1916. The Attempt to Introduce Anarchist Ideas into the Party
In 1916 Nikolai Bukharin wrote, under the pseudonym "Nota Bene", an article entitled 'The Imperialist Predatory State" in the magazine "The Youth International" (organ of the Bureau of the International League of Socialist Youth Organisations) , in which he said:
"It is quite a mistake to seek the difference between Socialists and anarchists in the fact that the former are in favour of the state while the latter are against it. The real difference is that revolutionary Social-Democracy desires to organise social production on new lines, centralised, . . whereas decentralised, anarchist production would mean retrogression. . . .
Social-Democracy. . must now more than ever emphasise its hostility to the state in principle".
(N. Bukharin: "The Imperialist Predatory State", cited in: V. I. Lenin; '1The Youth International", in: Selected Works", Volume 5; London; 1935; p. 243, 244).
To which Lenin replied:
"This is wrong. The author raises the question of the difference in the attitude of Socialists and anarchists towards the state, But he does not answer this question, but another, namely the difference in the attitude of Socialists and anarchists towards the economic foundation of future society. . . The Socialists are in favour of utilising the present state and its institutions in the struggle for the emancipation of the working class, and they also urge the necessity of utilising the State for the peculiar form of transition from capitalism to socialism. This transitional form is the dictatorship of the proletariat, which is also a state.
The anarchists want to 'abolish' the state, to 'blow it up'.
The Socialists . . hold that the state will die out.
Comrade Nota-Bene’s . . remark about the 'state idea' is entirely muddled. It is un-Marxian and un-socialistic."
(V. I. Lenin: "The Youth International', in: ibid.; p. 243, 244).
In April 1929 Stalin commented:
"The well-known theoretical controversy which flared up in 1916 between Lenin and Bukharin on the question of the state . . is important in order to reveal Bukharin's inordinate pretensions to teach Lenin, as well as the roots of his theoretical unsoundness on such important questions as the dictatorship of the proletariat. . . .
Bukharin landed in a semi-Anarchist puddle.
In Bukharin's opinion the working class should be hostile in principle to the state as such, including the working-class state".
(J.V. Stalin: "The Right Deviation in the CPSU (B.)", in: "Leninism"; London; 1942; p. 276, 277).
1916-1917: Trotsky Goes to America
In September 1916 the French authorities, at the request of the tsarist government, banned "Nashe Slovo" and deported Trotsky to Spain. Although he did not participate in any political activity in Spain, after a few days he was arrested by the Spanish police and, in December, deported to the United States. He arrived in New York in January 1917.
The Assassination of Rasputin
During the war great influence was exercised over the tsar and tsarina by the monk Grigori Rasputin. In December 1916 a group of nob1es, headed by the Grand Duke Dimitri Pavlovich, organised the assassination of Rasputin, believing that his influence was being used against the war effort.
1917: Trotsky in America
In January 1917 Trotsky landed in New York, and joined the staff of a Russian magazine published there under the editorship of Nikolai Bukharin and Aleksandra Kollontai, -"Novy Nir" (New World) . Typically, he formed a bloc with the right-wing members of the staff against the Left:
"Trotsky arrived, and this scoundrel at once ganged up with the Right wing of 'Novy Mir’ against the Left Zimmerwaldists!! That's it!! That's Trotsky for you!! Always true to himself - twists, swindles, poses as a Left, helps the Right, so long as he can."
(V. I. Lenin: Letter to Inessa Armand, February 19th., 1917, in: 'Collected Works', Volume 35; Moscow; 1966; p.288)
In "Navy Mir", Trotsky continued to put forward his theory of "permanent revolution", arguing that if the German working class failed to rise along with the Russian working class, the workers’ government of a revolutionary Russia must wage war against the
German ruling class:
"If the conservative social-patriotic organisation should prevent the German working class from rising against its ruling classes in the coming epoch, then of course the Russian working class would defend its revolution with arms in its hands. The revolutionary workers' government would wage war against the Hohenzollerns, summoning the brother proletariat of Germany to rise against the common enemy."
(L. Trotsky: Article in "Novy Mir", March 21st., 1917, cited in: L. Trotsky: "History of the Russian Revolution"; Volume 1; London; 1967; p. 438).
The "February Revolution"
From the first days of 1917 strikes spread throughout the main cities of tsarist Russia. By March 10th; these had developed in Petrograd into a political general strike, with the demonstrating workers carrying Bolshevik slogans: "'Down with the tsar.!", "Down with the war.!" and "Bread.!"
The practical work of the Bolshevik Party in Russia at this time was directed by the Bureau of the Central Committee, headed by Vyacheslav Molotov. On March 11th. the Bureau issued a manifesto calling for an armed uprising against tsarism and the formation of a Provisional-Government.
On March 12th; an elected Soviet of Workers' Deputies came into being in Petrograd as an action comnittee to carry out the uprising and in the following days Soviets were established in Moscow and other cities. On March 13th, the Petrograd Soviet revived its "Izvestia" ("News").
When the tsar ordered troops to suppress the rising by force, the soldiers -- mostly peasant in uniform -- refused to obey the orders of their officers and joined the revolutionary workers, thus bringing into being a revolutionary alliance of workers and peasants. The workers and soldiers now began to disarm the police and to arm themselves with their weapons. On March 14th, the Petrograd Soviet was expanded into a "Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers’ Deputies".
On March 15th. the tsar, Nicholas II, abdicated.
The revolution of March 1917 (known as the "February Revolution" under the old-style calendar) had been accomplished by the workers and peasants. Its character was that of a bourgeois-democratic revolution directed against the tsarist autocracy.
The Formation of the Provisional Government
As soon as the capitalist class realised that the bourgeois-democratic revolution was unavoidable, they proceeded to manoeuvre in an effort to minimise its’ scope -- and above all to prevent its development into a socialist revolution.
On March 12th., the day after the tsar had dissolved the Fourth State Duma, its liberal capitalist members set up an "Executive Committee of the Imperial Duma", headed by the President of the Duma, the monarchist landlord Mikhail Rodzyanko.
On March 15th. this Executive Committee set up a "Provisional-Government", headed by Prince Georgi Lvov as Prime Minister and including among its Ministers Pavel Miliukov (leader of the Constitutional Democrats) as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Aleksendr Guchkov (leader of the Octobrists) as Minister of War, and Aleksandr Karensky (a prominent Socialist-Revolutionary) as Minister of Justice.
The capitalist class endeavoured for a few days to save the monarchy, by persuading the tsar to abdicate in favour of his brother Mikhail. But this proved untenable in view of popular feeling against the monarchy, and Mikhail abdicated on the following day, March 16th.
The capitalists, then turned their efforts to attempting to turn Russia into a capitalist parliamentary republic.
On March 17th. the new government issued a manifesto "To the Citizens"; setting out its programme:
"1. Complete and immediate amnesty for all political and religious offences, including terrorist acts, military revolts, agrarian insurrections, etc.
2.Freedom of speech, press, assembly, union, strikes, and the extension of all political liberties to persons in the military service within the limits required by considerations of technical military necessity.
3. Abolition of all feudal estate and national restrictions.
4. Immediate preparation for the convocation of a Constituent Assembly on the basis of universal, equal, direct and secret suffrage. This Constituent Assembly shall determine the form of State and the constitution of the country.
5. Formation of a people's militia with elected officers subordinated to the organs of local self-government and taking the place of the police.
6. Elections to the local organs of self-government on the basis of universal, equal, direct and secret suffrage.
7. The troops who participated in the revolutionary movement are not to be disarmed and are to remain in Petrograd.
8. While maintaining a rigid military discipline in the service, all obstacles are to be eliminated preventing soldiers from exercising the public rights enjoyed by other citizens".
(Manifesto of Provisional Government, May 17th., 1917, cited in: V. I. Lenin: Collected Works, Volume 20, Book 1; London; 1929; p. 348)
Lenin commented:
'In its first proclamation to the people (March 17), the government uttered not a word about the main and basic question of the present moment, peace. It keeps secret the predatory treaties made by tsarism with England, France, Italy, Japan, etc. It wishes to conceal from the people the truth about its war programme, and the fact that it is for war, for victory over Germany. . . .
The new government cannot give the people bread. And no amount of freedom will satisfy masses suffering hunger. . . .
The entire Manifesto of the new government . . .inspires me with the greatest distrust, for it consists only of promises, and does not carry into life any of the most essential measures that could and should be fully realised right now"
(V. I. Lenin: Theses of March l7th, 1917; in ibid; p.24, 25).
The Role of the Petrograd Soviet
Although there was a large spontaneous element in the "February Revolution", the Bolsheviks, played a leading role in the uprising itself. Despite this, in the majority of cases a majority of the members of the Soviets and of their Executive Committees were Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries; the Bolsheviks were, in the period following the "February Revolution" in a small minority in most of the Soviets, including those of Petrograd and Moscow.
A number of factors were responsible for this position: the industrial working class had been diluted during the war by large numbers of peasants from the villages, while Bolshevik leaders such as Lenin and Stalin were in exile.
As a result of this, on March 18th. the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet issued a proclamation calling upon the workers to support the capitalist Provisional Government. Lenin commented:
"The proclamation issued by the Soviet of Workers' Deputies ... is a most remarkable document. It proves that the Petrograd proletariat, at the time it issued its proclamation, at any rate, was under the preponderant influence of the petty-bourgeois politicians.
The proclamation declares that every democrat must 'support' the new government and that the Soviet of Workers' Deputies requests and authorises Kerensky to participate in the Provisional Government. . .These steps are a classic example of betrayal of the cause of the revolution and the cause of the proletariat."
(V. I. Lenin: "Letters from Afar"', in: ibid.; p. 4l, 42).
At the same time the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet set up a ‘Contact Commission', headed by Aleksandr Skobolev, the official aim of which was to maintain contact with, and "control", the Provisional Government.
Lenin summed up the political situation resulting from the February Revolution in the following words:
"The first stage of the revolution . . , owing to the insufficient class consciousness and organisation of the proletariat, led to the assumption of power by the bourgeoisie."
(V. I. Lenin: "The Tasks of the Proletariat in the Present Revolution", in: "Selected Works", Volume 6; London; 1946; p. 22) .
The Political Line Of the Party in March 1917
The victory of the "February Revolution" created a new political situation in Russia which called for a new political line on the part of the Russian Socia1-Democratic Labour Party.
As Stalin expressed it in November 1924:
"This was the greatest turning point in the history of Russia and an unprecedented turning point in the history Of our Party. The old, pre-revolutionary platform Of direct overthrow of the government was clear and definite, but it was no longer suitable for the new conditions of struggle . . Under the now conditions of the struggle, the Party hod to adopt a new orientation. The Party (its majority) groped its way towards this new orientation".
(J. V. Stalin "Trotskyism or Leninism?"; in Works Volume 6; Moscow; 1953); p. 347, 348).
At the time of the "February Revolution" the Bureau of the Control Committee of the RSDLP, centred in Petrograd, was led by Vyacheslav Molotov.
On March 18th., 1917 the Bureau issued, in the name of the Central Committee, a manifesto to "All Citizens of Russia", calling for the formation of a Provisional Revolutionary Government.
"Citizens! The fortresses of Russian tsarism have.. fallen. . . . It is the task of the working class and the revolutionary army to create a Provisional Revolutionary Government which is to head the new republican order now in the process of birth.
The Provisional Revolutionary Government must take it upon itself to create temporary laws defending all the rights and liberties of the people, to confiscate the lands of the monasteries and the landowners, the crown lands and the appanages, to introduce the 8-hour working day and to convoke a Constituent Assembly on the basis a universal, direct and equal suffrage, with no discrimination as to sex, nationality or religion, and with the secret ballot.
The Provisional Revolutionary Government must take it upon itself to secure provisions for the population and the army; for this purpose it must confiscate all the stores prepared by the former government and the municipalities.....
It is the task of the people and its revolutionary government to suppress all counter-revolutionary plots against the people.
It is the immediate and urgent task of the Provisional Revolutionary Government to establish relations with the proletariat of the belligerent countries for the purpose 0f . . terminating the bloody war carnage imposed upon the enslaved peoples against their will.
The workers of shops and factories, also the rising troops, must immediately elect their representatives to the Provisional Revolutionary Government. . .
Forward under the red banner of the revolution!
Long live the Democratic Republic!
Long live the revolutionary working class!
Long live the revolutionary people and the insurgent army!"
(Manifesto of CC, RSDLP, March 18th., 1917, cited in: V. I. Lenin: "Collected Works"; Volume 20, Book 2; London; 1929; p. 378-79).
The manifesto was published in the first issue of "Pravda", which reappeared on the same day.
Among the Bolsheviks liberated from exile in Siberia by the "February Revolution" were Josef Stalin and Lev Kamenev, both of whom returned to Petrograd. Kamenev joined the editorial board of "Pravda" on March 23rd., Stalin two days later on March 28th.:
Kamenev immediately upheld a chauvinist line on the war, contending like the Menshevik leaders that with the victory of the "February Revolution" the working class should adopt a position of "revolutionary defencism": He wrote in "Pravda" of March 28th.:
"The soldiers, the peasants and the workers of Russia who went to war obeying the pull of the now overthrown Tsar. . have freed themselves; the Tsar's banners have been replaced by the red banners of the revolution!. . .
When an army faces an army, it would be the most absurd policy to propose to one of them to lay down arms and go home. This . .would be a policy of slavery which a free people would repudiate with scorn. No, we will firmly hold our posts, we will answer a bullet by a bullet and a shell with a shell. . . .
A revolutionary soldier or officer, having overthrown the yoke of tsarism, will not vacate a trench to leave it to a German soldier or officer who has not mustered up courage to overthrow the yoke of his own government. We must not allow any disorganisation of the military forces of the revolution! ....
Russia is bound by alliances to England, France and other countries. It cannot act on the questions of peace without them."
(L. Kamenev: "Without Secret Diplomacy"; cited in "Collected Works", Volume 20, Book 2; London; 1929, p. 379; 380).
Stalin rejected this policy of chauvinist "revolutionary defenciism". He wrote in "Pravda" on the following day, March 29th :
"The present war is an imperialist war. Its principal aim is the seizure (annexation) of foreign, chiefly agrarian, territories by capitalistically developed states.. . .
It would be deplorable if the Russian revolutionary democracy, which was able to overthrow the detested tsarist regime, were to succumb to the false alarm raised by the imperialist bourgeoisie".
(J. V. Stalin: "The War", in: "Works"; Volume 3; Moscow; 1953; p.5; 7).
The majority of the Bureau, headed by Stalin and Molotov, correctly saw the Provisional Government as an organ of the capitalist class, and the Soviets as the embryo of a Provisional Government. A resolution of the Bureau published in "Pravda" on April 8th declared:
"The Provisional Government set up by the moderate bourgeois classes of society and associated in interests with Anglo-French capital is incapable of solving the problems raised by the revolution. Its resistance to the further extension and deepening of the revolution is being paralysed only by the growth of the revolutionary forces themselves and by their organisation. Their rallying centre must be the Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers' Deputies in the cities and the Soviets of Peasants’ and Agricultural Workers' Deputies in the countryside as the embryo of a revolutionary government, prepared in the further process of development, at a definite moment of the revolution, to establish the full power of the proletariat in alliance with the revolutionary democracy".
(Resolution of Bureau of CC, RSDLP; cited in: N. Popov: "Outline History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union"', Part 1; London; n .d.; p. 353-54).
However, in "groping" towards a correct political line in the new situation, the majority of the Bureau made a tactical error. Instead of putting forward the clear slogan of "All power to the Soviets!', they adopted a policy of "putting pressure on the Provisional Government" to perform actions which, as an organ of the capital class, it was incapable of doing:
"The solution is to bring pressure on the Provisional Government to make it declare its consent to start peace negotiations immediately.
The workers, soldiers and peasants must arrange meetings and demonstrations and demand that the Provisional Government shall come out openly and publicly in an effort to induce all the belligerent powers to start peace negotiations immediately, on the basis of recognition of the right of nations to self-determination".
(J. V. Stalin: ibid.; p. 8).
On which Lenin commented forthrightly the day after his return to Russia:
"The "Pravda" demands that the government renounce annexations. To demand that a government of capitalists renounce annexations is balderdash".
(V. I. Lenin Speech at a Caucus of the Bolshevik Members of the All-Russian Conference of the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, April 17, 1917, in Collected Works", Volume 20, Book 1; London; 1929; p. 98).
This incorrect tactical line corresponded closely with the tactical line of Kamenev, who said:
"Our slogan is -- pressure on the Provisional Government with the aim of forcing it openly, before world democracy, and immediately to come forth with an attempt to induce all the belligerent countries forthwith to start negotiations concerning the means of stopping the World War".
(L. Kamenev: "Without Secret Diplomacy", cited in: V. I. Lenin: "Collected Works"; Volume 20, Book 2; London; 1929; p. 380).
Stalin himself analysed this mistaken tactical policy in November 1924:
"The Party (its majority) groped its way towards this new orientation. It adopted the policy of pressure on the Provisional Government through the Soviets on the question of peace and did not venture to step forward at once from the old slogan of the dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry to the new slogan of power to the Soviets. The aim of this halfway policy was to enable the Soviets to discern the actual imperialist nature of the Provisional Government on the basis of the concrete questions of peace and in this way to wrest the Soviets from the Provisional Government. But this was a profoundly mistaken position, for it gave rise to pacifist illusions, brought grist to the mill of defencism, and hindered the revolutionary education of the masses. At that time I shared this mistaken position with the Party comrades and fully abandoned it only in the middle of April, when I associated myself with Lenin's theses".
(J. V. Stalin: "Trotskyism or Leninism" , in: Works", Volume 3; Moscow; 1953; p. 348).
NEXT >>> Lenin Returns to Russia
"It is quite a mistake to seek the difference between Socialists and anarchists in the fact that the former are in favour of the state while the latter are against it. The real difference is that revolutionary Social-Democracy desires to organise social production on new lines, centralised, . . whereas decentralised, anarchist production would mean retrogression. . . .
Social-Democracy. . must now more than ever emphasise its hostility to the state in principle".
(N. Bukharin: "The Imperialist Predatory State", cited in: V. I. Lenin; '1The Youth International", in: Selected Works", Volume 5; London; 1935; p. 243, 244).
To which Lenin replied:
"This is wrong. The author raises the question of the difference in the attitude of Socialists and anarchists towards the state, But he does not answer this question, but another, namely the difference in the attitude of Socialists and anarchists towards the economic foundation of future society. . . The Socialists are in favour of utilising the present state and its institutions in the struggle for the emancipation of the working class, and they also urge the necessity of utilising the State for the peculiar form of transition from capitalism to socialism. This transitional form is the dictatorship of the proletariat, which is also a state.
The anarchists want to 'abolish' the state, to 'blow it up'.
The Socialists . . hold that the state will die out.
Comrade Nota-Bene’s . . remark about the 'state idea' is entirely muddled. It is un-Marxian and un-socialistic."
(V. I. Lenin: "The Youth International', in: ibid.; p. 243, 244).
In April 1929 Stalin commented:
"The well-known theoretical controversy which flared up in 1916 between Lenin and Bukharin on the question of the state . . is important in order to reveal Bukharin's inordinate pretensions to teach Lenin, as well as the roots of his theoretical unsoundness on such important questions as the dictatorship of the proletariat. . . .
Bukharin landed in a semi-Anarchist puddle.
In Bukharin's opinion the working class should be hostile in principle to the state as such, including the working-class state".
(J.V. Stalin: "The Right Deviation in the CPSU (B.)", in: "Leninism"; London; 1942; p. 276, 277).
1916-1917: Trotsky Goes to America
In September 1916 the French authorities, at the request of the tsarist government, banned "Nashe Slovo" and deported Trotsky to Spain. Although he did not participate in any political activity in Spain, after a few days he was arrested by the Spanish police and, in December, deported to the United States. He arrived in New York in January 1917.
The Assassination of Rasputin
During the war great influence was exercised over the tsar and tsarina by the monk Grigori Rasputin. In December 1916 a group of nob1es, headed by the Grand Duke Dimitri Pavlovich, organised the assassination of Rasputin, believing that his influence was being used against the war effort.
1917: Trotsky in America
In January 1917 Trotsky landed in New York, and joined the staff of a Russian magazine published there under the editorship of Nikolai Bukharin and Aleksandra Kollontai, -"Novy Nir" (New World) . Typically, he formed a bloc with the right-wing members of the staff against the Left:
"Trotsky arrived, and this scoundrel at once ganged up with the Right wing of 'Novy Mir’ against the Left Zimmerwaldists!! That's it!! That's Trotsky for you!! Always true to himself - twists, swindles, poses as a Left, helps the Right, so long as he can."
(V. I. Lenin: Letter to Inessa Armand, February 19th., 1917, in: 'Collected Works', Volume 35; Moscow; 1966; p.288)
In "Navy Mir", Trotsky continued to put forward his theory of "permanent revolution", arguing that if the German working class failed to rise along with the Russian working class, the workers’ government of a revolutionary Russia must wage war against the
German ruling class:
"If the conservative social-patriotic organisation should prevent the German working class from rising against its ruling classes in the coming epoch, then of course the Russian working class would defend its revolution with arms in its hands. The revolutionary workers' government would wage war against the Hohenzollerns, summoning the brother proletariat of Germany to rise against the common enemy."
(L. Trotsky: Article in "Novy Mir", March 21st., 1917, cited in: L. Trotsky: "History of the Russian Revolution"; Volume 1; London; 1967; p. 438).
The "February Revolution"
From the first days of 1917 strikes spread throughout the main cities of tsarist Russia. By March 10th; these had developed in Petrograd into a political general strike, with the demonstrating workers carrying Bolshevik slogans: "'Down with the tsar.!", "Down with the war.!" and "Bread.!"
The practical work of the Bolshevik Party in Russia at this time was directed by the Bureau of the Central Committee, headed by Vyacheslav Molotov. On March 11th. the Bureau issued a manifesto calling for an armed uprising against tsarism and the formation of a Provisional-Government.
On March 12th; an elected Soviet of Workers' Deputies came into being in Petrograd as an action comnittee to carry out the uprising and in the following days Soviets were established in Moscow and other cities. On March 13th, the Petrograd Soviet revived its "Izvestia" ("News").
When the tsar ordered troops to suppress the rising by force, the soldiers -- mostly peasant in uniform -- refused to obey the orders of their officers and joined the revolutionary workers, thus bringing into being a revolutionary alliance of workers and peasants. The workers and soldiers now began to disarm the police and to arm themselves with their weapons. On March 14th, the Petrograd Soviet was expanded into a "Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers’ Deputies".
On March 15th. the tsar, Nicholas II, abdicated.
The revolution of March 1917 (known as the "February Revolution" under the old-style calendar) had been accomplished by the workers and peasants. Its character was that of a bourgeois-democratic revolution directed against the tsarist autocracy.
The Formation of the Provisional Government
As soon as the capitalist class realised that the bourgeois-democratic revolution was unavoidable, they proceeded to manoeuvre in an effort to minimise its’ scope -- and above all to prevent its development into a socialist revolution.
On March 12th., the day after the tsar had dissolved the Fourth State Duma, its liberal capitalist members set up an "Executive Committee of the Imperial Duma", headed by the President of the Duma, the monarchist landlord Mikhail Rodzyanko.
On March 15th. this Executive Committee set up a "Provisional-Government", headed by Prince Georgi Lvov as Prime Minister and including among its Ministers Pavel Miliukov (leader of the Constitutional Democrats) as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Aleksendr Guchkov (leader of the Octobrists) as Minister of War, and Aleksandr Karensky (a prominent Socialist-Revolutionary) as Minister of Justice.
The capitalist class endeavoured for a few days to save the monarchy, by persuading the tsar to abdicate in favour of his brother Mikhail. But this proved untenable in view of popular feeling against the monarchy, and Mikhail abdicated on the following day, March 16th.
The capitalists, then turned their efforts to attempting to turn Russia into a capitalist parliamentary republic.
On March 17th. the new government issued a manifesto "To the Citizens"; setting out its programme:
"1. Complete and immediate amnesty for all political and religious offences, including terrorist acts, military revolts, agrarian insurrections, etc.
2.Freedom of speech, press, assembly, union, strikes, and the extension of all political liberties to persons in the military service within the limits required by considerations of technical military necessity.
3. Abolition of all feudal estate and national restrictions.
4. Immediate preparation for the convocation of a Constituent Assembly on the basis of universal, equal, direct and secret suffrage. This Constituent Assembly shall determine the form of State and the constitution of the country.
5. Formation of a people's militia with elected officers subordinated to the organs of local self-government and taking the place of the police.
6. Elections to the local organs of self-government on the basis of universal, equal, direct and secret suffrage.
7. The troops who participated in the revolutionary movement are not to be disarmed and are to remain in Petrograd.
8. While maintaining a rigid military discipline in the service, all obstacles are to be eliminated preventing soldiers from exercising the public rights enjoyed by other citizens".
(Manifesto of Provisional Government, May 17th., 1917, cited in: V. I. Lenin: Collected Works, Volume 20, Book 1; London; 1929; p. 348)
Lenin commented:
'In its first proclamation to the people (March 17), the government uttered not a word about the main and basic question of the present moment, peace. It keeps secret the predatory treaties made by tsarism with England, France, Italy, Japan, etc. It wishes to conceal from the people the truth about its war programme, and the fact that it is for war, for victory over Germany. . . .
The new government cannot give the people bread. And no amount of freedom will satisfy masses suffering hunger. . . .
The entire Manifesto of the new government . . .inspires me with the greatest distrust, for it consists only of promises, and does not carry into life any of the most essential measures that could and should be fully realised right now"
(V. I. Lenin: Theses of March l7th, 1917; in ibid; p.24, 25).
The Role of the Petrograd Soviet
Although there was a large spontaneous element in the "February Revolution", the Bolsheviks, played a leading role in the uprising itself. Despite this, in the majority of cases a majority of the members of the Soviets and of their Executive Committees were Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries; the Bolsheviks were, in the period following the "February Revolution" in a small minority in most of the Soviets, including those of Petrograd and Moscow.
A number of factors were responsible for this position: the industrial working class had been diluted during the war by large numbers of peasants from the villages, while Bolshevik leaders such as Lenin and Stalin were in exile.
As a result of this, on March 18th. the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet issued a proclamation calling upon the workers to support the capitalist Provisional Government. Lenin commented:
"The proclamation issued by the Soviet of Workers' Deputies ... is a most remarkable document. It proves that the Petrograd proletariat, at the time it issued its proclamation, at any rate, was under the preponderant influence of the petty-bourgeois politicians.
The proclamation declares that every democrat must 'support' the new government and that the Soviet of Workers' Deputies requests and authorises Kerensky to participate in the Provisional Government. . .These steps are a classic example of betrayal of the cause of the revolution and the cause of the proletariat."
(V. I. Lenin: "Letters from Afar"', in: ibid.; p. 4l, 42).
At the same time the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet set up a ‘Contact Commission', headed by Aleksandr Skobolev, the official aim of which was to maintain contact with, and "control", the Provisional Government.
Lenin summed up the political situation resulting from the February Revolution in the following words:
"The first stage of the revolution . . , owing to the insufficient class consciousness and organisation of the proletariat, led to the assumption of power by the bourgeoisie."
(V. I. Lenin: "The Tasks of the Proletariat in the Present Revolution", in: "Selected Works", Volume 6; London; 1946; p. 22) .
The Political Line Of the Party in March 1917
The victory of the "February Revolution" created a new political situation in Russia which called for a new political line on the part of the Russian Socia1-Democratic Labour Party.
As Stalin expressed it in November 1924:
"This was the greatest turning point in the history of Russia and an unprecedented turning point in the history Of our Party. The old, pre-revolutionary platform Of direct overthrow of the government was clear and definite, but it was no longer suitable for the new conditions of struggle . . Under the now conditions of the struggle, the Party hod to adopt a new orientation. The Party (its majority) groped its way towards this new orientation".
(J. V. Stalin "Trotskyism or Leninism?"; in Works Volume 6; Moscow; 1953); p. 347, 348).
At the time of the "February Revolution" the Bureau of the Control Committee of the RSDLP, centred in Petrograd, was led by Vyacheslav Molotov.
On March 18th., 1917 the Bureau issued, in the name of the Central Committee, a manifesto to "All Citizens of Russia", calling for the formation of a Provisional Revolutionary Government.
"Citizens! The fortresses of Russian tsarism have.. fallen. . . . It is the task of the working class and the revolutionary army to create a Provisional Revolutionary Government which is to head the new republican order now in the process of birth.
The Provisional Revolutionary Government must take it upon itself to create temporary laws defending all the rights and liberties of the people, to confiscate the lands of the monasteries and the landowners, the crown lands and the appanages, to introduce the 8-hour working day and to convoke a Constituent Assembly on the basis a universal, direct and equal suffrage, with no discrimination as to sex, nationality or religion, and with the secret ballot.
The Provisional Revolutionary Government must take it upon itself to secure provisions for the population and the army; for this purpose it must confiscate all the stores prepared by the former government and the municipalities.....
It is the task of the people and its revolutionary government to suppress all counter-revolutionary plots against the people.
It is the immediate and urgent task of the Provisional Revolutionary Government to establish relations with the proletariat of the belligerent countries for the purpose 0f . . terminating the bloody war carnage imposed upon the enslaved peoples against their will.
The workers of shops and factories, also the rising troops, must immediately elect their representatives to the Provisional Revolutionary Government. . .
Forward under the red banner of the revolution!
Long live the Democratic Republic!
Long live the revolutionary working class!
Long live the revolutionary people and the insurgent army!"
(Manifesto of CC, RSDLP, March 18th., 1917, cited in: V. I. Lenin: "Collected Works"; Volume 20, Book 2; London; 1929; p. 378-79).
The manifesto was published in the first issue of "Pravda", which reappeared on the same day.
Among the Bolsheviks liberated from exile in Siberia by the "February Revolution" were Josef Stalin and Lev Kamenev, both of whom returned to Petrograd. Kamenev joined the editorial board of "Pravda" on March 23rd., Stalin two days later on March 28th.:
Kamenev immediately upheld a chauvinist line on the war, contending like the Menshevik leaders that with the victory of the "February Revolution" the working class should adopt a position of "revolutionary defencism": He wrote in "Pravda" of March 28th.:
"The soldiers, the peasants and the workers of Russia who went to war obeying the pull of the now overthrown Tsar. . have freed themselves; the Tsar's banners have been replaced by the red banners of the revolution!. . .
When an army faces an army, it would be the most absurd policy to propose to one of them to lay down arms and go home. This . .would be a policy of slavery which a free people would repudiate with scorn. No, we will firmly hold our posts, we will answer a bullet by a bullet and a shell with a shell. . . .
A revolutionary soldier or officer, having overthrown the yoke of tsarism, will not vacate a trench to leave it to a German soldier or officer who has not mustered up courage to overthrow the yoke of his own government. We must not allow any disorganisation of the military forces of the revolution! ....
Russia is bound by alliances to England, France and other countries. It cannot act on the questions of peace without them."
(L. Kamenev: "Without Secret Diplomacy"; cited in "Collected Works", Volume 20, Book 2; London; 1929, p. 379; 380).
Stalin rejected this policy of chauvinist "revolutionary defenciism". He wrote in "Pravda" on the following day, March 29th :
"The present war is an imperialist war. Its principal aim is the seizure (annexation) of foreign, chiefly agrarian, territories by capitalistically developed states.. . .
It would be deplorable if the Russian revolutionary democracy, which was able to overthrow the detested tsarist regime, were to succumb to the false alarm raised by the imperialist bourgeoisie".
(J. V. Stalin: "The War", in: "Works"; Volume 3; Moscow; 1953; p.5; 7).
The majority of the Bureau, headed by Stalin and Molotov, correctly saw the Provisional Government as an organ of the capitalist class, and the Soviets as the embryo of a Provisional Government. A resolution of the Bureau published in "Pravda" on April 8th declared:
"The Provisional Government set up by the moderate bourgeois classes of society and associated in interests with Anglo-French capital is incapable of solving the problems raised by the revolution. Its resistance to the further extension and deepening of the revolution is being paralysed only by the growth of the revolutionary forces themselves and by their organisation. Their rallying centre must be the Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers' Deputies in the cities and the Soviets of Peasants’ and Agricultural Workers' Deputies in the countryside as the embryo of a revolutionary government, prepared in the further process of development, at a definite moment of the revolution, to establish the full power of the proletariat in alliance with the revolutionary democracy".
(Resolution of Bureau of CC, RSDLP; cited in: N. Popov: "Outline History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union"', Part 1; London; n .d.; p. 353-54).
However, in "groping" towards a correct political line in the new situation, the majority of the Bureau made a tactical error. Instead of putting forward the clear slogan of "All power to the Soviets!', they adopted a policy of "putting pressure on the Provisional Government" to perform actions which, as an organ of the capital class, it was incapable of doing:
"The solution is to bring pressure on the Provisional Government to make it declare its consent to start peace negotiations immediately.
The workers, soldiers and peasants must arrange meetings and demonstrations and demand that the Provisional Government shall come out openly and publicly in an effort to induce all the belligerent powers to start peace negotiations immediately, on the basis of recognition of the right of nations to self-determination".
(J. V. Stalin: ibid.; p. 8).
On which Lenin commented forthrightly the day after his return to Russia:
"The "Pravda" demands that the government renounce annexations. To demand that a government of capitalists renounce annexations is balderdash".
(V. I. Lenin Speech at a Caucus of the Bolshevik Members of the All-Russian Conference of the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, April 17, 1917, in Collected Works", Volume 20, Book 1; London; 1929; p. 98).
This incorrect tactical line corresponded closely with the tactical line of Kamenev, who said:
"Our slogan is -- pressure on the Provisional Government with the aim of forcing it openly, before world democracy, and immediately to come forth with an attempt to induce all the belligerent countries forthwith to start negotiations concerning the means of stopping the World War".
(L. Kamenev: "Without Secret Diplomacy", cited in: V. I. Lenin: "Collected Works"; Volume 20, Book 2; London; 1929; p. 380).
Stalin himself analysed this mistaken tactical policy in November 1924:
"The Party (its majority) groped its way towards this new orientation. It adopted the policy of pressure on the Provisional Government through the Soviets on the question of peace and did not venture to step forward at once from the old slogan of the dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry to the new slogan of power to the Soviets. The aim of this halfway policy was to enable the Soviets to discern the actual imperialist nature of the Provisional Government on the basis of the concrete questions of peace and in this way to wrest the Soviets from the Provisional Government. But this was a profoundly mistaken position, for it gave rise to pacifist illusions, brought grist to the mill of defencism, and hindered the revolutionary education of the masses. At that time I shared this mistaken position with the Party comrades and fully abandoned it only in the middle of April, when I associated myself with Lenin's theses".
(J. V. Stalin: "Trotskyism or Leninism" , in: Works", Volume 3; Moscow; 1953; p. 348).
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