March 20 (March 7, old style) Vladimir Ilyich writes his
first «Letter from Afar» under the title «The First Stage of the First Revolution».
This first letter and at the same time the only one that reached
Petrograd before Vladimir Ilyich's arrival, was published in No. 44-45
of «Pravda» dated March 24 and 22, 1947 old style. The remaining letters (Nos. 2, 5,
4, 6) did not appear in print. In the interests of a complete reflection of the political
views of Vladimir Ilyich of those days, we also publish the 4th
Letter. Its manuscript has not been preserved. We are reprinting it from «Pravda».
±
LENIN.
LETTERS FROM AFAR.
LETTER ONE.
THE FIRST STAGE OF THE FIRST REVOLUTION.
[March 20 (7), 1917]
The first revolution, born of the world imperialist war, has broken out.
This first revolution will probably not be the last.
The first stage of this first revolution, namely the Russian
revolution of March 1, 1917, judging by the meager data
available to the one writing these lines in Switzerland,
has ended. This first stage will probably not be the last stage
of our revolution.
How could such a «miracle» happen that in just 8 days —
the period indicated by Mr. Milyukov in his boastful telegram
to all representatives of Russia abroad — the monarchy collapsed,
which had lasted for centuries and during the three years of the greatest,
all-national class battles of 1905–1907 had held out despite anything?

LENIN. LETTERS FROM AFAR.

There are no miracles in nature and in history, but every sharp
turn in history, including every revolution, gives such
a wealth of content, unfolds such unexpectedly peculiar
combinations of forms of struggle and the balance of power of the combatants, that
for the philistine Understanding much must seem a miracle.
In order for the tsarist monarchy to collapse in a few days, a combination of a whole series of conditions
of world-historical importance was necessary.
Let us point out the main ones.
Without the three years of the greatest class battles and revolutionary
energy of the Russian proletariat of 1905–1907, such a rapid,
in the sense of completing its initial stage, in a few days, the second revolution would have been impossible. The first (1905)
deeply plowed the soil, uprooted age-old prejudices, awakened
millions of workers and tens of millions of peasants to political life and political struggle, showed each
other — and the whole world — all the classes (and all the main parties) of Russian
society in their true nature, in the true relationship of their interests, their strengths, their methods of action, their
immediate and long-term goals.
The first revolution and the following counter-revolutionary era (1907-1914) exposed
the entire essence of the tsarist monarchy, brought it to the «last line»,
revealed all its rottenness, vileness, all the cynicism and debauchery
of the tsarist gang with the monstrous Rasputin at its head, all the brutalities
of the Romanov family — these pogromists who drenched Russia
in the blood of Jews, workers, revolutionaries — these «first among
equals» landlords, owning millions of desyatins of land and going to all atrocities, to all crimes, to
the ruin and suffocation of any number of citizens in order to preserve
this «sacred property» of their own class.
Without the revolution of 1905–1907, without the counter-revolution
of 1907–1914, such a precise «self- determination» of all classes of the Russian people and the peoples inhabiting
Russia, a determination of the attitude of these classes to each other
and to the tsarist monarchy, which manifested itself in the eight days
of the February-March revolution of 1917, would have been impossible. This eight-day
revolution was, if it is permissible to express it metaphorically,
«played out» exactly after a dozen major and minor rehearsals; the «actors» knew each other, their roles, their
places, their surroundings inside and out, through and through, down to any

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somewhat significant nuance of political directions and methods of action.
But if the first, great revolution of 1905, condemned as a «great rebellion» by Messrs. Guchkov and Milyukov
with their henchmen, after 12 years led to the «brilliant» «glorious revolution» of 1917, which the Guchkovs and Milyukovs
declare «glorious» because it (so far) gave them power, then
a great, mighty, omnipotent «director» was still necessary, who, on the one hand, was able to accelerate
the course of world history on a huge scale, and, on the other
hand, to generate crises of unprecedented force, economic, political, national and international.
In addition to the extraordinary acceleration of world history, particularly
sharp turns in it were needed, so that at one of these turns the cart of the Romanov monarchy, covered in blood and dirt, could overturn at once.
This omnipotent «director», this mighty accelerator, was the world imperialist war.
Now it is indisputable that it is world-wide, because the U.S.
and China are half-involved in it today, and will be fully
involved tomorrow.
Now it is indisputable that it is imperialist on both sides. Only capitalists and their henchmen, social-patriots
and social-chauvinists, can deny or obscure this fact. The German and Anglo-French bourgeoisie are waging the war
for the robbery of foreign countries, for the strangulation of small nations,
for financial domination over the world, for the division and redivision
of colonies, for saving the perishing capitalist system by deceiving and disuniting the workers of different countries.
The imperialist war with objective inevitability had to
accelerate extraordinarily and unprecedentedly sharpen the class
struggle of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie, and must turn
into a civil war between hostile classes.
This transformation was started by the February-March revolution of 1917, the first stage of which showed us, first, a
joint blow to Tsarism, inflicted by two forces: all of the bourgeois and landlord
Russia with all its unconscious henchmen and with all its conscious leaders
in the person of the Anglo-French ambassadors and capitalists, on the one hand.

LENIN. LETTERS FROM AFAR.

— on the one hand; and the Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies —
on the other.

These three political camps, three main political forces: 1) the tsarist monarchy, the head of the serf-owning landlords, the head of the old bureaucracy and general staff; 2) the bourgeois and landlord Octobrist-Cadet Russia, trailing behind which was the petty bourgeoisie; 3) the Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, seeking allies in the entire proletariat and in the entire mass of the poorest population, — these three main political forces have revealed themselves with complete clarity even in the 8 days of the "first stage," even for such an observer distant from events, forced to limit himself to the meager telegrams of foreign newspapers, as the one writing these lines.

But before speaking about this in more detail, I must return to that part of my letter which is dedicated to the factor of the primary force — the world imperialist war.

The war has bound the warring powers, the warring groups of capitalists, the "masters" of the capitalist system, the slave owners of capitalist slavery, with iron chains to each other. One bloody lump — that is what the socio-political life of the historical moment we are experiencing is.

The socialists who went over to the side of the bourgeoisie at the beginning of the war, all these Davids and Scheidemanns in Germany, Plekhanovs, Potresovs, Gvozdevs & Co. in Russia, shouted loudly and with all their might against the "illusions" of the revolutionaries, against the "illusions" of the Basel Manifesto, against the "dream farce" of turning the imperialist war into a civil war. They sang in every way the strength, vitality, and adaptability supposedly revealed by capitalism,— oh, they who helped the capitalists "adapt," tame, dupe, and disunite the working classes of different countries!

But "he laughs best who laughs last." It did not take long for the bourgeoisie to postpone the revolutionary crisis engendered by the war. It is growing with unstoppable force in all countries, starting from Germany, which is experiencing, in the expression of one observer who recently visited it, "a brilliantly organized famine," ending with England and France, where famine is also looming and where the organization is far less "brilliant."

It is natural that in tsarist Russia, where the disorganization was the most monstrous and where the proletariat is the most revolutionary (not

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thanks to its special qualities, but thanks to the living traditions of the "fifth" year), — the revolutionary crisis broke out earliest of all. This crisis was accelerated by a series of most severe defeats inflicted on Russia and its allies. The defeats shook the entire old government mechanism and the entire old order, embittered all classes of the population against it, enraged the army, exterminated on a grand scale its old commanding staff, of a ossified-noble and especially rotten bureaucratic character, replaced it with a young, fresh, predominantly bourgeois, raznochinets, petty-bourgeois staff.

But if defeats in the war played the role of a negative factor, accelerating its explosion, then the connection of Anglo-French financial capital, Anglo-French imperialism with the Octobrist-Cadet capital of Russia was the factor that accelerated this crisis.

This side of the matter, extremely important, is concealed for understandable reasons by the Anglo-French press and gleefully emphasized by the German press. We Marxists must soberly look truth in the eye, without being embarrassed either by the official lie, the sweet-diplomatic lie of diplomats and ministers of the first warring group of imperialists, or by the winks and giggles of their financial and military competitors of the other warring group. The entire course of events of the February-March revolution shows clearly that the English and French embassies, with their agents and "connections," who had long been making the most desperate efforts to prevent "separate" agreements and a separate peace of Nicholas II (let us hope and strive for this — the last) with Wilhelm II, directly sought the removal of Nicholas Romanov.

Let us not delude ourselves.

If the revolution has triumphed so quickly and so — outwardly, at first superficial glance — "radically," it is only because, by virtue of an extremely original historical situation, completely different currents merged together, and remarkably "amicably" merged, completely disparate class interests, completely opposite political and social aspirations. Namely: the conspiracy of the Anglo-French imperialists, pushing Miliukov and Guchkov & Co. to seize power in the interests of continuing

LENIN. — LETTERS FROM AFAR.

the imperialist war, and in the interests of an even more ardent and persistent conduct of it, in the interests of slaughtering new millions of workers and peasants of Russia to obtain Constantinople .... for the Guchkovs, Syria — for the French, Mesopotamia — for the English capitalists, etc. This is on the one hand. And on the other hand, a deep proletarian and mass-popular (all the poorest population of cities and villages) movement of a revolutionary character for bread, for peace, for true freedom.

Revolutionary workers and soldiers destroyed the vile tsarist monarchy to its foundations, not admiring or being embarrassed by the fact that at certain, short, historically exceptional moments of conjuncture, the struggle of Buchanan, Guchkov, Miliukov & Co. comes to their aid, wishing only to replace one monarch with another.

That is how and only how it was. That is how and only how a politician who is not afraid of the truth, who soberly weighs the balance of social forces in the revolution, who assesses every "current moment" not only from the point of view of its entire given, present-day originality, but also from the point of view of the deeper springs, the deeper correlation of interests of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, both in Russia and throughout the world, can look at it.

The Petersburg workers and soldiers, like the workers and soldiers of all Russia, fought selflessly against the tsarist monarchy, for freedom, for land for the peasants, for peace against the imperialist slaughter. Anglo-French imperialist capital, in the interests of continuing and intensifying this slaughter, forged palace intrigues, organized a conspiracy, incited and encouraged the Guchkovs and Miliukovs, prepared a completely ready new government which seized power after the very first blows of the proletarian struggle, inflicted on tsarism.

This government is not an accidental collection of faces.

These are representatives of a new class, which has risen to political power in Russia, the class of capitalist landlords and the bourgeoisie, which has long ruled our country economically and which, both during the revolution of 1905-1907, and during the counter-revolution of 1907-1914, and finally — and moreover with particular rapidity — during the war of 1914-1917, was organizing itself politically extremely quickly, LENIN'S CFOГППK.
taking into its hands both local self-government and public education, and congresses of various kinds, and the Duma, and the military-industrial committees, etc. This new class was "almost completely" already in power by 1917; therefore, the first blows to Tsarism were enough for it to collapse, clearing the way for the bourgeoisie. The imperialist war, demanding an immense exertion of strength, so accelerated the course of development of backward Russia that we "immediately" (in reality, it seemed immediately) caught up with Italy, England, almost France, and obtained a "coalition," "national" (i.e., adapted for waging the imperialist slaughter and for deceiving the people) "parliamentary" government.

Alongside this government—in essence, a simple clerk of the multi-billion "Firms" of England and France, from the point of view of this war—arose a new, unofficial, undeveloped, still relatively weak workers' government, expressing the interests of the proletariat and the poorest part of the urban and rural population.

This is the Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies in Petrograd.

Such is the actual political situation, which we must first of all strive to establish with the greatest possible objective accuracy, in order to base Marxist tactics on the only solid foundation on which it should be based, on the foundation of Facts.

The Tsarist monarchy is broken, but not yet finished off.

The Octobrist-Cadet, bourgeois government, wishing to wage the imperialist war "to the end," is in reality a clerk of the Financial Firm "England and France," forced to promise the people the maximum of freedoms and handouts compatible with the government retaining its power over the people and the ability to continue the imperialist slaughter.

The Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, the embryo of a workers' government, the representative of the interests of all the poorest masses of the population, i.e., 9/10 of the population, striving for peace, bread, freedom.

The struggle of these three forces determines the situation that has now arisen and is transitional from the first to the second stage of the revolution.

For a real struggle against the Tsarist monarchy, for a real guarantee of freedom, not just in words, not

LENIN.-----LETTERS FROM AFAR.

in the promises of the краснобаев of liberalism, the workers must not support the new government, but this government must "support" the workers! For the only guarantee of freedom and the destruction of Tsarism to the end is the arming of the proletariat, the strengthening, expansion, development of the role, significance, strength of the Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies.

Everything else is phrase-mongering and lies, self-deception of politicians from the liberal and radical camp.

Help to arm the workers, or at least do not hinder this cause—and freedom in Russia will be invincible, the monarchy will be unrecoverable, the republic is secured.

Otherwise, the people will be deceived. Promises are cheap. Promises are worth nothing. The people were "fed" with promises and the workers were fooled by all the bourgeois politicians in all the bourgeois revolutions.

Our revolution is bourgeois—therefore the workers must support the bourgeoisie, say the worthless politicians from the camp of the liquidators.

Our revolution is bourgeois, we Marxists say—therefore the workers must open the eyes of the people to the deception of bourgeois politicians, teach them not to believe words, to rely only on their own strength, on their organization, on their unification, on their armament.

The government of the Octobrists and Cadets, of Guchkov and Milyukov, cannot—even if they sincerely wanted to—give either peace, or bread, or freedom.

Peace—because it is a government of war, a government of continuing the imperialist slaughter, a government of conquest, not yet abandoning even a sound of the Tsarist policy of seizing Armenia, Galicia, Turkey, taking away Constantinople, new conquest of Poland, Courland, the Lithuanian Territory, etc.

This government is bound hand and foot by Anglo-French imperialist capital. Russian capital is only a branch of the worldwide "Firm," turning over hundreds of billions of rubles and bearing the name: "England and France."

Bread—because this government is bourgeois. At best, it will give the people, as Germany did, a "ingeniously organized famine." But the people will not tolerate hunger. The people will learn and, probably, will soon learn that bread exists and can

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be obtained, but only by measures that do not bow down before the sacredness of capital and landownership.

Freedom—because this government is landlord-capitalist, afraid of the people.

We will talk about the tactical tasks of our immediate behavior in relation to this government in another article. There we will show the peculiarity of the current moment—the transition from the first to the second stage of the revolution, why the slogan, the "task of the day" at this moment should be: workers, you have shown miracles of proletarian and popular heroism in the civil war against Tsarism, you must show miracles of proletarian and national organization in order to prepare your victory in the second stage of the revolution.

Limiting ourselves now to an analysis of the class struggle and the correlation of class forces at this stage of the revolution, we must also raise the question: who are the allies of the proletariat in this revolution?

It has two allies: first, the broad mass of semi-proletarian and, in part, petty-peasant population in Russia, numbering many tens of millions, constituting the vast majority of the population. This mass needs peace, bread, freedom, land. This mass will inevitably be under a certain influence of the bourgeoisie, and especially the petty bourgeoisie, to which it is closest in its living conditions, wavering between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The cruel lessons of the war, which will be all the more cruel the more energetically Guchkov, Lvov, Milyukov and Co. wage the war, will inevitably push this mass to the proletariat, force it to follow it. We must now, using the freedom of the new order and the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, try to enlighten and organize this mass first and foremost. Councils of peasant deputies, councils of agricultural workers—this is one of the most pressing tasks. Our aspirations will consist not only in the fact that agricultural workers will single out their special councils, but also that the poor and poorest peasants organize separately from the wealthy peasants. About the special tasks and special forms of organization that are now urgently needed in the next letter.

LENIN.-----LETTERS FROM AFAR.

Secondly, the ally of the Russian proletariat is the proletariat of all warring and all countries in general. It is largely suppressed by the war now, and too often the social-chauvinists who have gone over to the side of the bourgeoisie in Europe, like Plekhanov, Gvozdev, Potresov in Russia, speak on its behalf. But the liberation of the proletariat from their influence has been progressing with each month of the imperialist war, and the Russian revolution will inevitably accelerate this process to a tremendous extent.

With these two allies, the proletariat of Russia can go and will go, using the peculiarities of the present transitional moment, to the conquest first of a democratic republic and the full victory of the peasantry over the landlords, and then to socialism, which alone will give the war-weary peoples peace, bread and freedom.