V. I. Lenin

Letter to the Bolshevik Comrades

Attending the Congress of Soviets of The Northern Region

Comrades, Our revolution is passing through a highly critical
period. This crisis coincides with the great crisis—the
growth of the world socialist revolution and the struggle waged
against it by world imperialism. A gigantic task is being
presented to the responsible leaders of our Party, and failure
to perform it will involve the danger of a complete collapse of
the internationalist proletarian movement. The situation is such
that, in truth, delay would be fatal.

Take a glance at the international situation. The growth of a
world revolution is beyond dispute. The outburst of indignation
on the part of the Czech workers has been suppressed with
incredible ferocity, testifying to the government's extreme
fright. Italy too has witnessed a mass outbreak in Turin. [1] Most
important, however, is the revolt in the German navy. One can
imagine the enormous difficulties of a revolution in a country
like Germany, especially under present conditions. It cannot be
doubted that the revolt in the German navy is indicative of the
great crisis—the growth of the world revolution. While our
chauvinists, who are advocating Germany's defeat, demand a
revolt of the German workers immediately, we Russian revolutionary internationalists know from the experience of
1905-17 that a more impressive sign of the growth of revolution
than a revolt among the troops cannot be imagined.

Just think what our position is now in the eyes of the German
revolutionaries. They can say to us: We have only Liebknecht
who openly called for a revolution. His voice has been stifled
in a convict prison. We have not a single newspaper which openly
explains the necessity for a revolution; we have not got freedom
of assembly. We have not a single Soviet of Workers' or
Soldiers' Deputies. Our voice barely reaches the real, broad
mass of people. Yet we made an attempt at revolt, although our
chance was only one in a hundred. But you Russian revolutionary
internationalists have behind you a half-year of free agitation,
you have a score of newspapers, you have a number of Soviets of
Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, you have gained the upper hand
in the Soviets of Petrograd and Moscow, you have on your side
the entire Baltic fleet and all the Russian troops in
Finland. And still you do not respond to our call for an
uprising, you do not overthrow your imperialist, Kerensky,
although the chances are a hundred to one that your uprising
will be successful.

Yes, we shall be real traitors to the International if, at such
a moment and under such favourable conditions, we respond to
this call from the German revolutionaries with
. . . mere resolutions.

Add to this, as we all perfectly well know, that the plotting
and conspiracy of the international imperialists against the
Russian revolution are rapidly growing. International imperialism is coming closer to the idea of stifling the
revolution at all costs, stifling it both by military measures
and by a peace made at the expense of Russia. It is this that is
making the crisis in the world socialist revolution so acute,
and is rendering our delay of the uprising particularly
dangerous—I would almost say criminal.

Take, further, Russia's internal situation. The petty-bourgeois
compromising parties which expressed the naïve confidence of the
masses in Kerensky and in the imperialists in general, are
absolutely bankrupt. Their collapse is complete. The vote cast
against coalition by the Soviet curia at the Democratic
Conference, the vote cast against coalition by a majority of the local Soviets of Peasants' Deputies (in
spite of their central Soviet, where Avksentyev and other
friends of Kerensky's are installed), the elections in Moscow,
where the working-class population has the closest ties with the
peasants, and where over 49 per cent voted for the
Bolsheviks (and among the soldiers fourteen thousand out of
seventeen thousand)—does this not signify that the confidence of the people in Kerensky and in those who are
compromising with Kerensky and Co. has completely collapsed? Can
one imagine any way in which the people could say more clearly
to the Bolsheviks than they did by this vote, "Lead us, we shall
follow you"?

And we, who have thus won the majority of the people over to our
side, and who have gained the Soviets in both the capital
cities—are we to wait? What for? For Kerensky and his
Kornilovite generals to surrender Petrograd to the Germans, and
thus enter directly or indirectly, openly or secretly, into a
conspiracy with both Buchanan and Wilhelm for the purpose of completely stifling the Russian revolution.

By the Moscow vote and by the re-elections to the Soviets, the
people have expressed their confidence in us, but that is not
all. There are signs of growing apathy and indifference. That is
understandable. It implies not the ebb of the revolution, as the
Cadets and their henchmen vociferate, but the ebb of confidence
in resolutions and elections. In a revolution, the masses demand
action, not words from the leading parties, they demand
victories in the struggle, not talk. The moment is approaching
when the people may conceive the idea that the Bolsheviks are no
better than the others, since they were unable to act when the people placed confidence in them. . . .

The peasant revolt is spreading over the whole country. It is
perfectly clear that the Cadets and their hangers-on are
minimising it in every way and are claiming it to be nothing but
"riots" and "anarchy". That lie is being refuted because in the
revolt centres the land is beginning to be handed over to the
peasants. "Riots" and "anarchy" have never led to such splendid
political results! The tremendous strength of the peasant revolt
is shown by the fact that the compromisers and the
Socialist-Revolutionaries of Dyelo Naroda , and even Breshko-Breshkovskaya, have begun to talk of
transferring the land to the peasants in order to check the
movement before it has finally engulfed them.

Are we to wait until the Cossack units of the Kornilovite
Kerensky (who was recently exposed as a Kornilovite by the
Socialist-Revolutionaries themselves) succeed in suppressing
this peasant revolt piecemeal ?

Apparently, many leaders of our Party have failed to note the
specific meaning of the slogan which we all adopted and
which we have repeated endlessly. The slogan is "All Power to
the Soviets". There were periods, there were moments during the
six months of the revolution, when this slogan did not mean
insurrection. Perhaps those periods and those moments blinded
some of our comrades and led them to forget that now, at least
since the middle of September, this slogan for us too has become
equivalent to a call for insurrection.

There can be no shadow of doubt on this score. Dyelo Naroda recently explained this "in a popular way", when it
said "Kerensky will under no circumstances submit!" As if he
could!

The slogan "All Power to the Soviets" is nothing but a call for
insurrection. And the blame will be wholly and undoubtedly ours,
if we, who for months have been calling upon the people to
revolt and repudiate compromise, fail to lead them to revolt on
the eve of the revolution's collapse, after the people have
expressed their confidence in us.

The Cadets and compromisers are trying to scare us by citing the
example of July 3-5, by pointing to the intensified agitation of
the Black Hundreds, and so forth. But if any mistake was made on July
3-5, it was that we did not take power. I do not think we made a
mistake then, for at that time we were not yet in a majority. But now it would be a fatal mistake, worse than a
mistake. The spread of Black Hundred agitation is understandable. It is an aggravation of extremes in an
atmosphere of a developing proletarian and peasant revolution. But to use this as an argument against an
uprising is ridiculous, for the impotence of the Black Hundreds,
hirelings of the capitalists, the impotence of the Black Hundreds in the struggle , does not even require proof. In
the struggle they are not worth considering. In the struggle
Kornilov and Kerensky can only rely on the Savage Division and
the Cossacks. And now demoralisation has set in even among the
Cossacks; furthermore, the peasants are threatening them with
civil war within their Cossack regions.

I am writing these lines on Sunday, October 8. You will read
them not earlier than October 10. I have heard from a comrade
who passed through here that people travelling on the Warsaw
railway say, "Kerensky is bringing Cossacks to Petrograd!" This
is quite probable, and it will be entirely our fault if we do
not verify it most carefully and do not make a study of the strength and distribution of the Kornilovite troops of the second draft.

Kerensky has again brought Kornilovite troops into the vicinity
of Petrograd in order to prevent state power from passing into
the hands of the Soviets, in order to prevent this power from
proposing an immediate peace, in order to prevent all the land
from being immediately handed over to the peasants, in order to
surrender Petrograd to the Germans, and himself escape to
Moscow! That is the slogan of the insurrection which we must
circulate as widely as possible and which will have a tremendous
success.

We must not wait for the All-Russia Congress of Soviets, which
the Central Executive Committee may delay even until
November. We must not delay and permit Kerensky to bring up more
Kornilovite troops. Finland, the fleet and Revel are represented
at the Congress of Soviets. These can together start an
immediate movement on Petrograd against the Kornilovite
regiments, a movement of the fleet, artillery, machine-guns and
two or three army corps, such as have shown, for instance in
Vyborg, the intensity of their hatred for the Kornilovite
generals, with whom Kerensky is again in collusion.

It would be a great mistake to refuse to seize the opportunity
of immediately smashing the Kornilovite regiments of the second
draft on the ground that the Baltic fleet, by moving into
Petrograd, would allegedly expose the front to the Germans. The
Kornilovite slanderers will say this, as they will tell any lie,
but it is unworthy of revolutionaries to allow themselves to be
intimidated by lies and slanders. Kerensky will surrender
Petrograd to the Germans, that is now as clear as daylight. No
assertions to the contrary can destroy our full conviction that
this is so, for it follows from the entire course of events and
Kerensky's entire policy.

Kerensky and the Kornilovites will surrender Petrograd to the
Germans. And it is in order to save Petrograd that Kerensky must
be overthrown and power taken by the Soviets of both capital cities. These Soviets will immediately propose a peace to
all the nations and will thereby fulfil their duty to the German
revolutionaries. They will thereby also be taking a decisive
step towards frustrating the criminal conspiracies against the
Russian revolution, the conspiracies of international imperialism.

Only the immediate movement of troops from Finland, and of the
Baltic fleet, Revel and Kronstadt against the Kornilovite forces
quartered near Petrograd can save the Russian and the world
revolution. Such a movement has a hundred to one chance of
leading within a few days to the surrender of a part of
the Cossack troops, to the utter defeat of the other part, and
to the overthrow of Kerensky, for the workers and the soldiers
of both capital cities will support such a movement.

In truth, delay would be fatal.

The slogan "All Power to the Soviets" is a slogan of insurrection. Whoever uses this slogan without having grasped
this and given thought to it will have only himself to blame. And insurrection must be treated as an art. I
insisted on this during the Democratic Conference and I insist
on it now, because that is what Marxism teaches us, and
it is what is being taught us by the present situation in Russia
and in the world generally.

It is not a question of voting, of attracting the Left
Socialist-Revolutionaries, of additional provincial Soviets, or
of a congress of these Soviets. It is a question of insurrection, which can and must be decided by
Petrograd, Moscow, Helsingfors, Kronstadt, Vyborg and Revel. It
is in the vicinity of Petrograd and in Petrograd itself
that the insurrection can, and must be decided on and effected,
as earnestly as possible, with as much preparation as possible,
as quickly as possible and as energetically as possible.

The fleet, Kronstadt, Vyborg, and Revel can and must advance on
Petrograd; they can and must smash the Kornilovite regiments,
rouse both the capital cities, start a mass agitation for a
government which will immediately give land to the peasants and
immediately make proposals for peace, overthrow Kerensky's
government and establish such a government.

Delay would be fatal.

N. Lenin

October 8, 1917.

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Notes:
[1] The
reference is to the large anti-war manifestations in Turin,
Italy, in August 1917. A demonstration against the food shortage
broke out on August 21. The workers struck the following day,
and a general strike followed. Barricades were thrown up. The
movement assumed a political, anti-war character. On August 23
Turin's suburbs were in the hands of the insurgents. The
Government threw the army against them and imposed martial
law. The general strike was called off on August 27.