V. I.

Lenin

In one way or another, June 18 will go down as a turning-point
in the history of the Russian revolution.

The mutual position of the classes, their correlation in the
struggle against each other, their strength, particularly in
comparison with the strength of the parties, were all revealed
so distinctly, so strikingly, so impressively by last Sunday’s
demonstration that, whatever the course and pace of further
development, the gain in political awareness and clarity has
been tremendous.

The demonstration in a few hours scattered to the winds, like a
handful of dust, the empty talk about Bolshevik conspirators
and showed with the utmost clarity that the vanguard of the
working people of Russia, the industrial proletariat of the
capital, and the overwhelming majority of the troops support
slogans that our Party has always advocated.

The measured step of the battalions of workers and soldiers. Nearly half a million demonstrators. A concerted
onslaught. Unity around the slogans, among which overwhelmingly
predominated: “All power to the Soviets”, “Down with the ten capitalist Ministers”,
“Neither a separate peace treaty with the Germans nor secret treaties with the Anglo-French capitalists”,
etc. No one who saw the demonstration has any doubt left about
the victory of these slogans among the organised vanguard of
Russia’s workers and soldiers.

The demonstration of June 18 was a demonstration of the strength
and policy of the revolutionary proletariat, which is showing
the direction for the revolution and indicating the way out of
the impasse. This is the tremendous historical significance of
last Sunday’s demonstration, and its essential difference from
the demonstrations during the funeral of the victims of the revolution and on May
Day. Then it was a universal tribute to the revolution’s first victory and to its heroes. The people looked
back over the first stage of the road to freedom, which they had
passed very rapidly and very successfully. May Day was a
holiday of hopes and aspirations linked with the history of the world labour movement and with its ideal of peace
and socialism.

Neither of the two demonstrations was intended to point the
direction for the revolution’s further development, nor
could it do so. Neither demonstration put before the people, or
raised in the name of the people, specific, definite and urgent
questions as to how and in what direction the revolution should proceed.

In this sense, June 18 was the first political demonstration of
action , an explanation of how the various classes act,
how they want to and will act, in order to further the revolution—an explanation not given in a book or
newspaper, but on the streets, not through leaders, but through the people.

The bourgeoisie kept out of the way. They refused to participate
in that peaceful demonstration of a dear majority of the people, in which there was freedom of party slogans, and the
chief aim of which was to protest against counter revolution. That is natural. The bourgeoisie are the
counter-revolution. They hide from the people. They organise
real counter-revolutionary conspiracies against the people. The
parties now ruling Russia, the Socialist-Revolutionaries and
Mensheviks, clearly showed themselves on that historic day, June
18, as waverers. Their slogans spoke of wavering, and it was
obvious to all that the supporters of their slogans were in a
minority. By their slogans and wavering they advised the people to remain where they were, to leave everything
unchanged for the time being. And the people felt, and they
themselves felt, that that was impossible.

Enough of wavering, said the vanguard of the proletariat, the
vanguard of Russia’s workers and soldiers. Enough of wavering. The policy of trust in the capitalists, in
their government, in their vain attempts at reform, in their war, in their policy of an
offensive, is a hopeless policy. Its collapse is imminent. Its
collapse is inevitable. And that collapse will also be the
collapse of the ruling parties, the Socialist-Revolutionaries
and the Mensheviks. Economic disruption is coming nearer. There is no escaping it except by the
revolutionary measures of the revolutionary class which has
taken power.

Let the people break with the policy of trust in the capitalists. Let them put their trust in the revolutionary
class—the proletariat. The source of power lies in it and only
in it , It alone is the pledge that the interests of the
majority will be served, the interests of the working and exploited people, who, though held down by war an  capital,
are capable of defeating war and capital!

A crisis of unprecedented scale has descended upon Russia and
the whole of humanity. The only way out is to put trust in the
most organised and advanced contingent of the working and
exploited people, and support its policy.

We do not know whether the people will grasp this lesson soon or
how they will put it into effect. But we do know for certain
that apart from this lesson there is no way out of the impasse,
that possible waverings or brutalities on the part of the
counter-revolutionaries will lead nowhere.

There is no way out unless the masses put complete confidence
in their leader, the proletariat.

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