Lenin’s Speech in the Finland Station Square to Workers, Soldiers and Sailors¶
Core Argument¶
Upon arriving at the Finland Station on 3 (16) April 1917, Lenin addressed workers, soldiers and sailors from an armoured car, hailing them as the vanguard of the worldwide proletarian army. He declared the imperialist war the beginning of civil war across Europe and announced that the global socialist revolution had already dawned, with the Russian Revolution opening a new epoch. The following day, he presented the April Theses, arguing that the proletariat could only consent to a revolutionary war if power passed to the proletariat and poorest peasants, all annexations were renounced, and a complete break was made with capitalist interests. He demanded no support for the Provisional Government, exposure of its promises, and patient explanation to those deceived by bourgeois defencism. He called for transfer of all state power to the Soviets, abolition of the police, army and bureaucracy, confiscation of landed estates, nationalisation of all land, amalgamation of all banks into a single national bank under Soviet control, and a change of the Party’s name. He insisted it was not the immediate task to introduce socialism, but to bring production and distribution under Soviet control.
In his Letters on Tactics, Lenin argued that the bourgeois-democratic revolution in Russia was completed, as state power had passed to the bourgeoisie. The revolutionary-democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry had already been realised in the form of the Soviets, but this formula was now antiquated. The new task was to effect a split within this dictatorship between proletarian elements and petty-bourgeois defencists. A Marxist must take cognisance of real facts, not cling to yesterday’s theory. The peasantry currently engages in class collaboration with the bourgeoisie, not class struggle against it. A Marxist who ignores this present reality in favour of a possible future where peasants break from the bourgeoisie would be a petty-bourgeois sentimentalist, not a revolutionary. Lenin safeguards against Blanquist adventurism by citing the Paris Commune, which ensures majority rule, and by confining work to a struggle for influence within the Soviets through patient explanatory work.
The revolution’s basic question is state power, which has produced a dual power: the bourgeois Provisional Government and the Soviets. The Soviets are a revolutionary dictatorship of the same type as the Paris Commune, based on direct popular initiative, armed people replacing police and army, and elected, recallable officials paid workers’ wages. The Soviets have surrendered positions to the bourgeoisie due to insufficient class-consciousness, not individual mistakes. The Provisional Government should be overthrown but cannot be now, because the Soviets support it. The class-conscious workers must win a majority, not seize power as a minority; they are Marxists, not Blanquists. The actual class alignment is: the bourgeoisie wants its undivided power; the class-conscious workers want the undivided power of the Soviets; the petty bourgeoisie vacillates, hindering clarification. Russia is the most petty-bourgeois European country; a petty-bourgeois wave has infected the proletariat ideologically, producing unreasoning trust in the bourgeoisie. The task is ideological criticism and explaining the mistakes of petty-bourgeois parties, not adventurism. Revolutionary defencism is a product of bourgeois deception and small-proprietor interests; the war’s character is determined by class policy and imperialist capital, not good will. The war cannot be ended by agreements or pious wishes; it requires transferring state power to the proletariat. The Russian Revolution began transforming the imperialist war into civil war; the second step is proletarian state power.
Lenin insists the party should be renamed Communist, not Social-Democrat, because Marx and Engels rejected ‘Social-Democracy’ as scientifically incorrect; democracy is a form of state, but Marxists oppose all states; the Soviets are a new type of non-state; and the old name aids deception since most ‘Social-Democratic’ leaders have betrayed socialism. He dismisses the objection that workers are used to the old name as routinism and stagnation. The Provisional Government’s Note of 18 April (1 May) 1917, which commits Russia to war “to a decisive victory” and reaffirms alliances with British and French capitalists, reveals the true nature of the government as a vehicle for capitalist interests in annexation and plunder. The mass of workers, soldiers, and poor peasants are not interested in annexations and were genuinely shocked by