(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.
