To all the Toilers, to all the Workers and Soldiers of Petrograd

J. V. Stalin

June 17, 1917

Works, Vol. 3, March - October, 1917

Comrades,

Russia is passing through sore trials.

The war is still continuing and claiming countless lives. It is being deliberately prolonged by the scoundrels, the bloodsucking bankers, who grow fat on it.

The industrial disruption caused by the war is leading to the stoppage of factories and to unemployment. It is being deliberately intensified by the lockout capitalists in their lust for fabulous profits.

The food shortage caused by the war is becoming more and more ominous. High prices are strangling the urban poor. And prices are continually rising by the caprice of the marauding profiteers.

The sinister phantom of hunger and ruin is staring us in the face. . . .

Moreover, the black clouds of counter-revolution are gathering.

The Duma of June the Third which helped the tsar to oppress the people, is now demanding an immediate offensive at the front. What for? In order to drown in blood the liberty we have won, in deference to the wishes of the "Allied" and Russian robbers.

The Council of State, which supplied the tsar with hangmen-Ministers, is secretly splicing a treacherous noose. What for? In order at a convenient moment to slip it around the necks of the people, in deference to the wishes of the "Allied" and Russian oppressors.

And the Provisional Government, planted between the tsarist Duma and the Soviet, and including ten bourgeois in its number, is clearly falling under the sway of the landlords and capitalists.

Instead of guarantees of the rights of the soldiers, we have Kerensky's "declaration" violating these rights.

Instead of consolidation of the liberties won by the soldiers in the days of the revolution, we have new "orders" threatening penal servitude and disbandment of army units.

Instead of guarantees of the liberties won by the citizens of Russia, we have political espionage in the barracks, arrests without trial, new proposals for an Article 129, carrying the threat of penal servitude.

Instead of the arming of the people, we have threats to disarm the workers and soldiers.

Instead of liberation of the oppressed nationalities, we have a policy of pinpricks towards Finland and the Ukraine and fear of granting them their liberty.

Instead of a resolute struggle against counter-revolution, we have connivance at the brazenness of the counterrevolutionaries, who are openly arming to fight the revolution. . . .

And the war is still continuing, and no really serious measures are taken to stop it or to propose a just peace to all nations.

The economic disruption grows worse and worse, and no measures are taken to cope with it.

Famine draws nearer and nearer, and no effective measures are taken to avert it.

Is it surprising that the counter-revolutionaries are becoming more and more arrogant and are inciting the government to inflict further repressive measures on the workers and peasants, the soldiers and sailors?

Comrades, these things can no longer be tolerated in silence! To remain silent after all this would be criminal!

You are free citizens, you have the right to protest, and you must use that right before it is too late.

Let tomorrow (June 18), the day of the peaceful demonstration, become a day of formidable protest on the part of revolutionary Petrograd against resurgent oppression and tyranny!

Let the victorious banners wave tomorrow, to the dismay of the enemies of liberty and socialism!

Let your call, the call of the champions of the revolution, resound through the world, to the joy of all the oppressed and enslaved!

Over there, in the West, in the belligerent countries, the dawn of a new life, the dawn of the great workers' revolution is breaking. Let your brothers in the West know tomorrow that you have inscribed for them on your banners not war, but peace, not enslavement, but liberation!

Workers, Soldiers, clasp hands in brotherhood and march forward beneath the banner of socialism!

All out on the streets, comrades!

Rally in a close ring around your banners!

March in serried ranks through the streets of the capital!

Calmly and confidently proclaim your wishes

Down with counter-revolution!

Down with the tsarist Duma! Down with the Council of State!

Down with the ten capitalist Ministers! All power to the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies!

Revise the "Declaration of Rights of the Soldier"!

Annul the "orders" against the soldiers and sailors!

Down with the disarming of the revolutionary workers!

Long live a people's militia!

Down with anarchy in industry and with the lockout capitalists!

Long live control and organization of production and distribution!

No policy of offensive!

It is time to stop the war! Let the Soviet of Deputies announce just terms of peace!

Neither a separate peace with Wilhelm, nor secret treaties with the French and British capitalists!

B r e a d ! P e a c e ! L i b e r t y !

Central Committee of the R.S.D.L.P.

Petrograd Committee of the R.S.D.L.P.

Army Organization of the Central Committee of the R.S.D.L.P.

Central Council of Factory Committees of the City of Petrograd

Bolshevik Group of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies

Pravda Editorial Board

Soldatskaya Pravda Editorial Board

Pravda, No. 84, June 17, 1917

Notes

1. "To All the Toilers, to All the Workers and Soldiers of Petrograd" was written in connection with the demonstration of workers and soldiers called by the Central Committee and Petrograd Committee of the R.S.D.L.P.(B.) for June 10, 1917. It was first published on June 9 as a proclamation which was distributed in the districts of Petrograd. It was to have appeared in Pravda and Soldatskaya Pravda on June 10, but since the Bolshevik Central Committee and Petrograd Committee had been obliged on the night before to call off the demonstration, the appeal was cut out of the stereotypes. Only a few copies of Soldatskaya Pravda appeared with the text of the appeal. On June 13 it was published in Pravda, No. 80, following an article entitled "The Truth About the Demonstration," and again in Pravdaof June 17 and 18, in connection with the new demonstration appointed for the latter day.