Collected Works of V. I. Lenin - Vol. 26 - From Marx to Mao

140LETTER TO THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE,THE MOSCOW AND PETROGRADCOMMITTEES AND THE BOLSHEVIK MEMBERSOF THE PETROGRAD AND MOSCOW SOVIETS 64Dear Comrades,Events are prescribing our task so clearly for us thatprocrastination is becoming positively criminal.The peasant movement is developing. The governmentis intensifying its severe repressive measures. Sympathyfor us is growing in the army (99 per cent of the soldiers’votes were cast for us in Moscow, the army in Finland andthe fleet are against the government, and there is Dubasov’sevidence about the front in general).In Germany the beginning of a revolution is obvious,especially since the sailors were shot. The elections in Moscow—47per cent Bolsheviks—are a tremendous victory.Together with the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries we havean obvious majority in the country.The railway and postal employees are in conflict with thegovernment. Instead of calling the Congress for October20, the Lieberdans are already talking of calling it at theend of October, etc., etc.Under such circumstances to “wait” would be a crime.The Bolsheviks have no right to wait for the Congress ofSoviets, they must take power at once. By so doing theywill save the world revolution (for otherwise there is dangerof a deal between the imperialists of all countries, who,after the shootings in Germany, will be more accommodatingto each other and will unite against us), the Russian revolution(otherwise a wave of real anarchy may becomestronger than we are) and the lives of hundreds of thousandsof people at the front.