The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 20, 1934, Page 6

Page Six DAILY WORKER, N LENIN’S LETT The following text of Lenin’s let- ter, written in 1918, is published in full for the first time. Earlier printings were published with seri- ous omissions. The parts whieh were omitted are published in bold face. By V A I. LENIN mportant role as irreconciliable foes of American imperialism, which is the newest, strongest and latest to participate in the world-wide slaugh- ter of nations, for the division of apitalist profits. Precisely now the American billionaires, these contem- porary slave-owners, have opened a AMERICA HAS BECOME A COU | FUL OF BILLIONAIRES ARE WALLOWING IN LUXURY Since t time about 150 years have passed. Bourgeois civilization has borne a}! its luxuriant fruits. By the high level of development of the productive forces of organized human labor, by utilizing machines and all the wonders of modern technic, America has taken the first place among free and cultured nattons. But at the same time America has be- come one of the foremost countries, as regards the depth of the abyss which divides » handful of brazen billionaires who are wallowing in dirt and in luxury on the one hand, and millions of toilers who are always om the verge of starvation. The American people, who gave the world an example of a revolutionary war | against feudal subjection, now ap- pears as a new, capitalist wage slave of a handful of billionaires; finds it- self playing the role of a hired as- sassin for the wealthy gang, having strangled the Philippines in 1898, un- der the pretext of “liberating” them, and strangling the Russian Socialist Republic in 1918 under the pretext of “protecting” it from the Germans. four years of the imperialist of peoples have not passed in Obvious and irrefutable facts have exposed to the end the duping of peoples by the scoundrels of both the English and the German group of brigands. The four years of war have shown in their results the general law of capitalism as ap- plied to war between murderers for the division of spoils; that he who Was richest and mightiest, profited and robbed the most; he who was Weakest was robbed, decimated, crushed and strangled to the utmo: In number of “colonial slaves,” the English imperialist cutthroats have always been most powerful. Bnglish capitalists did not lose a foot of their “own” territory (acquired through centuries of robbery), but have man- aged to appropriate all the colonies im Africa, have grabbed Mesopotamia and Palestine, have stifled Greece and have begun to | “er and plundered by the imperial-| pretend not to understand the plunder Russia. German imperialist cutthroate were stronger in regard to the organiza. tion and discipline of “their” armies, but weaker in colonies. They have i hated by the band of international |who have defeated their bourgeoisie, | upon no orgie’ ation gaineen | imperialists; no wonder that they|with a bourgeoisie of one national | the particularly tragic page in the bloody history of bloody imperialism by giv- ing their approval—it makes no dif- ference whether direct or indirect, whether open or hypocritically cov- ered up—to an armed expedition of| | the Ango-Japanese beasts for the purpose of strangling the first Social- ist republic. the division of and stolen profits. It} ar of the American people | against English robbers, who subject- | America, and held it in colonial “civilized” blood- mn now subjecting and | mial slavery, hundreds | people n corner t and in all —) TRY WHERE A HAND | rights to all nations— and pi roposed such a peace to ALL the countries at || war, | And it was the Anglo-French and | the American bourgeoisie who refused | | te accept our proposals; they were | the very ones who even refused to | talk to us of a universal peace! Pre- | cisely they were the ones who acted | treacherously towards the interests | | of all peoples by prolonging the tm- | perialist slaughter. Precisely they were the ones who, | speculating upon a renewed partici- |pation of Russia in the imperialist and thereby given a free hand to| the no less marauding German capi- talists in foisting upon Russia the annexationist and violent Brest Peace! It is difficult to imagine a more disgusting piece of hypocrisy than the one with which the Anglo-French and American bourgecisie now put | upon us the “blame” for the Brest | Peace. The very capitalists of those | countries upon which it depended to turn Brest into general negotiations | for world peace are now our “accus- | ers.” The scoundrels of Anglo-French |imperialism, who profited from the | loot of colonies and from the slaugh- ter of peoples, and who prolonged the war almost a year after Brest—they | \“accuse” us, the Bolsheviks, who pro- | | posed @ just peace to all countries; | | us, who tore up, exposed and put to| | shame the secret criminal treaties of |the former Tsar with the Anglo- | French capitalists. | The workers of the whole world, |{m whatever country they may live, | rejoice with us and sympathize with us, applaud us for having burst the iron ring of imperialist ties, dirty im- | perialist treaties, imperfalist chains, | for having dreaded no sacrifice, how- |ever great, to free ourselves, for hay- jing established ourselves as a Social- | | | | | | } ist republic, even though rent asun- | ists, for having gotten out cf the| | impertalist war and raising the ban- | ism over the world. No wonder that for this we are| — | perialism for the Bolsheviks, as well; the imperialists of England and Ger- | sympathized in words with the Bol- | war, have shunned peace negotiations }as from the sympathy of class-con- |many have not hesitated to ruin and | sheviks while in deeds a faithful ser-} most of the small countries and} weaker peoples. What a great war of | “liberation” on both sides! How well | they have “defended the fatherland” | —these bandits of both groups, the | Anglo-French and the German capi- | of imperialism, including our right hatred of these watchdogs of im- talists together with their lackeys the sociai-chauvinists, i. e, Socialists who went over to the side of “their The American billionaires were richest of all and geographically, the most secure. They have profited most of all. They have made ali, even the richest countries, their vassals. They have plundered hundreds of billions of dollars. And every dollar is stained with filth; filthy secret pacts between England and her “al- lies,” between Germany and her vas- sals, pacts on the division of spoils, pacts on mutual “aid” in oppressing the workers and persecuting the So- clalists-internationalists. Every dol- jar is stained with the filth of “profit-~ able” military deliveries, enriching the rich, and despoiling the poor in every country. And every dollar is Stained with blood—of that sea of blood which was shed by the ten millions killed and twenty miilions maimed in the great, noble, liberat- ing and holy war, which was to de- cide whether the English or the Ger- man cuthroats will get more of the spoils, whether the English or the German executioners will be the first to smother the weak peoples the world over. While the German bandits estab- disgusting hypocrisy. Precisely now tke Anglo-French and American bourgeois press is spreading in mil- Hens upon millions of copies, their expedition against her by the alleged desire to “protect” Russia from the ‘It fs not necessary to waste many words to disprove this despicable and d Hie; it is sufficient to point one well-known fact. When in October, i workers and peasants, proposed 2 just peace, a peace annexations and indemnities, @ peace fully guaranteeing equal The complete version of Lenin’s LETTER TO AMERICAN WORK- ERS, written in 1918; is being pub- ‘ished for the first time in pamph- Jet form by International Publish- ‘ers, 381 Fourth Ave., New York. The Widest possible circulation of this punphiet must be secured among the American workers——ED. NOTE. SSE 1917, the Russian workers | | |. When the October Revolution was, jless than a year old, Aug. 20, 1918,} | Lenin submitted a written report to | the American workers on the prog- | |ress of the Proletarian Revolution jin Russia and the obstacles which | were still in the way of the victori- | ous accomplishments of this Revolu- | | iton. He chose to write his report in | the form of a letter which he asked |@ visiting Russian-American com- |rade to deliver on his return to the | United States, whfch, thanks to the | blockade at that time, was a preca- | rious undertaking. Remembering the revolutionary traditions of the American working class and believing that “the Ameri- can revolutionary proletarians are de- stined now to play an especially im- portant role as irreconcilable foes of | American imperialism,” Lenin pro- | ceeded to explain the imperialist na- |ture of the war which was still rag- | ing, the rapacious imperialist designs |of the ruling classes of the warring | nations, including the American, and | the attempts of the capitalist gov- j ernment to destroy the young Soviet Republic. In flaming words he | showed how the Allies, as well as the | Central Powers, were carrying on the | wholesale slaughter for the division | of spoils, for profits from the mar- kets and colonies which would go to the victorious imperialist group. | “Scum of International Socialism’ | | In words of scorn, Lenin described | the betrayals of those Socialist lead- ers who efded their capitalist gov- ernments by deluding the workers. “Thrice they deserve the utmost con- tempt, this scum of International So- cialism, these lackeys of bourgeois morality,” was Lenin's thrust at these agents of the bosses in the labor | movement. | But the October Revolution made |@ breach in the strongest imperial- | ist block. The Soviet Republic with- drew from the war and renounced all the imperialist policies of tzarism and of the Kerensky government which continued them. The October Revolution established workers’ rule and was destroying every vestige of capitalism in Russia, World capital- ism would not allow that. Counter- revolution in Russia was given every Possible aid. Armies were fitted out and dispatched to the various borders from the Black Sea to the Pacific Ocean a) min 1 “U.S. Revolutionary Workers Destined for Importan Lenin At His Desk in the Kremlin ATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 1934 “AMERICAN WORKING CLASS | | ‘This picture was taken while Lenin was reading the Pravda, the central organ of the Commynist Party of the Soviet Union, scious workers of all countries, we draw new assurance in the justice of our cause. 4 He is no Socialist who does not un- | derstand that one cannot and must not hesitate to make even such a sacrifice as the sacrifice of a piece | of territory, the sacrifice of a heavy | C0 defeat at the hands of capitalists of other countries, the sacrifice of indemnities to capitalists, in the in- terest «, victery over the bourgeoisie, in the interest of transfer of power to the working class, in the interest of the BEGINNING of the interna- tional proletarian revolution. He is no Socialist who has not shown by DEEDS his readiness for the great- est sacrifices on the part of HIS/|*° fatherland so that the cause of the socialist revolution may be pushed | forward. For the sake of “their” cause, that \is, the conquest of world hegemony, German O scoundrels, who © hypocrites! ence between an agreement made by “Socialists” with the bourgeoisi ment for the safety of the workers “accuse” us and that the lackeys|color against the bourgeoisie of an- |tiona! other color for the sake of the utiliza. Socialist-Revolutionaries and Men- | tion by the proletariat of the contra-|ment to sheviks, also “accuse” us. From the | dictions between the different groups | ment” of the bourgeoisie. WHEN LENIN SPOKE T Almost the very day Lenin was writing to the American workers about these imperialist attacks, American troops were disembarking in Vladivostok to join Japanese, British and French military detach- ments which arrived there before. American Intervention Already on July 17, 1918, President Wilson, the darling of the liberal and | Socialist chauvinists, agreed to a “&mited military intervention.” On Aug. 3, the American government was forced to admit publicly that it was in full accord with the other imperialist powers in the Russian in- tervention policy. But in the usual hypocritical Wilsonian manner, com- mon to all “democratic” governments, declared that the troops are being sent to “protect” the “stranded” Czecho-Slovak regiments, and to “guard the military supplies’—from the Germans who were thousands of miles away. In “the most public of solemn manner” {t informed the peo- ple of Russia that “it contemplates no interference with the political sovereignty in Russia and no inter- vention in her internal affairs.” The Japanese government hurried to issue a similar statement contain- ing similar assurances of “friendship to Russia” and of “its avowed policy |of respecting the territorial integrity of Russia and of abstaining from all interference in her internal affairs.” To make sure that Russian territory ‘m Siberia was “respected” Japan, which was to send over 7,000 troops, soon had there 70,000 armed and equipped men, and troops of other respecters of Russian territory were pouring in from Hong-Kong (Brit- ish), Indo-China (French), and the Philippines (American). The brave Siberian peasants who organized their partisan bands to defend them- selves from the imperialist invaders and the Russian landowners wo fol- lowed in their wake, drenchzd that territory with their blood to save it from their protectors. Not satisfied with sending troops to the Far East, the American government also sent military detachments to Murmansk and Archangel in the North, probably to protect the Czecho-Slovaks wao were in Siberia, Lenin, of course, could not charac- terize these American invasions other than that the American government was jcining “the Anglo-Japanese beasts for the purpose of strangling the first Socialist Republic.” |mer of peace, the banner of Social-| (native or foreign) against the work- | bers, | ers, ageinst the toilers, and an agree- | arr angle a whole series of countries from Belgium and Serbia to Pales- tine and Mesopotamia, And what about the jalists? Shall they, for the sake of ir” cause—the liberat he whole world | | that ex be a {until a: es | tion? contem) e utmost scum of international C 1 0 think alon: of Anglo-French “accuse” eement” with < these lines, jand Am | us of con 5: eae , every Earopean knows | slander the workers’ government and | this @ very well, and the shiver from fear of that sympathy|American people particularly, as I a y show, have “experi- which is being shown us the work- own history. There ers of “their own” countries! But | cnced” 4 eee i risy will be exposed, They | S7¢ S=tee™ 7 their hypocrisy will D WY |are fagots et fagots, as the French Wt list rob- their lized . of j ened, sitate for : a certain “agree- ith the French monarchists. 'The French captain Sadoul, who a By ALEXANDER While Russian soil was being in- vaded, the enemies within, the So- | clalist-Revoluttonists, another brand of the traitorous Socialists, were or- |the German | bach, in order to provoke the inya- |sion of the German army from the West and were plotting to behead the | revolution by killing Lenin, They | succeeded in killing the German Am- | bassador, but only seriously wounded | Lenin. It was in this circumstances that Lenin was addressing himself directly |to the American workers, telkng |them of the conditions under which |the October Revolution was fighting to achieve its aims and drawing the lessons for the American workers and, for that matter, for the workers of the whole world, to whom the suc- | Cess or failure of the Russian Revolu- tion was closely tied up with their own struggles for the emancination | from the oppression of imperialism, Timeliness of Lenin’s Letter | With war again on the imperialist order of the day, and, in the first keys of bourgeois | vont of French imper' m, brought the French officer de Lubersac to me. “I am a monarchist. My onl} | purpose is the defeat of Germany, |de Lubersac declared to me. “That !goes without saying (cela va sans ),” I replied. But this by no prevented me from coming “agreement” with de Lubersac certain services that ady to render by blowing up tracks in order to prevent advance of German troops inst us. This was an example of “agreement” of which every class- | conscious worker will approve, an ;2greement in the interests of Social- ‘sm. We shook hands with the French |monerchist although we knew that each of us would readily hang his |“partner.” But for a time our in- | terests coincided to throw back the rapacious advancing Germans, we le use of the equally rapacious serving the interests and the international revolution. In this way | we served the interests of the work- fing class of Russia and other coun- | tries, we strenethened the proletariat and weakened the bourgecisie of the | whole world, we used the justified | practice of maneuvering, necessary in every war, of ting and wait- | ing for the moment when the rapidly | growing proletarian revolution in a |number of advanced countries had ripened. And despite all the wrathful howl- ing of the sharks of Anglo-French |and American impericlism, despite all |the calumnies they have showered upon us, despite all the millions spent for bribing the richt Socialist-Revo- lutionist, Menshevik and other social- TRACHTENBERG line, against the Soviet Union, Len- in’s Letter is timely today as it was when it was penned over 15 years ago. Japanese imperialism and Ger- man Fascism are the spearheads of the threatening attack, and again the tocsin must be sounded so that the workers and peasants of all capitalist and colonial countries may hear that the Workers Fatherland is in danger. And when the Workers’ Fatherland is in danger, all toiling masses are in danger. The lessons which Lenin outlined in his Letter are also timely today. To those who did noi free themselves “from the pedantry of bourgeois in- tellectualism” and were questioning Lenin's policy of dealing with the French militarists, when the German troops were marching in the Ukraine, he declared: “To throw back the ra- pacious advancing Germans we made use of the equally rapacious counter- interests of the other imperialists, thereby serving the interests of the Russian and the International So- Céalist Revolution.” The same rea- soning was used earlier by Lenin [ Lenin At the 3rd Congress of the C. I Lenin is Seated a¢ the Extreme Left come to "4 nt” with the German im- | perialist robbers, should an attack upon Russia by Anglo-French troops demand it, And I know perfectly well that my tactics will meet with the approval of the class-conscious proletariat of Russia, Germany, | France, England, America—in 2 word, of the whole civilized world. Such Socialist revolution, will hasten its advance, will weaken the interna- tional bourgeoisie, will strengthen the position of the working class which is conquering it. The American people used these tactics long ago, to the advantage of its revolution. When America waged its’ great war of liberation against the English oppressors, it was con- fronted with the French and the Spanish oppressors, who owned 4 portion of what is now the United States of North America. In its difficult war for freedom the Ameri- can people too, made “agreements” with one group of oppressors against, the other for the purpose of weaken- ing oppressors and strengthening those who were struggling in 9 revo- lutionary manner ageinst oppression —in the interest of the oppressed masses. The American people uti- |lized the differences that existed be- tween the French, the Spanish, and the English, at times even fighting | side by side with the armies of the French and Spanish oppressors against the English oppressors. it vanquished the English and then \freed itself (partly by purchase) | from the French and the Spanish. The great Russian revolutionist, Chernyshevsky once said: ‘‘Histori- cal action is not the pavement of Nevsky Prospect.” He is no revolu- tionist who would “permit” the pro- letarian revolution only under the “condition” that it proceed easily, smoothly, with the co-ordinated and j simultaneous action of the proletar- fans of different countries and with & guarantee beforehand against de- feat; that the revolution go forward along the broad, free, direct path to victory, without the necessity, some- times, of making the greatest sacri- fices, of “lying in wait in besieged fortresses,” or of climbing slong the narrowest, most impassable, winding, dangerous mountain roads—he has not yet freed himself from the pedantry of bourgeois intellectualism, he will fall back again and again into the camp of the counter-revolu- tionary bourgeoisie, like our Right Soctalist-Revolutionaries, Mensheviks and even (zithough more seldom) the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, Along with the bourgeoisie, these gentlemen like to blame us for the “chaos” of revolution, the “destruc- tion” of industry, the unemployment, the lack of food. What hypocrisy these accusations are, from people who greeted and supported the im- peralist war or came to an “agree- ment” with Kerensky, who continued this war! It is that very imperialist war, which is the cause of all these misfortunes, The revolution that was born of the war must necessarily go through the terrible difficulties and sufferings left as the heritage of the prolonged, destructive, reactionary slaughter of the peoples. To accuse us of “destruction” of industries, or of “terror,” is either hypocrisy clumsy pedantry; it is an inability to understand the basic conditions of | the raging class struggle, intensified to the utmost, which is calied revo- lution. Generally speaking, such “accusers” limit themselves to a verbal recog- {when he fought the “revolutionary” views of Trotzky who opposed the signing of the Brest-Litovsk Peace with the German government to “gain » breathing spell” for the Revo- lution. Lenin’s arguments advanced then hold true today regarding the foreign po¥cy of the Soviet Union which is carried on under the leader- ship of Comrade Stalin. ‘To Study His Letter American workers to whom Lenin addressed his Letter should read and re-read it every so often, because they will find packed into these few pages answers to the many burning questions by the greatest working class teacher and leader since Marx and Engels. This Letter, which is being published in pamphlet form, should be distributed in millions of copies among. the toiling masses of this country. Lenin’s Letter and the lessons it carries for the American workers, should become the topic of conversation whenever two or more workers meet, for in it they will find much that they want and need to know to help them understand their present plight and the way out of it. Lenin’s Letter to the American Workers, written on Aug. 20, 1918, was first published in the United States in the December, 1918, issue of the “Class Struggle,” a bi-monthly issued tactics will lighten the task of the| AMERICAN WORKING CLASS oe an philistine Utopia of “‘conciliation” and “collaboration” of classes. For the class struggle in revolutionary times has always inevitably and in every country taken on the form of a civil war, and civil war is unthink- able without the worst kind of de- struction, without terror and limita- tions of formal democracy in the in- t Role As Irreconcilable Foes of U.S. Imperialism” ————— | patriotic newspapers, I WOULD NOT / nition, even when they do “recog- )terests of the war. Only suave priests, HESITATE A SINGLE SECOND to| nize” the class struggle, but in deeds/ be they Christian or “secular” parlia- the SAME KIND of an|they revert again and again to the|mentary or parlor Socialists, are un- able to see, understand and feel this necessity. Only lifeless “men in the |case” can shun the revolution for | this reason, instead of throwing | themselves into the fight with the | utmost passion and decisiveness at a |moment when history demands that |the greatest problems of humanity Ibe solved by struggle and war. |SPEAKS OF THE REVOLUTIONARY TRADITIONS OF | | THE AMERICAN PEOPLE The American people have a revo- lutionary traditions adopted by the best representatives of the American proletariat, who gave repeated ex- pression to their full solidarity with us, the Bolsheviks. This tradition is the war of liberation against the English in the 18th and the Civil War in the 19th century. If we are to take only into consideration the “destruction” of some branches of industry and national econoray, America in 1870 was in some respects behind 1860. But what a pedant, what an idiot is he who denies on such grounds the greatest, world-his- toric, progressive and revolutionary significance of the American Civil War of 1961-1865! Representatives of the bourgeoisie understand that it was worth letting the country go through long years of civil war, the abysmal ruin, de- struction and terror which are con- nected with every war for the sake of the overthrow of Negro slavery and the overthrow of the rule of the slave-owners. But now, when we are confronted with the vastly greater task of the overthrow of capitalist wage slavery, the overthrow of the rule of the bourgeoisie—now the rep- resentatives and defenders of the bourgeoisie, as well as the socialist- reformists, frightened by the bour- geoisie, and shunning the revolution, cannot understand and do not want’ to understand the necessity and the legality of civil war. The American workers will not fol- low the bourgeoisie. They will be with us for civil war against the bourgeoisie. The whole history of the world and the American labor Movement strengthens my convic- tion. I also recall the words of one of the most beloved leaders of the American proletariat, Eugene Debs, who wrote in “The Appeal to Rea- son,” I believe towards the end of 1915, in the article “In Whose War Will I Fight?”. (I quoted that article at the beginning of 1916 at a public meeting of workers in Berne, Swit- zerland) that he, Debs, would rather be shot than vote for loans for the present criminal and reactionary im- Perialist war; that he, Debs, knows of only one holy and, from the stand- point of the proletariat, legal war namely: the war against the capital- ists, the war for the liberation of mankind from wage slavery! I am not at all surprised that Wil- son, the head of the American bil- Honaires and servant of the capital- ist sharks, hes thrown Debs into prison. Let the bourgeoisie be brute) to the true internationalists, the true representatives of the revolutionary proletariat! The more obduracy and bestiality it displays, the nearer comes the day of the victorious prole- tarian revolution, We are blamed for the destruction caused by our revolution, . . . Who are the accusers? The hangers-on of the bourgeoisie, that very bourgeo!- sie, which has destroyed almost the whole of European culture during the four years of the imperialist war, and has brought Europe to a state of barbarism, savagery and starva- tion. That bourgeoisie now demands of us that we do not carry on our reyolution on the basis of this de- struction, amidst the remnants of culture, ruins created by the war, nor with men whom the war turned into savages. O how humane and righteous is that bowrgeoisie! Its servants accuse us of terror. ... The English bourgeois has for- gotten his 1640, the French his 1793.’ Terror was just and legal when used by the bourgeoisie to its own advan- tage against feudalism. Terror be- came monstrous and criminal when workers and the poorest peasants dared to use it against the bourgeoi- sie! Terror was legal and just when used in the interests of a substitution |of one exploiting minority for an- |other, Terror became monstrous and criminal when it began to be used in the interests of an overthrow of every exploiting minority, in the in- terests of a really vast majority, in the interests of the proletariat and semi-proletariat, the working class and the poorest peasantry! The international imperialist bour- geoisie has killed off 10,000,000 men. maimed 20,000,000 men in “its” war, the war to decide whether the Eng- lish or the German robbers are to Tule the world, OUR WAR IS A WAR OF THE OPPRESSED AGAINST THE OPPRESSORS } { | | Tf our war, the war of oppressed and exploited against oppressors and exploiters results in half a million or @ million victims in all countries, the bourgeoisie will sey that the sacrifice of the former is justified, while the or | latter is criminal. ‘The proletariat will say something altogether different. Now, amid the ravages of the im- Perialist war, the proletariat is thor- oughly mastering that great truth taught by all revolutions and left as compare the translation with the original Russian text as published in Lenin's Collected Works, already available for several years. The readers will find while perus- ing this Letter reprinted in this is- sue of the Daily Worker, a good deal of the type set tn bold face. This rep- resents the parts actually left out from the original English translation. The rest of the Letter was freely ti ted and a bare outline of Len- in's thoughts was given. In reading the Letter as now published, one can easily see how important are the sec- tions which were left out, and if one will take the trouble to compare the present translation with the text as it was published before, one will see how Lenin's writing was emasculated and distorted. The fate of Lenin's Letter is not a singular one. Other writings of Lenin such as “State and Revolu- tion,” “Imperialism,” “ ‘Left’ Commu- nism—An Infantile Disorder,” have also been presented in translations : ads ake } é gale i g fi i i ui oe ‘ : FD i ne 3 : “E s 5 58 i 2 5 hut i ig 35 aF #8 BB a F i i [ i EF i ni i the FE last sentence American We cible, because cy pS fe | ! | oe Wee ob “lear Bs Big oe Bs @ heritage to the workers by their best teachers, the fonuders of mod~- em Socialism. That truth is, that there can be no successful revolu- tion without crashing the resistance of the exploiters. It was our duty to crush the resistance of exploiters when we, the workers and toiling peasants, seized state power. We are Proud that. we have been doing it and are continuing to do it. We only regret that we are not doing it in a sufficiently firm and determined manner, We know that the fierce resistance of the bourgeoisie to the Socialist revolution is inevitable in all coun- tries and that it will grow with the growth of this revolution. The pro- letariat will crush this resistance; it will definitely mature to victory and power in the course of struggle against the resisting bourgeoisie. Let the kept bourgeois press how! to the whole world about each mis- take made by our revolution. We are not afraid of our mistakes, Men have not become saints because the revo- lution has begun. The toiling classes, oppressed and downtrodden for cen- turies and forced into the clutches of poverty, savagery and ignorance can- not be expected to bring about a Tevolution flawlessly. And the ca- daver of bourgeois society, as I had occasion to point out once before, cannot be nailed in @ casket and buried. Defeated capitalism is dy- ing and rotting around us, polluting the air with germs and our lives, grasping the new, the fresh, the young and the live with thousands of threads and bonds of the old, the Totten, the dead, For every hundred mistakes of ours heralded to the world by the bourgeoisie and its lackeys (includ- ing our own Mensheviks and Right Socialist-Revolutionaries) there are 10,000 great and heroic deeds, the greater and the more heroic for their simplicity, for their being unseen and hidden in the everyday life of an in- dustrial quarter or provincial village, performed by men who are not used to (and who do not have the oppor- tunity to) herald their achievements to the world. But even if the contrary were true although I know this supposition to be incorrect—even if there 10,000 mistakes for every 100 correct actions of ours, even in that case our tevolution would be great and i = i 3 5, = Fy : 5