Theses of April

The text “ the Tasks of the proletariat in the present revolution ”, or “ Theses of April”, is an article of Lénine, published on April 7th, 1917 in the n°26 of the Pravda , between the Révolution of February and the Révolution of October. Lénine arrives at Petrograd in the night of the 3 at the April 4th. It was before in exile. It presents its theses to the meeting of the Parti Bolshevik of April 4th.

In the “Theses of April”, Lénine starts by characterizing the situation like a transition from the first stage of the revolution, which gave the capacity to the middle-class in consequence of the insufficient degree of conscience and organization of the proletariat, with its second phase, which must give the capacity to the proletariat and the poor layers of the farming community.

It presents then the tactics which the Party must adopt with respect to the war in progress and of the provisional government:

No support for the Provisional government; to show the entirely untrue character of all its promises
Grateful that its party is still minority, as long as we are in minority, we endeavor to criticize and explain the made errors by the provisional government, and to patiently explain, systematically, obstinately that the Soviets of the working deputies are the only possible shape of revolutionary government .
For a republic of the Soviets of working deputies, agricultural employees and peasants . the treatment of the civils servant, elected officials and revocable constantly, should not exceed the average wages of a good workman .
Confiscation of all the grounds of the land great landowners
immediate Fusion of all the banks of the country in a single national bank placed under the control of the Soviets of the working deputies
Our task immediate is not “to introduce” socialism, but to only pass immediately to the control of the social production and the distribution of the products by the Soviets of the working deputies
Prendre the initiative of the creation of a revolutionary Internationale

The task of the Party must be to explain to the Prolétariat and to the poor layers of the farming community the need for the political seizure of power in the form of the Soviet S. Seule the revolution will be able to leave Russia the war imperialist (“ renunciation effective, and nonverbal, with any annexation ”). For Lénine, the Soviets must take the control of the economy: “ Our task immediate is not “to introduce” socialism, but to only pass immediately to the control of the social production and the distribution of the products by the Soviets of the working deputies. ”

Concerning the land question, Lénine request formation of poor Soviets of peasants and the management of the grounds by the Soviets of farm laborers and peasants.

External bond

Text of the “Theses of April”

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