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

DRAFT OF A MANIFESTO TO THE PEASANTRY369assembly and in every peasant body without exception, andmake your own firm and unshakable decisions in the localities.For it is chiefly on your decisions, on the decisions of themajority of the people, the decisions of the peasants themselves,that the fate of our native land depends.The fateful hour is approaching. The last fight is at hand.The whole country and all the nations of our republic aredivided into two great camps.One is the camp of the landowners and capitalists, therich and their servitors, the state dignitaries and theirfriends, the bosses of the nation and the champions of thewar.The other is the camp of the factory workers and the workingand exploited peasants, the poor people and theirfriends, the rank-and-file soldiers and the champions ofpeace, the advocates of a heroic, decisive and bold revolutionarystruggle for peace, a struggle in which no mercywill be shown to the oppressors of the people.The struggle between these two camps has in some partsof the country already assumed the acute form of open anddirect civil war, a war of the Soviet armies against a smallhandful of those who are relying on the power of wealthand who desire to overthrow Soviet power, the power andgovernment of the Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’Deputies.Peasant comrades, on your weighty, firm and unshakableword much now depends; on it depends the cessation of thiscivil war; on it depends the possibility in Russia of peacefullytransferring all the land to the working people withoutcompensation; on it depends the possibility of a peacefultransition to socialism. Peasant comrades, rise to a man;give voice to your demands; draw up your mandates inevery village. You can make yourselves heard; you canmake everyone listen to you!Peasant comrades, you must in the first place roundlycondemn those deputies to the Second All-Russia Peasants’Congress who split away from the Congress. Condemn thesplitters. Condemn those who are smashing the unity ofthe peasants, the unity of the working people, the unityof the peasants and workers. These splitters, these breakersof peasant unity, these deserters to the camp of the rich,