to all the peoples -- when confronted with such Soviets the alliance of the British, French and Russian bourgeoisie, the Kornilovs, Buchanans,[25] Ryabushinskys, Milyukovs, Plekhanovs, and Potresovs is quite impotent and is not to be feared.
   
The bourgeoisie's resistance to the transfer of the land to the peasants without compensation, to similar reforms in other realms of life, to a just peace and a break with imperialism, is, of course, inevitable. But for such resistance to reach the stage of civil war, masses of some kind are necessary, masses capable of fighting and vanquishing the Soviets. The bourgeoisie does not have these masses, and has nowhere to get them. The sooner and the more resolutely the Soviets take all power, the sooner both Savage Divisions and Cossacks will split into an insignificant minority of politically-conscious Kornilov supporters and a huge majority of those in favour of a democratic and socialist (for it is with socialism that we shall then be dealing) alliance of workers and peasants.
   
When power passes to the Soviets, the resistance of the bourgeoisie will result in scores and hundreds of workers and peasants "keeping track of", supervising, controlling, and registering every single capitalist, for the interests of the workers and peasants will demand struggle against
page 38
the capitalists' deception of the people. The forms and methods of this accountancy and control have been developed and simplified by capitalism itself, by such capitalist creations as banks, big factories, trusts, railways, the post office, consumers' societies, and trade unions. If the Soviets punish those capitalists who evade the most detailed accounting or who deceive the people, punish them by confiscating all their property and arresting them for a short time, that will be sufficient to break all the resistance of the bourgeoisie by bloodless means. For it is through the banks, once they are nationalised, through the unions of employees, through the post office, the consumers' societies, and the trade unions, that control and the accounting will become universal, all-powerful, and irresistible.
   
And Russia's Soviets, the alliance of her workers and poor peasants, are not alone in the steps they take towards socialism. If we were alone, we should not be able to accomplish this task peacefully, for it is essentially an international task. But we have enormous reserves, the armies of the most advanced workers in other countries, where Russia's break with imperialism and the imperialist war will inevitably accelerate the workers' socialist revolution that is maturing.
* *
*
   
Some speak about "rivers of blood" in a civil war. This is mentioned in the resolution of the Kornilovite Cadets quoted above. This phrase is repeated in a thousand ways by all the bourgeois and opportunists. Since the Kornilov revolt all the class-conscious workers laugh, will continue to laugh and cannot help laughing at it.
   
However, the question of "rivers of blood" in the present time of war can and must be studied by an approximate computation of forces, consequences, and results; it must be taken seriously and not as an empty stock phrase, not as simply the hypocrisy of the Cadets, who have done everything in their power to enable Kornilov to drown Russia in "rivers of blood", and to restore the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, the power of the landowners, and the monarchy.
   
"Rivers of blood," they say. Let us analyse this aspect of the question as well.
page 39
   
Let us assume that the vacillations of the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries continue; that these parties do not hand over power to the Soviets; that they do not overthrow Kerensky; that they restore the old rotten compromise with the bourgeoisie in a somewhat different form (say, "non-partisan" Kornilovites instead of Cadets); that they do not replace the apparatus of state power by the Soviet apparatus, do not offer peace, do not break with imperialism, and do not confiscate the landed estates. Let us assume that this is the outcome of the present wavering of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, of this present "September 12".
   
The experience of our own revolution tells us most clearly that the consequence of this would be a still further weakening of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, their further separation from the masses, an incredible growth of indignation and bitterness among the masses, a tremendous growth of sympathy with the revolutionary proletariat, with the Bolsheviks.
   
Under such conditions, the proletariat of the capital will be still closer to a Commune, to a workers' uprising, to the conquest of power, to a civil war in its highest and most decisive form, than it is at present; after the experience of April 20-21 and July 3-4 such a result must be recognised as historically inevitable.
   
"Rivers of blood," shout the Cadets. But such rivers of blood would give victory to the proletariat and the poor peasantry, and it is a hundred to one that this victory would bring peace in place of the imperialist war, i.e., that it would save the lives of hundreds of thousands of men who are now shedding their blood for the sake of a division of spoils and seizures (annexations) by the capitalists. If April 20-21 had ended by the transfer of all power to the Soviets, and the Bolsheviks in alliance with the poor peasantry had won in the Soviets, it would have saved the lives of the half million Russian soldiers, who certainly perished in the battles of June 18, even if it had cost "rivers of blood".
   
This is how every class-conscious Russian worker and soldier figures, this is how he must figure, if he weighs and analyses the question of civil war now being raised
page 40
everywhere; and, of course, such a worker or soldier, who has experienced many things and given thought to them, will not be frightened by the cries of "rivers of blood" raised by individuals, parties and groups willing to sacrifice more millions of Russian soldiers for the sake of Constantinople, Lvov, Warsaw, and "victory over Germany".
   
No "rivers of blood" in an internal civil war can even approximately equal those seas of blood which the Russian imperialists have shed since June 19 (in spite of the very great chances they had of avoiding this by handing over power to the Soviets).
   
All you Milyukovs, Potresovs and Plekhanovs be careful about your arguments against "rivers of blood" in civil war while this present war continues, for the soldiers have seen seas of blood and know what they mean.
   
The international situation of the Russian revolution now, in 1917, the fourth year of a terrifically burdensome and criminal war, that has worn out the peoples, is such that an offer of a just peace on the part of a Russian proletariat victorious in the civil war would have a hundred to one chance of achieving an armistice and peace without the shedding of further seas of blood.
   
For a combination of warring Anglo-French and German imperialism against the proletarian socialist Russian Republic is impossible in practice, while a combination of British, Japanese and American imperialism against us is extremely difficult to realise and is not at all dangerous to us, if only because of Russia's geographical position. On the other hand, the existence of revolutionary and socialist proletarian masses in all the European states is a fact; the maturing and the inevitability of the world wide socialist revolution is beyond doubt, and such a revolution can be seriously aided only by the progress of the Russian revolution and not by delegations and not by playing at Stockholm conferences with the foreign Plekhanovs or Tseretelis.
   
The bourgeoisie wails about the inevitable defeat of a Commune in Russia, i.e., defeat of the proletariat if it were to conquer power.
   
These are false, selfish class wailings.
   
If the proletariat gains power it will have every chance
page 41
of retaining it and of leading Russia until there is a victorious revolution in the West.
   
In the first place, we have learned much since the Commune, and we would not repeat its fatal errors, we would not leave the banks in the hands of the bourgeoisie, we would not confine ourselves to defence against the Versaillais (or the Kornilovites) but would take the offensive against them and crush them.
   
Secondly, the victorious proletariat would give Russia peace, and no power on earth would be able to overthrow a government of peace, a government of an honest, sincere, just peace, after all the horrors of more than three years' butchery of the peoples.
   
Thirdly, the victorious proletariat would give the peasantry the land immediately and without compensation. And a tremendous majority of the peasantry -- worn out and embittered by the "playing around with the landowners" practised by our government, particularly the coalition government, particularly the Kerensky government -- would support the victorious proletariat absolutely, unreservedly, with every means in its power.
   
You Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries are all talking about the "heroic efforts" of the people. Only recently I came across this phrase for the nth time in the leading article of your Izvestia [26] of the Central Executive Committee. With you it is a mere phrase. But the workers and peasants read it and think about it, and such deliberation -- reinforced by the experience of the Kornilov revolt, by the "experience" of Peshekhonov's ministry, by the "experience" of Chernov's ministry, and so forth -- every such deliberation inevitably leads to the conclusion that this "heroic effort" is nothing but confidence of the poor peasantry in the city workers as their most faithful allies and leaders. The heroic effort is nothing but the victory of the Russian proletariat over the bourgeoisie in civil war, for such a victory alone will save the country from painful vacillations, it alone will show the way out, it alone will give land and peace.
   
If an alliance between the city workers and the poor peasantry can be effected through an immediate transfer of power to the Soviets, so much the better. The Bolsheviks
page 42
will do everything to secure this peaceful development of the revolution. Without this, even the Constituent Assembly, by itself, will not save the situation, for even there the Socialist-Revolutionaries may continue their "playing" at agreements with the Cadets, with Breshko-Breshkovskaya and Kerensky (in what way are they better than Cadets?), and so on, and so forth.
   
If even the experience of the Kornilov revolt has taught the "democrats" nothing, and they continue the destructive policy of vacillation and compromise, we say that nothing is more ruinous to the proletarian revolution than these vacillations. That being the case, do not frighten us, gentlemen, with civil war. Civil war is inevitable, if you do not wish to break with Kornilovism and the "coalition" right now, once and for all. This war will bring victory over the exploiters, it will give the land to the peasants, it will give peace to the peoples, it will open the right road to the victorious revolution of the world socialist proletariat.