V. I. Lenin

The Domestic and Foreign Situation of the Republic

Report Delivered To The Moscow Conference of The R.C.P. (B.)

July 12, 1919 [1]

Newspaper Report

The previous speaker spoke of the feelings of deep regret with which we have had to contravene our food
policy [2]

None of this, of course, is anything more than darning the
holes of an old garment instead of acquiring a new one. But
what we have done is right. We may recall last year, when the
food situation was much worse’we had absolutely no food
resources. At that time there was considerable confusion in
our ranks because we had to retract from the principles of our
food policy. It was thought that small concessions would lead
to bigger ones and that a return to a socialist policy would
be impossible. That turned out to be untrue. Difficult as the
situation was, we got over it, and our enemies’ hopes were not fulfilled.

The situation today is much better than last year’s; we now have food resources we dared not even dream of last
year. The territory occupied by the enemy was much greater
last year. We have now scored big victories in the East where
a bumper harvest is expected. Apart from that we have experience, and that is the main thing. Having this experience
we are able to say with greater confidence that we shall
overcome the difficulties that stand in our way. July is the
worst month not only as far as food is concerned, but also
because counter-revolution raises its head higher than before.

The counter-revolutionary wave inside the country, however,
was more powerful last year than this. The activities of the
Left Socialist-Revolutionaries had reached the highest point
at that time. The armed struggle that they launched suddenly
in place of their verbal support took us by surprise. The
difficulties were immense, for they had chosen their time very
cleverly. The Socialist-Revolutionaries hoped to play on the
mood of the man in the street who was in despair from hunger. At the same time Muravyov betrayed us at the
front. The revolt of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries was
very quickly suppressed but there was serious wavering in the
provinces for several days.

We now have a more correct attitude to the petty-bourgeois
parties, due to the year’s experience. The experience of
the revolts led by Makhno and Grigoriev and the waverings of
the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks have shown us
that their influence over the worker and peasant masses is
only an apparent one. Their actual strength is nil, so that
when we are told that Chernov at a recent meeting of the
Council of the Right Socialist-Revolutionary Party said,
“If not we and not today, then who else will kick out the Bolsheviks?” we can only say, “The nightmare
was terrible, but God is good.” Today we can only express our amazement at their not being tired of repeating
their own mistakes. Throughout two years we have been witnessing the complete collapse of all their dreams about
“democracy in general”, nevertheless every one of their groups considers it its duty to make the experiment in
its own way. The development of the revolution shows that
their mistakes are being repeated and that the repetition is
causing us countless calamities. The peasants in the East
supported the Socialist-Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks
because they did not want war and realised that the Bolsheviks
were a sound government that would insist on their participating in the war. The result was that Kolchak forces
appeared and brought countless calamities. Now that they are
retreating they are destroying everything in their path, the
country is completely ruined and the sufferings there are
unimaginable, far worse than anything we are experiencing. To
speak of Bolshevik atrocities in face of these facts requires
all the hypocrisy of bourgeois writers.

In the Kolchak business, the Socialist-Revolutionaries and
Mensheviks have again followed the same sanguinary political
road as they did with Kerensky; it has brought them back to
the starting-point and has demonstrated the falseness of all
their coalition ideas.

The masses have now abandoned them and we are witnessing a
revolt in Siberia in which not only workers and peasants but
even intellectuals and kulaks are taking part. We see the
complete collapse of Kolchak’s movement. Apparently every one of their mistakes must be repeated before the eyes
of the unenlightened masses are opened. When the masses see
that the coalition leads to reaction they come to us, battered
and tormented but nevertheless taught and steeled by experience. The same may be said of all imperialists. They
drag out the war, cause greater exhaustion and thereby merely
strengthen in the masses a consciousness of the need for
revolution. Difficult as the year has been, it has been useful
because not only the leaders but even the broadest masses,
even the peasants in the most remote holes and corners have
had an experience that has led them to draw the same conclusions as we do. This gives us firm conviction in our
victory. Without Kolchak the Siberian peasants would not have
become convinced in a single year that they need our workers’ government. It took the very sad experience of
this year to convince them of that.

It is quite possible that the Socialist-Revolutionary and
Menshevik literary groups will die out without ever having
understood anything about our revolution and for a long time
will continue repeating, parrot fashion, that theirs would
have been the best government in the world, a truly socialist
and truly democratic government without civil war, if it had
not been for Kolchak and the Bolsheviks; that, however, is not
important, there have also been stubborn cranks in all revolutions. The important thing is that the masses who
followed them are now leaving them. The peasant masses have
gone over to the Bolsheviks’that is a fact. Siberia demonstrates this best of all. The peasants will not forget
what they experienced under Kolchak’s government.; the greater the trials, the better the Bolsheviks’ lessons
will have been learned.

We are now gaining important victories on the Eastern Front
and these give its reason to hope that we shall have finished
with Kolchak in the East in a few weeks. A turning point has
been reached on the Southern Front, arid, what is more important, a turning-point in the temper of the peasants in
the vicinity of the front has also been reached. These,
incidentally, are rich peasants’middle peasants in those
parts are like kulaks. But there has been a change in their
mood in our favour’this is a fact that is proved by the
return of deserters and by the armed resistance we are putting
up. The workers living in the towns, where they are close to
events, assimilate our ideas from conferences, speeches and
newspapers. The peasant cannot do this, he is convinced only
from his own experience. The peasants in the South were
prepared to curse the Bolsheviks in words, but when Denikin
arrived shouting about democracy (for it is not only the
Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries that shout about it,
the word is to be found in every line of Denikin’s newspaper) the peasants began to fight against him for they
soon realised from their own experience that floggings and
plunder lay hidden under the pretty words. The torments and
ruination in the districts near the Southern Front are having
the same effect as in the East’they are giving us more reliable gains. We have not for a moment forgotten the
difficulties that we are experiencing, we have not forgotten
that the greatest effort and the mobilisation of our forces
are essential, but we can say that the result will be a more
sound victory. The experience of the past year has shown the
masses that today only one form of power is possible and
necessary’the workers’ and peasants’ power of the Bolsheviks. That is what enables us to say with
confidence that this difficult July will be the last difficult
July.

A glance at the international situation only serves to strengthen our confidence in victory.

Forces friendly to us are growing up in all hostile states. Take the small countries’Finland, Latvia,
Poland, Rumania. All attempts to set up a coalition of the big
and petty bourgeoisie in those countries to fight against us
have ended in a break-down and ours turns out to be the only
form of government possible there.

The same thing is true of big states. Take
Germany. Immediately the Treaty of Versailles was signed a big
revolutionary movement began. The Entente bogey has gone and
the workers are now rising, notwithstanding all the sacrifices
that the proletariat has made. During the past year Germany
has had the same experience as we and Siberia have had, but in
a somewhat different form’experience that will lead to the communist revolution. And what about the Entente, the
victors? They say that victory has given them security, but no
sooner had they signed the peace treaty than it became clear
that in signing it they were signing their own death warrant. The mass movement against them is growing. That is
why we say with confidence, taking all our experience, all
that has happened in the past year into account, that we shall
surmount all difficulties and that this July will be the last
difficult July, and that next July we shall welcome the
victory of the world Soviet republic and that victory will be
full and complete.

Endnotes

[1] This conference was attended by 200
delegates of the Moscow Party organisations. Following
Lenin’s report the conference passed a resolution indicating the need to improve Party and government
work—army, food, social security, agitation and propaganda work, and also cultural, educational and political
work among workers and men of the Red Army. It was planned to
call regular non-Party conferences of workers and Red Army
soldiers.

[2] This refers to decisions by the Moscow
August 24) and Petrograd (September 5, 1918) Soviets permitting factory and office workers to transport up to
one-and-half poods of foodstuffs (until October 1,
1918) and the decree of the Council of People’s
Commissars of June 30, 1919 on food procurement in Simbrisk
Gubernia up to August 15, 1919 by workers’s and rural organisations of the central gubernias, etc. The Soviet
Government was compelled to adopt these measures because of
the grave food situation of the country.