A Letter to American Workingmen, from the Socialist Soviet Republic of Russia
1918
A Letter to American Workingmen, from the Socialist Soviet Republic of Russia
1918
In August 1918, Vladimir Lenin sat down to write a letter that crossed an ocean and a ideological chasm. Addressed directly to American workingmen, this short, fiery document is one of history's most audacious political appeals: the leader of the world's first socialist state begging the workers of its chief capitalist rival to rise up against their own government. Written just months after the Bolshevik Revolution, as Russia drowned in civil war and foreign intervention, Lenin's letter argues that the socialist revolution is fundamentally international, that the Russian example proves capitalism can be shattered, and that American workers, armed with the same class consciousness, must do the same. He dissects American imperialism, the profits of war, and the illusion of prosperity under capitalism, insisting that the interests of workers everywhere are aligned against their bourgeois overlords. The document radiates both desperation and conviction: Lenin needed international revolution to survive, and he believed the American working class was primed to deliver it. Whether you see it as propaganda or prophecy, this remains an extraordinary artifact of revolutionary hope at the dawn of the communist century.
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“America, like a few other nations, has become characteristic for the depth of the abyss that divide a handful of brutal millionaires who are stagnating in a mire of luxury, and millions of laboring starving men and women who are always staring want in the face.””
— Vladimir Il'ich Lenin
“Одним словом, мы непобедимы, ибо непобедима всемирная пролетарская революция.””
— Vladimir Il'ich Lenin
“Ее слуги обвиняют нас в терроре… Английские буржуа забыли свой 1649, французы свой 1793 год. Террор был справедлив и законен, когда он применялся буржуазией в ее пользу против феодалов. Террор стал чудовищен и преступен, когда его дерзнули применять рабочие и беднейшие крестьяне против буржуазии! Террор был справедлив и законен, когда его применяли в интересах замены одного эксплуатирующего меньшинства другим эксплуататорским меньшинством. Террор стал чудовищен и преступен, когда его стали применять в интересах свержения всякого эксплуататорского меньшинства, в интересах действительно огромного большинства, в интересах пролетариата и полупролетариата, рабочего класса и беднейшего крестьянства!Буржуазия международного империализма перебила 10 миллионов человек, искалечила 20 миллионов на «своей» войне, войне из-за того, английским или немецким хищникам господствовать над всем миром.Если наша война, война угнетенных и эксплуатируемых против угнетателей и эксплуататоров, будет стоить полумиллиона или миллиона жертв во всех странах,”
— Vladimir Il'ich Lenin
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Lenin, Vladimir Il'ich. A Letter to American Workingmen, from the Socialist Soviet Republic of Russia. Lex, lex-books.com/book/a-letter-to-american-workingmen-from-the-socialist-soviet-republic-of-russia-4fb3af5a-effb-4fd5-908c-1056bdc83341.Lenin, V. I. (1918). A Letter to American Workingmen, from the Socialist Soviet Republic of Russia. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/a-letter-to-american-workingmen-from-the-socialist-soviet-republic-of-russia-4fb3af5a-effb-4fd5-908c-1056bdc83341Lenin, Vladimir Il'ich. A Letter to American Workingmen, from the Socialist Soviet Republic of Russia. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/a-letter-to-american-workingmen-from-the-socialist-soviet-republic-of-russia-4fb3af5a-effb-4fd5-908c-1056bdc83341.


