V. I.

Lenin

The Tasks of the Proletariat in Our Revolution (Draft Platform for the Proletarian Party)

10. The war cannot be ended “at will”. It cannot be ended by the
decision of one of the belligerents. It cannot be ended by
“sticking your bayonet into the ground”, as one soldier, a
defencist, expressed it.

The war cannot be ended by an “agreement” among the socialists
of the various countries, by the “action” of the proletarians of
all countries, by the “will” of the peoples, and so forth. All
the phrases of this kind, which fill the articles of the
defencist, semi-defencist, and semi-internationalist papers as
well as innumerable resolutions, appeals, manifestos, and the
resolutions of the Soviet of Soldiers’ and Workers’ Deputies –
all such phrases are nothing but idle, innocent and pious wishes
of the petty bourgeois. There is nothing more harmful than
phrases like “ascertaining the will of the peoples for peace”,
like the sequence of revolutionary actions of the proletariat (after the Russian proletariat comes the turn of the
German), etc. All this is Blancism, fond dreams, a playing at
“political campaigning”, and in reality just a repetition of the
fable of Vaska the Cat.

The war is not a product of the evil will of rapacious capitalists, although it is undoubtedly being fought
only in their interests and they alone are being enriched by it. The war is a product of half a century of
development of world capitalism and of its billions of threads
and connections. It is impossible to slip out of the imperialist war and achieve a democratic, non-coercive peace
without overthrowing the power of capital and transferring state
power to another class, the proletariat.

The Russian revolution of February-March 1917 was the beginning
of the transformation of the imperialist war into a civil
war. This revolution took the first step towards ending
the war; but it requires a second step, namely, the transfer of state power to the proletariat, to make the end of
the war a certainty . This will be the beginning of a “break-through” on a world-wide scale, a break-through in the
front of capitalist interests; and only by breaking through
this front can the proletariat save mankind from the horrors of war and endow it with the blessings of peace.

It is directly to such a “break-through” in the front of
capitalism that the Russian revolution has already brought the Russian proletariat by creating the
Soviets of Workers’ Deputies.

---
Notes: