Lenin CW-Vol. 23.pdf - From Marx to Mao

264V. I. LENINbetween her main enemy, England, and England’s allies. Sheis able to do this because it is these allies and not Englandwho have sustained (and may yet sustain) the heaviest blows,and also because German imperialism, having amassed aconsiderable amount of loot, is in a position to make minorconcessions to England’s allies.It is possible that a separate peace between Germanyand Russia has been concluded after all. Only the form ofthe political pact between those two freebooters may havebeen changed. The tsar may have told Wilhelm: “If I openlysign a separate peace, then tomorrow, you, my august partner,may have to deal with a government of Milyukov andGuchkov, if not of Milyukov and Kerensky. For the revolutionis growing, and I cannot answer for the army, whosegenerals are in correspondence with Guchkov and whoseofficers are mainly yesterday’s high-school boys. Is thereany point in my risking my throne and your losing a goodpartner?”“Of course not,” Wilhelm must have replied, if such asuggestion was put to him, directly or indirectly. “Indeed,why should we conclude an open separate peace, or anywritten peace treaty? Can’t we achieve the same results byother, more subtle means? I will openly appeal to all humanity,offering to bestow upon it the blessings of peace. Atthe same time I will drop a quiet hint to the French, to letthem know that I am prepared to give back all, or nearlyall of France and Belgium in return for a ‘fair’ share oftheir African colonies. I will let the Italians know that theycan count on scraps of Austria’s Italian lands and, in addition,on a few scraps in the Balkans. And I can bring theseproposals and plans to the knowledge of the peoples: will theEnglish be able to retain their West-European allies afterthat? You and I will then divide Rumania, Galicia, Armenia.As for Constantinople, my august brother, you stand asmuch chance of seeing it as of seeing your own ears! And Polandtoo, my august brother—you stand as much chanceof seeing it as of seeing your own ears!”Whether or not such a conversation actually took placeit is impossible to say. Nor does it matter very much. Whatdoes matter is that events have taken precisely this turn.If the arguments of the German diplomats were unable to