{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_35232/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_35232","id":"gutenberg_35232","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35232","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: History - Modern (1750+)","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Politics","Socialism","World War, 1914-1918 -- Economic aspects"],"text":"</pre>\n\n\n\nProduced by Odessa Paige Turner, David Garcia and the\nOnline Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net\n(This book was produced from scanned images of public\ndomain material from the Google Print project.)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA LETTER TO AMERICAN WORKINGMEN\n\n_From the Socialist Soviet Republic of Russia_\n\nBy N. LENIN\n\nReprinted from THE CLASS STRUGGLE\n\nDecember, 1918\n\nPrice--5 Cents\n\n  NEW YORK\n  THE SOCIALIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY\n  431 PULASKI ST., BROOKLYN, N. Y.\n  December, 1918\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nA Letter to American Workingmen\n\nBy N. Lenin.\n\n\n                                               Moscow, August 20, 1918.\n\nComrades: A Russian Bolshevik who participated in the Revolution of\n1905 and for many years afterwards lived in your country has offered to\ntransmit this letter to you. I have grasped this opportunity joyfully\nfor the revolutionary proletariat of America--insofar as it is the\nenemy of American imperialism--is destined to perform an important task\nat this time.\n\nThe history of modern civilized America opens with one of those really\nrevolutionary wars of liberation of which there have been so few\ncompared with the enormous number of wars of conquest that were\ncaused, like the present imperialistic war, by squabbles among kings,\nlandholders and capitalists over the division of ill-gotten lands and\nprofits. It was a war of the American people against the English who\ndespoiled America of its resources and held in colonial subjection,\njust as their \"civilized\" descendants are draining the life-blood of\nhundreds of millions of human beings in India, Egypt and all corners\nand ends of the world to keep them in subjection.\n\nSince that war 150 years have passed. Bourgeois civilization has born\nits most luxuriant fruit. By developing the productive forces of\norganized human labor, by utilizing machines and all the wonders of\ntechnique America has taken the first place among free and civilized\nnations. But at the same time America, like a few other nations, has\nbecome characteristic for the depth of the abyss that divide a handful\nof brutal millionaires who are stagnating in a mire of luxury, and\nmillions of laboring starving men and women who are always staring\nwant in the face.\n\nFour years of imperialistic slaughter have left their trace.\nIrrefutably and clearly events have shown to the people that both\nimperialistic groups, the English as well as the German, have been\nplaying false. The four years of war have shown in their effects the\ngreat law of capitalism in all wars; that he who is richest and\nmightiest profits the most, takes the greatest share of the spoils\nwhile he who is weakest is exploited, martyred, oppressed and outraged\nto the utmost.\n\nIn the number of its colonial possessions, English imperialism has\nalways been more powerful than any of the other countries. England\nhas lost not a span of its \"acquired\" land. On the other hand it\nhas acquired control of all German colonies in Africa, has occupied\nMesopotamia and Palestine.\n\nGerman imperialism was stronger because of the wonderful organization\nand ruthless discipline of \"its\" armies, but as far as colonies are\nconcerned, is much weaker than its opponent. It has now lost all of its\ncolonies, but has robbed half of Europe and throttled most of the small\ncountries and weaker peoples. What a high conception of \"liberation\"\non either side! How well they have defended their fatherlands, these\n\"gentlemen\" of both groups, the Anglo-French and the German capitalists\ntogether with their lackeys, the Social-Patriots.\n\nAmerican plutocrats are wealthier than those of any other country\npartly because they are geographically more favorably situated. They\nhave made the greatest profits. They have made all, even the weakest\ncountries, their debtors. They have amassed gigantic fortunes during\nthe war. And every dollar is stained with the blood that was shed by\nmillions of murdered and crippled men, shed in the high, honorable\nand holy war of freedom.\n\nHad the Anglo-French and American bourgeoisie accepted the Soviet\ninvitation to participate in peace negotiations at Brest-Litovsk,\ninstead of leaving Russia to the mercy of brutal Germany a just peace\nwithout annexations and indemnities, a peace based upon complete\nequality could have been forced upon Germany, and millions of lives\nmight have been saved. Because they hoped to reestablish the Eastern\nFront by once more drawing us into the whirlpool of warfare, they\nrefused to attend peace negotiations and gave Germany a free hand to\ncram its shameful terms down the throat of the Russian people. It\nlay in the power of the Allied countries to make the Brest-Litovsk\nnegotiations the forerunner of a general peace. It ill becomes them\nto throw the blame for the Russo-German peace upon our shoulders!\n\nThe workers of the whole world, in whatever country they may live,\nrejoice with us and sympathize with us, applaud us for having burst the\niron ring of imperialistic agreements and treaties, for having dreaded\nno sacrifice, however great, to free ourselves, for having established\nourselves as a socialist republic, even so rent asunder and plundered\nby German imperialists, for having raised the banner of peace, the\nbanner of Socialism over the world. What wonder that we are hated by\nthe capitalist class the world over. But this hatred of imperialism and\nthe sympathy of the class-conscious workers of all countries give us\nassurance of the righteousness of our cause.\n\nHe is no Socialist who cannot understand that one cannot and must not\nhesitate to bring even that greatest of sacrifice, the sacrifice of\nterritory, that one must be ready to accept even military defeat at the\nhands of imperialism in the interests of victory over the bourgeoisie,\nin the interests of a transfer of power to the working-class. For the\nsake of \"their\" cause, that is for the conquest of world-power, the\nimperialists of England and Germany have not hesitated to ruin a\nwhole of row of nations, from Belgium and Servia to Palestine and\nMesopotamia. Shall we then hesitate to act in the name of the\nliberation of the workers of the world from the yoke of capitalism, in\nthe name of a general honorable peace; shall we wait until we can find\na way that entails no sacrifice; shall we be afraid to begin the fight\nuntil an easy victory is assured; shall we place the integrity and\nsafety of this \"fatherland\" created by the bourgeoisie over the\ninterests of the international socialist revolution?\n\nWe have been attacked for coming to terms with German militarism.\nIs there no difference between a pact entered upon by Socialists and\na bourgeoisie (native or foreign) against the working-class, against\nlabor, and an agreement that is made between a working-class that has\noverthrown its own bourgeoisie and a bourgeoisie of one side against\na bourgeoisie of another nationality for the protection of the\nproletariat? Shall we not exploit the antagonism that exists between\nthe various groups of the bourgeoisie. In reality every European\nunderstands this difference, and the American people, as I will\npresently show, have had a very similar experience in its own history.\nThere are agreements and agreements, fagots et fagots, as the Frenchman\nsays.\n\nWhen the robber-barons of German imperialism threw their armies into\ndefenseless, demobilized Russia in February 1918 when Russia had staked\nits hopes upon the international solidarity of the proletariat before\nthe international revolution had completely ripened, I did not hesitate\nfor a moment to come to certain agreements with French Monarchists. The\nFrench captain Sadoul, who sympathized in words with the Bolsheviki\nwhile in deeds he was the faithful servant of French imperialism,\nbrought the French officer de Lubersac to me. \"I am a Monarchist. My\nonly purpose is the overthrow of Germany,\" de Lubersac declared to me.\n\"That is self understood (cela va sans dire),\" I replied. But this by\nno means prevented me from coming to an understanding with de Lubersac\nconcerning certain services that French experts in explosives were ready\nto render in order to hold up the German advance by the destruction of\nrailroad lines. This is an example of the kind of agreement that every\nclass-conscious worker must be ready to adopt, an agreement in the\ninterest of Socialism. We shook hands with the French Monarchists\nalthough we knew that each one of us would rather have seen the other\nhang. But temporarily our interests were identical. To throw back the\nrapacious advancing German army we made use of the equally greedy\ninterests of their opponents, thereby serving the interests of the\nRussian and the international socialist revolution.\n\nIn this way we furthered the cause of the working-class of Russia and\nof other countries; in this way we strengthened the proletariat and\nweakened the bourgeoisie of the world by making use of the usual and\nabsolutely legal practice of manoevering, shifting and waiting for the\nmoment the rapidly growing proletarian revolution in the more highly\ndeveloped nations had ripened.\n\nLong ago the American people used these tactics to the advantage of its\nrevolution. When America waged its great war of liberation against the\nEnglish oppressors, it likewise entered into negotiations with other\noppressors, with the French and the Spaniards who at that time owned a\nconsiderable portion of what is now the United States. In its desperate\nstruggle for freedom the American people made \"agreements\" with one\ngroup of oppressors against the other for the purpose of weakening all\noppressors and strengthening those who were struggling against tyranny.\nThe American people utilized the antagonism that existed between the\nEnglish and the French, at times even fighting side by side with the\narmies of one group of oppressors, the French and the Spanish against\nthe others, the English. Thus it vanquished first the English and then\nfreed itself (partly by purchase) from the dangerous proximity of the\nFrench and Spanish possessions.\n\nThe great Russian revolutionist Tchernychewski once said: Political\nactivity is not as smooth as the pavement of the Nevski Prospect.\nHe is no revolutionist who would have the revolution of the proletariat\nonly under the \"condition\" that it proceed smoothly and in an orderly\nmanner, that guarantees against defeat be given beforehand, that the\nrevolution go forward along the broad, free, straight path to victory,\nthat there shall not be here and there the heaviest sacrifices, that we\nshall not have to lie in wait in besieged fortresses, shall not have\nto climb up along the narrowest path, the most impassible, winding,\ndangerous mountain roads. He is no revolutionist, he has not yet freed\nhimself from the pedantry of bourgeois intellectualism, he will fall\nback, again and again, into the camp of the counter-revolutionary\nbourgeoisie.\n\nThey are little more than imitators of the bourgeoisie, these gentlemen\nwho delight in holding up to us the \"chaos\" of revolution, the\n\"destruction\" of industry, the unemployment, the lack of food. Can\nthere be anything more hypocritical than such accusations from people\nwho greeted and supported the imperialistic war and made common cause\nwith Kerensky when he continued the war? Is not this imperialistic war\nthe cause of all our misfortune? The revolution that was born by the\nwar must necessarily go on through the terrible difficulties and\nsufferings that war created, through this heritage of destruction and\nreactionary mass murder. To accuse us of \"destruction\" of industries\nand \"terror\" is hypocrisy or clumsy pedantry, shows an incapability of\nunderstanding the most elemental fundamentals of the raging, climatic\nforce of the class struggle, called Revolution.\n\nIn words our accusers \"recognize\" this kind of class struggle, in\ndeeds they revert again and again to the middle class utopia of\n\"class-harmony\" and the mutual \"interdependence\" of classes upon one\nanother. In reality the class struggle in revolutionary times has\nalways inevitably taken on the form of civil war, and civil war is\nunthinkable without the worst kind of destruction, without terror and\nlimitations of form of democracy in the interests of the war. One must\nbe a sickly sentimentalist not to be able to see, to understand and\nappreciate this necessity. Only the Tchechov type of the lifeless\n\"Man in the Box\" can denounce the Revolution for this reason instead of\nthrowing himself into the fight with the whole vehemence and decision\nof his soul at a moment when history demands that the highest problems\nof humanity be solved by struggle and war.\n\nThe best representatives of the American proletariat--those\nrepresentatives who have repeatedly given expression to their full\nsolidarity with us, the Bolsheviki, are the expression of this\nrevolutionary tradition in the life of the American people. This\ntradition originated in the war of liberation against the English in\nthe 18th and the Civil War in the 19th century. Industry and commerce\nin 1870 were in a much worse position than in 1860. But where can you\nfind an American so pedantic, so absolutely idiotic who would deny the\nrevolutionary and progressive significance of the American Civil War\nof 1860-1865?\n\nThe representatives of the bourgeoisie understand very well that the\noverthrow of slavery was well worth the three years of Civil War,\nthe depth of destruction, devastation and terror that were its\naccompaniment. But these same gentlemen and the reform socialists who\nhave allowed themselves to be cowed by the bourgeoisie and tremble at\nthe thought of a revolution, cannot, nay will not, see the necessity\nand righteousness of a civil war in Russia, though it is facing a far\ngreater task, the work of abolishing capitalist wage slavery and\noverthrowing the rule of the bourgeoisie.\n\nThe American working class will not follow the lead of its bourgeoisie.\nIt will go with us against the bourgeoisie. The whole history of the\nAmerican people gives me this confidence, this conviction. I recall\nwith pride the words of one of the best loved leaders of the American\nproletariat, Eugene V. Debs, who said in the \"Appeal to Reason\" at\nthe end of 1915, when it was still a socialist paper, in an article\nentitled \"Why Should I Fight?\" that he would rather be shot than vote\nfor war credits to support the present criminal and reactionary war,\nthat he knows only one war that is sanctified and justified from the\nstandpoint of the proletariat: the war against the capitalist class,\nthe war for the liberation of mankind from wage slavery. I am not\nsurprised that this fearless man was thrown into prison by the American\nbourgeoisie. Let them brutalize true internationalists, the real\nrepresentatives of the revolutionary proletariat. The greater the\nbitterness and brutality they sow, the nearer is the day of the\nvictorious proletarian revolution.\n\nWe are accused of having brought devastation upon Russia. Who is it\nthat makes these accusations? The train-bearers of the bourgeoisie, of\nthat same bourgeoisie that almost completely destroyed the culture of\nEurope, that has dragged the whole continent back to barbarism, that\nhas brought hunger and destruction to the world. This bourgeoisie now\ndemands that we find a different basis for our Revolution than that of\ndestruction, that we shall not build it up upon the ruins of war, with\nhuman beings degraded and brutalized by years of warfare. O, how human,\nhow just is this bourgeoisie!\n\nIts servants charge us with the use of terroristic methods.--Have the\nEnglish forgotten their 1649, the French their 1793? Terror was just\nand justified when it was employed by the bourgeoisie for its own\npurposes against feudal domination. But terror becomes criminal when\nworkingmen and poverty stricken peasants dare to use it against the\nbourgeoisie. Terror was just and justified when it was used to put\none exploiting minority in the place of another. But terror becomes\nhorrible and criminal when it is used to abolish all exploiting\nminorities, when it is employed in the cause of the actual majority,\nin the cause of the proletariat and the semi-proletariat, of the\nworking-class and the poor peasantry.\n\nThe bourgeoisie of international imperialism has succeeded in\nslaughtering 10 millions, in crippling 20 millions in its war. Should\nour war, the war of the oppressed and the exploited, against oppressors\nand exploiters cost a half or a whole million victims in all countries,\nthe bourgeoisie would still maintain that the victims of the world war\ndied a righteous death, that those of the civil war were sacrificed\nfor a criminal cause.\n\nBut the proletariat, even now, in the midst of the horrors of war, is\nlearning the great truth that all revolutions teach, the truth that has\nbeen handed down to us by our best teachers, the founders of modern\nSocialism. From them we have learned that a successful revolution is\ninconceivable unless it breaks the resistance of the exploiting class.\nWhen the workers and the laboring peasants took hold of the powers of\nstate, it became our duty to quell the resistance of the exploiting\nclass. We are proud that we have done it, that we are doing it. We only\nregret that we did not do it, at the beginning, with sufficient\nfirmness and decision.\n\nWe realize that the mad resistance of the bourgeoisie against the\nsocialist revolution in all countries is unavoidable. We know too, that\nwith the development of this revolution, this resistance will grow. But\nthe proletariat will break down this resistance and in the course of\nits struggle against the bourgeoisie the proletariat will finally\nbecome ripe for victory and power.\n\nLet the corrupt bourgeois press trumpet every mistake that is made by\nour Revolution out into the world. We are not afraid of our mistakes.\nThe beginning of the revolution has not sanctified humanity. It is\nnot to be expected that the working classes who have been exploited\nand forcibly held down by the clutches of want, of ignorance and\ndegradation for centuries should conduct its revolution without\nmistakes. The dead body of bourgeois society cannot simply be put into\na coffin and buried. It rots in our midst, poisons the air we breathe,\npollutes our lives, clings to the new, the fresh, the living with a\nthousand threads and tendrils of old customs, of death and decay.\n\nBut for every hundred of our mistakes that are heralded into the world\nby the bourgeoisie and its sycophants, there are ten thousand great\ndeeds of heroism, greater and more heroic because they seem so simple\nand unpretentious, because they take place in the everyday life of the\nfactory districts or in secluded villages, because they are the deeds\nof people who are not in the habit of proclaiming their every success\nto the world, who have no opportunity to do so.\n\nBut even if the contrary were true,--I know, of course, that this is\nnot so--but even if we had committed 10,000 mistakes to every 100 wise\nand righteous deeds, yes, even then our revolution would be great\nand invincible. And it will go down in the history of the world as\nunconquerable. For the first time in the history of the world not the\nminority, not alone the rich and the educated, but the real masses, the\nhuge majority of the working-class itself, are building up a new world,\nare deciding the most difficult questions of social organization from\nout of their own experience.\n\nEvery mistake that is made in this work, in this honestly conscientious\ncooperation of ten million plain workingmen and peasants in the\nre-creation of their entire lives--every such mistake is worth\nthousands and millions of \"faultless\" successes of the exploiting\nminority, in outwitting and taking advantage of the laboring masses.\nFor only through these mistakes can the workers and peasants learn\nto organize their new existence, to get along without the capitalist\nclass. Only thus will they be able to blaze their way, through\nthousands of hindrances to victorious socialism.\n\nMistakes are being made by our peasants who, at one stroke in the night\nfrom October 25 to October 26, (Russian Calendar) 1917, did away with\nall private ownership of land, and are now struggling, from month to\nmonth, under the greatest difficulties, to correct their own mistakes,\ntrying to solve in practice the most difficult problems of organizing a\nnew social state, fighting against profiteers to secure the possession\nof the land for the worker instead of for the speculator, to carry on\nagricultural production under a system of communist farming on a large\nscale.\n\nMistakes are being made by our workmen in their revolutionary\nactivity, who, in a few short months, have placed practically all of\nthe larger factories and workers under state ownership, and are now\nlearning, from day to day, under the greatest difficulties, to conduct\nthe management of entire industries, to reorganize industries already\norganized, to overcome the deadly resistance of laziness and\nmiddle-class reaction and egotism. Stone upon stone they are building\nthe foundation for a new social community, the self-discipline of\nlabor, the new rule of the labor organizations of the working-class\nover their members.\n\nMistakes are being made in their revolutionary activity by the Soviets\nwhich were first created in 1905 by the gigantic upheaval of the\nmasses. The Workmen's and Peasant's Soviets are a new type of state, a\nnew highest form of Democracy, a particular form of the dictatorship\nof the proletariat, a mode of conducting the business of the state\nwithout the bourgeoisie and against the bourgeoisie. For the first time\ndemocracy is placed at the service of the masses, of the workers, and\nceases to be a democracy for the rich, as it is, in the last analysis,\nin all capitalist, yes, in all democratic republics. For the first time\nthe masses of the people, in a nation of hundreds of millions, are\nfulfilling the task of realizing the dictatorship of the proletariat\nand the semi-proletariat, without which socialism is not to be thought\nof.\n\nLet incurable pedants, crammed full of bourgeois democratic and\nparliamentary prejudices, shake their heads gravely over our Soviets,\nlet them deplore the fact that we have no direct elections. These\npeople have forgotten nothing, have learned nothing in the great\nupheaval of 1914-1918. The combination of the dictatorship of the\nproletariat with the new democracy of the proletariat, of civil war\nwith the widest application of the masses to political problems, such\na combination cannot be achieved in a day, cannot be forced into the\nbattered forms of formal parliamentary democratism. In the Soviet\nRepublic there arises before us a new world, the world of Socialism.\nSuch a world cannot be materialized as if by magic, complete in every\ndetail, as Minerva sprang from Jupiter's head.\n\nWhile the old bourgeoisie democratic constitutions, for instance,\nproclaimed formal equality and the right of free assemblage, the\nconstitution of the Soviet Republic repudiates the hypocrisy of a\nformal equality of all human beings. When the bourgeoisie republicans\noverturned feudal thrones, they did not recognize the rules of formal\nequality of monarchists. Since we here are concerned with the task of\noverthrowing the bourgeoisie, only fools or traitors will insist on the\nformal equality of the bourgeoisie. The right of free assemblage is not\nworth an iota to the workman and to the peasant when all better meeting\nplaces are in the hands of the bourgeoisie. Our Soviets have taken over\nall usable buildings in the cities and towns out of the hands of the\nrich and have placed them at the disposal of the workmen and peasants\nfor meeting and organization purposes. That is how our right of\nassemblage looks--for the workers. That is the meaning and content of\nour Soviet, of our socialist constitution.\n\nAnd for this reason we are all firmly convinced that the Soviet\nRepublic, whatever misfortune may still lie in store for it, is\nunconquerable.\n\nIt is unconquerable because every blow that comes from the powers\nof madly raging imperialism, every new attack by the international\nbourgeoisie will bring new, and hitherto unaffected strata of\nworkingmen and peasants into the fight, will educate them at the cost\nof the greatest sacrifice, making them hard as steel, awakening a new\nheroism in the masses.\n\nWe know that it may take a long time before help can come from you,\ncomrades, American Workingmen, for the development of the revolution\nin the different countries proceeds along various paths, with varying\nrapidity (how could it be otherwise!) We know full well that the\noutbreak of the European proletarian revolution may take many weeks to\ncome, quickly as it is ripening in these days. We are counting on the\ninevitability of the international revolution. But that does not mean\nthat we count upon its coming at some definite, nearby date. We have\nexperienced two great revolutions in our own country, that of 1905\nand that of 1917, and we know that revolutions cannot come neither\nat a word of command nor according to prearranged plans. We know that\ncircumstances alone have pushed us, the proletariat of Russia, forward,\nthat we have reached this new stage in the social life of the world not\nbecause of our superiority but because of the peculiarly reactionary\ncharacter of Russia. But until the outbreak of the international\nrevolution, revolutions in individual countries may still meet with\na number of serious setbacks and overthrows.\n\nAnd yet we are certain that we are invincible, for if humanity will\nnot emerge from this imperialistic massacre broken in spirit, it\nwill triumph. Ours was the first country to break the chains of\nimperialistic warfare. We broke them with the greatest sacrifice,\nbut they are broken. We stand outside of imperialistic duties and\nconsiderations, we have raised the banner of the fight for the complete\noverthrow of imperialism for the world.\n\nWe are in a beleaguered fortress, so long as no other international\nsocialist revolution comes to our assistance with its armies. But these\narmies exist, they are stronger than ours, they grow, they strive, they\nbecome more invincible the longer imperialism with its brutalities\ncontinues. Workingmen the world over are breaking with their betrayers,\nwith their Gompers and their Scheidemanns. Inevitably labor is\napproaching communistic Bolshevistic tactics, is preparing for the\nproletarian revolution that alone is capable of preserving culture and\nhumanity from destruction.\n\nWe are invincible, for invincible is the Proletarian Revolution.\n\n\n\n\nThe Class Struggle\n\nDevoted to International Socialism\n\nEDITED BY LOUIS C. FRAINA and LUDWIG LORE\n\n\n    Articles have been contributed by Lenin, Trotzky, Litvinoff,\n    Katayama, Franz Mehring, Friedrich Adler, Karl Liebknecht,\n    Rosa Luxemburg, Santeri Nuorteva, and others.\n\n\n$1.50 per year; 25 cents a copy.\n\nWe have also on hand the following pamphlets, some of which are\nreprints from The Class Struggle:\n\n\n  An Open Letter to American Liberals, by S. Nuorteva      5 cents\n  The Crisis in the German Social-Democracy,\n      by K. Liebknecht, F. Mehring, and R. Luxemburg      35  \"\n  J'Accuse, by Friedrich Adler                            15  \"\n  Revolutionary Socialism, by Louis C. Fraina             60  \"\n\n\nSpecial Rates to Agents and Socialist Locals\n\n\nThe Socialist Publication Society\n\n431 PULASKI ST., BROOKLYN, N. Y.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThe Co Operative Press, 15 Spruce St., New York","title":"A Letter to American Workingmen, from the Socialist Soviet Republic of Russia","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":4453}