n is sometimes worse than
complete indifference. Every act of agitation in the rear of the
army, fighting against the enemy, would be equivalent to high
treason, as it would be a service to the foreign enemy.

The thunders of the war certainly cannot make the Russian
manufacturers and merchants more idealistic than they were in time
of peace. In the filling of the numerous orders, inevitable during
the mobilization of industry for war needs, the capitalists will,
as they are accustomed to, take great care of the interests of
capital, and will not take care of the interests of hired labor.
You will be entirely right if you wax indignant at their conduct.
But in all cases, whenever you desire to answer by a strike, you
must first think whether such action would not be detrimental to
the cause of the defense of Russia.

The private must be subject to the general. The workmen of every
factory must remember that they would commit, without any doubt,
the gravest mistake if, considering only their own interests, they
forget how severely the interests of the entire Russian
proletariat and peasantry would suffer from German victory.

The tactics which can be defined by the motto, "All or nothing,"
are the tactics of anarchy, fully unworthy of the conscious
representatives of the proletariat and peasantry. The General
Staff of the German Army would greet with pleasure the news that
we had adopted such tactics. _Believe us that this Staff is ready
to help all those who would like to preach it in our country_.
They want trouble in Russia, they want strikes in England, they
want everything that would facilitate the achievement of their
conquering schemes.

But you will not make them rejoice. You will not forget the words
of our great fabulist: "What the enemy advises is surely bad." You
must insist that all your representatives take the most active
part in all organizations created now, under the pressure of
public opinion, for the struggle with the foe. Your
representatives must, if possible, take part not only in the work
of the special technical organizations, such as the War-Industrial
Committees which have been created for the needs of the army, but
also in all other organizations of social and political character.

The situation is such that we cannot come to freedom in any ot