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

REVOLUTION IN RUSSIA AND TASKS OF WORKERS353and the Milyukovs been stopped by the workers, who marchedthrough the streets of St. Petersburg and inscribed on theirbanners: “Land and Freedom! Death to the Tyrants!”—who,together with the cavalry regiments, assembled on thesquare in front of the Duma and unfurled banners with theinscription: “Long Live Socialist Republics in All Countries!”Mikhail Romanov, the ally of the Guchkovs-Milyukovs,realised that in this situation it would be wiser todecline the offer, pending his election to the throne by theconstituent assembly, and Russia has—temporarily—remaineda republic.The government did not deprive the former tsar of hisfreedom. The workers compelled his arrest. The governmentwanted to hand over the command of the army to NikolaiNikolayevich Romanov. The workers forced his removal.Obviously, were there no Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’Deputies, the landlords, the Lvovs-Guchkovs, would cometo terms with a Romanov or with some other landowner.In its manifesto to the people and in Milyukov’s telegramto all Russian representatives abroad, the governmentdeclared that it would abide by all the international treatiesentered into by Russia. These treaties had been concludedby the deposed tsar. The government does not dare to publishthem—first, because it is bound hand and foot by Russian,English and French capital; second, because it fearsthat the people would tear the Guchkovs and the Milyukovsto pieces if they discovered that the capitalists were readyto sacrifice another five or ten million workers and peasantsin order to win Constantinople, strangle Galicia, etc.What, then, is the value of these promises of freedom,if the people are not allowed to know the truth about thetreaties of the landowner tsar, for which the capitalistsare prepared to shed more and more soldiers’ blood?And what is the value of the promises of various freedoms,and even of a democratic republic, to a people threatenedwith famine, a people whom they wish to lead blindfoldto the slaughter in order that the Russian, English,and French capitalists may rob the German capitalists?At the same time the government of the Guchkovs andMilyukovs is suppressing by sheer force every attempt ofthe Russian workers to come to an understanding with their