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

288V. I. LENINtionalism and have been led on to the bourgeois path. Thenew government is composed of avowed advocates and supportersof the imperialist war with Germany, i.e., a warin alliance with the English and French imperialist governments,a war for the plunder and conquest of foreign lands—Armenia, Galicia, Constantinople, etc.The new government cannot give the peoples of Russia(and the nations tied to us by the war) either peace, bread,or full freedom. The working class must therefore continueits fight for socialism and peace, utilising for this purposethe new situation and explaining it as widely as possibleamong the masses.The new government cannot give the people peace, becauseit represents the capitalists and landlords and because itis tied to the English and French capitalists by treatiesand financial commitments. Russian Social-Democracy musttherefore, while remaining true to internationalism, firstand foremost explain to the people who long for peace thatit cannot be won under the present government whose firstappeal to the people (March 17) does not as much as mentionthe chief and basic issue of the time, peace. It is keepingsecret the predatory treaties tsarism concluded with England,France, Italy, Japan, etc. It wants to conceal from the peoplethe truth about its war programme, the fact that it standsfor continuation of the war, for victory over Germany. It isnot in a position to do what the people so vitally need: directlyand frankly propose to all belligerent countries an immediateceasefire, to be followed by peace based on completeliberation of all the colonies and dependent and unequalnations. That requires a workers’ government acting in alliancewith, first, the poorest section of the rural population,and, second, the revolutionary workers of all countries inthe war.The new government cannot give the people bread. Andno freedom can satisfy the masses suffering from hunger dueto shortages and inefficient distribution of available stocks,and, most important, to the seizure of these stocks by thelandlords and capitalists. It requires revolutionary measuresagainst the landlords and capitalists to give the peoplebread, and such measures can be carried out only by a workers’government.