The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-04-16
International Issue - New
Lenin War Volume

INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHERS have just
issued, as their fourth title of the series,
volume XVIII of The Collected Works of Y. L.
Lenin, "the Imperialist War" In this book
are contained all of Lenin's writings from the
beginning of the World War to the end of
1915. The war danger makes Lenin's writings
on the most opportune at this time.
Just prior to the outbreak of the war, Lenin,
who had been for many years exile in
Switzerland, moved to Galcia in order to be
nearer Russia and in closer contact with the
Russian Revolutionary movement
The outbreak of the war found Lenin in the
little Galican village of Peronino, nearby the
Russian border. Immediately upon the declara-
ton of hostilties between Austria and the
Cars government, Lenin, aas Russian sub
iect, was suspected of espionage. His house
was searched and his manuscript on the ag-
rarian question taken away from him when
the gendarmes who conducted the search mis-
took statistical tables for secret CODE A
few days LATER he was summoned to the dis
trict seat, arrested and informed. In the next
two weeks his comrades toiled to effect his
release. He was finally given permission to
proceed to neutral territory from which he
could keep in touch with the International So
ciaist movement. He Immediately prepared
for return to Switzerland, the country Of his
long exile.
Thesis on War;
In the time since his confinement his extra
ordinarily active mind had not rested He ar
rive1 in Berne with the outline of his thesis on
the causes of the war already prepared He
came from prison in Galicia on September 5,
1914. On the sixth and seventh he presented
the thesis to a group of Bolsheviks living in
Berne. 1t was adopted in full and carried to
nv of tbo Del
vik deputies to the Duma There, but with
some notifications, it adopted.
In this book Lenin not only analyses the
causes of the war, but also discusses at length
its historic place. "The bourgeois =" he said,
try to assure us that this is the same old
time honored national war. But this is not
true We are now confronted with an i'm
peralst war, and it is the task of the socialists
to turn the national war into civil war"
This, Lenin deemed the greatest necessity He
flayed the socialists who had deserted revolu-
tonary internationalism for a nationalistic
position. "The present war;" he said "shows
what tremendous opportunist wave has risen
from the bottom of European socialism,"
Fight Against Social Chauvinism
In Germany there had been from the first
good deal of internal opposition to the So
ciast vote to support the war. But to preserve
liz
a long time to come out. While Lenin praised
those socialists who opposed war appropria-
TONS he bitterly flayed the party policies. "To
rehabilitate themselves" he said, "the Euro
pean opportunists have resorted to the old
threadbare argument about maintaining the
organization intact The German socialists
have abandoned their position in order to MAIN
tain the formal unity of the Party"
Beside Lenins writings on the causes of the
last war "The Imperialist War" contains num-
erous articles dealing with attempts to organ
ize the international revolutionary forces of
which Lenin had assumed leadership: and which
resulted in the formation of the "Zimmerwald
Left" There is also the complete text of the
brochure Socialism and War" by Lenin and
Alnovlev, stating in systematized form the
Bolshevik position on imperialist war and a
program for action by revolutionary minorities:
and Lenin's own article "Karl Marx" originally
written in 1914 for inclusion in the Russian
Encyclopedia. but there mutilated by reason
OF the censorship The entire ESSAY. in which
Lenin presented in clear and forceful style
the essence of Marxism, is in this book made
available for the first time to English readers.
Like the rest of the International series of
Lenin's Collected Works, "The Imperialist
War; is enriched by numerous biographical and
explanatory notes, a chronology of events and
other reader aid.