Communism -- Soviet Union; Soviet Union -- History -- Revolution, 1917-1921
“Answer: Refusal of insurrection is refusal of ‘All Power to the
Soviets.’ Since September the Bolshevik party has been discussing the
question of insurrection. Refusing to rise means to trust our hopes in
the faith of the good bourgeoisie, who have ‘promised’ to call the
Constituent Assembly. When the Soviets have all the power, the calling
of the Constituent is guaranteed, and its success assured.
“Refusal of insurrection means surrender to the ‘Lieber-Dans.’ Either
we must drop ‘All Power to the Soviets’ or make an insurrection; there
is no middle course.”
“4. The bourgeoisie cannot give up Petrograd, although the Rodziankos
want it, because it is not the bourgeoisie who are fighting, but our
heroic soldiers and sailors.
“Answer: This did not prevent two admirals from running away at the
Moonsund battle. The Staff has not changed; it is composed of
Kornilovtsi. If the Staff, with Kerensky at its head, wants to give up
Petrograd, it can do it doubly or trebly. It can make arrangements with
the Germans or the British; open the fronts. It can sabotage the Army’s
food supply. At all these doors has it knocked.
“We have no right to wait until the bourgeoisie chokes the Revolution.
Rodzianko is a man of action, who has faithfully and truthfully served
the bourgeoisie for years…. Half the Lieber-Dans are cowardly
compromisers; half of them simple fatalists….”
“5. We’re getting stronger every day. We shall be able to enter the
Constituent Assembly as a strong opposition. Then why should we play
everything on one card?”
“Answer: This is the argument of a sophomore with no practical
experience, who reads that the Constituent Assembly is being called and
trustfully accepts the legal and constitutional way. Even the voting of
the Constituent Assembly will not do away with hunger, or beat
Wilhelm…. The issue of hunger and of surrendering Petrograd cannot be
decided by waiting for the Constituent Assembly. Hunger is not waiting.
The peasants’ Revolution is not waiting. The Admirals who ran away did
not wait.
“Blind people are surprised that hungry people, betrayed by admirals
and generals, do not take an interest in voting.
“6. If the Kornilovtsi make an attempt, we would show them our
strength. But why should we risk everything by making an attempt
ourselves?
“Answer: History doesn’t repeat. ‘Perhaps Kornilov will some day make
an attempt!’ What a serious base for proletarian action! But suppose
Kornilov waits for starvation, for the opening of the fronts, what
then? This attitude means to build the tactics of a revolutionary party
on one of the bourgeoisie’s former mistakes.
“Let us forget everything except that there is no way out but by the
dictatorship of the proletariat—either that or the dictatorship of
Kornilov.
“Let us wait, comrades, for—a miracle!”
12.
MILIUKOV’s SPEECH (_Resumé_)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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