aparad isein thisworld

Leon Trotsky

A PARADISE

IN THIS WORLD

SPEECH TO A WORKING CLASS AUDIENCE.APRIL 14th, 1918.

PUB LIS HER 5' NOT E

This speech was delivered by Leon Trotsky during whatwas perhaps tho worst period of counter revolutionary activityafter the October Revolution.

Trotsky as the Soviet Commissar of War must hnve beenmore keenly aware of the difficnlties facing the young SovietRepublic than his audience. And yet even during this criticalperiod he reaffirmed his faith in the bright future of mankind.

It may he objected that the later development of theUSSH was hardly in the direction of a purndi se on earth.But if Trotsky could, in the difficult days of the spring of1918, retain his optimism, we see no reason why we shoulddespair now.

This booklet was first published in English by the BritishSocialist Party in 1920. \Y e arc proud to reprint it afterinterval of thirty seven years.

Lanka Sarna Sornoja Publications

AP TH WORLAll Addre~. D liv.red to a Worki,.. 0 •••

Auflienc. on April 14'''. 1918

~ Le 'n Tro ~Comra des ,- om country is the only one where power is in

t he hands of the working class , and on all sides we hear theadvice: "Le ave it alone. you are nut equal to the task. Look.how many difficult ies t here are in the wav of Soviet power!"And that is t rue; llHtUyare the difficulties;~eYeq,. step is besotwith impediments. Bu t what is the cause? Let us look around,let us examine the situation. let us count our friends and ourenemies. let us look ahead. " 'e inherited from our predecessors,t.he Czar, Miliukov, Kerensky" - a atate completely ruind intern ,ally as w,ll as externally. There is not the slightest doubt that

at the present moment our country is in u terrible condition.But this condition is but the resul t of the whole of the precedinghistorical development and, in particular, of the present war . .The Czar and Miliukov had dragged us into the war. The Czar's/trmy wa.t!defeated. The revolution brokerout. The toilers of alllands expected that the revolution would give peace. ButMilinkov snd Kerensky allowed themselves tu be led in the leashby the allied imperialists; they protracted the WIM", Lhe~ deceivedall expecta.tions. and they compromised the revolution. Theuthe workers rebelled , and took the power into .their own ~hands'

We, on our part, did tl verything that was possible to raiseconfidence in the Russian Revolution, to make it. clear to theEuropean workers that it was not Miliukov PI' Kerensky whorepresented the Russian Revolution. but the working class. thetoiling proletariat, the peasant 'who did nos exploit otherpeople's labour. .

Thi& is what ~"'6 did. It is true, comrades, the victory inot yet ours. 'We deceive neither ourselves nor you. Europeanmilitarism has proved still too strong, the movement of the~orking masses has not ret dealt it that blow'which will bring sal­vation t.o the Earopean workers al' well as to us, H.11d EuropeanmilituilDl h..8 m~e the \Jest ue:e .~hhe ·de1&y whieh history has

- ~ tiroils,;1o' Ram" at t~9 end ort'h~..bd~li~",:,,:'Eid. }',-

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granted it. The Russian Re elution has reached its summit.wher eas the European one has not yet begun. It is in the'!"oouditions III t 01\1 ne oti tiona witb Gel'fJi ny Il.nd.\u8tl'b-lLuJ..g:n'y took Jlla.l1e, afr.er the confidence ill tbe Rus ian revolutiouhad been undarmined by the policy of th& )JiliukoY9, the

Ken'n&kys, the TseretelHs and the Oberno\'i!, We are told: "Youhave >lignedthe Brest-Lltovsk Treaty" which if; a })I'eda.torr and

0PPl"&SSiV6 treaty. True, "ery true, there is no treaty 80

predatory, Sf) oppresaive aa the Brest-Litovsk treaty. But WbM

really iii this br~aty',l It ia an l. O. U., an old 1. O. 'C which

had already been signed by Nicholas Romenov , :Jiliukov ~

Kerensky, while we have to pay it.

Was it we who started this war? \\\\8 it the working classwho unchained this bloody slaughter? No, it W,1>6the Monarch'l,the wealthy classes, th e Liberal bourgeoisie. "'us it we whocaused those terrible disasters when our unfortuaate soldiersfound themselves in the Cftrpathians without rifles and

ammuuitlon? No, th:l.t was Caarlsm supported hy the RUR'Jll\u '

bourgeoisie,

And \\"3" it we, who, on-l ulv Ist, 1917, ** threw away in thatshameful ami criminal o{fen~i"e the capital of the Russian

Revolntlon, it s good Dame, its authority? No, those were thecompromisers, the Right Socialist Revolntioneries, the

Mensheviks, together with the hourgeoisie. Yet it is we whowere presented wit h the hill fOI' all these crime!', and W6 withclinched teeth were obliged to pay it. We know that it was a

usurer's hill. hut. comrades, it Wit!'. not we who contracted theloans, it is not we who are morally responsible for them beforethe people. Our conscience is perfectly clear. We stand beforethe working clnss of all countries itR n party who did it~ dut y tothe.end. We published aU the treaties, we sineerely .-lecl",rorl

'··Th;Bl'l~ sW..it~Ysk Treaty marking tile cessa~i~;; ~f-war b;~ween Russia and t he German powers was signed after protractednegobiat ions OJI ~[ltl'ch ilrd, 191H. .HtPI· Ihp Versailles peace,the treaty was annulled.-Ed.,·c" . COlltr'al:Y to all promises of an immediate peace Kerenskvor.lered an offensive on June 29th ".The offensive began on Jul y I,1917, with initial successes. However, the protest demons­trations of the workers and the reluctance of the ijoll.fiers· soon -bro\liht the o/~nJivo 'to III ba,lt.-Ed. .

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th&t we were willing to conclude an honest d-mec-nt!c peace,This deelaratton remains, this idea remains in the C0U _t;iOUl!U~C;"

!tft4 lloDsclenca of t.be toiling masses of Europe, and there it i'aocomplUlhini it!! deep underground work.

It i~ true, comrades thnt at the present moment thefrontiers of our country are secure neither in the East nor illthe West. Over thNe in the East, Japan hn.. for a long time

past been trying to grab from us the most fertile, t.he richestPArts of SiberiIt, :\nil the Japanese press is only concerned as tothe territorial limit up to which Japan is called upon tn "S1\\'f'''

Siberia, The papers actually say so: "We shall hnve to answer

before God and Heaven for the fate of Siberia." Some sav thntheaven enjoined them to grab Siberia up to Irkutsk, othersgay, up to the Urals, This is the only point of dispu te :tlllong

the propertied classes of Japan. They had heen looking out, for

all sorts of pretexts to make this raid. Ail It matter of factthis business began long ago. Alreadv under Czarism, and

later at the time of Tereshtehenko and Kerenskv, Rnssia W:lS

complaining ill confidential documents that Japan was preparingfor the seizure of our Far-Easl.ern dominions. And why? Simplybecause they are an easy prey. This is indeed the whole essenceof international imperialism. All those fine phl'[\f;('f< about"democraov", "tho fate of small nat ionalities' ,"justice", "God's

commam1s"-all these are but words, phrases used for the purposeof cheating the common people: in reality the Powers are onlvlnoking out (or unprotected hootv in order to pocket it. Thi<; TR:loYis the essence of imperialist policy.

And '10, comrades, at first, about six week ago, the Japan­ese spread throughout the world the rumour that the Siberianri\ilway was about to he seized hy the German nnd Aust ro-Gennanprisoners who fon.ooth, had been organised and armed there, ant]

that 200,000 of them were only awaibing the n.rriva! of a Germangeneral. E"en the name of t,lw,t general was given - e\'~ITthing

was perfectly definite and exact. The Japanese amhassndor inRome spoke about it, and the tiding>; of the coming seizure ofthe Siberian r~ilway wag circulated by the wireless stations of

the Japanese headquarters throughout the length and breadth ofAmerica; thereupon. in order to unveil before the public gaze )tho entire world the shameful lie which bas been spread ferr l~J~

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purpose of preparing a buccaneering raid, I made the 10Uomugoffer to the British and American military missions: "Givewmeone British and one American officer, and I shall send themimmediately, together with representatives of our. comlll~ssariat

of war along the Siberian railway, in order that they mar seefor themselves how many there are of Gorman and Austrianprisoners armed for the purpose of seizing the Siberian railroad."

The) were unable, comrades, in all decency to refuse thisoffer, and the officers appointed by them went, having receivedfrom me papers ordering the Siberian Soviets to afford them all'possible facilities: let them examine everything, see everythingthey wanted to see, get complete and free access everywhere,I afterwards was shown every day their reports by direct wire.It goes without saying that nowhere could they find even a.trace of armed enemy prisoners. They saw that different fromthe Russian railway system, the Siberian line was guarded ,better, and WlLS working better. They only found 600 armedHungariuu prisoners who were Socialist-Internationalists, andhad put themselves at the entire disposal of the Sovietauthorities against all its enemies. That \VILS all they foundthere. It proved up to the hilt that the Japanese imperialistsand the Japanese headquarters had consciously and maliciously·misled public opinion in order to justify the predatory raidupon Siberia, in order to be able to say: the Germans hadthreatened the Siberian line, and we, the Japanese, rescued itby our raid- Well, this subterfuge failed; so immediately anotherwas concocted on the spot, At Vladivostoek somebody hadkilled two 01' three Japanese. No inquiry into the affair ha.d 80S

yet taken place. 'Who were the murderers? Was it Japaneseagents, or common bandits, or German or Austrian spies?...robody knows to this day. Yet though they were killed onApril 4th, the Japanese disembarked at Vladivostock the firsttwo companies on April 5th. Once the fairy tale about theseizuro of tho Siberian railway by the German prisoners provedof no avail, the simplest thing was to take advantage of themurder of two or throe Japanese - killed, in all probability onInstructionn from tho Japanese headquarters themselves in orderto create a plausible pretext for attacking us. Such murdersfrom behind a corner are the accepted practioe of'international capitalist diplomacy. But ' here the thU1!Ca~l\l tu a sudden stoPi two cODll'a.ui~, WOrf d.iifm*uu

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, l en tilt, h nding was di .cont inued. Briti,II, French,'I' lLt' ie' 1 ,lg811uS came to OUI conuuissu ri.u s un.l declvr ·r'.

this is not lnmdiuism or even II beginning of linurliti sm and-uinexat ion, it is just II lac a!' incident, a local ternporurv misuud­erst l'lClip;.;' , as ,I matter of [act, it docs seem as if the Javanesethemselves were hesitating. First, their own country is exhaus­ted by militarism, and an expedition against Siberia is a grent ,omplicated, lind costly affair [or the Siberian worker and

peas:mt, the strong and sturdy peasant whom I studiedeloselv enough in previous times and who neverknell' !;CrfdOlll, would clearly refuse to let the Japanesetake him without an effort. ,\ long and stubborn fight wouldhe necess. I. there: there is, indeed, in Japan itself a partyvhich Ieur-s it. On the other hand, the Amercian capitalists whoIirectly compete with Japan on the shores of the Pacific do notwant the streugt honing of Japan, their chief enemy.

This, then, comrades, is the advantage of our position: l heworld bandits and highwaymen are at loggerheads with one-ruobher. tig;lting among themselves for the booty, This ri val.yh tween .Iapan and the United States on the Far-Eastern shoresconstitute II great boon to us, for it gives us a respite, gives usan opportunity to gather our forces and to await the momentwhen the European and world working class will rise to help us.

In the West, comrades, we observe just now a new flaringlip of the terrible slaughter which has already lasted five andforty months. It seemed before; as if the forces of hell hadalready been set in motion, that nothing more could IJe invented,that the \\',1.1' had landed in a blind alley. If the countries, who hadfought hefore with their forces still unimpaired, could not oyer­power one another. it seemed that there was nothing more towait for, tJ1<1.t no victory could be hoped for anywhere. Butthat is just the curse that the wizard of capitalism, hal ing calledout this W,t1' devil is powerless to exorcise him again. It is im­possible, say, for the German bourgeoisie to come back to theirworkers and tell them: Well, we have conducted this terriblewar for four years: you have borne many sacrifices, and whathas this war brought you? Nothing, absolutely nothing! Norcan the British bourgeoisie go back to its workers having a likeresult to show for all their unheard-of sacrifices.

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That is why they are dragging on bhis slaughter aubomati,41t11¥, senselessly, aimlessly, further and further. Just lO" an~..'al'a.nche rolls down from It mountain, so do they roll down

.der the ,Yeiaht of their own crimes,

This we observe now once more Olll the soil of unhappywhise-bled France. There, somrades, on the French soil, thefront is of a different nature than it was in our country. Thereevery yard is ssudied beforehand, registered, placed on the map,e...ery square distinctly marked. Thet"8 colossal means of des~ru­ction, colossal monstrous engines for mass murders are collectedon both sides on It scale hitherto inconceivable to the most power­ful iIIlQgination.

Cemrades, I lived there, in France, for two years during thewar, and I well remember those flowirigs and ebbings of attacks,and then the slow periods of waiting. An army stands againstan army clasped tightly with one another, a trench against atrench, everything calculated, made ready. The French publicopinion becomes restive. Foch, the bourgeoisie, and the peoplein general begin grumbling: "How much longer will this terrible-constrictor, the front, be sucking the lifeblood of the people?Where is the way out? What [11'e we waiting for? Either stopthe war, or else vanquish the enemy by an offensive and getpeace. Either one or the other." The bourgeois press would thenbegia its encouragements: "The next offensive. tomorrow, theday a,fter tomorrow, next spring, will deal the Germans a mortalblow."

At the same time no less corrupt and mercenary pens wouldbe writing in the German press for the benefit of the Germanworkers and peasants, for the German mothers, working women,sisters. wi...es: "Do not despair, one other offensive on theFrench froub and we shall crush France and will gi...e youpeace." Thereupon, in fact, an offensive would begin.

Countless victims, hundreds, bhousands, millions wouldperish in the course of a few days or weeks, and the result? Asa result, the front would be shifted one way or another a mileor two, perhaps even more, but the two armies would continueas before to press against one another ill a death clasp: and so

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it has happened already five or six times. It was so on the Marneduring the first rush upon Paris, the same la~.r, on ~e Yser,then on the Somme, at Cambra!' The same chiD:': is DC :v takingplace in the present 10108sa,1 battles, such lLS YfU itnessednever before throughout the whole of history. :PItliJI.rech ofthouaands, millions are falling there at the 'present moment, theNower of European humanity is being dessroj-ed f4iln!!4il~ssly,

aimlessly. This shows that there is no salvation on he roadon which the ruling classes and sheir la.keye, the peelltlo­

Socialists, walk.

America joined the war more than a year ago, and promisedto finish it in the course of the next few months. What didAmerica get by her intervention? She had at first heenpatiently waiting over there, beyond the ocean, Germany wasfighting England, and then she intervened. Why ? Wha~ deesAmerica want? America wants that Germany should exhaustEngland, and England should exhaust Germany. Then Ameri­can capital will come forward as an heir who will roh j he wholeworld- And so when America noticed that EAlglanc1 was beingbent to the ground, and that Germany was getting 'he upperhand, she said: "So, it is necessary to support England­just as the rope supports the one hanged - in order thai theymay exhaust each other completely, in order that Euro­penn capital may he deprived of all possibility to stand up againon its feet ". And at the present moment we read ~hat inWashington, according to the new conscription law, one and ahalf million men are to be called to arms-

America at first thought the business would be a triiiingene, would just amount to a litble help; but as soon as she place41~er feet on the path, the avalanche caught her in its sweep.and now there is no stopping for her either, and she must neetlsgo the bitter encl. And yet - a.t the beginning .of the 'Val', atthe beginning of the American intervention - that happened inJanuary or February of last year - I myself saw in NewY()I:k a street demonstration, a downright revolt of the Amerioanworking men, caused by a terrible rise of prices. The Americanbourgeoisie has earned billions on the blood of the Bm:oJl6anwo-ker ; but what did the American housewife, the w.rHmR

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WOIll , I; l sluu'e h c l>"., I ul tel' , I ..;' I

Iiviug- It is the same in all countries, whether the hOll!'gc'o isieof nne or the other country wins or suffer defeat. For the-vorkors, the toiling muss es, the result is the same: e hau ~ t i on

of food stocks, imp overishment, enhanced slaverv and oppres sion,acci cn ts, wounds , cripples - all this pours upon the POPUlal

m: sses . The bou rgeoisie itself can no longer choose its way _tha t I S preci sely why Germany did not strangle us com pletely.She 'topped at the Eastern front. Why? Because she hadyet to sett le her accounts with Englaud and America, Eng landha s t . ken Egypt, Palestine, Bagdad.has brought under her swayPortugal, has strangled Ireland, but - England "fights forfreedo m, for peace, for the happiness of small and weak nat ionn.

lities." And Germany ? Germany has robbed half gurope,has suppressed scores of small countries, has taken Rigu , Revaland P skov. Yet, read their speeches: they declare that theyhn.ve concluded peace on the basis o f self-determination ofpeopl es! First they bleed the people white, turn it into a

corpse, and than th ey say: now it has determined itself ill orderthat Germany may lay her hand upon it.

Such is the position of the Russian Revolution, of theRu ssian Soviet Republic. Dangers threaten her on all sides: inthe Ea st there is the Japanese peril, in the West the Ger manperil , . nd of course, there is for us , although not so close, a lsothe British and American perils . All these strong. powerf ul,bandits would not at all mind tearing Russia to pieces, and if. t the present moment, today, we have some guarantee againstit, it consists in t he fact that these countries could not come toan understanding with one another, that Japan is compe lled tocarr, on a veiled , underground struggle against such a mig ht ypow er as the u nited States. while Germany is compelled toconduct an openbloody struggle against both England and theUnited States.

And so, comrades, at a time when the world bandits havecome to grips in the last convulsive round, honest peop le get achance of having a rest, of recuperating, of refreshing themselves,of arming, in expectat ion of the hour when the) working classwill inflic t upon these world bandits the mortal blow . ~

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From the very first days of the revolution we said that theRussian revolution would be able to win and to free theRussian people only on the condition that it marked the begin­ning of a revolution in all countries, but that if in Germany the

ign 01 c<lopital remained, if in New York the supremacy of theock exchange continued, if in England British imperialism

held its sway as heretofore, then we should be done for, sincethey were stronger, richer than we, as yet better educated, andtheir military machines stronger than ours. They would strangleus because - number one - they were the stronger, and be­cause - number two - they hated us. We had revolted, wehad overthrown in our country the rule of the bourgeoisie. Thati the source of the hatred towards us on the part of the propertied classes of all countries. Our bourgeoisie is no match forthe bourgeoisie of Germany or England. Yonder it is a strongclass, it had a past of its own, when it made cultural conquests,developed science and thought that no one but itself could holdswav , could no one hut itself rule the state.

Every genuine bourgeois thinks that nature itself has des.tined him to dominate, to command, ride on the backs of the toi­ling masses, while the worker lives day in day out under a yoke,and his horizon is narrow, With his mother's milk has he im­blbed the slavish prejudices, and thinks that to govern the state,to hold power is quite beyond him, that, he was not meant forit, that he is made of poorer stuff.

But, 10and behold, the workers and poorer peasants inRussia have made the first step - a good firm step, though onlythe first one in order to put an end to the propertied classes oftheir own as well as of all other countries. They have shownthat the working masses are made of the same stuff of whichpeople in general are made, and that they want to hold in theirown hands the whole power and govern the whole land. Natu­l'3.11y when the bourgeoisie saw that in taking this power wewere in dead earnest, that we meant business, namely, to destroythe domination of capital and to put in its place the dominationof labour, it! hatred towards us began to swell prodigiously. Atfirst the propertied classes, the exploiters thought that this was

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only a temporary misunderstanding, that it was onlya stray wave of the revolution, which had given us a mightyswing, and only, as it were, by accident had lifted us up,that the workers had got hold of the power only for a time, and

tha.t all that would end in a week or two, or three. But late r onit dawned upon them that the workers were standing firm attheir new posts and that while saying that times were ha rdthat still greater trials were in prospect, still greater ruin, st illmore intense hunger would have to he suffered, yet once the yhad assumed power, they would never let it escape from the irhands. Never!

The bourgeoisie in all countries then began to notice tha ta terrible infection was spreading from the East, from Russ ia .Indeed, after the Russian worker, the most ignorant, most over­driven and harrassed of all has taken the power into his ownhands, those of other countries must necessnrily say to themse l­ves sooner or later: if the Russian workers who are so much thepoorer, weaker, worse organised than ourselves, could take thepower into their own hands, then if we, the advanced worke rsof the whole world, seize the Russian cudgel and shake off ourbourgeoisie, and organise the whole industry, verily, we sha llthen be invincihle and shall create a universal republic ofLabour.

Yes, comrades, we are feared; we stand before the con ­science of the propertied classes as a spectre. The British imperi ­alists fought the Germans, but every now and then they anxious­ly look round at us with the intent of getting at the throat of theRussian Revolution. In a similar way German imp arinlisur, ch ..i­ned as it is to its enemy, cannot help sending us from time totime a furtive glance, trying to find It favourable opportunity to ­stab us in the heart. The imperialists of all other countries are ofsimilar mind. No national difference exists on this point, sincethe common interests of the bandits and beasts of prey unitesthem all'against us, and let me remind you, comrades, that wealways told you that if the revolution did not spread to othercountries. we shall in the long run be cru hed by European

capitalism. No escape will be available, and our task at the pre-

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11 rn i -n i to procr,lstinate, to hold out till the revolutionb ,if in n.ll European countries - to hold out, to consolidate

au tnngth and to stand firmer on our feet, since at present" ,~hle, shatte -ed, and morally feeble,

'We ourselves know our sins, and we do not need the criti­ci I} f "om outside, from the bourgeoisie and the compromisers

) 1, Y€' undermined the Russian state and economic life,their crrticism is not worth two pence. But we do need our owncriticism ill order that we may realise our own sins. And in thisC( 1 nect ion the following must he said above everything else:th Ru ian working class, the Russian toiling people, must

ron.lise thnt once it took over the power in the state it assumedth rJ')fisibility for the fate of the whole country, of thewl ile economic life of the whole state,

Of course, even now the bourgeoisie and its lackeys arctill tr 'ing to put spokes in our wheels. Therefore, each time

the stand in our way, we shall as heretofore fling them aside.'\t Orenburg they are again sending their Dutov s against us;Koruilov too, tries to attack Rostov. 'I'here we shall deal withthe gang at bourgeois white guards without mercy. This is amatter of course for all of us. In this respect there will be nochange In our tactics If the bourgeoisie still hopes to come backnto power ve shall once for all knock out of it that hope. If it

rise. , we shall fling it down again, and if, as a result, it breaksits neck - so much the worse for it. It is its own look out. Ith· had i warnings,

We offer it the common mess, the universal labour duty­:l labour regime without oppressed 01' oppressors, and if it doesn rt like it, it it continues to be obdurate and to revolt theSoviet power must use against it the several measures ofrepres ion.

But, comrades, just becvuse we, all of us as one man, donot want to allow the restoration of the power of the bourgeoi­sie of the quires, of the bureaucracy and more, because we areprepared to stand up for the power of the working class and thepoorest peasants to the last drop of our blood, we must say to

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our selves that from today we have shouldered th e grea test taskand must therefore establish in our country a settled order, anew labour regime. We have inherited from the past , fromCzardom, from the war, from the Miliukov-Kerensky period acomplete dislocation of our railways, a dislocation of our facto­ries, and of all the branches of economic and socia l life, and Wemust put all this in working order, for we are responsible for itall.

The Soviets, the Trade Unions, the peasant organ isa t ions ­these are at the present moment the masters in the country.Formerly, comrades, we were living under llo whip, the whip ofbureaucracy; but that whip is no more. There are only organisa­tions of workers and the poorest peasants, and these orga nisationsmust teach us all to know and to remember that everyone of usis not an isolated unit, but before all a son of the work ing class,part of a common great association the name of which is "Toi.ling Russia" and which can only be saved by commo n labour.When the railwaymen surreptitiously carry a load; whe n depotsor, in general, state property is plundered by individuals, wemust denounce it as the greatest crime against our people ­against the revolution. We must keep a sleepless watc h andtell such apostates, "You rob the propertyless classes - not thebourgeoisie, but yourself, your own people!" At the presentmoment everyone of us, whatever post he occupies in a factoryor on the railways - everywhere he ought to feel himse lf like asoldier who has been placed there by the workers' army, by hisown people, and everyone of us must discharge his duty to theend.

This new labour discipline, comrades, we must create at allcosts. Anarchy will destroy us, labour order will save us . Inthe factories we must create elected tribunals to pun ish theshirkers. Every worker, once he has become the master of hiscountry must distinctly remember his labour duty and hislabour honour. Everyone of us must fuifil one and the sameobligation: "I work a certain number of hours a day with allthe energy, with all the application I am capable of for nowmy labour is for the common good. I work in order to equip the

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peasant wi.th tho nec~ssary implements of labo~r. I create forhim winnowing mach Illes, ploughs, scythes, nails, horse-shoes,everything that is necessary for agriculture, and the peasantmust give me bread,"

ITere, commdes, we am approaching the question of corn ­tho acutest question with us at the present moment. There isa lack of corn. The towns are starving, yet the presentbourgeoisie. the usurers somewhere in the 'I'ula, Orel, Kursk,or other provinces have concentrated in their hands enormousquantities of corn, tens of millions of poods, and resolutely refuseto surrender it, keep it ill their grasp and resist all attempts at

requisition.They le: the coni rot, while in the towns and cornless

provinces the workers and peasants starve At the presentmoment the village bourgeoisie is becoming the chief enemyof the working class. It wants to defeat the Soviet resolutionsbv means of starvation, in order to usurp the land. They, thevillage usurer, the blood-suckers, understand that the socialistrevolution spells death for them. There are many, these villageusurers, in various parts of the country, and our task at presentis to show the poorest peasants everywhere that their interestsare deadly opposed to the interests of the rich peasants, andthat if the village usurers win, they will grab all the land, andnew squires will appear - this time not members of the nobility,hut of the class of village usurers. It is necessary that in thevillages the poo-est peasants should unite with the town wor­kers against tho village and town bourgeoisie, against the vill­age usurers and blood-suckers. 'I'hese usurers hold up the corn,hoard up the money, and try to grab all the land; and if theysucceed, the poorest peasants and the entire revolution aredone for. ·We warn the village usurers that we shall be ruth­less towards them, It is here a question of the feeding of thetowns, of not allowing our children in the towns, our old moth­ers, our old men, our working men and women in the towns,and our breadless provinces to go without their daily bread.Onee it is a question of life or death for the toilers, we shallallow no jokes. We shall not stop before the interests of thevillage bourgeoisie, but, together with the town and villagepoor, we shall lay a heavy hand upon the property of the vari­ous village bourgeoisie and shall forcibly requisition without

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compensation its corn stores in order to feed the poor in thetowns and villages.

But in order to carry out a firm policy with respect to OUr

enemies we must introduce a firm order into our own midst.The thing is, comrades, that a lot of frivo lity, inexperience anddishonesty has app eared in the midst of the uned ucate l sectionsof the working class. We must not shut our eyes to it Someworkers argue: "Why sh-ruld I try my hardest now? Every.thing is broken up, and whether I do or don't wor k hard,things won't change 011 account of t,hat." Such an at bit uds iscriminal. We must strengthen within us the issue of responsi.bility, so that everyone of us should say: "If I do not fulfil myduty, the whole machine will work still worse." All must createa sense of labour discipline, of labour duty and joint reponsihi.

lit y. I am instructed, comrades, hy the Cen tral Ex ecutiveCommittee to undertake the task of creating a proper ty equip.ped army for the defence of Socialist Russia. But the RedArmy will he powerless, thrice powerless, if our ra il ways arehad , if our mills and factories are ruined, and if food is notbrought in from the villages to the towns.

It is necessary to get to work for the strengthen ing of Sovi­et Russia from all sides, conscientiously and hon estly. A firmorder must be established everywhere. Ou r Red Army must hepermeated by (I. new scope of being the armed advance guard ofof the labouring people. The Red Army has for its mis sion todefend the State authority of the workers and peasan t s. This

is the highest possible mission. And for such a miss ion disci­pline is necessary, a firm, an iron discipline. Formerl y thereexisted a discipline for the defence of the Czar, the landowners,the capitalists, but now ever v Red soldier must say to himselfthat the now discipline is one in the service of the workingclass, and we, together with you, comrades, shall in t roduce anew Soviet-socialist oath, not in the name of God or Czar, butin the name of the labouring peop le, that in case of vio lat ion ofor raid, or attack upon the rights of the labouring peo ple , uponthe power of the proletariat and the poor peasants he will beprepared to fight to the last drop of his blood. And you , all ofyou, the whole working class, will be witnesses of t h is oath,witnesses and participators of this solemn vow.

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The First of May is approaching, comrades, and on that

dnv we shall aga,in gather together with the Red Army, in great

m~ctings and shall take stock of what has bee~ do~e, and:l certain what there is still to be done. And there IS still [1 lot

to he done.Comrades, in preparation for the First of May, the Soviet

",wrnment has decreed, where possible, to remove from the:treets the old Ozn.rist monuments, the old stone and metalidols which remind us of our slavery of the past. \Ve shallthen endeayoUl', comrades, to erect in the nearest future on ourqunres new monuments, monuments to Labour, monuments

to workers, men an 1 peasants, monuments, which will remindeyery one of you; look, you were a slave, you were nothingfwd now you must become everything, you must rise high, you

IlJU t learn, you must become the master of life.

For, comrades, the misfortune of the women is not only

that they feed badly, clothe badly - this is of course thesrrcatest misfortune, but also that they are not allowed to risementally, to study, to develop. There are many spiritual

values, lofty and beautiful. There are the sciences and the

arts - and all this is inaccessible to the toilers, because the

workers and peasants are compelled to live like convicts,cha.ined to their whsel-barrow. Their thonght, their

consciousness, their feelings, must be freed.

We must see to it that our children, our younger brothershave the opportunity of getting acqua inbedwith all the conquestsof the mind, with the arts and sciences, and be able to live ashefits a human being who calls himself "lord of creation," andnot, [1S hitherto, like [1 wretched slave, crushed and oppressed.It is of all this that we shall be reminded by May Day whenwe must m -et together with the Red Army and declare: wehave taken the power into our hands and we shall not give it

lip. and this power is for us not an end in itself, but a means- [\ means for another grand object, which is, to reconstructthe whole life, to make all wealth, all the possibilities of

happiness, accessible to the whole people; to establish at last,for the first time, such an order upon this earth as would doaway, on the one hand, with the man bent and oppressed andon the other, with he who rides on the back of his fellow-men;

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to establish firmly a common brotherly econom ic system, acommon labour party, so that all should work for the commongood, that the whole people should live as one honest lovingfamily.

All this we can and shall realise completely only when theEuropean working class supports us.

Comrades, we should be wretched, blind men of little faithif we even for one single day, were to lose our conv ict ion tha~that working class of other countries will corne to our aid, andfollowing our example will rise, and bring our task to a success­ful conclusion. You need only call to mind what the toilingmasses are living through at the present moment - the soldiermasses of Germany on the Western front, whe re a raging,hellish offensive is going on, where millions of our brothers areperishing on both sides of the front. Does not the same bloodwhich runs in our veins run in the veins of the German wor­kers? Do not the German widows weep in exactly t he same waywhen their husbands perish, or the orphan chi ldre n when theirfathers are killed? The same poverty, the sam e st lLrvat ionstalk there; the same unhappy cripples come back from thetrenches into the towns and villages and wander like wretchedworn-out shadows. Everywhere the war produces the sameconsequences. Dire want and poverty reign supreme in alllands.And the final result wHI be, in the long run, everywherethe same: the rising of the labouring masses.

The task of the German working class is more difficult thanours, because the German state machine is stronger than ours,is made of stronger material than was the state of our Czar ofblessed memory. There the noblemen, the cap it alist s, arerobbers, just as ours, just as cruel, only there they are notdr unkards, not idlers, not embezzlers of public funds, butefficient robbers, intelligent robbers, earnest robbers. There theythey have constructed a strong state boiler, which is pressed onall sides by the labouring masses, a boiler made of soundmaterial, and the German working class will have to develop agood deal of steam before it explodes. The steam is alreadyaccumulating, as it was accumulating here, but since theboiler is stronger, more steam is needed. The day, however,will come, comrades, when that boiler will blow up, and then

- 19-

the working class will get hold of an iron broom and will startsv 'eeping the dust out of all corners of the present Ge.rmanBmpire, and will do it wi~h.German ~horoughnes~an~ steadiness,

so th~~~~~ ~l~;\~Se~~~~;e~o~~: \:~~~hl,~~:h~~~ed~~:sil~g through

hard, strenuous times, but we are prepared to suffer hunger,cold, rain and many other calamities and misfortunes, because weare only part of the world working class and are fighting for itscomplete emancipation. And we shall hold out, comrades, andshall carry our fight to a successful end, we shall repair thera.ilwavs, the locomotives, we shall put production on a firmhasis, put straight the food supply, do all that is necessary - ifonly we keep in our bodies a cheerful mind and a strong stoutheart. So long as our soul is a living one, our Russian land issafe, and the Soviet Republic stands firm."

Let UR then, com rades, remember and remind the less

conscious of us, that we stand as a city on the mount, and thatthe workers of all countries look at us and ask themselves withbated breath, whether we shall tum ble off 01' not, whether we

fuil, or stand our ground? And we, on our part, call nut to them:"We vow to you that we shall stand our ground, that we shallnot fail, that we shall remain in power to the end." But you,workers of other countries, you, brothers, do not- exhaust ourpatience too much, hurry up, stop the slaughter, overthrow thebourgeoisie, take the power into your hands, and then we shallturn the whole globe into one World Republic of Labour. Allthe earthly riches, al] the lands, and all the seas - all this shallhe one common property of the whole of humanity, whateverthe name of its parts: English, Russian, French, German, etc.We shall create one brotherly sba.te: the land which nature gaveus. This land we shall plough and cultivate on associativeprinciples, turn into one hlossoming garden, where our children,grand-children and great-grand-children will live as in a paradise.Time was when people believed in legends which told of aparadise. These were vague and confused dreams, the yearningof the soul of oppressed Man after a better life. There was theyearning after a purer, more righteous life, and Man said:"There must he such a paradise, at least, in the 'other' world,an unknown and mysterious country." But we say, we shallcreate such a pamrlise with our toiling hands here, in this world.upon earth, for all, Ior our children and grand-children and forall eternity!

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The Chairman: "It is evident that there is no opposition.Comrade Trotsky will answer questions."

Answers to Written Questions

Comrades, there are a great number of questions here, butI shall answer only those which which are of a general interest.

"Is it true that you wanted to introduce a ten hour labourday?"

No, comrades, that is not true. Although this is spread,broadcast by the Mensheviks and the Right S R s, it is never­theless a lie. It hag arisen in t.he following way: At one of themeetings I said, "Of course, if we should all of us work noweight hours a day conscientiously, as one ought to and if weshould put into the harness also the bourgeoisie and those whodestroyed us yesterday on the strict principle of labour service,we could raise the wealth of our country to a very high degreein a very short time. It is necessary, said I, to raise betweenourselves a feeling of responsibility for the fabe of the wholecountry, and to work with all our might, without rest or haste,

just as in a family, for instance, where there is no bickeringover th"! work to be done. If it is a good, honest family, itsmembers will not say: "1 have done today more than you."If any member should have more strength, he will work harder.At the same time everyone works in such a manner that ifneeds be they work sometimes even sixteen hours a day, sincethey work not for a master, nor for a capitalist, but for them­selves. That is how the statement arose, that 1 wanted tosubstitute a ten or even a sixteen-hour day for an eight hour day.It is sheer nonsense. We say: there is no necessity for it. Itwill be sufficient if we could establish, through the Trade Unionsand the Soviets, such a firm discipline that everybody shouldwork eight hours - by no mea.ns more, and as soon as possible,even seven hours - and that the work should be done con sci­entiously, that is that every particle of labour time should bereally filled with work, that everyone should know and rememberthat he works for n.common association, for a common fund ­that is all we are striving for, comrades.

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I am asked further: " You call yourselves Socialist-Com­munists, and yet you shoot and imprison your comrades, theanarchist-communists?"

This is a question, comrades, which indeed, requires eluci ­dation - a serious question, no doubt. We, Marxist-Communists,are deeply at variance with the anarchist doctrine. Thisdoctrine is erroneous, but that would not in any way justifyarrests, imprisonment, not to speak of shootings.

I will first explain in a few words wherein the mistake ofthe anarchist doctrine lies. The anarchist declares that theworking class needs no state power; what it does need is toorganise production. State power, he says, is a bourgeois ser­vice. State power is a bourgeois machine, and the workingclass must not take it into its hands. This is a thoroughly mistakenview. 'When you organise your economic life in a village gene­rally, in small areas, no state power, indeed is required. Butwhen you organise your economic system for the whole ofRussia, for a big country - and however much they robbed us,we are still a big country - there is need for a state apparatus,an apparatus which wus hitherto in the hands of a hostile classthat exploited and robbed the toilers- We say: in order toorganise production in a new manner, it is necessary to wrestthe sta.te-apparatus, the government machine from the hands ofthe enemy and grasp it in our own hands. Otherwise nothingwill come of it. "There does exploitation, oppression, come from?It comes from private property in the means of production. Andwho stands up for it, who supports it? The state, so long as itis in the hands of the bourgeoisie. \Vho can abolish pri vat eproperty? The state as soon as it falls into the hands of theworking class.

The bourgeoisie says: don't touch the state - it is a sacre dhereditary right of the "educated" classes, And the anarchistssay: don't touch it - it is a hellish invention, a devilish ma chine,keep away from it. The bourgeoisie says: don't to uc h - it isholy; the anarchists say: don't touch - it is sinful. B oth say:don't touch . But we say: we shall not only touch it, but takeit over into our hands and work it in our own interests, forthe abolition of private property, for the emancipation of theworking class.

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But, comrades, however mistaken the doctrine of the nnar­chists, it is perfectly inadmissible to persecute them for it. M anyanarchists are perfectly honest champions of the working class:only they don't know how the lock can be opened, how to openthe door into the king-tom of freedom, and they crowd at thedoor, elbowing one another, but unable to guess how to turn thekey. But this is their misfortune; not their fault - it is not acrime, and they must not be punished for it.

But. comrades, during the period of the revolution, underthe flag of anarchism - as everybody knows, and the honestidealist anarchist better than anybody else - a host of all sortsof hooligans, jail birds, thieves, and night bandits have crowdedin. Only yesterday the man served his term of hardlabour for rap e, or of prison for stealing, or was deported forbanditism, and today he declares: "I am an anarchist - amember of the club," th e "Black Crow," the "Tempest," the"Storm", the "Lava", etc., etc, a lot of names, a great lot.

Comrades, I have talked about it to the idealist anarchists,and they themselves say: "A lot of these jail birds, hooligans,and criminals have smuggled themselves into our movement ... "

You all know what occurs in Moscow. "Whole streets areforced to pay tribute. Buildings are seized over the heads of theSoviets, of the labour organisations, and it happens also that whenthe Soviets occupy a building, these hooligans, under the mask ofanarchists break into the building, fix up machine guns, seizearmoured cars and even artillery. Lots of plunder, heaps ofgold have been discovered in their nests. They are simplyraiders and burglars who comp romise the anarchists. Anarchismis an idea although a mistaken one, but hooliganism is hooligu­nism; and we told the anarchists: you must draw a strict linehat w ian you rselves and th : burglars, for there is no greater

danger to the revolution than when it begins to decay at anypoint, the whole tissue of the revolution will then go to pieces.The Soviet regime must be of firm texture. 'Ve took power notin order to plunder like some highwaymen and burglars, but inorder to introduce a common labour discipline and an honestlabour life.

I hold that the Soviet authorities acted quite correctlywhen they said to the pseudo' anarchists: "don't imagine that

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your reign has come, don't imagine that the Russian people orthe Soviet state i'l now a carrion upon which the crows alightto peck it to pieces· It you want to live together with us on theprinciples of common labour, then submit with us to the com­mon Soviet discipline of the labouring class, but if you putyourselves in our way, then don't blame us, if the labourgovernment, the Soviet power handles you without mittens."

If the pseudo-anarchists or, to be plain, the hooligans willattempt in future to act in the same way, the second chastise­ment will be thrice, ten times as severe as the first. It is statedthat among these hooligans there are a few who are honestanarchists; if that is true - and this looks as if it were truewith respect to a few men - then it is a great pity, and it isnecessary to render them their freedom as quickly as possible.It is necessary to express to them our sincere regret, but at thesame time to tell them: comrades, anarchists, in order that nosuch mistn.kes should occur in the future you must put betweenyou and those hooligans a sort of watershed, a hard line inorder that you should not be mixed up one with another, thatone should know once for all: that is a burglar, and this is anhonest idealist .

(At this point a commotion, a noise, and a general confusioninterrupts the speaker}

The Chairman: Nothing extraordinary has happened. Somefifteen anarchists demonstratively left the hall.

Trotsky: Order, comrades.

Well, Comrades, we have just now seen, in a small way,an example of how a small group of men can break up solidarityand order. 'Ve were calmly discussing our common problemshere. The platform was open to all. The anarchists had theright to demand their turn and speak, if they wanted. I spokeof the true anarchists without animosity or bitterness, aseverybody can testify; more than that, I said that among theanarchists there are many mistaken friends of the working class,that they must not be arrested or shot. Against whom did Ispeak with rancour? Against the gaol birds, the hooligans,who put on the mask of anarchism in order to destroy the orderand life and labour of the working-class. I don't know to what

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camp these persons belong who thought it it poss ible tocreate, at a crowded meeting, a provocative scene of th is sort,which frightened many of you and brought in confusion and

chaos at our popular meeting.

I am also asked, comrades, " Why is the elective principlebeing abolished in military service?" I sha ll say a few words

about it presently. It was necessary in our old army, whichwe inherited from Czardom, to dismiss the old chiefs, gen eralsand colonels, for in the majority of cases they had bee n thetools in the hands of a class hostile to us, in the han ds ofCzardom and of the bourgeoisie. Hence when the soldier­workers and soldier-peasants need to elect commanders forthemselves, they elected not military chiefs, but sim ply suchrepresentatives who could guard them against attacks of counter ­revo lutionary classes. But at the present time, comrades, whois buil ding up the fumy? The bourgeoisie? No, the workers'and peasants' soviets, i. e., the same classes which compose thearmy. Here no internal struggle is possible. Let us ta ke as

an instance the trade-unions. The metal workers elec t theircommittee, and the committee find a secretary, a clerk, and anumber of other persons who are necessary. D oes it everhappen that the workers should say: "Why are our clerks andtreasurers appointed, and not elected?" No, no intelligent wor­kers will say so. Otherwise the committee would say: "Youyourselves have chosen the committee. If you don't like us,dis miss us, but once you have entrusted us with the direction ofthe union, then give us the poss ibility of choosing the clerk orthe cashier, since we are better able to judge in the matter thanyou, and if our way of conducting the business is bad , thenthrow us out and elect nnother committee." The Sov iet government is the same as the committee of a trade union. It iselected by the workers and peasants, and you can at the All­Ru ssian Congress of the Soviets, at any moment yo u like,d ism iss that government and appoint another. But onc e youhave appointed it, you must give it the right to cho ose thetec hnical specialists, the clerks, the secretaries in t he broadsense of the word and, ill mi litary affairs, in particula r . Foris it possible for the Sov iet Government to appoint militaryspecialists against the interests of the labouring and pea.santmasses? Besides there is no other way at the prese nt, no

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other way open, but the way of appointment. The army is nowonly in the process of formation. How could soldiers, whohave just entered the army choose the chiefs! Have they anyvote to go by? They have none. And therefore elections are

impossible.

Who appoints the commanders? The Soviet Governmentappoints them. Registers are kept of former officers and promi­nent individuals from among the ranks and non-commissionedofficers who have shown capacity. Candidates receive theirappointments out of this register. If they do represent somedanger, there are the commissars to look after them. What isa commissar? The commissars are appointed from amongBolsheviks or the left SEs, i. e., from the parties of the workingclass and of the peasantry. These commissars do not intervene inmilitary affairs. These are managed by military specialists,hut commissars keep a sharp eye on them, that they may notabuse their position against the interests of the workers or thepsasants. And the commissars are invested with large powersof control and prevention of counter-revolutionary acts. If themilitary leader issues an order directed against the interests ofthe workers and peasants, the commissar will say, Stop! andwill lay his hand on the order and the military leader. If thecommissar will act unjustly, he will answer for it in strictaccordance with law.

In the first period, comrades, up to October and duringOctober we fought for the power of the labouring masses. Whostood in our way? It was, among others, the generals, theadmirals, the sabotaging bureaucrats. What did we do? Wefought them. Why? Because the working class was marching topower, and nobody ought to have dared prevent it from takingit. Now the power is in the hands of the working class. Andso we say: "Kindly step forward, gentlemen saboteurs, andplace yourselves in the service of the working class." We wantto make them work, for they also represent a certain capital.They have learned something which we have not. The civilengineer, the medical man, the general, the admiral - theyhave all studied things which we have not studied. Withoutthe admiral we could not manage a ship; we could not cure asick person without the physician, and without the engineer wecould not build a factory. And we say to all these persons:

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.. We need your knowledge and we shall summon you to theservice of the working class." And they will know tha t if theywork honestly to the best of their abilities, they will hav e thefullest scope for their work, and nobody will interfere withthem. Quite the contrary: the working class is a su fficien t lymature class and will give them every assistance in the ir work.But if they attempt to use the their posts in the interests ofthe bourgeoisie and against us, we shall remind them of theOctober and other days.

The social order which we are now establishing is a laboursocial order, a regime of the working class and of the poorestpeasants. We need every specialist and every intellectual if heis not a slave of the Czar or of the bourgeoisie, and, if he isrea lly a capable worker, he can come to us and we sha ll receivehim open ly and honestly. We shall work with him hand inhand, because he will serve the labouring master of his country.B ut as for those who sabotage, intrigue, idle, and lead aparasiticaillfe - comrades, give us but the chance of puttingour organisation in good order, and we shall immediately passand carry into effect a law for them: he who does not work,who resists, who sabotages - neither shall he eat. We shalltake away the bread cards from all saboteurs, from all whoundermine the labour discipline of the Soviet Republic.

I am also asked: Why are we not introducing free trade incorn? If at the present moment, comrades, we introduced freetrade in corn, we should in a fortnight stand before the dreadfulspectre of starvation. What would happen? There areprovinces there where is plenty of corn, but where _the peasantbourgeoisie does not sell it at the present time at fixed prices.If prices were freed from control, all the speculators, all thedea lers would rush into those corn producing provinces, and thecorn prices would rise manifold in the course a few day s or afew hours, and reach 50, 100 or 150 rubles a pood. The n thesespeculators would start snatching the corn from one anotherand flinging it on the railways and snatching from one anotherthe trucks. At present there is among our railway workers,especially of the higher grade, a lot of corruption; theysell waggons for money, and take bribes. If free trade in cornwere to " be proclaimed, the speculators would pay for the

- 27-

waggons still higher prices, and we should get a still greaterdisorganisation on the railways. And the corn which wouldarrive into the towns would be quite out of your reach, workers.

Of course, fixed prices for corn will not bring us salvation,if firm discipline on the railways is not established. It isnecessary to establish a stricter regime for the higher gradeworkers and those who encourage bribery, embezzlement, andrapacity among them. And it is also necessary that the wholerailway staff should redouble its energy.

Then we must show the village usurers that we are not in amood for jesting; that it is their duty to surrender their stocksof corn at fixed prices. If they do not surrender them, thesemust be taken away from them by force - by the armed forceof the poor peasants and workers. It is the life and death ofthe people which is in question and not the speculators and

The situation is distressing in the highest degree - andnot only with us. Holland, for instance, is a neutral country.It did not take part in the war. Yet the other day telegramsarrived stating that in Amsterdam the ration has been reducedfor the whole population, and a hunger riot took place in thestreets. Why? Because instead of ploughing, sowing and cut­ting, scores of millions of men throughout the world have beendestroying one another all these last four years. All countrieshave been impoverished and exhausted, and so it is with us.Therefore, a certain time - a year or -two - must pass beforewe renew our corn stocks, and in the meantime only labourdiscipline, order and severe pressure upon the village usurers,the speculators and the freebooters will help us. If we establishall this, then we shall hold out.

And now let me reply to the last question, comrades: "Whois going to pay the indemnity to Germany in accordance withthe Brest treaty?"

How shall I say it, comrades? If the Brest-Litovsk treatyholds, then of course, the Russian people will pay. If in othercountries the same governments remain which are in existencenow, then our revolutionary Russia will be well coffined andburied, and the Brest treaty will be followed by a new one, say

-28-

a Petrograd or Irkutsk treaty which will be thrice or ten timesworse than the Brest treaty. The Russian revolution andEuropean imperialism cannot live side by side for a long time.For the present we exist because the German bourgeoisie carrieson a bloody litigation with the English and French bourgeoisie.Japan is in rivalry with America, and therefore, in the mean­time, its hands are tied. That is why we keep above water.As soon as the plunderers conclude peace, they will all turnagainst us. And then Germany, together -vith England, willsplit the body of Russia in two. There can be no shadow ofdoubt about it. And the Brest-Litovsk treaty will have to go.A much more grievous, severe, more merciless treaty will beforced upon us. That is the case, if European and Americancapital ists remain where they are, that is, if the working classwill not budge from its present place. Then we are done for.And then, of course, the labouring Russian people will pay foreverything, will pay with its blood, its labour, will pay duringscores of years, from generation to generation. But, comrades,we have no right whatever to assume that after this wareverything will remain in Europe as it was .

The working class in every country was deceived in theexistence of the pseudo-Socialists, their own Right SRs, Men­sheviks, the Scheidemanms, the Davids, and equivalents of ourown Tseretellis, Kerenskies, Chernovs, Martovs- They havedeclared to the workers: "You are not ripe yet for taking thepower into your own hands, you must support the democraticbourgeoisie." And the democratic bourgeoisie supports the bigbourgeoisie, which supports the noblemen who, in theirturn support the Kaiser. This is how the EuropeanMensheviks, and Right SRs found themselves chainedto the chair of the Kaiser, or to that of Poincare during thewar. And so, four years have passed. It is impossible toa,dmit for dne moment that after such a terrible experience o(blood-letting, calamities, deceit and exhaustion of the country,the working class, on leaving the trenches, all again humblyreturn to the factories and all slavishly, as in the days gone by,turn the wheel of capitalist exploitation. No. On coming outof the trenches it will present to its masters a bill. It will say:"You have exacted from us a tribute of blood, and what haveyou given us instead? The old oppressors, the landowners, theoppression of capitalism, the bureaucracy!"

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I repeat: If in the West capitalism remains, a peace will beforced upon us which will be ten times worse than the Brest­Litovsk peace. We shall not be able to stand on our legs. Itis said that he who hopes for a European revolution is a utopian,a visionary, n, dreamer. And I say: "He who does not hope fora revolution in all countries prepares a coffin for the Russianpeople". He virtually says: "The party which possesses themost effective killing machine will oppress and torture withimpunity all the other peoples". We are weaker economicallyand technically - that is a fact. Therefore are we doomed?No, comrades, I don't believe it, I don't believe the whole of ourEuropean culture is doomed to perdition, that Capital willdestroy it with impunity, will sell it by auction, bleed it white,crush it. I don't believe it. I believe, comrades, and I knowby experience and in the light of Marxist theory, that Capitalismis living through its days. Just as a lamp, before its extinction,flares up brightly for the last time and then all at once goes out,so comrades, has this mighty lamp of Capitalism flared up inthis terrible bloody slaughter to illuminate the world of violence,oppression and slavery in which we have hitherto lived, and tocause the toiling masses to shudd er in horror and to awake. ",Verevolted, so will the European working class revolt. And thennot only the Brest-L'tovsk treaty will fly to the very bottom ofhell, but a lot of other things, too: all the crowned anduncrowned despots, the imperialist bandits and usurers, and areign of liberty and fraternity among all peoples will ensue.

NOT E SCbemov, V. M. (1876·1952): Social Revolutionary leader;

Minister of Agriculture in First Coalition Cabinet of theProvisional Government.

David, Eduard (1863. ): German Social Democrat; extremechauvinist in World War I; Minister under Prince Maxi­millian of Baden ; Minister without portfolio underSchiedemann; in 1919 President of the National Assembly.

Dutov: Ataman of the Orenburg Cossacks, led counter revolu­tionary forces in the Urals during the Russian Civil War.

Fech, MarshallFerdinand (1851-1929) : Commander-in -Chief ofFrench and finally Allied forces in World War I.

July Days, The: On June 29th 1917, Kerensky ordered anoffensive, and on July 1st, the army advanced with initialsuccess. Workers held protest demonstrations. TheProvisional Government took counter-rueasures. A periodof crisis in the Russian Revolution.

Kerensky,A. F. (1887- ): Social Revolutionary; Minister ofJustice in the First Provisional Government. LaterMinister of War and Navy. Premier of Coalition cabinet.

Komilov,L. G. (1870.1918): Czarist General. Led counter­revolutionary attempt as early as September 1917. Laterorganised counter-revolutionary armies.

Martov,L. (1873-1923): Menshevik leader. On the editorial boardof Iskra till the split of 1903 . Emigrated to Berlin in 1920.

Miliukov, Paul (1859-1943): Cadet leader. Foreign Ministerin First Provisional Government. Resigned when he triedto stand by Czarist treaties and workers protested (Maycrisis).

Poincare, Raymond (1860- ): President of the FrenchRepublic from 1913.

Romanov,Nicholas (1868·1918) Nicholas I, the last Czar ofRussia.

Schiedemann, Philip (1865- ): Right Wing German SocialDemocrat. Chancellor in the cabinet of Prince Max.Counter-revolutionary with Ebert and Noske during theGerman revolution.

Tereschtchenko: Russian financier. Finance Minister inProvisional Government.

Tseretelli, I. G. (1882- ): Menshevik leader. Minister ofPosts and Telegraphs in First Coalition Cabinet (May 1917.)

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