V. I.

Lenin

The statements dealing with the possible victory of a chauvinist
(defencist) revolution are of particular interest. Sotsial-Demokrat , the Central Organ of the
Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party published in Geneva under
the editorship of Zinoviev and Lenin, carried the following
statement of its editors in its issue No. 47 for October 13,
1915:

“(8) By revolutionary chauvinists we mean those who want a
victory over tsarism so as to achieve victory over Germany,
plunder other countries, consolidate Great-Russian rule over the
other peoples of Russia, etc. Revolutionary chauvinism is based
on the class position of the petty bourgeoisie. The latter
always vacillates between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. At present it is vacillating between chauvinism
(which prevents it from being consistently revolutionary, even
within the meaning of a democratic revolution) and proletarian
internationalism. At the moment the Trudoviks, the
Socialist-Revolutionaries, Nasha Zarya , [2] Chkheidze’s Duma group , [3] the Organising Committee, Mr. Plekhanov and the
like are political spokesmen for this petty bourgeoisie in
Russia.

“(9) If the revolutionary chauvinists won in Russia, we would be
opposed to a defence of their ‘fatherland’ in the present war. Our slogan is: against the chauvinists, even if
they are revolutionary end republican—against them, and
for an alliance of the international proletariat for the socialist revolution.

“(10) To the question of whether it is possible for the
proletariat to assume the leadership in the bourgeois Russian
revolution, our answer is: yes, it is possible, if the petty bourgeoisie swings to the left at the decisive moment; it
is being pushed to the left, not only by our propaganda, but by
a number of objective factors, economic, financial (the burden
of war), military, political, and others.

“(11) To the question of what the party of the proletariat would
do if the revolution placed power in its hands in the present
war, our answer is as follows: we would propose peace to
all the belligerents on the condition that freedom is given to the colonies and all peoples that are
dependent, oppressed and deprived of rights. Under the present
governments, neither Germany nor Britain and France would accept
this condition. In that case, we would have to prepare for and
wage a revolutionary war, i.e., not only resolutely carry out
the whole of our minimum programme, but work systematically to
bring about an uprising among all peoples now oppressed by the
Great Russians, all colonies and dependent countries in Asia
(India, China, Persia, etc.), and also, first and foremost, we
would raise up the socialist proletariat of Europe for an
insurrection against their governments and despite the social-chauvinists. There is no doubt that a victory of the
proletariat in Russia would create extraordinarily favourable
conditions for the development of the revolution in both Asia
and Europe. Even 1905 proved that. The international solidarity of the revolutionary proletariat is a fact ,
despite the scum of opportunism and social-chauvinism.” [1]

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Notes:
[1]
See present edition, Vol. 21, pp. 403–04.— Ed .

[2]



[3]