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

268V. I. LENINfor trees of proper size—that is to say, for a sufficientlyabundant supply of adult “cannon fodder”—to grow up. Duringthese decades, we hope, new Plekhanovs, new Scheidemanns,new sentimental conciliators like Kautsky willgrow up from the depths of “united” international Social-Democracy.Bourgeois reformists and pacifists are people who, asa general rule, are paid, in one form or another, to strengthenthe rule of capitalism by patching it up, to lull the massesand divert them from the revolutionary struggle. When socialist“leaders” like Turati and Kautsky try to convincethe masses, either by direct statements (Turati “blurted”one out in his notorious speech of December 17, 1916 109 ),or by silent evasions (of which Kautsky is a past master),that the present imperialist war can result in a democraticpeace, while the bourgeois governments remain in power andwithout a revolutionary insurrection against the whole networkof imperialist world relations, it is our duty to declarethat such propaganda is a deception of the people, thatit has nothing in common with socialism, that it amountsto the embellishment of an imperialist peace.We are for a democratic peace; and that is precisely whywe do not want to lie to the peoples as Turati and Kautskydo—of course with the best intentions, and for the mostvirtuous motives! We shall tell the truth, namely, that ademocratic peace is impossible unless the revolutionaryproletariat of England, France, Germany and Russia overthrowsthe bourgeois governments. We think it would be theheight of absurdity for revolutionary Social-Democrats torefrain from fighting for reforms in general, including “constitutionalreform”. But at the present moment, Europe isgoing through a period in which it is more than ever necessaryto bear in mind the truth that reforms are a by-productof the revolutionary class struggle; for the task of the day—not because we want it, not because of anybody’s plans,but because of the objective course of events—is to solvethe great historical problems by means of direct mass violence,which will create new foundations, and not by meansof agreements on the basis of the old, decaying and moribund.It is precisely at the present time, when the ruling bourgeoisieis preparing peacefully to disarm millions of prole-