V. I. Lenin

Two questions now take precedence over all other political
questions—the question of bread and the question of peace. The imperialist war, the war between the biggest and
richest banking firms, Britain and Germany, that is being waged
for world domination, the division of the spoils, for the
plunder of small and weak nations; this horrible, criminal war
has ruined all countries, exhausted all peoples, and confronted
mankind with the alternative—either sacrifice all civilisation and perish or throw off the capitalist yoke in the
revolutionary way, do away with the rule of the bourgeoisie and
win socialism and durable peace.

If socialism is not victorious, peace between the capitalist
States will be only a truce, an interlude, a time of preparation
for a fresh slaughter of the peoples. Peace and bread are the
basic demands of the workers and the exploited. The war has made
these demands extremely urgent. The war has brought hunger to
the most civilised countries, to those most culturally developed. On the other hand, the war, as a tremendous
historical process, has accelerated social development to an
unheard-of degree. Capitalism had developed into imperialism,
i.e., into monopoly capitalism, and under the influence of the
war it has become state monopoly capitalism. We have now reached
the stage of world economy that is the immediate stepping stone
to socialism.

The socialist revolution that has begun in Russia is, therefore,
only the beginning of the world socialist revolution. Peace and
bread, the overthrow of the bourgeoisie, revolutionary means for
the healing of war wounds, the complete victory of socialism—such are the aims of the struggle.

Petrograd, December 14, 1917.