V. I. Lenin

Speech At the Joint Meeting of the
Bolshevik and “Left” Socialist-Revolutionary Groups of the All-Russia C.E.C. [1]

February 23, 1918 Newspaper Report


Delivered: February 23, 1918
First Published: February 24, 1918, in Izvestia of the Soveits of Workers’, soldiers’ andpeasant̻ Deputires of the City of Moscow and Moscow Region No. 32. Published according to the newsaper text
Source: Lenin's Collected Works, Progress Publishers, Moscow, Volume 27, 1972, page 42
Translated: Clemans Dutt, Edited by Robert Daglish
Transcription\HTML Markup:Robert Cymbala and David Walters
Online Version: Lenin Internet Archive March, 2002


Lenin spoke in defence of signing the German proposals. He began by saying that Soviet power must face up to the truth, that it must acknowledge the total impossibility of resistance to the Germans. He referred to the previous speakers who rejected signature to the treaty, but the view that we could organise an army in the near future was wholly without grounds; the army did not want to fight and no one could compel it to do so; if, however, we were to start A joint meeting of the Bolshevik and Left Socialist-Revolutionary groups in the All-Russia Central Executive Committee was held in the evening of February 23, 1918 to discuss the question of accepting the new German peace terms. The atmosphere at the meeting was extremely tense. After a report on the situation at the front by the Supreme Commander N. V. Krylenko, who announced that the army was demobilising spontaneously, K. B. Radek, D. B. Ryazanov and the Left Socialist-Revolutionary I. Z. Steinberg spoke against concluding peace. Lenin spoke in favour of concluding peace. No decisions were taken at the meeting. The joint meeting of the two groups was followed by a meeting of the Bolshevik group of the All-Russia C.E.C. The “Left Communists” demanded freedom to vote as they pleased at the forthcoming meeting of the All-Russia C.E.C., but this demand was rejected by the group and a majority decision was taken to vote at the All-Russia C.E.C. meeting in favour of concluding peace. p. 42 organising an army, if we were to collect a small handful of valiant fighters whom we would throw into the jaws of imperialism, we would thereby lose energetic and ideologically equipped fighters who had won us victory.

Further, Lenin said that our Russian proletariat was not at all to blame if the German revolution was delayed. It would come but it was not there yet, and for us the best way out was to gain time; if we were to sign a peace treaty at the present moment, we could subsequently, by energetic, organised work, by railway construction and by putting food matters in order, create a strong and stable army for the defence of our revolution, and before that time the socialist revolution in Germany would certainly arrive.


Endnotes

1. A joint meeting of the Bolshevik and Left Socialist-Revolutionary groups in the All-Russia Central Executive Committee was held in the evening of February 23, 1918 to discuss the question of accepting the new German peace terms. The atmosphere at the meeting was extremely tense. After a report on the situation at the front by the Supreme Commander N. V. Krylenko, who announced that the army was demobilising spontaneously, K. B. Radek, D. B. Ryazanov and the Left Socialist-Revolutionary I. Z. Steinberg spoke against concluding peace. Lenin spoke in favour of concluding peace.

No decisions were taken at the meeting.

The joint meeting of the two groups was followed by a meeting of the Bolshevik group of the All-Russia C.E.C. The “Left Communists” demanded freedom to vote as they pleased at the forthcoming meeting of the All-Russia C.E.C., but this demand was rejected by the group and a majority decision was taken to vote at the All-Russia C.E.C. meeting in favour of concluding peace.