The International Situation

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Speech at the special joint session of the All-Russia CEC, the Moscow city and city district Soviets, and representatives of the factory committees and trade unions, October 3, 1918

The South-Eastern extremity of Europe, the Balkan Peninsula, presents a picture of monstrous economic and national entanglements, antagonisms and conflicts. All the contradictions and clashes of interest that are rending capitalist Europe are to be found on a reduced scale in the small area of the Balkan Peninsula. And since this peninsula is an economically backward part of Europe, and therefore attracts the appetites of the large- scale predators of the great powers, Balkan interests and antagonisms have become complicated, intersected and amplified under pressure from the contradictions of all Europe. The Balkan peninsula has long since become the hornets’ nest of European politics, a seething cauldron out of which from time to time burst, or threaten to burst, tongues of fire of Europe’s volcano and of world-wide slaughter.

In 1912 the Balkan Peninsula was the arena of the Balkan Wars between Turkey on the one hand and, on the other, Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Montenegro, which then were allies. Already at that time the revolutionary socialists forecast that this bloody brawl in the Balkans was merely the threshold, the precursor of the great world war.

In 1914 that great war began. It emerged from that region, from that same South-eastern corner of Europe, from the Balkan peninsula. A conflict between Austria-Hungary and Serbia was the starting-point for the subsequent course of events, and we are now seeing that a new turn m this European and world wide slaughter, and, along with it, the beginning of a new turn in world history, finds its starting point again in the Balkan peninsula, where, I repeat, all the accursed features of the capitalist world are concentrated.

At the very beginning of the war we saw Serbia at the centre of events. The enormous superiority of Germany and Austria-Hungary, which seemed, in their alliance, to be invincible, brought about, for a start, the crushing defeat of Serbia. It seemed that Bulgaria, the hireling of the Central Empires, would now be the dominant country in the Balkan Peninsula. But we now perceive that the defection of Bulgaria, while not, of course, the cause, is nevertheless the obvious expression of a sharp turn in the fortunes of the imperialist slaughter. In the first period of the war Germany was dominant, her domination increased steadily, accustoming the whole world to believe in the unshakability of Germany’s military and imperialistic domination. Her superiority was due to the superiority of her capitalist technique: by turning out incomparable engines of mass extermination, this gave Germany’s machine of militarism equality, and more than equality, with her enemies, despite their numbers and their wealth.

At the other pole, in the opposite camp, France alone possessed a centralized army with warlike traditions. Britain was obliged to resort to military improvisation, that is, to create an army from scratch. This was why the whole of the first period of the war was Germany’s. Her war industry, the more caste-like organization of the German nobility, the greater degree of discipline and of education possessed by the German people, all this, in combination, constituted a war machine before which the united forces of France, Italy, Russia and the other, smaller Allies, fell back. Later, after long delay, the United States of America entered the war – without a big army, but with powerful technique.

By that time the huge machine of German imperialism was aleady getting worn out, and this was especially true of the labor-force and the factories making the means of extermination. At the same time, the military might of Britain and America was living and developing, because they had formed a market into which their human material was poured, and then the United States turned upon Germany its military might, its machines for extermination, and this it did not because it was drawn into the war movement by the workers and peasants. No, during the first three years of the war America held aloof, the American Shylock supplied Europe with the instruments and means of extermination, and only when Germany’s unrestricted submarine warfare threatened to cut off the American producers’ access to the markets of the Entente countries did the American Shylock demand that a domestic market be created for guns, shells and rifles, which had piled up on the shores of America, since they could not be exported to Europe. This was where the final impulse came from, which, developed by American diplomacy, hurled America on to the road of a new adventure, this was the basis on which America played its tremendous role in the development of the European war. To be sure, there were in Germany obtuse Junkers who thoughtlessly welcomed the entry of the United States into the war. We shall with one blow put an end to all our enemies, that is, with our competitors throughout the world, they said; but they miscalculated. The enormously powerful American machine also possessed colossal reserves, and this was under stood only by those who appreciated the nature of the events which had taken place and who retained a clear and sober political outlook, and evaluated events from the standpoint of historical materialism. Now, when we Marxists review the road that has been traversed and examine the programme that was developed by the imperialists, their lackeys the democrats, and the lackeys of their lackeys, the Scheidemannites and Renaudelites, we see that these four years have been strewn not only with the corpses of workers killed in this struggle but also with the corpses of a variety of programmes, plans and theories.

Only one programme has survived the world-wide crossfire – the programme of those who did not lose control of their five senses. We can say that we alone, the materialists, saw the nature of events and forecast their outcome. History moves, maybe, contrary to our desire, but it moves along the line traced by us. And although many victims have been sacrificed along that road, its end will be that which we foresaw: the downfall of all the gods of imperialism and capitalism. It is as though history had decided to teach mankind one last and graphic lesson. The working people were, apparently, too sluggish, immobile and irresolute. Of course we should not have had this war if the world’s working class had proved in 1914 to be sufficiently resolute to come out against the imperialists of all countries. But that did not happen: the working class needed another cruel lesson from history. And now history drew into the arena the mightiest, most highly organized of countries and allowed it to rise to an unprecedented height. Germany dictated her will to the whole world through the muzzles of her 42-centimetre guns. She seemed to have enslaved all Europe for an indefinite period. She seized an immense area of France. With her innumerable submarines she undermined Britain’s domination of the seas. It seemed that Germany’s ascendancy would last for whole generations, if not forever. History, which had granted unparalleled power to the capitalism of Germany, was saying, as it were, to the workers of Germany: you are slaves, you do not dare to lift your heads, to free your necks from the yoke of capitalism. Behold this capital, armed with the pro ducts of your labor: this capital which rules over the whole world will tomorrow rule over all the rest of the planets, and there will be no end to its power. And then this same history, which had raised German imperialism to such a dizzying height and hypnotised the consciousness of the masses, hurled it down from that height, with catastrophic rapidity, into a gulf of humiliation and helplessness, as though saying: you see how it has been smashed – now it is up to you to wipe out every vestige of it from all Europe, from the whole world. Thus speaks history.

We lived through the frightful period of the unrestricted domination of German imperialism. I have had occasion to mention to the CEC one little episode connected with the fact that a representative of omnipotent Germany spoke of Russia with an ironical, malicious intonation when he called her ‘mighty’. With that phrase, ‘mighty Russia’, he mentally, and transparently, was saying this: ’Here you are, nearly 200 million Russians, who once considered yourselves a mighty power, but now you are under our heel, and we shall dictate our will to you.

However, in spite of that, none of us is disposed in the slightest degree to gloat because Germany has suffered a colossal catastrophe. We shall be filled with joy when this catastrophe becomes the lot of militarism and capitalism as a whole, and when the sentence of history is executed not by Anglo-French and American guns but by die guns of the revolutionary proletariat risen in revolt. We know that present, for the time being, what is happening is a shift of power from one camp to the other and, as Vladimir Ilyich says in his letter [For Lenin’s letter, see Collected Works, Vol.28, pp.101-104.], the catastrophic weakening of Germany can and must, in the next few days and weeks, perhaps, at worst, in the next few months, lead to a growth in the power, insolence and predatoriness of Anglo-French and Japano-American imperialism. The one is just as hostile to us as the other and today, even with the radical change in the international situation, we are as far from an alliance with victorious Anglo-French imperialism as we were yesterday from an alliance with German imperialism. We remain independent on both flanks, as an independent force, as a unit of the advancing proletarian world revolution. We say: let not the Anglo-French and Japano-American rulers of destiny try to extent the scope of their victory, as Von Ku himann put it at Brest-Litovsk. History, in the person of Hoffmann, had not yet given its final verdict in the sense that the fate of peoples is determined solely by treaties.

While we have a serious attitude to treaties and to the obligations that we undertake, we must at the same time declare that the fates of peoples such as Germany, and such also as the Ukraine, Poland, the Baltic countries and Finland, cannot depend upon a document signed at a particular moment of political development.

New forces are arising both within Germany and beyoyd her borders, and we do not doubt that the moment is near when the treaty of Brest-Litovsk will be reviewed by those forces which are striving for power. The bearer of this force in Germany is the working class. The fact that, in capitulating, absolutism in Germany is turning towards popular parliamentarism means that both those smart fellow who were at the head of affairs and also the ones who served them have suffered shipwreck. If in our country, just over a year and a half ago, in February 1917, the Cadets came to power, along with the SRs and Mensheviks, and if the latter, quite new-baked and only just arrived from the barricades, needed no more than eight months to use up and wear threadbare their strength and their reputation, and to vacate their position, the German Tseretelis will need for this purpose not eight months but only eight weeks. That is why, when people ask our Soviet power – and they have grounds here for asking this – how it estimates the prospects that are opening up before Germany, and what it thinks concerning the fate of the Brest treaty, the Soviet power replies that the German Government itself has declared that it is incapable, in the present situation, both international and domestic, of coping with the state of affairs.

What government will take over from it: a government of the German clerical Centre, of the Conservatives, of the National Liberals, or of the compromisers? But the Right wing has already ruled the destiny of Germany, through her monarchs and bureaucrats, and through her Junkers and the Left wing of the new, incoming government has already wiped away all the dirty marks left by the Right wing. What will this German coalition bring about that’s new? It will open the eyes of the masses. Consequently, in our international policy we cannot reckon seriously with a coalition government in Germany as a force capable of determining the fate of that country for a long period of time.

What force remains? Where Germany is concerned, the idea of a united front of all democrats is even more pitiful, senseless and paltry than in the case of Russia – let me call it a sickly utopia. What is the democratic movement in Germany? Such a movement barely exists there. There were some miserable remnants of a petty bourgeoisie, with miserable remnants of their political influence. The merciless imperialist war finally ruined and killed off the petty bourgeoisie, leaving not one stone upon another of their former importance. There are now only two camps: one, the conscious, solid camp of the imperialists, the other, the camp of the proletariat, on whom history has carried out a colossal, cruel experiment, the pro letariat who have undergone terrible trials and are now faced, point-blank, with the following task: either to take charge of the destiny of their country, taking power into their own hands, or to suffer ruin along with their country and their culture as a whole. This is what history has said to the German working class. And while we are now profoundly convinced that history is working for us and with us, and therefore also with the German working class, while we are not going to hamper its salutary work, we nevertheless do not conceal from anyone, either from ourselves or from the German working class, that we await and welcome its mounting advance towards power. Moreover, we recognise, with deep confidence, that the only force in Germany which can save her and make possible her further economic and cultural development is the German working class.

The taking of power by that class would bring tremendous, radical changes in the whole world situation. Germany would be transformed into a powerful centre of attraction for the sympathies of the people, of the oppressed masses of the whole world, and above all, of France. And without French cadres, without French territory as their theatre of operations, the British and American armies will not be able to crush and dismember Germany. The French working class, which has suffered more than any other, waits in its revolutionary heart only for the first signal from Germany to rise against its masters, Clemenceau and the rest. One does not have to be a prophet and fantasist to say that the day after it has become clear that the German working class has stretched out its hand to take power, proletarian barricades will be erected in the streets of Paris. History works with us and for us, and therefore also for the German, for the French and for the international working class.

When we look back, we have to say, with complete satisfaction, that it was not in vain that we kept the Soviet power in being until this moment, through very great difficulties, which many considered a humiliation. I regard it as my duty to declare, in this authoritative assembly, that at the time when many of us, myself included, doubted whether it was necessary or permissible for us to sign the peace of Brest-Litovsk, whether perhaps doing this would not have a hampering effect on the development of the world proletarian revolution, it was Comrade Lenin alone, in opposition to many of us, who with persistence and incomparable perspicacity maintained that we must undergo this experience in order to be able to carry on, to hold out, until the coming of the world proletarian revolution. And now, against the background of recent events, we who opposed him are obliged to recognise that it was not we who were right. [Prolonged applause] Whatever the immediate situation of the fortunes of Europe and the world may be, our own situation is now incomparably better. We are getting stronger and stronger, and our enemies are bleeding from every wound, they are weak, and those who now seem to be all-powerful will suffer, today or tomorrow, the same downfall as Germany’s but with even greater rapidity, for if history repeats itself, it always does so at a faster pace. And the collapse of France, America and Japan, when it comes, will be more catastrophic than that of Austria and Germany.

In this favourably developing situation we shall not, of course, engage in such reckless adventuristic steps as declaring war on Germany in alliance with Britain and France, so as thereby to help the extreme representatives of German militarism, who are now preparing to bring about a bloodbath and, like the stable fly in autumn, to inflict a painful sting upon the German people. No, we are now far from political adventures, farther than ever, for history is also more than ever on our side.

Tomorrow, German militarism will be still weaker, and we shall be stronger, so there is no point in hurrying, artificially forcing the pace of historical development, and still less should we do this hand in hand with Britain, whose desire is to dismember and destroy Germany.

When we concluded the peace of Brest-Litovsk we were reproached with surrendering the Ukraine. That really was one of the gravest moments, when we had to sign a treaty giving up the Ukraine to rule by Germany and Austria-Hungary. News arrived today, from a well-informed comrade, about the state of feeling in the Ukraine. I will quote some of the most striking passages: ‘A revolutionary situation is increasingly taking shape here. Even before the latest events in Bulgaria and Germany, as soon as it became known that Germany was to withdraw her forces from the Ukraine, confidence that Soviet power would triumph here, and very soon, became universal.’

Furthermore, there is information that prominent representatives of the late Rada are saying that, of course, no government other than the Soviet power is to be expected in the Ukraine. And then comes news of a whole series of manifestations of the revolutionary movement in the Ukraine.

But, in addition to this, a comrade who is extremely well informed and with good contacts writes about what is happening in Bulgaria. He tells us that underground Soviets have long been in existence there, and that two Socialist deputies, Lukansky and Dmitriev, who have now been sentenced to five or six years’ imprisonment, were nominated at the front. They belonged to the party which corresponds to the Communists in Russia. That is the news in brief regarding the situation in the Ukraine and Bulgaria.

In our time; we were told, where the Ukraine was concerned, that we had lost it. Yes, we did lose it, temporarily, but only so as to find it again, and this time stronger than before. The Ukrainian worker and peasant have been through a harsh school, and if they now adhere to the Soviets they will adhere so strongly that no power will be able to detach them. In the panic of Brest Soviet Russia was dismembered. But in the course of events she has developed a very great revolutionary power of attraction. We do not doubt that this attraction will accomplish a great task. When the German working class stretches out its hand to take power, and when it comes to power, it too will develop a very powerful attractive force, and the criminal hand of Anglo-French imperialism will be smitten with paralysis and be unable to resist.

If the proletariat of Germany does try to take power, the fundamental duty of Soviet Russia will be to acknowledge no national frontiers in the revolutionary struggle. The revolutionary struggle of the German people will be our struggle too. It is clear to everyone that Soviet Russia feels that it is only the vanguard of the German and European proletarian revolution. However, the possibility is not excluded that for a certain period, for some months, a revolutionary Germany will have to beat off the gangs of imperialism. And, in anticipation of this, we can say with confidence that the German proletariat, armed with all its technique, on the one hand, and our Russia, disorganized but very rich in natural wealth and with 200 million inhabitants, on the other, will form a mighty bloc on which all the waves of imperialism will break in vain. We can have no allies in the imperialist camp. The revolutionary camp of the proletarians going forward into open struggle against imperialism – there are our allies. Liebknecht does not need to make a treaty with us: even without that we shall help him in his struggle, with all our power and resources. We shall give everything for the common proletarian world struggle. In his open letter Comrade Lenin said clearly and distinctly that we have striven to create a million-strong army to defend the Soviet Republic. That is a narrow programme. History says to us: your task is not merely to protect the breathing-space, your task has been widened. A crisis is maturing already in Germany and throughout Central Europe. Perhaps tomorrow the working class of Germany will appeal to us for help and we shall create not a million-strong army but an army of two millions, since our task will have doubled or trebled. And we are ready to strain our forces doubly and trebly. These forces are increasing day by day. The German proletariat is suffering hunger worse than ours. Let it stretch out its hand for power, let it take power, and, on that basis, let it help us to put our railways in order, and we shall fetch the wealth of grain from Samara province and from the Don, where I have seen inexhaustible stocks of grain, and share it fraternally with the German working class, for the triumph of our common struggle. That is the will of the working class of Russia and of the poor peasantry, for here are assembled their authoritative and influential representatives – all that is best in the Russian Republic. We have here the Central Executive Committee, the Moscow Soviet, representatives of the trade unions and of the factory committees. All this constitutes the cream, and the will, of Russia. We shall be wholly with the working class of Germany in its struggle. As with the Communards, our Communist outlook extends to the working class of Germany as well. Everything that is ours is theirs. Our forces and our grain are their forces and their grain, for the common proletarian revolution.

We shall, of course, form an alliance tomorrow with the new Germany, the revolutionary Germany of labor. And that is why this alliance will not be directed in any way against the proletariat and working people of France, Britain, America or Japan. You understand this and, what is still more important, to our good fortune it is very well understood by all the revolutionary workers of the Entente countries. At the moment, and this moment is near, when a fundamental frontier, a fundamental trench, will be drawn across Europe, between the forces of the proletarian revolution and those of militarism, the French workers, the British workers, the flower of the American proletariat and the Japanese workers will be on the same side where we shall form the alliance of Soviet Russia and proletarian Germany. And this is the only way, the only means of putting an end to this accursed slaughter.

All our darkest prophecies, our most terrible denunciations have not merely been proved right, they have been surpassed by reality. The imperialists said: ’We proclaim that we are going to liberate the weak, poor, oppressed and small nationalities.’ Just look: all the small states and nations lie torn and crushed.

Bulgaria grabbed what she could from Serbia and Greece. Turkey grabbed what she could from us in Caucasia. Bulgaria, which yesterday was turned into a German province, has now been turned into a British colony. Turkey too! I have received a report only today that Turkey is opening her Straits to the British fleet. This means that Constantinople will become a city where a British governor will have his seat. This means that the domination of Britain is to be established over those who yesterday were Germany’s allies. Yesterday’s friend of Germany is today transformed into a miserable, powerless, crucified vassal of Britain. For all the weak, all the oppressed nations and peoples, the little states, and above all, for the worker masses of those countries and of the powerful nations alike, there is no way out of this slaughter but the shifting of armed force from one camp to the other. We forecast that first when we published the secret treaties, when we exposed predatory militarism and imperialism. And we can now say to the workers of Germany that if, a year ago, they had had the strength to get rid of their ruling classes and make peace on the basis proclaimed by the working class, then the workers of France, Britain and Japan would be the richer and happier for it. We should have taken a colossal step forward on the road of progress and humanity. During that year, fresh millions of lives and milliards of riches were consumed in the flames. But the lesson has not been in vain. We are still where we were, and others have drawn closer to us. Our enemy has become weaker, and we say, therefore: the banner of Soviet power has been lifted higher, we must fight with all our resolution, we have become stronger, we have more friends, we are advancing, and the workers of Germany, Britain, France and all countries are coming to meet us. Our banner is raised over Europe – the banner of the international republic of labor.