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

348V. I. LENINif they side with the tsar when they return home, wecould again put Nicholas or his “beloved” brother back onthe throne. History knows instances when yesterday’senemies, having made peace with an overthrown tsar,returned to him his imprisoned soldiers in order that theymay help him fight his own people.... 149Comrades, wherever you have the opportunity, discussthe great events taking place in our country. Declare withfull voice that you stand together with the best part of theRussian soldiers, that you do not want a tsar, that youdemand a free republic, uncompensated transfer of the landedestates to the peasants, an eight-hour day, immediateconvocation of the Constituent Assembly. Declare that youstand on the side of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ andSoldiers’ deputies, that on your return to Russia you will benot with the tsar, but against him, not with the landlordsand the rich, but against them.Organise wherever you have the chance, adopt resolutionsendorsing the above demands, explain to your morebackward comrades the meaning of the great events takingplace in our country.You have gone through enough torment before and duringthe war and as war prisoners. Now we are advancing towardsbetter days. The dawn of freedom has risen.Return to Russia as an army of the revolution, an armyof the people, not an army of the tsar. In 1905, too, theprisoners of war returning from Japan were the best fightersfor freedom.When you return home you will go to every part of thecountry. And you must carry a message of freedom to everyremote corner, to every Russian village that has suffered somuch from hunger, taxes and humiliation. Enlighten yourpeasant brothers, banish ignorance from the villages, callon the peasant poor to support the workers of town and countryin their glorious struggle.Having won a republic, the Russian workers will unitewith the workers of all other countries and will boldly leadthe whole of mankind to socialism, a system in which therewill be neither rich nor poor, and in which a handful ofrich will no longer be able to convert millions into theirwage-slaves.