Communism -- Soviet Union; Soviet Union -- History -- Revolution, 1917-1921
“Every one admits, it seems, that the defence of the country is our
principal task, and that, to assure it, we must have discipline in the
Army and order in the rear. To achieve this, there must be a power
capable of daring, not only by persuasion, but also by force…. The germ
of all our evils comes from the point of view, original, truly Russian,
concerning foreign policy, which passes for the Internationalist point
of view.
“The noble Lenin only imitates the noble Keroyevsky when he holds that
from Russia will come the New World which shall resuscitate the aged
West, and which will replace the old banner of doctrinary Socialism by
the new direct action of starving masses—and that will push humanity
forward and force it to break in the doors of the social paradise….”
These men sincerely believed that the decomposition of Russia would
bring about the decomposition of the whole capitalist régime. Starting
from that point of view, they were able to commit the unconscious
treason, in wartime, of calmly telling the soldiers to abandon the
trenches, and instead of fighting the external enemy, creating internal
civil war and attacking the proprietors and capitalists….
Here Miliukov was interrupted by furious cries from the Left, demanding
what Socialist had ever advised such action….
“Martov says that only the revolutionary pressure of the proletariat
can condemn and conquer the evil will of imperialist cliques and break
down the dictatorship of these cliques…. Not by an accord between
Governments for a limitation of armaments, but by the disarming of
these Governments and the radical democratisation of the military
system….”
He attacked Martov viciously, and then turned on the Mensheviki and
Socialist Revolutionaries, whom he accused of entering the Government
as Ministers with the avowed purpose of carrying on the class struggle!
“The Socialists of Germany and of the Allied countries contemplated
these gentlemen with ill-concealed contempt, but they decided that it
was for Russia, and sent us some apostles of the Universal
Conflagration….
“The formula of our democracy is very simple; no foreign policy, no art
of diplomacy, an immediate democratic peace, a declaration to the
Allies, ‘We want nothing, we haven’t anything to fight with!’ And then
our adversaries will make the same declaration, and the brotherhood of
peoples will be accomplished!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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