The April Theses
О задачах пролетариата в данной революции
The short Pravda article in which Lenin, just back in Petrograd in April 1917, published the ten theses he had read to Bolshevik and Menshevik meetings, with a reply to his critics. It rejects “revolutionary defencism” and any support for the Provisional Government, calls for the passage from the bourgeois stage of the revolution to a second one putting power in the hands of the proletariat and poorest peasants, and demands “all power to the Soviets”, a republic of Soviets on the model of the Paris Commune, nationalisation of the land, and a new, Communist party and International.
- Edition
- “On the Tasks of the Proletariat in the Present Revolution”, from Pravda, No. 26, 20 (7) April 1917, in the translation of the Collected Works of V. I. Lenin, vol. XX, The Revolution of 1917, book I (New York: International Publishers, copyright 1929), translator not named; with Lenin’s footnotes. Dates are New Style, as printed there. The editors’ endnotes are omitted.
- Source
- Internet Archive
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Contents
- On the Tasks of the Proletariat in the Present Revolution 12 min 45
Back in Petrograd after the February Revolution, Lenin publishes the ten theses he read to Bolshevik and Menshevik delegates. He refuses any concession to “revolutionary defencism” or support for the Provisional Government, declares that Russia is passing from the bourgeois stage of the revolution to a second one that must give power to the proletariat and poorest peasants, and calls for patient work to win a majority in the Soviets. He demands a Soviet republic on the model of the Paris Commune, nationalisation of the land, a single national bank, a new party name and a new International, then answers Goldenberg and Plekhanov, who called the theses “delirium”.