Date: 1917
Source: ru:PSS/v31

The invitation to the conference is addressed to all socialist parties in Russia—and thus, by extension, to our own—as we cannot afford to remain silent about this fact of international significance. Social-chauvinists from every belligerent nation are acting as unofficial representatives of their respective governments and ruling classes, Comrade Lenin observed.

Under pressure from internal fermentations, the German government is prepared to renounce part of its annexations, and Borgbjerg serves as its diplomatic representative. He has no common ground—neither with German workers nor with Scandinavian workers—with either the German or the Scandinavian labor movement. To the German ruling circles, the conference of social-patriotic majorities appears as a convenient opportunity to attempt a secret bargain with the predators on the other side.

Social-patriots who have taken part in this shameful war, as Comrade Nogin put it, now seek to play a role in its equally disgraceful conclusion. On the other hand, the resistance offered by the imperialists of the Triple Entente to this proposal clearly reveals their expansionist ambitions. Revolutionary social democracy must seize upon this fact and turn it to its own advantage by exposing the deception perpetrated by both sides. The party, which unites more than 70,000 workers, must issue a warning to internationalist workers in every country, cautioning them against falling prey to such deceit.

“Pravda,” No. 41, May 9 (April 26), 1917

Printed according to the text of the newspaper “Pravda.”