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

THESES ON THE QUESTION OF A SEPARATE PEACE445He betrays socialism who calls the war with Germanimperialism a defensive and just war, but actually receivessupport from the Anglo-French imperialists, and concealssecret treaties concluded with them from the people. Hedoes not in the least betray socialism who, without concealinganything from the people, and without concluding anysecret treaties with the imperialists, agrees to sign terms ofpeace which are unfavourable to the weak nation and favourableto the imperialists of one group, if at that momentthere is no strength to continue the war.10. Another argument in favour of immediate war isthat, by concluding peace, we objectively become agents ofGerman imperialism, for we afford it the opportunity torelease troops from our front, we surrender to it millionsof prisoners of war, and so on. But this argument too ismanifestly incorrect, for a revolutionary war at the presentjuncture would, objectively speaking, make us agents ofAnglo-French imperialism, by providing it with forces whichwould promote its aims. The British bluntly offered ourCommander-in-Chief, Krylenko, one hundred rubles permonth for every one of our soldiers provided we continuedthe war. Even if we did not take a single kopek from theAnglo-French, we nevertheless would be helping them,objectively speaking, by diverting part of the Germanarmy.From that point of view, in neither case would we beentirely escaping some sort of imperialist bond, and it isobvious that it is impossible to escape it completely withoutoverthrowing world imperialism. The correct conclusionfrom this is that the moment a socialist government triumphedin any one country, questions must be decided, notfrom the point of view of whether this or that imperialismis preferable, but exclusively from the point of view of theconditions which best make for the development and consolidationof the socialist revolution which has already begun.In other words, the underlying principle of our tacticsmust not be, which of the two imperialisms it is more profitableto aid at this juncture, but rather, how the socialistrevolution can be most firmly and reliably ensured thepossibility of consolidating itself, or, at least, of maintainingitself in one country until it is joined by other countries.