Collected Works of V. I. Lenin - Vol. 31 - From Marx to Mao

38V. I. LENINtantamount to the worst kind of opportunism, treacheryand betrayal.There are different kinds of compromises. One must beable to analyse the situation and the concrete conditionsof each compromise, or of each variety of compromise. Onemust learn to distinguish between a man who has given uphis money and fire-arms to bandits so as to lessen the evilthey can do and to facilitate their capture and execution,and a man who gives his money and fire-arms to banditsso as to share in the loot. In politics this is by no meansalways as elementary as it is in this childishly simple example.However, anyone who is out to think up for the workerssome kind of recipe that will provide them with cut-anddriedsolutions for all contingencies, or promises that thepolicy of the revolutionary proletariat will never come upagainst difficult or complex situations, is simply a charlatan.To leave no room for misinterpretation, I shall attemptto outline, if only very briefly, several fundamental rulesfor the analysis of concrete compromises.The party which entered into a compromise with theGerman imperialists by signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovskhad been evolving its internationalism in practice eversince the end of 1914. It was not afraid to call for the defeatof the tsarist monarchy and to condemn “defence ofcountry” in a war between two imperialist robbers. Theparliamentary representatives of this party preferred exilein Siberia to taking a road leading to ministerial portfoliosin a bourgeois government. The revolution that overthrewtsarism and established a democratic republic put thisparty to a new and tremendous test—it did not enter intoany agreements with its “own” imperialists, but preparedand brought about their overthrow. When it had assumedpolitical power, this party did not leave a vestige of eitherlanded or capitalist ownership. After making public andrepudiating the imperialists’ secret treaties, this partyproposed peace to all nations, and yielded to the violenceof the Brest-Litovsk robbers only after the Anglo-Frenchimperialists had torpedoed the conclusion of a peace, andafter the Bolsheviks had done everything humanly possibleto hasten the revolution in Germany and other countries.