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

CONFERENCE OF DELEGATES OF PETROGRAD GARRISON271left in a minority. The men of the Petrograd garrison areaware of this. They know that we wanted a coalition Sovietgovernment. We did not exclude anyone from the Soviet.If they do not want to work with us, so much the worse forthem. The mass of soldiers and peasants will not followthe Mensheviks or the Socialist-Revolutionaries. I am surethat nine-tenths of any workers’ or soldiers’ meeting willbe on our side.Kerensky’s bid is just as pathetic a gamble as Kornilov’s.But the situation is a difficult one. Vigorous efforts mustbe made to get some order into the food situation, and putan end to the misery at the fronts. We cannot wait, nor canwe tolerate Kerensky’s mutiny a single day. If the Korniloviteslaunch another offensive, they will get what themutinous officer cadets got today. The cadets have onlythemselves to blame. We took power almost without bloodshed.If there were any losses they were on our side. Theentire people wanted the policy the new government is conducting.It did not borrow this policy from the Bolsheviks,but from the soldiers at the front, the peasants in thevillages, and the workers in the towns.The Decree on Workers’ Control is to be issued presently.Let me say this again: the political situation is now reducedto a military one. We cannot allow Kerensky to win: ifhe did there would be no peace, no land, and no freedom.I am sure that the soldiers and workers of Petrograd, whohave just brought off a victorious revolution, will be ableto crush the Kornilovites. We have had our defects. Thereis no use denying it. We have had to pay for them. But theycan be eliminated. Without losing a single hour, a singleminute, we must get organised, and set up a headquarters,and we must do it today. Once organised, we are sure to winout within a few days, and possibly even earlier.The government set up by the will of the workers’, soldiers’and peasants’ deputies will not tolerate any nonsensefrom the Kornilovites.The political and the military task is to set up a headquarters,to concentrate the material forces, and to providethe soldiers with all they need. If we are to go on fromstrength to strength, this must be done without wasting asingle hour, nay, minute.