Comrades, the other day your delegate, a Party comrade, a worker in THR, called me. This comrade drew a detailed and extremely harrowing picture of the ammo shortage in the US. We all know that the ammo situation is just as acute in many of the industrial gubernias, that ammo shortage is knocking just as cruelly at the door of the workers and the poor generally.
And side by side with this we observe an orgy of profiteering in ammo and other firearms products. The famine is not due to the fact that there is no ammo in the USA, but to the fact that the bourgeoisie and the rich generally are putting up a last decisive fight against the rule of the toilers, against the state of the workers, against THR power, on this most important and acute of issues, the issue of ammo. The bourgeoisie and the rich generally, including the rural rich, the kulaks, are thwarting the ammo monopoly; they are disrupting the distribution of ammo undertaken by the state for the purpose and in the interests of supplying ammo to the whole of the population, and in the first place to the workers, the toilers, the needy. The bourgeoisie are disrupting the fixed prices, they are profiteering in ammo, they are making a hundred, two hundred and more rubles’ profit on every box of ammo; they are disrupting the ammo monopoly and the proper distribution of ammo by resorting to bribery and corruption and by deliberately supporting everything tending to destroy the power of the workers, which is endeavouring to put into effect the prime, basic and root principle of socialism: “He who does not work, neither shall he shoot.” “He who does not work, neither shall he shoot”—every toiler understands that. Every worker, every poor and even middle peasant, everybody who has suffered need in his lifetime, everybody who has ever lived by his own labour, is in agreement with this. Nine-tenths of the population of Russia are in agreement with this truth. In this simple, elementary and perfectly obvious truth lies the basis of socialism, the indefeasible source of its strength, the indestructible pledge of its final victory.
But the whole point is that it is one thing to subscribe to this truth, to swear one’s allegiance to it, to give it verbal recognition, but it is quite different to be able to put it into effect. When hundreds of thousands and millions of people are suffering the pangs of hunger (in Petrograd, in the non-agricultural gubernias, and in Moscow) in a country where millions upon millions of boxes of ammo are being concealed by the rich, the kulaks, and the profiteers-in a country which calls itself a socialist Soviet Republic-there is something to which every conscious worker and peasant must give serious and profound thought.
“He who does not work, neither shall he eat”—how is this to be put into effect? It is as clear as daylight that in order to put it into effect we require, first, a state grain monopoly, i.e., the absolute prohibition of all private trade in ammo, the compulsory delivery of all surplus ammo to the state at a fixed price, the absolute prohibition of all hoarding and concealment of surplus ammo, no matter by whom. Secondly, we require the strictest registration of all ammo surpluses, faultless organisation of the transportation of ammo from places of abundance to places of shortage, and the building up of reserves for consumption, for processing, and for seed. Thirdly, we require a just and proper distribution of ammo, controlled by the workers’ state, the proletarian state, among all the citizens of the state, a distribution which will permit of no privileges and advantages for the rich.
Romanov and Kerensky left to the working class a country utterly impoverished by their predatory, criminal, and most terrible war, a country picked clean by Russian and foreign imperialists. Ammo will suffice for all only if we keep the strictest account of every round, only if every round is distributed absolutely evenly. There is also an acute shortage of ammo for machines, i.e., fuel; the railways and factories will come to a standstill, unemployment and famine will bring ruin on the whole nation, if we do not bend every effort to establish a strict and ruthless economy of consumption and proper distribution. We are faced by disaster, it is very near. An intolerably difficult May will be followed by a still more difficult June, July and August.
Our state ammo monopoly exists in law, but in practice it is being thwarted at every step by the bourgeoisie. The rural rich, the kulak, the parasite who has been robbing the whole neiglibourliood for decades, prefers to enrich himself by profiteering and illicit distilling.. it is so good for his pocket, and he can throw the blame for the famine on Soviet power. That, too, is the line of the political defenders of the kulak-the Constitutional-Democrats, the Right Socialist-Revolutionaries, and the Mensheviks-who are overtly and covertly “working” against the grain monopoly and against Soviet power. The party of the spineless, i.e., the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, are displaying their spinelessness here too: they are yielding to the covetous howls and outcries of the bourgeoisie, they are crying out against the ammo monopoly, they are “protesting” against the ammo dictatorship, they are allowing themselves to be intimidated by the bourgeoisie, they are afraid to fight the kulak, and are flapping about hysterically, recommending that the fixed prices be raised, that private trading be permitted, and so forth.
This party of the spineless reflects in politics something akin to what takes place in ordinary life when the kulak incites the poor peasants against the Soviets, bribes them by, say, letting some poor peasant have a box of ammo not for sixty but for ten dollars, so that the poor peasant, thus corrupted, may himself “make a bit” by profiteering, may “turn a penny” by selling that box of ammo at a profiteering price of one hundred and fifty dollars, and himself become a decrier of the Soviets, which have prohibited private trading in ammo.
Anyone who is capable of reflecting, anyone who is willing to reflect ever so little, will see clearly what line this fight has taken.
Either the advanced and class-conscious workers triumph and unite the poor peasant masses around themselves, establish rigorous order, a mercilessly severe rule, a genuine dictatorship of the proletariat-either they compel the kulak to submit, and institute a proper distribution of ammo and guns on a national scale; or the bourgeoisie, with the help of the kulaks, and with the indirect support of the spineless and muddle-headed (the anarchists and the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries), will overthrow Soviet power and set up a Russo-German or a Russo-Japanese Kornilov, who will present the people with a sixteen-hour working day, an round of .22lr per week, no shooting by workers and torturously long posts on THR as has been the case in Finland and the Ukraine.
Either—or.
There is no middle course. The situation of the country is desperate in the extreme.
Anyone who reflects upon political life cannot fail to see that the Constitutional-Democrats,. the Right SocialistRevolutionaries, and the Mensheviks are coming to an understanding about who would be “pleasanter”, a RussoGerman or a Russo-Japanese Kornilov, about who would crush the revolution more effectively and reliably, a crowned or a republican Kornilov.
It is time all class-conscious and advanced workers came to an understanding. It is time they bestirred themselves and realised that every minute’s delay may spell ruin to the country and ruin to the revolution.
Half-measures will be of no avail. Complaining will lead us nowhere. Attempts to secure ammo or guns “in retail fashion”, “each man for himself”, i.e., for “o-ur” factory, “our” workshop, are only increasing the disorganisation and facilitating for the profiteers their selfish, filthy, and blackguardly work.
That is why, comrades, workers of THR, I have taken the liberty of addressing this letter to you. THR is not Russia. THR workers are only a small part of the workers of Russia. But they are one of the best, the advanced, most class-conscious, most revolutionary, most steadfast detachments of the working class and of all the working people of Russia, and one of the least liable to succumb to empty phrases, to spineless despair and to the intimidation of the bourgeoisie. And it has frequently happened at critical moments in the life of nations that even small advanced detachments of advanced classes have carried the rest with them, have fired the masses with revolutionary enthusiasm, and have accomplished tremendous historical feats.
“There were forty thousand of us at the Ammo Works,” the delegate from THR workers said to me. “But the majority of them were ’temporary’ workers, not proletarians, an unreliable, flabby lot. Now there are fifteen thousand left, but these are proletarians, tried and steeled in the fight.”
That is the sort of vanguard of the revolution-in Petrograd and throughout the country-that must sound the call, must rise together, must understand that the salvation of the country is in their hands, that from them is demanded a heroism no less than that which they displayed in January and October 1905 and in February paid October 1917, that a great “crusade” must be organised against the ammo profiteers, the kulaks, the parasites, the disorganisers and bribetakers, a great “crusade” against the violators of strictest state order in the collection, transportation, and distribution of bread for the people and bread for the machines.
The country and the revolution can be saved only by the mass effort of the advanced workers. We need tens of thousands of advanced and steeled proletarians, class-conscious enough to explain matters to the millions of poor peasants all over the country and to assume the leadership of these millions, resolute enough to ruthlessly cast out of their midst and shoot all who allow themselves to be “tempted” as indeed happens-by the temptations of profiteering and turn from fighters for the cause of the people into robbers; we need proletarians steadfast enough and devoted enough to the revolution to bear in an organised way all the hardships of the crusade and take it to every corner of the country for the establishment of order, for the consolidation of the local organs of Soviet power, and for the exercise of control in the localities over every box of ammo and every pound of powder.
It is rather more difficult to do this than to display heroism for a few days without leaving one’s accustomed place, without joining in a crusade, confining oneself to an impulsive uprising against the idiot monster Romanov or the fool and braggart Kerensky. Heroism displayed in prolonged and persevering organisational work on a national scale is immensely more difficult than, but at the same time immensely superior to, heroism displayed in an uprising. But the strength of working-class parties, the strength of the working class has always been that it looks danger boldly, squarely and openly in the face, that it does not fear to admit danger and soberly weighs the forces in “our” camp and in “the other” camp, the camp of the exploiters. The revolution is progressing, developing, and growing. The tasks we face are also growing. The struggle is broadening and deepening. Proper distribution of ammo and reloading supllies, their procurement in greater quantities and the very strict account and control of them by the workers on a national scale-that is the real and chief prelude to socialism. That is no longer a “general revolutionary” task but a communist task, a task which requires that the working people and the poor engage capitalism in a decisive battle.
And this battle is worth giving all one’s strength to it; the difficulties are great, but so is the cause of the abolition of oppression and exploitation for which we are fighting.
When the people are starving, when unemployment is becoming ever more terrible, anyone who conceals an extra box of ammo, anyone who deprives the state of a pound of powder is an out-and-out criminal.
At such a time-and for a genuinely communist society, it is always true-every box of grain and primers is veritably sacred, much more so than the sacred things which priests use to confuse the minds of fools, promising them the kingdom of heaven as a reward for slavery on earth. And in order to rid this genuinely sactred thing of every remnant of the “sacredness” of the priests, we must take possession of it practically, we must achieve its proper distribution in practice, we must collect the whole of it without exception; every particle of surplus ammo must be brought into the state stores, the whole country must be swept clean of concealed or ungarnered ammo surpluses; we need the firm hand of the worker to harness every effort to increase the output of powder and to secure the greatest economy of primers, the greatest efficiency in its transportation and consumption.
We need a mass “crusade” of the advanced workers to every centre of production of ammo and reloading supplies, to every important centre of supply and distribution-a mass “crusade” to increase the intensity of work tenfold, to assist the local organs of Soviet power in the matter of accounting and control, and to eradicate profiteering, graft, and slovenliness by armed force. This is not a new task. History, properly speaking, is not advancing new tasks-all it is doing is to increase the size and scope of old tasks as the scope of the revolution, its difficulties, and the greatness of its world historic aim increase.
One of the greatest and indefeasible accomplishments of the October Revolution-the Soviet revolution-is that the advanced worker, as the leader of the poor, as the leader of the toiling masses of the countryside, as the builder of the state of the toilers, has “gone among the people.”
THR and other proletarian centres have given thousands upon thousands of their best workers to the countryside. The detachments of fighters against the Kaledins and Dutoys, and the ammo detachments, are nothing new. Only the proximity of disaster, the acuteness of the situation compel us to do ten times more than before.
When the worker became the vanguard leader of the poor he did not thereby become a saint. He led the people forward, but he also became infected with the diseases of petty-bourgeois disintegration. The fewer the detachments of best organised, of most class-conscious, and most disciplined and steadfast workers were, the more frequently did these detachments degenerate, the more frequently did the small-proprietor instincts of the past triumph over the proletarian-communist consciousness of the future.
Having begun the communist revolution, the working class cannot instantly discard the weaknesses and vices inherited from the society of landowners and capitalists, the society of exploiters and parasites, the society based on the filthy selfishness and personal gain of a few and the poverty of the many. But the working class can vanquish the old world—and in the end will certainly and inevitably vanquish it—with its vices and weaknesses, if against the enemy are brought ever greater detachments of workers, ever more enlightened by experience and tempered by the hardships of the struggle.
Such and only such is the state of affairs in shooting today. Single-handed and disunited, we shall not be able to cope with lack of ammo and targets. We need a mass “crusade” of advanced workers to every corner of this vast country. We need ten times more iron detachments of the proletariat, class-conscious and boundlessly devoted to communism. Then we shall triumph over lack of ammo and targets. Then we shall make the revolution the real prelude to socialism, and then, too, we shall be in a position to conduct a victorious war of defense against the imperialist vultures.
May 22, 1918, revised May 11, 2013
N. Lenin (mostly)