Reminiscences of Lenin by Nadezhda Krupskaya

Author:Nadezhda Krupskaya [Krupskaya, Nadezhda]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Anarcho-communist institute
Published: 2015-05-16T04:00:00+00:00

Berne 1914-1915

* * *

At last, on September 5, we entered Switzerland and proceeded to Berne.

We had not definitely decided vet where we were going to live – in Geneva or Berne. Ilyich felt drawn to the old familiar home – Geneva, where he had worked so well in the old days at the Societe de lecture, where there had been a good Russian library. Our Berne comrades, however, assured us that Geneva had changed a good deal and was now crowded with emigrants from other cities and from France, and the place was a regular hurry-burly. We took a room in Berne for the time being without definitely deciding anything.

Ilyich immediately got in touch with Geneva to find out whether there were any people there who were going to Russia (they had to be made use of for establishing contacts with Russia), whether the Russian printing plant still existed, whether Russian leaflets could be printed there, and so on.

The day after our arrival from Galicia, all the Bolsheviks then living in Berne – Shklovsky, the Safarovs, Duma Deputy Samoilov, Goberman, and others – got together and arranged a conference in the woods, at which Ilyich expounded his views on current events. As a result a resolution was adopted characterizing the war as an imperialist predatory war and the conduct of the leaders of the Second International, who had voted for war credits, as a betrayal of the cause of the proletariat. The resolution stated that "from the point of view of the working class and the toiling masses of all the peoples of Russia the lesser evil would be the defeat of the tsarist monarchy and its armies, which are oppressing Poland, the Ukraine and various other peoples in Russia." The resolution launched the slogan of propaganda for a socialist revolution, civil war, and an implacable struggle against chauvinism and patriotism to be waged in all countries without exception, and outlined a programme of action for Russia, namely, struggle against the monarchy, propaganda for the revolution, the fight for a republic, for the liberation of the nationalities oppressed by the "Great Russians," for the confiscation of the landowners' estates and for the eight-hour day.

The Berne resolution was in substance a challenge to the whole capitalist world. It was not written, of course, to be shelved. It was first of all sent to all the Bolshevik sections abroad. Then Samoilov took the theses with him for discussion with the Central Committee section in Russia and the Duma group. It was not known yet what stand they took Communication with Russia was broken off. We did not learn until later that the Russia section of the Central Committee and the Bolshevik section of the Duma group had struck the right note from the very start. For the advanced workers of our country, for our Party organization, the resolutions of international congresses on the war were not mere scraps of paper. They were a guide to action.

In the early days of the war,

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