Collected Works of V. I. Lenin - Vol. 21 - From Marx to Mao

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V. I. LENIN
The German and the Austrian Social-Democrats are attempting
to justify their support for the war by arguing
that they are thereby fighting against Russian tsarism. We
Russian Social-Democrats declare that we consider such
justification sheer sophistry. In our country the revolutionary
movement against tsarism has again assumed tremendous
proportions during the past few years. This movement
has always been headed by the working class of Russia.
The political strikes of the last few years, which have involved
millions of workers, have had as their slogan the overthrow
of tsarism and the establishment of a democratic republic.
During his visit to Nicholas II on the very eve of
the war, Poincaré, President of the French Republic, could
see for himself, in the streets of St. Petersburg, barricades
put up by Russian workers. The Russian proletariat has not
flinched from any sacrifice to rid humanity of the disgrace
of the tsarist monarchy. We must, however, say that if there is
anything that, under certain conditions, can delay the
downfall of tsarism, anything that can help tsarism in its
struggle against the whole of Russia’s democracy, then that
is the present war, which has placed the purses of the British,
the French and the Russian bourgeois at the disposal of
tsarism, to further the latter’s reactionary aims. If there is
anything that can hinder the revolutionary struggle of the
Russia’s working class against tsarism, then that is the
behaviour of the German and the Austrian Social-Democratic
leaders, which the chauvinist press of Russia is continually
holding up to us as an example.
Even assuming that German Social-Democracy was so weak
that it was compelled to refrain from all revolutionary
action, it should not have joined the chauvinist camp, or
taken steps which gave the Italian socialists reason to say
that the German Social-Democratic leaders were dishonouring
the banner of the proletarian International.
Our Party, the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party,
has made, and will continue to make great sacrifices in
connection with the war. The whole of our working-class
legal press has been suppressed. Most working-class associations
have been disbanded, and a large number of our
comrades have been arrested and exiled. Yet our parliamentary
representatives—the Russian Social-Democratic Labour