V. I.

Lenin

The Seventh (April) All-Russia Conference of the R.S.D.L.P.(B.)

APRIL 24–29, 1917

5

Resolution On Borgbjerg’s Proposal

In connection with the arrival of the Danish “socialist”
Borgbjerg and his invitation to attend a congress of socialists
in support of peace, which the German socialists of the
Scheidemann and Plekhanov orientation propose on the basis of
Germany renouncing most of her annexed territories, the
Conference resolves:

Borgbjerg speaks on behalf of three Scandinavian parties—the Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian. He received his
mandate from the Swedish party headed by Branting, a socialist
who has gone over to the side of “his own” bourgeoisie and
betrayed the revolutionary union of the world’s workers. We
cannot recognise this Swedish party as a socialist party. The
only socialist party in Sweden we recognise is the youth party
headed by Hoglund, Lindhagen, Strom, Carleson, and others.

Neither do we consider the Danish party, from which Borgbjerg
has his mandate, a socialist party, because it is headed by
Stauning, a member of the bourgeois cabinet. Stauning’s joining
the bourgeois cabinet evoked a protest on the part of a group
headed by Comrade Trier, which left the party, declaring that
the Danish Socialist Party had become a bourgeois party.

Borgbjerg, on his own admission, is acting in accord with
Scheidemann and other German socialists who have defected to the
German Government and the German bourgeoisie.

There can be no doubt, therefore, that Borgbjerg, directly or
indirectly, is really an agent of the German imperialist
government.

In view of this, the Conference considers the idea of our
Party’s attendance at a conference which includes Borgbjerg and
Scheidemann to be unacceptable in principle, since our task is
to unite, not direct or indirect agents of the various imperialist governments, but the workers of all countries, who,
already during the war, have begun a revolutionary fight against
their own imperialist governments.

Only a meeting and closer contact with these parties and groups
are capable of effectively promoting the cause of peace.

We warn the workers against placing their trust in the conference which is being organised by Borgbjerg, because this
conference of pseudo-socialists will merely be a comedy to cover
up the deals the diplomats are clinching behind its back, deals
which involve an interchange of annexations by which Armenia,
for example, will be “given” to the Russian capitalists, and
Britain will be “given” the colonies she has robbed Germany of,
while probably “ceding” to the German capitalists by way of
compensation part of the Lorraine ore-bearing territories
containing immense wealth in excellent iron ores, etc.

The socialists cannot, without betraying the proletarian cause,
take part directly or indirectly in this dirty huckstering and
haggling among the capitalists of various countries over the
division of the loot.

at the same time the Conference considers that the German
capitalists have not, even through the mouth of Borgbjerg,
renounced all their annexations, not to mention the immediate
withdrawal of their troops from the territories which they have
seized. Germany’s Danish regions, her Polish territories, and
her French part of Alsace are as much annexations of the German
capitalists as Kurland , Finland, Poland, Ukraine, etc., are of the Russian tsars and the
Russian capitalists.

As to restoring Poland’s independence, this is deception on the
part of the German and Austrian capitalists as well as the
Russian Provisional Government, which speaks of a so-called
“free” military alliance between Poland and Russia. To ascertain
the real will of the people in all the annexed territories it is
necessary that all troops should be withdrawn and the opinion of
the population be given free expression. Only such a measure
applied to the whole of Poland (that is, not only to the part
the Russians have seized, but also the part the Germans and
Austrians have seized) and to the whole of Armenia, etc., would
be a step towards translating the governments’ promises into
deeds.

The Conference, further, takes note of the fact that the British
and French socialists, who have gone over to the side of their
capitalist governments, have refused to attend the conference
sponsored by Borgbjerg. This fact clearly demonstrates that the
Anglo-French imperialist bourgeoisie, whose agents these
pseudo-socialists are, wish to continue, wish to drag out this
imperialist war without even desiring to discuss the concessions
which the German imperialist bourgeoisie, under pressure of
growing exhaustion, hunger, economic ruin, and—most important of all—the impending workers’ revolution in
Germany, are compelled to promise through the medium of
Borgbjerg.

The Conference resolves to give all these facts the widest
possible publicity, and, in particular, to bring them to the
notice of the Russian soldiers at the front in the fullest
possible detail. The Russian soldiers must learn that the
Anglo-French capitalists, followed by the Russian, are dragging
out the war, ruling out even such a conference to discuss peace
terms.

The Russian soldiers must learn that the watchword “War to a
victorious finish” now serves as a screen for Britain’s bid to
strengthen her domination in Baghdad and in Germany’s African
colonies, for the striving of the Russian capitalists to plunder
and subdue Armenia and Persia, etc., for the striving to bring
about Germany’s complete defeat.

The Russian soldiers at the front must arrange voting in every
military unit, in every regiment, in every company, on the
question whether they want the war to be dragged out like this
by the capitalists, or whether they want it to be speedily
terminated by having all power in the state pass wholly and
exclusively into the hands of the Soviets of Workers’ and
Soldiers’ Deputies.

The party of the proletariat in Russia will attend a conference
and enter into a fraternal union with only such workers’ parties
of other countries as are waging a revolutionary struggle in
their own countries for all state power passing to the proletariat.

| Pravda No. 41, May 9 (April 26), 1917 | Published according to the typewritten copy of the Minutes |