f-seeking associates who brought the country to
ruin. And the Revolution will need the efforts of many to overcome
the disorganization left her as a heritage by these robbers and
executioners.

The working class did not need the war. The workers did not begin
it. It was started by the Czars and capitalists of all countries.
Each day of war is for the people only a day of unnecessary
suffering and misfortune. Having dethroned the Czar, the Russian
people have selected for their first problem the ending of the war
in the quickest possible manner.

The Council of Workmen's and Soldiers' Deputies has appealed to
all nations to end the butchery. We have appealed to the French
and the English, to the Germans and the Austrians.[18] Russia
wants an answer to this appeal. Remember, however, comrades and
soldiers, that our appeal will be of no value if the regiments of
Wilhelm overpower Revolutionary Russia before our brothers, the
workers and peasants of other countries, will be able to respond.
Our appeal will become "a scrap of paper" if the whole strength of
the revolutionary people does not stand behind it, if the triumph
of Wilhelm Hohenzollern will be established on the ruins of
Russian freedom. The ruin of free Russia will be a tremendous,
irreparable misfortune, not only for us, but for the toilers of
the whole world.

Comrades, soldiers, defend Revolutionary Russia with all your
might!

The workers and peasants of Russia desire peace with all their
soul. But this peace must be universal, a peace for all nations
based on the agreement of all.

What would happen if we should agree to a separate peace--a peace
for ourselves alone! What would happen if the Russian soldiers
were to stick their bayonets into the ground to-day and say that
they do not care to fight any longer, that it makes no difference
to them what happens to the whole world!

Here is what would happen. Having destroyed our allies in the
west, German Imperialism would rush in upon us with all the force
of its arms. Germany's imperialists, her landowners and
capitalists, would put an iron heel on our necks, would occupy our
cities, our villages, and our land, and would force us to pay
tribute to her. Was it to bow down at the feet of Wilhelm that we
overthrew Nicholas?

Comrades--soldiers!