# 4. Speech and Resolution Regarding the Statement by a Group of People’s Commissars on Their Resignation from the Sovnarkom
Source: PSS, Volume 35

Comrade Lenin objects to the previous speakers. He points out that the phrase “The West is shamefully silent”{29} is utterly unacceptable coming from the mouth of an internationalist. Only the blind could fail to see the ferment gripping the working masses in Germany and across the West. The upper echelons of the German proletariat—and, as everywhere else, the socialist intelligentsia—are, for the most part, staunch defenders of the status quo. Yet the proletarian ranks, against the will of their leaders, are more than ready to respond to our call. The draconian discipline that reigns in the German army and navy has not prevented the emergence of oppositional elements. Revolutionary sailors of the German fleet, knowing full well that their attempt was doomed to failure, nonetheless charged bravely toward certain death—willing only to awaken the slumbering spirit of revolt within the people through their own sacrifice. The Spartacus Group{30} is intensifying its revolutionary agitation with ever greater vigor. The name of Liebknecht, the tireless champion of proletarian ideals, is growing ever more popular throughout Germany with each passing day.

We believe in revolution in the West. We know it is inevitable—but of course, we cannot engineer it on demand. Could we have known with certainty, back in December of last year, what February would bring? Could we have foreseen, with absolute certainty in September, that within a month revolutionary democracy in Russia would accomplish the greatest upheaval in world history? We knew that the old order was perched upon a volcano. By numerous signs, we sensed the great underground work unfolding in the depths of the popular consciousness. We could feel the electric charge building up in the air. We knew that this charge would inevitably erupt in a cleansing storm. But we could not predict the precise day or hour when that storm would break. We see the very same picture now in Germany—as we did here. There too, a deep-seated discontent is mounting among the masses, a discontent that is bound to erupt into forms of popular movement. We cannot decree revolution, but we can certainly help to bring it about. We will foster organized fraternization in the trenches, and we will assist the peoples of the West in launching an invincible socialist revolution. Comrade Zaks went on to speak about the decreeing of socialism. But is not the current regime itself calling upon the broadest masses to create the best possible forms of life? The exchange of manufactured goods for bread, the strict oversight and accounting of production—these are the beginnings of socialism. Yes, we shall have a republic of labor. Whoever does not wish to work should not eat.

So then, in what sense is our Party isolated? In the fact that individual intellectuals are breaking away. Yet with each passing day, we find ever greater support among the peasantry. Only he who believes in the people—and who plunges headlong into the living fountainhead of popular creativity—will ultimately triumph and hold onto power.

Comrade Lenin then submits the following resolution to the Central Executive Committee:

While instructing the Council of People’s Commissars to nominate candidates for the posts of People’s Commissar for Internal Affairs and for Trade and Industry at the next session, the Central Executive Committee proposes that Comrade Kolegev assume the post of People’s Commissar for Agriculture.

“Pravda,” No. 182, November 20 (7), 1917; “Izvestiya TsIK,” No. 218, November 7, 1917.

Printed according to the text of the newspaper “Izvestiya TsIK”; the resolution concerning the statement made by a group of People’s Commissars is printed according to the text of the book “Minutes of the Sessions of the VTsIK of Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’, Peasants’, and Kazak Deputies, Second Convocation,” published by the VTsIK in 1918.