Date: 1917
Source: ru:LS/v2

Source: LS vol II

On March 25 (April 7), Vladimir Ilyich penned his fourth “Letter from Afar.”
We are publishing it here, based on the copy preserved among Vladimir Ilyich’s papers—
a copy made using carbon paper.
5.
LENIN.
LETTERS FROM AFAR.
FOURTH LETTER.
HOW TO ACHIEVE PEACE?
[March 25 (April 7).]
It was only recently—on March 12/25—that I read in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (No. 517, dated March 21/IlI) the following dispatch, transmitted by telegraph from Berlin:
“From Sweden comes word that Maxim Gorky has sent both the government and the Executive Committee a warmly worded greeting.
He hails the victory of the people over the lords of reaction and calls upon all sons of Russia to help
build a new Russian state.
At the same time, he urges the government to crown its liberating
endeavor with the conclusion of peace.
This must not be peace at any cost; at present, Russia has fewer reasons than ever before to strive for peace at any cost.
Rather, this should be a peace that allows Russia to exist with dignity among the other peoples of the earth.
Enough blood has already been shed by humanity: the new government would earn the greatest of merits—not only for Russia,* but for all of humanity—if it were able, through this very government,
to bring about peace swiftly.”
Such is the report of M. Gorky’s letter.
One feels a pang of sorrow when reading this letter, so thoroughly
permeated as it is with the commonplace prejudices of the petty bourgeoisie.
In the past, while meeting with Gorky on the island of Capri, I often found myself
trying to warn him, even to reproach him, for his political
mistakes.
Gorky would parry these rebukes with his uniquely charming smile and
with a straightforward declaration:
“I know that

LENIN. — LETTERS FROM AFAR.

I am a poor Marxist.
And besides, we artists are all, in one way or another, a bit out of our minds.”
It is not easy to argue against that.
There is no doubt that Gorky is a towering artistic talent who will undoubtedly bring great benefit to the worldwide
proletarian movement.
But why, then, should Gorky venture into politics?
In my view, Gorky’s letter expresses prejudices that are extraordinarily widespread—not only among the petty bourgeoisie,
but also among a segment of workers who fall under its influence.
All the forces of our Party, all the efforts of conscious workers must be
directed toward a tenacious, persistent, comprehensive struggle
against these prejudices.
The Tsarist government initiated and waged this war—this very war—as an imperialist, predatory, bandit-like conflict, designed to plunder and oppress weak nations.
The government of Guchkov and Milukov is a landed‑estate and capitalist government that is compelled to continue—and indeed seeks to continue—precisely such a war.
To appeal to this government with a proposal to conclude a democratic
peace is like appealing to the proprietors of brothels with a sermon on virtue.
Let us explain our point.
What, then, is imperialism?
In my pamphlet “Imperialism as the Highest Stage of Capitalism,” which was delivered to the Parus Publishing House even before the revolution—accepted by them and published in the journal Letopis—
I answered this question as follows:
“Imperialism is capitalism at that stage of development in which monopoly and financial capital have come to dominate, in which the export of capital has assumed paramount importance, in which the division of the world among international trusts has begun, and in which the entire globe has been apportioned among the major capitalist powers” (Chapter VII of the aforementioned pamphlet, published in Letopis while censorship still prevailed, under the title: V. Ilyin, “The Newest
Capitalism”).
The crux of the matter is that capital has grown to enormous proportions.
Alliances among small numbers of the largest capitalists—cartels, syndicates, trusts—manipulate billions and divide
the entire world among themselves.
The entire earth has been partitioned; the war was triggered

by the clash between two of the most powerful groups of billionaires:
the Anglo-French and the German, each vying for control of the world.
The Anglo-French group of capitalists first and foremost seeks to plunder Germany, seizing its colonies—almost all of them already taken—then turning its sights on Turkey.
The German group of capitalists, on the other hand, aims to seize Turkey for itself
and to compensate for the loss of its colonies by annexing neighboring
small states—Belgium, Serbia, Romania.
This, then, is the true reality, concealed beneath every kind of bourgeois lie about a “liberating,” “national” war,
a “war for right and justice,” and similar pious rhetoric—rhetoric with which capitalists have always deceived the common people.
Russia is not fighting this war with its own money.
Russian capital is a participant in the Anglo-French alliance. Russia fights in order to
plunder Armenia, Turkey, Galicia.
Guchkov, Lvov, Milukov—our current ministers—are no mere casual figures.
They are representatives and leaders of the entire class of landed proprietors and capitalists.
They are bound by the interests of capital.
Capitalists cannot renounce their interests any more than a person can lift himself up by the hair.
Second, Guchkov and Milukov are linked to the Anglo-French capital.
They have waged—and are waging—the war with borrowed funds.
For the billions they have borrowed, they promised to pay annually
hundreds of millions in interest, extorting this sum from the backs of Russian workers and Russian peasants.
Third, Guchkov and Milukov are bound by direct agreements—agreements forged for the predatory purposes of this war—with England,
France, Italy, Japan, and other groups of capitalist bandits.
These treaties were concluded back during the reign of Tsar Nicholas II.
Guchkov and Milukov took advantage of the workers’ struggle against
the tsarist monarchy in order to seize power; the agreements they had
made—agreements “endorsed by the Tsar”—they reaffirmed.
This is what the
Guchkov–Milukov government declared in its manifesto, which the Petersburg Telegraph Agency
reported abroad via telegraph on March 7 (March 20): “The government” (of Guchkov and Milukov)
“will faithfully uphold all treaties binding us to other powers”—so stated the manifesto. The new Minister of Foreign Affairs, Milukov, likewise declared

LENIN. — LETTERS FROM AFAR.

in his telegram to all Russian representatives abroad, dated March 5 (March 18), 1917.
These treaties are all secret, and Milukov and Co. do not wish to make them public for two reasons:
1) They fear the people, who
do not want a predatory war; 2) they are bound by Anglo-French
capital, which demands secrecy regarding the treaties. Yet anyone who reads the newspapers and studies the situation knows that these treaties stipulate Japan’s plunder of China, Russia’s plunder of Persia, Armenia,
Turkey (especially Constantinople), Galicia, Italy’s plunder of Albania,
France and England’s plunder of Turkey and the German colonies, and so forth.
Such is the state of affairs.
Therefore, to appeal to the Guchkov–Milukov government with a proposal to conclude, as soon as possible, an honest, democratic,
good‑neighborly peace is like a good village “father” appealing to landowners and merchants with a proposal to live
“according to God’s will,” to love one’s neighbor, and to turn the other cheek when struck on the first.
The landowners and merchants listen to the sermon, continue to oppress and plunder the people, and marvel at how well the “father” knows how to comfort and soothe the “peasants.”
In precisely the same role—whether they realize it or not—play all those who, with kindly words about peace,
turn to bourgeois governments in the midst of this very imperialist war.
Bourgeois governments sometimes refuse outright to listen to such appeals—and even forbid them—while at other times they allow such speeches to be made, showering promises left and right that it is they, after all, who are fighting for the earliest possible conclusion of the “most just” peace, and that the only ones to blame are their
enemies.
Talks about peace directed at bourgeois governments ultimately prove to be nothing more than a deception of the people.
The groups of capitalists who have soaked the earth in blood over the division of land, markets, and concessions cannot conclude a “honorable” peace.
They can only conclude a shameful peace—a peace based on the division of plundered spoils, including Turkey and its colonies.
Moreover, the Guchkov–Milukov government is, in fact, not inclined to peace at this moment, for if it were to conclude peace now, it would gain from the “spoils” only Armenia and part of Galicia—but it seeks to plunder Constantinople once again, and to reclaim Poland from the Germans, a land that the tsarist regime had always oppressed so cruelly and shamelessly. Furthermore, the Guchkov–Milukov government
21*

LENIN’S COLLECTION.
is, in essence, nothing more than an agent of Anglo-French
capital, seeking to retain the colonies plundered from Germany—and, moreover, to force Germany to surrender Belgium and parts of France. Anglo-French capital helped Guchkov and Milukov depose Nicholas II, so that they might help
him “defeat” Germany*).
So what is to be done?
To achieve peace—and even more so to achieve a truly democratic, truly honorable peace—it is necessary that power in the state belong not to landowners and capitalists, but to workers and the poorest peasants. Landowners and capitalists constitute a tiny minority of the population; as everyone knows, capitalists reap enormous profits from war.
Workers and the poorest peasants form the vast majority of the population. They do not profit from war—they are ruined and go hungry. They are not bound by capital, nor by treaties between predatory groups of capitalists; they can—and sincerely desire—to end the war.
If state power in Russia belonged to the Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’, and Peasants’ Deputies, these Soviets—and the All‑Russian Council elected by them—could, and indeed would, agree to implement the peace program that our Party (the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party) had outlined as early as October 13, 1915, in No. 47 of the Party’s central organ, the Social-Democrat (published at that time in Geneva, due to the oppressive grip of tsarist censorship).
That peace program would likely have looked like this:
1) The All‑Russian Council of Workers’, Soldiers’, and Peasants’ Deputies (or, temporarily, the Petrograd Council replacing it) would immediately declare that it is bound by no treaties whatsoever—neither with the tsarist monarchy nor with bourgeois governments.
2) It would immediately publish all such treaties, thereby exposing to public shame the predatory aims of the tsarist monarchy and of all bourgeois governments without exception.
3) It would promptly and openly propose to all belligerent powers that they immediately cease hostilities and conclude an armistice.
*) This paragraph was crossed out in the manuscript with pencil and black ink. Ed.
**) Following this are the words crossed out in black ink: “united by the Central Committee.” Ed.

LENIN. — LETTERS FROM AFAR.

4) It would promptly publish for public knowledge
our workers’ and peasants’ conditions for peace:
the liberation of all colonies; the liberation of all dependent, oppressed, and disenfranchised peoples.
5) It would declare that it does not expect good from bourgeois governments, but rather proposes that workers in all countries overthrow them and transfer all state power to the Soviets of Workers’ Deputies.
6) It would declare that the billion‑dollar debts incurred by bourgeois governments in the course of this criminal, predatory war may be repaid by the capitalists themselves, while workers and peasants do not recognize these debts. To pay interest on these loans means to pay, for many long years, tribute to capitalists for having graciously permitted workers to kill one another over the division of capitalist spoils.
Workers and Peasants!—the Council of Workers’ Deputies would say—would you really consent to pay tens of millions of rubles annually to the masters of capital as reward for a war
fought over the division of African colonies, Turkey, and so forth?
Given these conditions for peace, in my view, the Council of Workers’ Deputies would agree to wage war against any bourgeois government—and against all bourgeois governments in the world—because this would be a truly just war, because all workers and toilers in every country would contribute to its success.
The German worker now sees that the militaristic monarchy in Russia is being replaced by a militaristic republic—a republic of capitalists who seek to continue the imperialist war, reaffirming the predatory treaties of the tsarist monarchy*).
Judge for yourselves: can the German worker truly trust such a republic?
Judge for yourselves: will the war endure? Will the dominance of capitalists on earth endure—if the Russian people, aided by the vivid memories of the great revolution of the “fifth year,” win complete freedom and transfer all state power into the hands of the Soviets of Workers’ and Peasants’ Deputies?
Zurich, March 12/25, 1917.
N. Lenin.
*) Beginning with this paragraph, the entire remainder of the letter was crossed out in the manuscript with black ink. Ed.