya Ilyin “All like children! The day is so rosy!

No night! There’ll be no slumber!

As though there were no frosts, As though spring reigns
eternal!”

(γ) against taking the land....

(δ) against fraternisation....

Separation of the proletarian class line=formation of a mass proletarian party ....

Reorganisation of all parties....

|| Capitalists....
|| (Trudoviks)\thinspace Narodniks
and Mensheviks
|| Proletarian party

No. 47 of Sotsial-Demokrat , October 13, 1915. Theses
Nos.  8–11 . [3]

Wavering of the petty bourgeoisie = the essence. But the
petty bourgeoisie=tens and tens of millions, “a host of
hosts”, a multitude of groups and strata, subgroups and
substrata, etc., etc. A supremely protracted process....

II

The main points in all resolutions:

(1) The war: capitalists revolutionary defencists (Narodniks and
Mensheviks)....
internationalist proletarians (2) Attitude to the Provisional
Government:

capitalists
Contact Commission (
Narodniks and Mensheviks)
internationalist proletarians.

(3) Agrarian :
landowners and capitalists “ not to take the land ” ( Narodniks and Mensheviks )
(in § 4)
not to separate out agricultural wage-workers not to advance to socialism.... (§§ 8 and
9) [4]
internationalist proletarians.

(4) Borgbjerg and the
International . [5]

+(5) three trends:

(α) for the capitalists (β) waverers (Narodniks and
Mensheviks)
(γ) internationalist proletarians

+(6) Coalition
Ministry capitalists in the majority
Narodniks and Mensheviks proletarians.

(7) National question:
Finland

capitalists
Mensheviks proletarians.

}}

(8) Alliance with the internationalists against the petty-bourgeois defencist bloc....

(9) The present moment: attitude to socialism (α) capitalists
(β) Mensheviks and Narodniks (not socialism)
(γ) proletarians.

(10) Party Programme. σσ about imperialism about the state
about the International .

N.B.

(11) Advance to socialism.
(12) The Soviets

{{

development in the localities, a brake in the centre

}}

σσ= elections....

(( V.O.!)) [6]

III

New conditions:

{{

(α) Unprecedented legality....

(β) Tens of millions before us....

(γ) Eve of unprecedented collapse (war—and famine) (main thing).

Inde [1]

:

Be as firm as a rock in maintaining the proletarian line

{{

against petty-bourgeois waverings — — — —influence the masses by persuasion, “ explanation ”— — —prepare for a collapse and a revolution 1,000 times more powerful than the February one.

Waverings of the petty bourgeoisie:

{{

Trotsky....
Larin and Binshtok
Martov
Novaya Zhizn

The masses : (Peasant
Congress [7] )

The old personnel of agitators+propagandists+ organisers
+etc.?

New forces ( shortage of people ).
(α) Big meetings of Party members (like this one).
(β) Tenfold multiplication of groups of agitators+ propagandists+organisers.

How? I don’t know. But I know for certain that without this it’s no use even talking about a revolution by the
proletariat.

(γ) Group agitation—on a massive scale (versus meetings)

(γ) ditto organisation .

(δ) The maximum of Marxism=the maximum of popular style and simplicity ( Umschlag [2]

).

(δ) The party of the proletariat and semi-proletariat
=the party of the workers and poor peasants....

(δ) The maximum of Marxism = ( Umschlag ) the maximum of popular style.

The poor peasants.

Demagogy? Everyone was accused of this in all revolutions.

Marxism is the guarantee....

---
Notes:
[1]
Hence.— Ed .

[2]
Transition of one into the other.— Ed .

[3]
For Lenin’s Theses Nos. 8 to 11, see present edition, Vol. 21,
pp. 403–04.

[4]
Lenin notes in parenthesis the paragraphs of the resolution on the
agrarian question adopted on April 28 (May 11), 1917 by the
Seventh (April) All-Russia Conference of the R.S.D.L.P.(B.)
(see present edition, Vol. 24, pp. 292–93).

[5]
Frederik Borgbjerg —a Danish reformist and a leader of the Danish
Social-Democratic Party. In the spring of 1917 he came to
Petrograd with the proposal to organise a conference of socialists
from the belligerent countries. Lenin exposed the imperialist
nature of his proposal and called Borgbjerg “an agent of the
German Government”. On Lenin’s initiative the April Conference
came out resolutely against the proposal (see present edition,
Vol. 24, pp. 247–50, 251–53).

[6]
A possible reference to Vasilyevsky Ostrov, which by that time
had had its elections to the district Soviet; following this, the
defencists, who were left in a minority, refused to submit to the
majority and twice (April 28 and May 2) walked out from the
meetings and disrupted the proceedings.

[7]
First All-Russia Congress of Peasants’ Deputies , held at
Petrograd from May 4 to 28 (May 17–June 10), 1917, was attended
by 1,115 delegates from the gubernias and army units. The
Bolsheviks took an active part in the proceedings and exposed the
imperialist policy of the bourgeois Provisional Government and
the conciliatory policy of the Mensheviks and the S.R.s. On May
22 (June 4) Lenin delivered a speech on the agrarian question (see
present edition, Vol. 24, pp. 486–505). However, all the Congress
decisions bore the mark of S.R. domination. The Congress approved
the policy of the bourgeois Provisional Government and the
entry of “socialists” into the Provisional Government. It called
for a continuation of the war “to a victorious end” and an
offensive at the front. It came out against the immediate transfer of
landed estates to the peasants and postponed the solution of the
land question until a Constituent Assembly.