Lenin's "April Theses" Published (1917)
Tue Apr 17, 1917
Image: A photo portrait of Vladimir Lenin in 1920, taken by Pavel Semyonovich Zhukov. [Wikipedia]
On this day in 1917, six months before the October Revolution, Vladimir Lenin's "April Theses" was published in Pravda. In the text, Lenin called for the abolition of the Provisional Government and power to be given to workers' soviets.
Lenin had arrived in Petrograd the night prior, and had previously delivered the content of the April Theses in two speeches - once to a meeting of Bolsheviks and once to a meeting of both Bolsheviks and Mensheviks - before they were prepared in writing and published in Pravda on April 17th, 1917.
The text contains ten directives, mostly directed at fellow Bolsheviks. In the April Theses, Lenin calls for opposition to World War I, total non-support for the Provisional Government, a new government comprised of workers' soviets, the nationalization of land and banks, and establishing a new communist international opposed to "social chauvinists" (such as the German Social Democratic Party).
Lenin also offers analysis of the revolutionary situation in Russia at the time, stating that "the country is passing from the first stage of the revolution - which, owing to the insufficient class-consciousness and organisation of the proletariat, placed power in the hands of the bourgeoisie - to its second stage, which must place power in the hands of the proletariat and the poorest sections of the peasants."
The April Theses provided much of the ideological groundwork that led to the October Revolution, which took place six months later when the Bolsheviks initiated a military uprising and seized the Winter Palace. The full text to this short work is provided below.
- Date: 1917-04-17
- Learn More: www.marxists.org, en.wikipedia.org.
- Tags: #Marxism, #Communism.
- Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org