Lenin publishes “Tasks of
the Revolution,“ a kind of September version of the April
Theses, in Rabochy Put. There are
seven tasks; though some of them address issues already addressed in the April
Theses, they all take account of developments in the interim.
The first two
tasks lead to forming the new revolutionary state: all power must pass to the
workers, soldiers and peasants through their representatives in the soviets; no
compromise with the bourgeoisie or their political apparatus is possible.
The third
reiterates the party’s war policy against indemnities, annexation, and
defensism. Lenin lays out specific actions against contingencies during the
lead up to, and after, the insurrection.
The agrarian
policy of the Bolsheviks does not change, but acquires new force in light of
the inaction of the Compromisers and the peasant revolt.
The fifth task
recognizes that the progress of the revolution and the soviets has given the
workers more ability to control the means of production. Therefore this, not as
in April just the development of the soviets, becomes the task.
The last two
tasks offer measures for combating the counter-revolution, something that had
already been done successfully once with the defeat of Kornilov.
On the 10th
(September 27, new style), Lenin, still anxious about putting off the
insurrection until the Congress of Soviets could be convened some two weeks thence, wrote to
Smilga, the President of the Finnish Regional Committee and
a member of the Central Committee. Lenin let Smilga
know that the revolutionary troops in Finland and the Baltic Fleet might be
called upon to advance on Petrograd. He asked Smilga do to a number of other
things, both in the political open and underground. One, interestingly, was to
prepare identification papers for him in the name of Konstantin
Petrovich Ivanov. That’s how he signed the letter.
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