V. I.

Lenin

Is there a way to peace without an exchange of annexations,
without the division of spoils among the capitalist robbers?

There is: through a workers’ revolution against the capitalists
of the world.

Russia today is nearer to the beginning of such a revolution
than any other country.

Only in Russia can power pass to existing institutions, to the
Soviets, immediately, peacefully, without an uprising, for the
capitalists cannot resist the Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and
Peasants’ Deputies.

With such a transfer of power it would be possible to curb the
capitalists, now making thousands of millions in profits from
contracts, to expose all their tricks, arrest the millionaire
embezzlers of public property, break their unlimited power.

Only after the transfer of power to the oppressed classes could
Russia approach the oppressed classes of other countries, not
with empty words, not with mere appeals, but calling their
attention to her example, and immediately and explicitly
proposing clear-cut terms for universal peace .

“ Comrade workers and toilers of the world,” she would say
in the proposal for an immediate peace. “Enough of the bloodshed. Peace is possible. A just peace means peace without
annexations, without seizures. Let the German capitalist robbers
and their crowned robber Wilhelm know that we shall not come to
terms with them, that we regard as robbery on their part not
only what they have grabbed since the war, but also Alsace and
Lorraine, and the Danish and Polish areas of Prussia.

“ We also consider that Poland, Finland, the Ukraine, and
other non-Great-Russian lands were seized by the Russian tsars
and capitalists.

“ We consider that all colonies, Ireland, and so on, were seized by the British, French and other
capitalists.

“ We Russian workers and peasants shall not hold any of the non-Great-Russian lands or colonies (such as
Turkestan, Mongolia, or Persia) by force. Down with war for the division of colonies, for the division of annexed (seized)
lands, for the division of capitalist spoils!”

The example of the Russian workers will be followed inevitably,
perhaps not tomorrow (revolutions are not made to order), but
inevitably all the same by the workers and all the working
people of at least two great countries, Germany and
France.

For both are perishing, the first of hunger, the second
of depopulation. Both will conclude peace on our terms, which
are just, in defiance of their capitalist governments.

The road to peace lies before us.

Should the capitalists of England, Japan and America try to
resist this peace, the oppressed classes of Russia and other countries will not shrink from a revolutionary war
against the capitalists. In this war they will defeat the capitalists of the whole world, not just
those of the three countries lying far from Russia and taken up
with their own rivalries.

The road to a just peace lies before us. Let us not be afraid to
take it .

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