On the Road to Insurrection/Advice from One Absent
Advice from One Absent
I WRITE these lines on October 8, without any great hope that they will have reached comrades at Petrograd by the 9th. It is possible that they will arrive too late for the Congress of Soviets of the North, which is fixed for October 10. All the same I shall try to give my advice as a man removed from the main current of events, counting on the fact that the probable action of the workers and soldiers of Petrograd and neighbourhood, which is soon to take place, has not yet occurred.
All power must pass to the soviets—this is clear. It must similarly be indisputable for all Bolsheviks that the revolutionary proletarian power (or the Bolshevik power, which is now absolutely the same thing) is assured of the most ardent sympathy and the unreserved support of the whole of the workers and exploited masses throughout the world, particularly in the belligerent countries, and above all amongst the Russian peasant class. These truths are too well known and have been demonstrated for too long to make it worth while to dwell on them.
On the other hand, it is necessary to dwell on a fact that more than one comrade probably does not take completely into account—viz., that the seizure of power by the soviets now of necessity implies armed insurrection. This, it seems, should have been evident; but all have not yet grasped it thoroughly. To renounce armed insurrection now would mean giving up the chief watchword of Bolshevism ("All Power to the Soviets"), and also all revolutionary working-class internationalism.
But armed insurrection is a special form of political struggle. It is subject to special rules which must be deeply reflected upon. Karl Marx expressed this thought with particular clearness when he said that "armed insurrection, like warfare, is an art."
The principal rules of this art, as laid down by Marx, are as follows:—
(1) Never play with insurrection; and, when it is once begun, understand clearly that it must be carried through to the end.
(2) Collect, at the decisive place and time, forces which are greatly superior to those of the enemy; otherwise the latter, better prepared and better organised, will annihilate the insurgents.
(3) Once the insurrection has begun, it is necessary to act with the utmost vigour, and to wage at all costs, the offensive. "The defensive is death to the insurrection."
(4) Make sure of taking the enemy by surprise, and take advantage of the moment when his troops are scattered.
(5) Win successes each day, even small ones (one might say "each hour" in the case of a small town), and at all costs keep the "moral superiority."
Marx has summarised the lessons of all revolutions or armed insurrections in the words of the greatest master of revolutionary tactics known to history, Danton: "Be daring, be still more daring; be daring always!"
Applied to Russia in October, 1917, these precepts mean:—
(1) A simultaneous offensive, as sudden and as rapid as possible, upon Petrograd, from within and without, from the working-class suburbs and from Finland, Reval and Cronstadt; an offensive of the whole of the Fleet; a concentration of forces which will considerably outnumber our "bourgeois guard" (Cadet-officers), our "chouans" (Cossack units), &c. …
(2) Combination of our three chief forces: (the navy, the workers, and the military units) to occupy in the first place and hold at all costs—(a) the telephones; (b) the telegraphs; (c) the railway stations; (d) the bridges.
(3) Selection of the most resolute of our "storm troops"—of the working youth and the sailors; and formation of small detachments to occupy all the most important points and to take part in all decisive operations, e.g., to encircle Petersburg and to cut it off from other towns; to take possession of it by a combined attack of the navy, the workers, and the troops—a task which requires art and triple daring.
(4) Formation of detachments composed of the best workers, who, armed with rifles and bombs, will march upon and surround the "centres" of the enemy (Cadet-officers' schools, telegraph and telephone offices, &c.). The watchword of these will be:—
"Perish to the last man rather than let the enemy pass."
Let us hope that, if insurrection is decided upon, its leaders will know how to apply the great precepts of Danton and of Marx.
The triumph of the Russian Revolution, as well as of the world revolution, depends on two or three days' struggle.