With the outbreak of world war in August 1914, the opportunist and retormist evolution of the majority of social democratic parties gave way to the collapse of internationalism in the Second International.
Lenin in September cut through the waffle and spelled out the harsh reality of the war:
"The struggle for markets and for plundering foreign lands; the eagerness to head off the revolutionary movement of the proletariat and to cruch democracy within each country; the urge to deceive, divide and crush the proletarians of all countries, to incite the wage slaves of one nation against the wage slaves of another nation for the profits of the bourgeoisie - that is the real content and meaning of the war."
Under these conditions, capitalist property relations and national boundaries served only to fetter rather than advance the development of the goduve forces, and warring im penakss ughto redivide the markets PAGE II and a half million were killed and another three million taken prisoner or wounded. Most of those conscripted for the army were peasants, and the wartime crisis coincided with a new twistin the problem of the agrarian revolution in Russia.
A wave of peasant rebellion took shape alongside the emergence of the numerically small but economically powerful working class. While Russian capitalists sought to exploit the war as a chance to make fabulous profits, the workers quickly rejected the patriotic propaganda and had begun to fight back by the summer o: 1975. cent pay increase.
But it was women textile workers, defying Bolshevik advice and walking out on strike on International Women's Day (23 February) who triggered the events of the February Revolution.
Joined by the vast bread queues who had been told there would be no bread that day, they marched on the Petrograd municipal duma (assembly), demanding food. Next day 240,000 workers were on strike, with transport halted and school students on the streets.
The women workers - in their actions far ahead of most revolutionary groups - also played a key role in winning over Petrograd. It was published in Izvestiya and distributed far and wide. The workers were the next to challenge the line of the provisional refusing to return to work without pay increases and an eight hour day. They stayed on strike another twenty days after the soviet had urged them to return to work, forcing the soviet to negotiate with the employers on their behalf, and winning their demands. The Bolshevik forces, however, were seriously disorientated. Some veered towards a 'defencist position of support for the war effort; some merely tail-ended events; others appeared on the ultra-left calling for an immediate new uprising.
Matters worsened with the return from exile of Stalin and Kamenev, who immediately took over control of Pravda. The paper promptly dropped the line of opposition to the war. Instead it appealed for the (bourgeois) provisional government to 'make an attempt to induce the warring countries to open immediate negotiations, promising that 'until then, every man remains at his fighting post.
Lenin's telegram in response to this on March 6 insisted on an opposite line:
Scarcely a single leading Bolshevik supported Lenin on any of these questions, though his views effectively echoed the earlier analysis by Trotsky arguing his conception of 'permanent revolution' after 1905. Only the day before Lenin announced these views, an all-Russian "Our tactic: absolute lack of confidence; no support to the new suspect Cerensky especially; im mediate elections to the Petrograd duma; no rapprochement with other parties."
This was ignored. The Bolshevik line became under Stalin less and less distinguishable from the Menshevik line: in many areas the two parties began acting as one.
When Lenin returned on April 3, his first words were of the imminence of socialist revolution. He went on to fight for this line on the central committee, spelling out his views in the pamphlet, the April Theses.
The democratic gains of February could only be defended and completed by socialist revolution, with the working class taking the lead and resolving the question of dual power by establishing its own dictatorship, he argued.
End the war an end to the war could only be satisfied if the capitalists and their state were toppled.
Scarcely a single leading Bolshevik supported Lenin on any of these questions, though his views effectively echoed the earlier analysis by Trotsky arguing his conception of 'permanent revolution' after Only the day before Lenin announced these views, an all-Russian Bolshevik congress, led by Stalin and Kamenev, had endorsed a quite opposite line!
The party had to be won over at the eleventh hour. But this was no historical exception, as Trotsky later explained:
"The fundamental instrument of proletarian revolution is the party. On the basis of our experience-even taking only one year, from February 1917 to February 1918 - and on the basis of the supplementary experience in Finland, Hungary, Italy, Bulgaria and Germany, we can posit as almost an unalterable law that'a party crisis is inevitable in the transition from the preparatory revolutionary activity to the immediate struggle for power." (Lessons of October)
Lenin was able however to rely on support from rank and file Bolshevik workers and soldiers in his campaign to reverse the leadership's policy. By the time of the next all-Russian conference on April 24, the majority of 150 delegates representing 79,000 members had swung behind most of his positions.
The successful resolution opposed 1n cn with the Mensheviks and denounced the provisional government as 'a government of landowners and capitalists'. It called for working class power in the belligerent countries as the way to end the war, and the Bolsheviks began to raise the slogan of 'all power to the soviets'.
Lenin however lost on his demand for a break from the pacifist Zimmerwald grouping of social democrats, and his call for the party to change its name to the Communist Party.
Spontaneous demonstrations in Petrograd in April exposed again the precarious balance of The rising clamour for Lenin addresses rally in Dzerzhinsky Square dual power between the soviet and the state. Military commander General Kornilov wanted to mobilise armoured vehicles against the workers: but the soviet asserted its authority under General Order No. 1 to stop this.
The provisional government was destabilised - and restructured with 'socialist' ministers including top Menshevik Tseretelli, alongside the capitalists. Against this, the Bolsheviks steadily gained ground throughout May and June, as unionisation, factory committees and strike action continued to grow.
Winning support At the first all-Russian congress of soviets, delegates represented over 20 million workers and soldiers. Less than 20 percent of delegates were Bolsheviks, though the party was rapidly winning support.
The reactionary line of the compromisers was exposed to ridicule on Jüne 24, when the Bolsheviks intervened in a demonstration called by the congress of soviets - and the vast majority of banners carried the bold Bolshevik demands 'Down with the ten soviets!' But the forces of counter-revolution were also attempting to mobilise. Militant factories were closed down; union members were locked out; divisions at the front were disbanded for disobedience: and top army officers. protected bv the capitalist Kadets and funded by bankers and allied embassies, began to prepare for a crackdown.
On July 2, anti-war pulled out of the provisional government, claiming that the 'socialist' minisix 1,000 Petrograd Soviet meets 'Down with the and 'All power to the four Kadet ministers support.
back. sters would not act against the workers.
The workers and soldiers for their part were pushing forward - but at an uneven pace. Theend of June and beginning of July saw the Bolsheviks struggling in vain to restrain the spontaneous militancy of the Petrograd masses, who had developed far faster than workers in the provinces or troops at the front.
Bolshevik leaders feared that a premature confrontation could give the government an excuse for a crackdown in which Petrograd could be isolated.
However when the workers of the Putilov works and soldiers of the machine gun regiment voted solidly for an armed demonstration on July 3, the Bolsheviks had no choice but to lend The march went to the provisional government and the executive of the soviet, both of which sat at the sheviks.....
Tauride palace. Their demands were for the removal of the ten capitalist ministers, all power to the soviets, a halt to the offensive, confiscation of bourgeois newspapers and printing plants, nationalisation of the land and state control of production. While the Mensheviks and SRs prevaricated, hoping that loyal troops would return from the front top rescue them from the workers, the Kronstadt soldiers and sailors just down the river decided to march to Petrograd the next day. Demonstration 'Loyal' army units called in by the frightened ministers turned out to be already marching to Petrograd - to join the demonstration! When Chernov, the SR minister of agriculture, came out to the demonstrator fags and declared riddance to the Kadets who had left the government, he was greeted with anger. Take the power ..) when they give it to you!' yelled one angry worker.
According to the French ambassador, the government actually resigned that afternoon, only to be forestalled by the soviet executive, who refused to accept their resignation and gave them a vote of confidence.
The state, meanwhile, still had reserves of repressive strength, and the compromisers were still determined to prevent revolution. The demonstration came to an end, on Bolshevik advice: but early next morning the first reliable troops, hand-picked from the mostreactionary guards battalions, arrived in Petrograd and began arresting workers - to the delight of the compromisers.
The troops had been fed on a diet of lies alleging that Lenin was a German spy. This was to prove the start of a massive witch- hunt against the Bolsheviks as the counter-revolution hit Lenin was forced into hiding. On July 10, Trotsky was arrested. Bolshevik newspapers were suppressed. The Mensheviks and SRs peddled the 'German spy line relentlessly to further their own coalition with capitalist ministers and to back the war effort.
Since these same parties were still leading the soviets, enin on July 10 dropped the slogan of 'all power to the soviets', and re-emphasised the leading role of the working class and of the Bolshevik party in completing the revolutionary struggle:
"The slogan 'all power to the soviets!' was a slogan for peaceful development of the revolution which was possible in April, May, June and up to July 5-9, i.e. up to the time when actual power passed into the hands of the military "The slogan is no longer correct, for it does not take into account that power has changed hands and that the revolution has in fact been completely betrayed by the SRs and the MenIt was the attempts of the extreme right of the officer corps under General Kornilov to carry through a military coup against the soviets and against Kerensky's provisional | which finally enabled the Bolsheviks to break out of their isolation.
Kerensky's fellow ministers resigned PAGE III
40,000 workers mobilised with rifles to combat Kornilov's threats en bloc on August 26, leaving him confronted with Kornilov, who demanded that the provisional government should surrender all power to him as commander-inchief.
The workers, however, moved swiftly to prepare their own armed self-defence. This was the period of rapid growth of the militia forces of the Red Guards, a rival to the armed forces of the capitalist state - trained by militant soldiers. The Red Guards announced that they could mobilise 40,000 workers with rifles to combat Kornilov's threats.
Meanwhile rail and telegraph workers developed their own style of workers' control, brilliantly sabotaging Kornilov's troop movements and communications. Workers fraternised with troops from even Kornilov's most* feared divisions - who then began arresting their officers and holding mass meetings.
The episode ended when Kerensky 'arrested Kornilov to save him from a revolutionary firing squad. These events had brought the Bolsheviks back to the forefront; they had encouraged new layers of workers to arm and organise themselves; and they had totally fiscredited the compromising leaders of the provisional government, who were seen as having opened the door to Kornilov.
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A revolutionary upsurge was developing throughout the countryside; the once united 'allies' were now wavering between a war to the victorious finish and a separate peace aimed against Russia. Even the petty bourgeoisie, under pressure from the masses, had begun to move politically.
The Mensheviks and SRs convened a democratic conference, which in turn voted to set up a new talking-shop, known as the pre-parliament.
Boycott
Lenin argued for a boycott of the pre-parliament, winning the support of Trotsky, who had now been released from jail and re-elected president of the Petrograd soviet - this time as a Bolshevik.
Trotsky led the Bolshevik faction out of the pre-parliament amid cries from the Mensheviks about 'German gold'.
But the Kadet Miliukov commented:
"They [the Bolsheviks) acted like Anniversary special stepped in and took control t production The enormous growth of support for the Bolsheviks, and their success in forcing the executive committee to convene the congress of soviets for October 20 (later postponed to October 25) made Lenin even more impatient to begin the insurrection. Events leapt forward sued an order for the reorThe response was immeworkers insisted that the promisers themselTREASON IN HIGH PLACES.
Ves N OF LIES AND the advancing GerTo their surprise, the Bolsheviks accepted the proposal: they had often discussed setting up an armed organisation of the soviet to lead the insurrection - now the Mensheviks themselves had proposed to set up a body that could do just that!
The central committee met on October 10: it set October 15 as the target date for the insurrection, but this proved impossible. On October 16, at Lenin's insistence, the central committee met again.
Lenin pressed a new resolution callig 'all organisations and all workers and soldiers to an all-sided and most vigorous preparation of armed insurrection. It was carried by twenty votes to the two of Kamenev and Zinoviev, with three abstentions.
Kamenev and Zinoviev broke ranks and denounced the Bolshevik plans in he non-party press Though Lenin branded them as strike-breakers of the revolution and demanded their expulsion, the central committee would not agree. ces. It was a huge success, with every large hall filled with workers demanding 'Down with Kerensky!', 'Down with the war!', 'All power to the soviets!' It was the provisional government itself which gave the pretext for launching the insurrection, when it dispatched troops to close down the Bolsheviks' printing press and shut oft the phone to the Smolny Institute which was headquarters to the soviet as well as the BolThe military revolutionary committee responded by fortifying Smolny with machine gunners and armoured vehicles. The insurrectionary forces were now ready for action.
In the early hours of October 25, Red Guard detachments occupied all of the strategic points of the capital, with telephone exchange fell, and communications to the Winter Palace, where the provisional government was still in permanent session, were cut off.
When the second congress of the allsoviet of workers' peasants' deputies eventually opened at 10.40am everything had gone according to plan, except that the Winter Palace still had not fallen - and the Mensheviks and SRs railed against the BolHowever the elections for the presiding council saw the Bolsheviks win fourteen seats to the Mensheviks' three and the Internationalists only one. Seeing that they were a minority, the compromisers denounced the Bolsheviks and marched angrily out of the soviet.
John Reed, the American journalist sympathetic to the Bolsheviks who chronicled the revolution in Ten Days that Shook the World, described Trotsky that day:
"... standing up with a pale, cruel face, letting out his rich voice in cool contempt. All these so-called socialist compromisers, these frightened Mensheviks, social revolutionaries, Bund -go! They are just so much refuse which will be swept away into the garbage heap of history."
Arrested
By October 26 the Winter Palace had surrendered and the ministers of the provisional government were placed Kerensky had fled in or order to bring 'loyal' troops to rescue the compromisers.
At 8.40 in the evening of October 26, the praesidium of the congress of soviets, headed by Lenin, came in to the congress, greeted by thunderous applause. When the cheering had died