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

340V. I. LENINLETTERS FROM AFARF I F T H L E T T E RTHE TASKS INVOLVED IN THE BUILDINGOF THE REVOLUTIONARY PROLETARIAN STATEIn the preceding letters, the immediate tasks of therevolutionary proletariat in Russia were formulated as follows:(1) to find the surest road to the next stage of therevolution, or to the second revolution, which (2) musttransfer political power from the government of the landlordsand capitalists (the Guchkovs, Lvovs, Milyukovs, Kerenskys)to a government of the workers and poorest peasants.(3) This latter government must be organised on themodel of the Soviets of Workers’ and Peasants’ Deputies,namely, (4) it must smash, completely eliminate, the oldstate machine, the army, the police force and bureaucracy(officialdom), that is common to all bourgeois states, andsubstitute for this machine (5) not only a mass organisation,but a universal organisation of the entire armedpeople. (6) Only such a government, of “such” a class composition(“revolutionary-democratic dictatorship of theproletariat and peasantry”) and such organs of government(“proletarian militia”) will be capable of successfully carryingout the extremely difficult and absolutely urgentchief task of the moment, namely: to achieve peace, not animperialist peace, not a deal between the imperialist powersconcerning the division of the booty by the capitalists andtheir governments, but a really lasting and democraticpeace, which cannot be achieved without a proletarianrevolution in a number of countries. (7) In Russia the victoryof the proletariat can be achieved in the very near future