Collected Works of V. I. Lenin - Vol. 16 - From Marx to Mao

358V. I. LENINThe proletariat has begun. The democratic youth arecontinuing. The Russian people are awakening to new struggle,advancing towards a new revolution.The first beginning of the struggle has shown us againthat the forces are alive which shook the tsarist regime in1905 and will destroy it in the coming revolution. The firstbeginning of the struggle has shown us again the significanceof the mass movement. No persecutions, no reprisalscan halt the movement once the masses have risen, once themillions have begun to bestir themselves. Persecutions onlypour oil on the flames, draw ever-new contingents of fightersinto the struggle. No terrorist acts can help the oppressedmasses, and no power on earth can halt the masses when theyrise in revolt.Now they have begun to rise. This upsurge may be rapid,or it may be slow and fitful, but in any case it is leading toa revolution. The Russian proletariat led the way in 1905.Remembering this glorious past it must now exert everyeffort to restore, reinforce and develop its own organisation,its own Party, the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party.At present our Party is passing through difficult days butit is invincible, just as the proletariat is invincible.So to work, comrades! Get busy everywhere, buildingorganisations, creating and reinforcing Party units of Social-Democraticworkers, intensifying economic and politicalagitation. In the first Russian revolution the proletariattaught the masses to fight for freedom, in the second revolutionit must lead them to victory!Rabochaya Gazeta No. 2,December 18 (31), 1910Published according tothe text in Rabochaya Gazeta-