To safeguard Soviet power—and to secure and consolidate the victory of the toiling and exploited masses over landowners and capitalists—only the strictest, most iron‑clad rule by conscious workers can suffice. Only such a regime can win over all working people, all the impoverished masses, and rally them around itself.

Comrades, workers! Remember that the situation of the revolution is critical. Remember that you alone have the power to save the revolution; there is no one else who can do it.

Tens of thousands of select, advanced, and staunchly socialist workers—workers who are incapable of yielding to bribery or theft, who are capable of forging an iron‑strong force to confront kulaks, speculators, marauders, bribe‑takers, and disruptors—this is what is urgently needed.

This is what is both imperative and pressing.

Without this, famine, unemployment, and the ruin of the revolution become inevitable.

The strength of the workers—and their salvation—lie in organization. Everyone knows this. But now, the organization of the workers must take on a special form: the organization of workers’ iron‑clad power, designed to secure victory over the bourgeoisie. Comrades, workers! The fate of the revolution—and the very salvation of the revolution—are in your hands.

Time waits for no one: after an exceedingly harsh May will come even more arduous months—June and July—and perhaps even part of August as well.

Written on May 20, 1918.

Published on May 22, 1918, in the newspaper “Petrogradskaya Pravda,” No. 103.

Printed from the manuscript.