Yesterday I read in "Pravda" some reports that convinced me that the moment for the offensive is, perhaps, closer than we supposed at the Congress, and for which the young comrades so vehemently attacked us. But I will speak about these reports later; for now, I must say that the closer the general offensive, the more "opportunistically" we must act. Now you will all return home and tell the workers that we have become more prudent than we were before the III Congress. You should not be embarrassed; you will say that we made mistakes and now want to act more cautiously; thereby, we will win over the masses from the Social-Democratic and Independent Social-Democratic parties, masses who are objectively pushed towards us by the entire course of events, but who fear us. By our example, I want to show that one must act more cautiously.

At the beginning of the war, we, the Bolsheviks, adhered to only one slogan — civil war, and moreover, a ruthless one. We branded as a traitor everyone who did not advocate civil war. But when we returned to Russia in March 1917, we completely changed our position. When we returned to Russia and spoke with the peasants and workers, we saw that they all stood for the defense of the fatherland, but of course, in a completely different sense than the Mensheviks, and we could not call these simple workers and peasants scoundrels and traitors. We characterized this as "honest defensism." I generally want to write a large article about this and publish all the materials. On April 7, I published theses in which I spoke of caution and patience, comrades.

Our initial position at the beginning of the war was correct; then it was important to create a definite, resolute core. Our subsequent position was also correct. It proceeded from the need to win over the masses. We then already opposed the idea of an immediate overthrow of the Provisional Government. I wrote: "We must overthrow the government, because it is an oligarchic, not a people's government, because it can give us neither bread nor peace. But it cannot be overthrown immediately, because it relies on the Workers' Soviets and still enjoys the trust of the workers. We are not Blanquists; we do not want to govern with a minority of the working class against the majority." The Cadets, who are subtle politicians, immediately noticed the contradiction between our old and new position and called us hypocrites. But since they simultaneously called us spies, traitors, scoundrels, and German agents, the first label made no impression. On April 20, the first crisis occurred. Milyukov's note on the Dardanelles exposed the government as imperialist. Following this, armed masses of soldiers moved on the government building and overthrew Milyukov. At their head was a certain Linde, a non-party member. This movement was not organized by the party. We then characterized this movement as follows: it was somewhat more than an armed demonstration, and somewhat less than an armed uprising. At our conference on April 22, the left wing demanded the immediate overthrow of the government. The Central Committee, on the contrary, spoke out against the slogan of civil war, and we instructed all agitators in the provinces to refute the unscrupulous lie that the Bolsheviks wanted civil war. On April 22, I wrote that the slogan "Down with the Provisional Government" is incorrect, because if one does not have the majority of the people behind them, this slogan will become either an empty phrase or an adventure.

We were not ashamed to call our leftists "adventurists" in the face of our enemies. The Mensheviks triumphed on this occasion and spoke of our bankruptcy. But we said that every attempt to be a little, even a tiny bit, to the left of the Central Committee is foolishness, and whoever stands to the left of the Central Committee has already lost simple common sense. We will not allow ourselves to be intimidated by the fact that the enemy rejoices at our blunders.

Our only strategy now is to become stronger, and therefore smarter, more prudent, more "opportunistic," and we must tell this to the masses. But after we win over the masses through our prudence, we will then apply the tactic of offensive, and precisely in the strictest sense of the word.

Now regarding the three reports:
1) The strike of the Berlin municipal workers. Municipal workers are for the most part conservative people, belonging to the majority Social Democrats and the Independent Social-Democratic Party, well-provided for, but they are forced to strike.
2) The strike of textile workers in Lille.

3) The third fact is the most important. A meeting was held in Rome to organize the struggle against the fascists, in which 50,000 workers — representatives of all parties — communists, socialists, as well as republicans — participated. 5,000 war veterans in military uniform came to it, and not a single fascist dared to appear on the street. This proves that there is more combustible material in Europe than we thought. Lazzari praised our resolution on tactics. This is a great achievement of our Congress. If Lazzari recognizes it, then thousands of workers who follow Lazzari will surely come to us, and their leaders will not be able to frighten them away from us. "Il faut reculer, pour mieux sauter" (one must retreat to jump better). And this jump is inevitable, because the objective situation is becoming unbearable.

So, we begin to apply our new tactic. There is no need to be nervous; we cannot be late, but rather we can start too early, and if you ask if Russia can hold out for so long, we answer that we are now waging war with the petty bourgeoisie, with the peasantry, an economic war, which is much more dangerous for us than the previous war. But, as Clausewitz said, the element of war is danger, and we have not been out of danger for a single moment. I am confident that if we act more cautiously, if we make concessions in time, we will also win this war, even if it lasts for more than three years.

To summarize:
1) We will all unanimously declare throughout Europe that we are applying a new tactic, and in this way, we will win over the masses.
2) Coordination of the offensive in the most important countries: Germany, Czechoslovakia, Italy. Preparation and constant interaction are necessary here. Europe is pregnant with revolution, but it is impossible to set a calendar for the revolution in advance. We in Russia will hold out not only for five years but longer. The only correct strategy is the one we have adopted. I am confident that we will win positions for the revolution that the Entente will not be able to oppose, and this will be the beginning of victory on a global scale.

Leftist errors are easy to correct. In our party, we have always corrected them, and even without any split, without major frictions, remaining friends as before. But if, at a decisive moment, a lack of courage is revealed, then that is no longer an error, but betrayal. I listened with pleasure to Terracini's speech, and if he thinks that his interpretation of my speech, and not Schmeral's, is correct, then he is not mistaken. Our slogan is preparation for the offensive. We are making our retreat not on principle, but only for tactical reasons and only for a short time.