Written: Written in the first half of June 1917
Published:
First published in 1925 in Lenin Miscellany IV.
Printed from the original.
Source:
Lenin
Collected Works,
Progress Publishers,
1971,
Moscow,
Volume 36,
pages 452-453.
Translated: Andrew Rothstein
Transcription\Markup:
R. Cymbala
Public Domain:
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Phrase-mongering about revolution and halting (= throttling) of the revolution by the Narodniks and Mensheviks. The “new ” government[2]:
(1) Lockout experts....
...(2) Draggers-out of the slaughter....
...(3) Saviours of the landowner...
||
The offensive (for peace
without annexations).
||
Secret treaties (and peace
without annexations).
||
Finland (and peace
without annexations—and
democracy).
Delay on the land (cf. the peasant Soviet and Conference of State Duma members[3] versus the Chief Land Committee).[4]
Lockout experts (and persecution of workmen).
Schlisselburg and Kronstadt—the post and telegraph employees ( Ministers for pacification, or Ministers for throttling revolution? Ministers for dispatches to pacify?)
[[ BOX: Tereshchenko+ Shingaryov+Lvov and Co.= practical men....
Kerensky=Minister of Revolutionary Histrionics.... ]]
Economic ruin and catastrophe (and promises).
Bloc of Mensheviks + Narodniks (S.R.) + Yedinstvo....
Bloc of the petty and big bourgeoisie against the workers....
[1] First All-Russia Congress of Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies was held in Petrograd from June 3 to 24 (June 16 to July 7), 1917. It was attended by more than 1,000 delegates. The Bolsheviks, who were then in a minority in the Soviets, had 105 delegates. The S.R.s and Mensheviks were in the majority. On the agenda were the following questions: the attitude to the Provisional Government, the war, preparations for a Constituent Assembly, etc. Lenin spoke on the attitude to the Provisional Government and on the war (see present edition, Vol. 25, pp. 17–28 and 29–42). The Bolsheviks motioned resolutions on all the major questions. They exposed the imperialist nature of the war, the danger of conciliation with the bourgeoisie and demanded the transfer of all power to the Soviets. The Congress decisions supported the Provisional Government, approved of the offensive then being prepared for and opposed the transfer of power to the Soviets. This may be the original plan of Lenin’s speech at the Congress or of an article which he did not have the time to write.
[2] A reference to the “new”, coalition Provisional Government which was formed on May 5 (18), 1917, and which began to function officially the following day. Together with representatives of the bourgeoisie it included the S.R.s Kerensky and Chernov, Pereverzev who was close to the S.R.s, the Mensheviks Skobelev and Tsereteli and the Popular Socialist Peshekhonov.
[3] A conference of members of the Fourth Duma on May 20 (June 2), 1917 decided to support the postponement of the land reform until the convocation of a Constituent Assembly.
By “Peasant Soviet” is meant the first All-Russia Congress of Peasants’ Deputies, which under the influence of the S.R. majority also put off the solution of the land question until the convocation of a Constituent Assembly.
[4] Chief Land Committee was formed by the bourgeois Provisional Government in April 1917. On it were the chiefs of the Ministry of Agriculture and other officials appointed by the government, representatives of gubernia land committees and political parties. The Cadets and the S.R.s had an overwhelming majority on it. Officially, it was the committee’s task to supervise the collection and processing of material for a land reform. Actually, it was designed mainly to fight the peasant movement for the take-over of landed estates. In its declaration on the land question of May 20 (June 2), 1917, it said that no one could solve the land question until the convocation of a Constituent Assembly. After the October Revolution, the committee fought against the implementation of Lenin’s decree on land and was dissolved in December 1917 under a decision of the Council of People’s Commissars.
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