W O R K E R S O F A L L C O U N T R I E S , U N I T E! L E N I N COLLECTED WORKS GA A THE RUSSIAN EDITION WAS PRINTED IN ACCORDANCE WITH A DECISION OF THE NINTH CONGRESS OF THE R.C.P.(B.) AND THE SECOND CONGRESS OF SOVIETS OF THE U.S.S.R. ИНCTИTУT МАРÇCИзМА — ЛЕНИНИзМА пpи ЦK KНCC B. n. l d H n H С О Ч И Н E Н И Я И з д a н u е ч е m в е p m o e ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЕ ИЗДАТЕЛЬСТВО ПОЛИТИЧЕСКОЙ ЛИТЕРАТУРЫ M О С К В А V. I. L E N I N cOLLEcTED WORKS VOLUME GA !ugust 1916 –March 1917 PROGRESS PUBLISHERS MOSCOW TRANSLATED FROM THE RUSSIAN BY M. S. L E V I N, THE LATE JOE FINEBERG AND OTHERS EDITED BY M. S. L E V I N From Marx to Mao M L © Digital Reprints 2011 www.marx2mao.com First printing 1964 Second printing 1974 10102–038 l 164–74 014(01)–74 7 CONTENTS Preface ....................... 11 1916 THE NASCENT TREND OF IMPERIALIST ECONOMISM ...... 13 REPLY TO P. KIEVSKY (Y. PYATAKOV) ........... 22 A CARICATURE OF MARXISM AND IMPERIALIST ECONOMISM .. 28 1. The Marxist Attitude Towards War and “Defence of the Fatherland” ................... 29 2. “Our Understanding of the New Era” ........ 36 3. That Is Economic Analysis? ............ 40 4. The Example of Norway .............. 48 5. “Monism and Dualism” .............. 55 6. The Other Political Issues Raised and Distorted by P. Kievsky ................... 63 7. Conclusion. Alexinsky Methods ........... 75 THE MILITARY PROGRAMME OF THE PROLETARIAN REVOLUTION 77 I ........................ 77 II ........................ 80 III ........................ 83 LOST IN A WOOD OF THREE TREES ............. 88 GREETINGS TO THE ITALIAN SOCIALIST PARTY CONGRESS .... 90 THE “DISARMAMENT” SLOGAN ............... 94 I ........................ 94 II ........................ 96 III ........................ 99 IV ........................ 100 IMPERIALISM AND THE SPLIT IN SOCIALISM.......... 105 SPEECH AT THE CONGRESS OF THE SOCIAL-DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF SWITZERLAND, NOVEMBER 4, 1916 ............ 121 8 CONTENTS A SEPARATE PEACE ................... 125 TEN “SOCIALIST” MINISTERS! ............... 134 TASKS OF THE LEFT ZIMMERWALDISTS IN THE SWISS SOCIAL- DEMOCRATIC PARTY ................... 137 I. Attitude Towards the War and Towards the Bourgeois Government in General .............. 137 II. The High Cost of Living and the Intolerable Economic Conditions of the Masses ............. 139 III. Pressing Democratic Reforms and Utilisation of the Political Struggle and Parliamentarism ........ 141 IV. The Immediate Tasks of Party Propaganda, Agitation and Organisation................. 143 V. InternationalFROM Tasks of the SwissMARX Social-Democrats ... 146 THESES ON THE ATTITUDE OF THE SWISS SOCIAL-DEMOCRATIC PARTY TOWARDS THE WARTO................ MAO 149 PRINCIPLES INVOLVED IN THE WAR ISSUE ......... 152 ON THE DEFENCE OF THE FATHERLAND ISSUE ........ 161 THE YOUTH INTERNATIONAL. A Review ........... 163 EFFORTS TO WHITEWASH OPPORTUNISM.......... 167 THE CHKHEIDZE FACTION AND ITS ROLE .......... 171 NOT1917 FOR BOURGEOIS PACIFISM AND SOCIALIST PACIFISM ....... 175 Article (or COMMERCIALChapter) I. The Turn in World Politics ... 177 Article (or Chapter) II. The Pacifism of Kautsky and Turati .................... 181 Article (or DISTRIBUTION Chapter) III. The Pacifism of the French So- cialists and Syndicalists .............. 186 Article (or Chapter) IV. Zimmerwald at the Crossroads . 191 AN OPEN LETTER TO BORIS SOUVARINE........... 195 THESES FOR AN APPEAL TO THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST COMMITTEE AND ALL SOCIALIST PARTIES. Rough Draft .... 205 A LETTER TO V. A. KARPINSKY ............... 217 AN OPEN LETTER TO CHARLES NAINE, MEMBER OF THE INTER- NATIONAL SOCIALIST COMMITTEE IN BERNE ......... 220 TO THE WORKERS WHO SUPPORT THE STRUGGLE AGAINST THE WAR AND AGAINST THE SOCIALISTS WHO HAVE SIDED WITH THEIR GOVERNMENTS .................. 229 CONTENTS 9 LECTURE ON THE 1905 REVOLUTION ............ 236 TWELVE BRIEF THESES ON H. GREULICH’S DEFENCE OF FA- THERLAND DEFENCE .................. 254 DEFENCE OF NEUTRALITY ................ 260 A TURN IN WORLD POLITICS ............... 262 STATISTICS AND SOCIOLOGY ............... 271 Foreword ..................... 271 Historical Background to National Movements ..... 271 Chapter I. A Few Statistics ............ 273 I ...................... 273 II ...................... 276 IMAGINARY OR REAL MARSH? ............. 278 PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO THE RESOLUTION ON THE WAR ISSUE ........................ 282 THE STORY OF ONE SHORT PERIOD IN THE LIFE OF ONE SOCIAL- IST PARTY....................... 283 DRAFT THESES, MARCH 4 (17), 1817 ............. 287 TELEGRAM TO THE BOLSHEVIKS LEAVING FOR RUSSIA..... 292 LETTER TO VOLKSRECHT ................. 293 LETTERS FROM AFAR .................. 295 Letters from Afar. First Letter. The First Stage of the First Revolution .................... 297 Letters from Afar. Second Letter. The New Government and the Proletariat .................. 309 Letters from Afar. Third Letter. Concerning a Proletarian Militia ...................... 320 Letters from Afar. Fourth Letter. How To Achieve Peace . 333 Letters from Afar. Fifth Letter. The Tasks Involved in the Building of the Revolutionary Proletarian State ..... 340 TO OUR COMRADES IN WAR-PRISONER CAMPS ........ 343 THE REVOLUTION IN RUSSIA AND THE TASKS OF THE WORKERS OF ALL COUNTRIES ................... 350 THE TASKS OF THE RUSSIAN SOCIAL-DEMOCRATIC LABOUR PARTY IN THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION. Report of a lecture ... 355 TRICKS OF THE REPUBLICAN CHAUVINISTS.......... 362 10 CONTENTS DECISION OF THE COLLEGIUM ABROAD, CENTRAL COMMITTEE, RUSSIAN SOCIAL-DEMOCRATIC LABOUR PARTY ........ 365 FAREWELL LETTER TO THE SWISS WORKERS ........ 367 Notes ......................... 375 The Life and Work of V. I. Lenin. Outstanding Dates .... 421 ILLUSTRATIONS V. I. Lenin.—1917 .................. 12-13 First page of Lenin’s manuscript, “Letters from Afar. Second Letter. The New Government and the Proletariat”. March 22 (9), 1917 ......................308-09 First page of the leaflet, “To Our Comrades in War-Prisoner Camps”. 1917 .................... 345 11 PREFACE Volume 23 contains works written by V. I. Lenin in Swit- zerland between August 1916 and March 1917. Most of the articles are expressive of the struggle Lenin and the Bolsheviks waged against the imperialist war and the treasonous policy of the avowed social-chauvinist and Centrist leaders of the Second International parties. In this category belong “Imperialism and the Split in Socialism”, “Ten ‘Socialist’ Ministers!”, “Bourgeois Pacifism and So- cialist Pacifism”, “To the Workers Who Support the Struggle Against the War and Against the Socialists Who Have Sided with Their Governments”. The volume includes Lenin’s famous article “The Military Programme of the Proletarian Revolution”, in which, using the data on imperialist capitalism contained in his Imperial- ism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, he elaborates the new theoretical proposition on the impossibility of the simultaneous triumph of socialism in all countries and the possibility of its triumph in one single capitalist country. In this article, Lenin also substantiates the theory of just and unjust wars. Articles defining the tasks of the revolutionary Social- Democrats in the imperialist war of 1914-18 hold an import- ant place in Lenin’s writings of this period. These include “Tasks of the Left Zimmerwaldists in the Swiss Social- Democratic Party”, “Principles Involved in the War Issue”, “On the Defence of the Fatherland Issue” and “Defence of Neutrality”. In “The Nascent Trend of Imperialist Economism”, “Reply to P. Kievsky (Y. Pyatakov)”, “A Caricature of Marxism and Imperialist Economism”, Lenin criticises the attitude 12 CONTENTS of the anti-Party Bukharin-Pyatakov group as being hostile to Marxism, and elaborates the Bolshevik programme on the national question in adaptation to the new conditions of history. The volume also includes the “Lecture on the 1905 Revo- lution”, delivered at a gathering of young workers in Zurich. In it Lenin gives a profound interpretative generalisation of the first Russian revolution. “Draft Theses, March 4 (17), 1917”, “Letters from Afar”, “The Tasks of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party in the Russian Revolution”, “The Revolution in Russia and the Tasks of the Workers of All Countries”, and several other articles, written in the early days of the February Revolution, analyse the alignment of class forces and out- line the prospect for transition from bourgeois-democratic to socialist revolution. Six items are here published for the first time as part of the Collected Works. “Proposed Amendments to the Resolution on the War Issue” and “The Story of One Short Period in the Life of One Socialist Party” discuss the fight waged by the Left forces within the Swiss Social- Democratic Party. Statistics and Sociology brings out the part played by national movements in the international labour movement. “Telegram to the Bolsheviks Leaving for Russia” and “Letter to Volksrecht” explain the Bolshevik tactics in the revolution. “Decision of the Collegium Abroad, the Central Committee of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party” is directed against Menshevik attempts to prevent Lenin and the other Bolsheviks returning to Russia. V. I. LENIN 1917 13 NASCENT TREND OF IMPERIALIST ECONOMISM1 The old Economism2 of 1894-1902 reasoned thus: the Narodniks3 have been refuted; capitalism has triumphed in Russia. Consequently, there can be no question of political revolution. The practical conclusion: either “economic struggle be left to the workers and political struggle to the liberals”—that is