V. I. Lenin

Source: ru:LS/v26;es:MT
Translated: machine translation (DeepSeek) from the Russian; AI-translated.

A comrade writes on January 7:

“Only now, when we have come face to face with the strike fever that has spontaneously seized almost all the factories, mills and even small workshops, only now can we appreciate the utter disorganisation of the Party [which must be held responsible for our confession]. The result of it is that we, the St. Petersburg organisation, are absolutely powerless in face of the spontaneous working-class movement. You have only to go out into the street and see what is going on around you to realise how powerless we are. Why, now we need thousands and tens of thousands of leaflets, we need organised workers’ meetings, we need trained and experienced orators who could win over the masses of workers from Father Gapon to us. And what can we do? Issue a few hundred leaflets, which will be literally unnoticed, send a few orators, leaving them to their own devices...

The day before yesterday and yesterday meetings of up to 500 workers were held in the Viborg District. At one of them, before the chairman arrived, a worker came forward and delivered a speech that was thoroughly Social-Democratic; the audience received it very well and applauded the speaker. At the same meeting organised workers spoke; there were no intellectuals from the majority. One incident that occurred at this meeting is worth noting. A worker tore down a portrait of Nicholas from the wall. The chairman of the meeting tried to make out that this was done by a worker who was the worse for drink and accidentally knocked against the portrait, but part of the meeting vigorously protested against this attempt to gloss over the matter. In the end a resolution was adopted, exactly similar to the Putilov one, i.e., drafted under the guidance of the now famous Father Gapon.

An even more imposing meeting was held on the Peterhof Highway, attended by several thousand workers. The attitude of this meeting to the Social-Democrats was quite different: our leaflets, as well as those of the minority, were torn up; at first the representatives refused to accept the 500 rubles which the Committee had given to the strikers.

No Social-Democratic speeches were made (we ourselves are to blame for that), but the remarkable thing is that the resolution adopted at this meeting is one that any Social-Democrat could sign without hesitation; it is said that this resolution was drafted by a Social-Democrat who has influence over Father Gapon. For a long time we could not make out what sort of man this priest is; our original opinion of him has to be abandoned. It seems to me that we have to deal with a [fanatical] naive idealist. If we look at the priest as we did before, it is absolutely impossible to explain his behaviour at yesterday’s meeting: he declared that on Sunday all the strikers will go to the Palace to present to Nicholas a petition on the urgent needs of the workers (the convocation of a Constituent Assembly, etc.), and if the tsar refuses to accept this petition, or if the police prevent them from assembling, that will mean that the tsar is at one with the ministers, and that, consequently, the slogan ‘Down with the ministers’ must be supplemented by the slogan ‘Down with the tsar’; therefore, the workers, when going to the Palace, must prepare banners with the inscription ‘Down with the tsar’ and arm themselves. He called upon the meeting to swear that not one of those present would abandon this decision, even if they had to fight the troops. Now, according to reports, the police are looking for Gapon, but he is in hiding until Sunday.

On Vasilyevsky Island meetings were held yesterday—a general strike was decided upon. This morning crowds of workers are parading the streets, stopping work at the factories and preventing those who want to work from going to work. I am passing on the rumour that the foremen themselves are urging the workers to stop work. It is said that the capitalists are quite tolerant of the strike, and some [like La Ferme] even see in it a means of wresting a constitution from the utterly bewildered Nicholas through the workers. But what is particularly surprising is the behaviour of the police. I purposely walked through various parts of the city today and I affirm that there are fewer policemen than usual. Only on the Maly Prospekt of Vasilyevsky Island, near the 5th Line, where this morning a crowd (it is said) wrecked the police station and released the prisoners (??), can four or five mounted policemen be seen.

Today huge meetings are to be held on the Island, the Viborg and Petersburg Sides, and the Peterhof Highway. We have sent agitators to the Viborg and Petersburg Sides (three men each...). I don’t know about the other two districts—I haven’t seen anyone from those districts for two days, although I know that I. P. with the agitators was at the meeting of the Islanders yesterday.”

Another letter (of January 7?):

... “Factories and mills are joining the strike with amazing rapidity, one after another. This morning the number of strikers was estimated at 40,000, but by evening 24 establishments and 82,000 strikers were counted. (The English newspapers gave the figure 75,000. Ed.) It is said, etc.”