636 THE CLASS STRUGGLE DOCUMENTS 637 An Appeal of the Soviet Government We Pravda of August 1st issues the following appeal to the proletariat of the Entente countries, written by Lenin, Chicherin, and Trotzky: The entire capitalist press of your countries is howling with a hoarse voice, like a dog loosened from his chains, for the intervention of your governments in the internal affairs of Russia; they cry: Now or never! But at the very moment that these hirelings of your exploiters are throwing off all disguise and speaking openly of an attack on the workers and peasants of Russia, they are still shamefully lying and deceiving you outrageously, for while uttering their threats of intervention, they are already conducting military operations against the Russia of the workers and peasants.
You who are shedding your blood on the Marne and on the Aisne in the interests of Capital, in the Balkans, in Syria, in Mesopotamia, you are now also to lie in the snows of northern Finland and in the mountains of the Ural. In the interests of Capital, you are to be the hangmen of the Russian Revolution. In order to disguise this crusade against the Russian Workers Revolution, your capitalists also explain that the expedition is not to be undertaken against the Russian Revolution, but against German Imperialism, to which we are said to have sold ourselves. We were forced, however, to divide Russia, because your governments, which knew very well that Russia could fight no longer, would not enter into peace negotiations, at which their strength would have saved Russia and assured us an acceptable peace. Not Russia, exhausted by 2 years of war, has betrayed your cause; rather have your governments thrown Russia under the feet of German Imperialism. They think only of squeezing out the interest on the old loans advanced by French capital to Czarism. The Allies warned us that the Germans would occupy the Siberian and Murman Railways; these two direct lines, they said, which connect us with the outer world, must not come under German control. But in the end it was not the Germans who actually took possession of the railroads, which was impossible for them, at their distance from the railroad, but the Allies themselves. They are thus pursuing three objects: 1) the occupation of as much Russian territory as possible, in order, by holding its resources, to secure the payment of the interest on the loans made by French and English capital; 2) the suppression of the Workers Revolution; 3) the erection of a new eastern front, in order to divert the Germans from the western front to fight on Russian soil.
The agents of your capitalism also explain that in this way they will lessen the pressure of the German arms upon you, and hasten the victory over German Imperialism. But German Imperialism can only be crushed if the imperialism of all governments is defeated by the simultaneous revolt of the world proletariat. The attempts to draw Russia into the war will not save you from the shedding of blood: they can only deliver up the Revolution to the sword.
have endured all too long the encroachments of the representatives of Entente Imperialism, we have allowed those who lay at the feet of the Czar, to remain in Russia, although they did not recognize the Soviets. And even now, when French officers are commanding the Czecho Slavs, now that the horrors of the Murman coast have begun, even now we have not uttered a word of protest against the presence of your diplomats in the territory of the Soviet Republic, not recognized by them; we have only demanded their removal from Vologda to Moscow in order that we might protect them against the attacks of a people deeply enraged by their criminal enterprises. And now, after the departure of the Entente ambassadors, not a hair on the heads of the citizens of your countries who are living with us, will be touched, provided they obey the laws of the Soviet Republic. We are convinced that if we had returned two blows for each one received from the Entente usurpers, you would have witnessed not only an act of lawful self defense, but also the defense of your own best interests; for the salvation of the Russian Revolution constitutes a common interest of the proletariat of all countries. Forced to war against Entente capital, which wishes to add new chains to the chains already imposed upon us by Germany, we turn to you with the cry: Long live the solidarity of the workers of the whole world! Long live the French, English, American, and Italian proletariat, together with the Russian! Down with the robbers of International Imperialismi Long live the International Revolution! Long live the Peace of the Peoples!
Abrogation of the Brest Treaty Between Russia and Turkey Chicherin Note As is learned by the correspondent of the Neues Wiener Journal, Dr. Friedegg, the Russian government has sent the following note to Turkey. New political and territorial relations between Russia and Turkey were created by the Peace Treaty of Brest Litovsk of March