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

34
V. I. LENIN
that the opportunists have betrayed the workers’ cause
and that the weapons must be turned against the government
and the bourgeoisie of each country.
The conversion of the present imperialist war into a civil
war is the only correct proletarian slogan, one that follows
from the experience of the Commune, and outlined in the
Basle resolution (1912); it has been dictated by all the conditions
of an imperialist war between highly developed
bourgeois countries. However difficult that transformation
may seem at any given moment, socialists will never relinquish
systematic, persistent and undeviating preparatory
work in this direction now that war has become a fact.
It is only along this path that the proletariat will be able
to shake off its dependence on the chauvinist bourgeoisie,
and, in one form or another and more or less rapidly, take
decisive steps towards genuine freedom for the nations and
towards socialism.
Long live the international fraternity of the workers
against the chauvinism and patriotism of the bourgeoisie of
all countries!
Long live a proletarian International, freed from opportunism!
Central Committee
of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour
Party