V. I.

Lenin

The dissatisfaction voiced by most comrades over the cancellation of the demonstration is quite natural, but the
Central Committee had no alternative for two reasons:
first, we were formally banned from holding the demonstration
by the semi-organ of power; secondly, the motive for the ban was
stated as follows: "We know that concealed forces of the
counter-revolution want to take advantage of your demonstration." In support of this motive, we were given names,
such as that of a general, whom they promised to arrest within
three days, and others. And they declared that a demonstration
of the Black
Hundreds [1] had been arranged for June 10 with the intention of breaking into our demonstration and turning it
into a skirmish.

Even in ordinary warfare, it sometimes happens that a planned
offensive has to be cancelled for strategic reasons. This is all
the more likely to occur in class warfare, depending on the
vacillation of the middle, petty-bourgeois groups. We must be
able to take account of the situation and be bold in adopting
decisions.

The cancellation was absolutely necessary, as subsequent
developments proved. Today Tsereteli has delivered his historical and hysterical
speech. [2]
Today the revolution has entered a new phase of its development. They began by
banning our peaceful demonstration for three days, and now they
want

to ban it for the entire duration of the Congress. They demand
that we obey the decision of the Congress under threat of
expulsion from the Congress. But we have declared that we prefer
arrest rather than renounce freedom of propaganda.

Tsereteli, whose speech showed him up as a blatant counter-revolutionary, declared that the Bolsheviks must not be
fought by words and resolutions, but must be deprived of all the
technical means they have at their disposal. The result of all
bourgeois revolutions is: first arm the proletariat and then
disarm it to prevent it from going any further. The fact that a
peaceful demonstration had to be banned shows that the situation
must be very serious.

Tsereteli, who emerged from the depths of the Provisional
Government to attend the Congress, clearly expressed a desire to
disarm the workers. He was savagely furious in demanding that
the Bolshevik Party be ousted from the ranks of the revolutionary democrats. The workers must clearly realise that
there can now be no question of a peaceful demonstration. The
situation is far more serious than we thought. We were going to
hold a peaceful demonstration in order to exercise maximum
pressure on the decisions of the Congress—that is our right—but we are accused of hatching a plot to arrest the
government.

Tsereteli says that there are no counter-revolutionaries apart
from the Bolsheviks. The meeting that passed judgment on us
was organised with particular solemnity. It consisted of the
Congress Steering Committee, the Executive Committee of the
Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies in full force and the
bureaus of the groups of all the parties attending the Congress. At that meeting they blurted out
the whole truth, namely, that they are calling an offensive
against us.

The proletariat must reply by showing the maximum calmness,
caution, restraint and organisation, and must remember that
peaceful processions are a thing of the past.

We must give them no pretext for attack. Let them attack, and
the workers will realise that it is an attack on the very
existence of the proletariat. But reality is on our side, and it
is a moot point whether their attack will succeed—at the
front there are the troops, among whom discontent is very strong, and in the rear there is the high cost of living,
economic dislocation and so on.

The Central Committee does not want to force your decision. Your
right, the right to protest against the actions of the Central Committee, is a legitimate one, and your decision
must be a free one.

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Notes:
[1]
Black Hundreds —monarchist bands formed by the tsarist police
to fight the revolutionary movement. They assassinated revolutionaries, attacked progressive intellectuals and carried out
anti-Jewish pogroms.

[2]
Reference is to the speech made by the Menshevik Tsereteli, member
of the Provisional Government, on June 11 (24), 1917, at the joint
meeting of the Steering Committee of the First All-Russia Congress
of Soviets, the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet of
Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, the Executive Committee of
the Congress of Peasants’ Deputies, and the bureaus of all Congress
parties. The meeting was arranged by the S.R. and Menshevik
leaders to strike a blow at the Bolshevik Party, taking advantage
of the majority they commanded. In his speech, which ho hold
in a hysterical key, Tsereteli said the demonstration which the
Bolsheviks had scheduled for June 10 (23) was “a Bolshevik
conspiracy to overthrow the government and seize power”. The speech
was slanderous and counter-revolutionary throughout. The
Bolsheviks left the meeting in protest against the slanders spread by

Tsereteli and other S.R. and Menshevik loaders. Lenin, who had
been against the meeting from the outset, did not attend.