Lenin publishes “The Crisis
Is Ripe” in Rabochy Put on this
day. Lenin’s articles had been anticipating the vote of the Central Committee
on insurrection for some weeks. This particular article, among other things,
draws a connection between the call for insurrection and both the agrarian and
nationalities questions.
The Bolshevik
policy on the agrarian question dated back to Lenin’s April
Theses. As against the failure of either the Provisional Government or the
Compromisers to act, he argued, it remains the correct policy for joining the
workers’ insurrection to the on-going peasant revolt.
The importance of
the nationalities question to the timing of the insurrection, Lenin also
argued, is illustrated by the vote of their delegates in the Democratic
Conference. The nationalities were second only to the labor unions in voting
against coalition at the conference.
But these
questions were secondary in Lenin’s mind to the question of the “world working-class revolution.” Trotsky
says this had always been Lenin’s point of departure. Even though capitalism in
Russia lagged behind Europe and America, the crisis had come in Russia
first. The ripeness of the crisis meant precisely that the Russian insurrection
should not be held back, lest the opportunity pass forever and for workers
everywhere.
In Lenin’s
opinion this meant not waiting for the Congress of Soviets, still two weeks
off. He thought the forces in Finland, where the soviets and the Baltic Fleet
were already in a state equivalent to insurrection, would be a sufficient reinforcement
for those already in Petrograd and Moscow. Moreover, his doubts about
parliamentary struggle and the ability of such institutions to bring about
world proletarian revolution applied not only to the Pre-Parliament, but to the
Congress of Soviets as well.
And then, to
emphasize his point (in a portion of the letter not intended for publication), Lenin
resigned from the Central Committee. Trotsky believes he can explain this
action. Bolshevik party discipline called for members to accept and support the
democratically decided line of the party. As a member of the Central Committee,
Lenin was already approaching the limit set by this rule. If he resigned,
perhaps, he would be freer to advocate what he thought was the correct line on
insurrection. It was another instance of the masses being to the left of the
party.
But the
resignation was not accepted and nothing more came of it. Meanwhile Lenin’s
wife, Krupskaya, travelled to the party’s district meetings and read this and his
other letters to the rank and file.
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