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

SPEECH AT THE 1ST ALL-RUSSIA CONGRESS OF THE NAVY345of robbers over their spoils. Until now all parties havespoken of this struggle but have not gone beyond words andhypocrisy. Now the struggle for peace is on. It is a difficultstruggle. It is highly naïve to think that peace can be easilyattained, and that the bourgeoisie will hand it to us on Qplatter as soon as we mention it. Those who ascribed thisview to the Bolsheviks were cheating. The capitalists areembroiled in a life and death struggle over the share-outof the booty. One thing is clear: to kill war is to defeatcapital, and Soviet power has started the struggle to thatend. We have published and will continue to publish secrettreaties. We are not going to be deterred in this by anyone’sanger or slander. The bourgeois gentlemen are beside themselvesbecause the people see why they have been drivento the slaughter. They threaten Russia with the prospect ofanother war, in which she will find herself isolated. But weare not going to be deterred by the bourgeoisie’s fierce hatredfor us and for our peace movement. It will be quite futilefor them to try to incite the peoples against each other inthis fourth year of the war. They are sure to fail. It is notonly in this country, but in all the belligerent countriesthat the struggle against the imperialist government at homeis welling up. There has been an open mutiny in the navyeven in Germany, which the imperialists tried for decades toturn into an armed camp with the entire governmentmachine geared to stamping out the slightest sign of populardiscontent. To understand the significance of this mutiny,one has to be aware that police reprisals in Germany areunparalleled. But revolution is not made to order; it resultsfrom an outburst of mass indignation. Whereas it was quiteeasy to drive out a band of nitwits, like Romanov and Rasputin,131 it is immensely more difficult to fight against theorganised and strong clique of German imperialists, bothcrowned and uncrowned. But we can and have to work handin hand with the revolutionary class of working people inall countries. That is the path the Soviet Government hastaken by making public the secret treaties and showing thatthe rulers of all countries are brigands. That is not propagandaby word but by deed.” (Stormy applause.)In conclusion the speaker dealt with the question of thepeace talks and said: