Leon Trotsky, Speech at the Second Congress of Soviets. November 8, 1917
Original Source: Vtoroi vserossiiskii s”ezd Sovetov rabochikh i soldatskikh deputatov: sbornik dokumentov (Moscow, 1957), pp. 84-87.
A few days ago when the question of the uprising was raised, we were told that we were isolating ourselves, that we were drifting on the rocks … Against us were the counter-revolutionary bands and the different moderate groups. One part of the Socialist-Revolutionaries of the Left worked with us … but the other took a position of waiting neutrality. Nevertheless the revolution … gained an almost bloodless victory. If it had been really true that we were isolated, how did it happen that we conquered so easily? No, it is not true. Not we but the Provisional Government and the democracy, or rather the quasi-democracy, … were isolated from the masses. By their hesitations and compromises they lost contact with the real democracy. It is our great virtue as a party that we have a coalition with the masses … with the workers, soldiers, and poorest peasants.
Political combinations come and go, but the fundamental interests of the classes remain, and the victory goes to the political party that understands and satisfies these fundamental interests … If a coalition is necessary, it must be a coalition with our garrison, especially with the peasants and working classes. Of this kind of a coalition we can be proud. It has stood the test of fire …
Comrade Avilov spoke of the enormous problems before us, and as a solution he proposed a coalition government He did not, however, make it clear just what kind of a coalition he had in mind … A coalition with Dan and Lieber … would weaken rather than strengthen the revolution … Comrade Avilov spoke of a coalition with the peasants. Which peasants? … Today we heard a peasant request … the arrest of Avksentiev. We shall have to decide whether to form a coalition with the peasant … who asks for the arrest of Avksentiev or with Avksentiev himself, who filled the prisons with members of the land committees.
A coalition with the “kulak” we refuse … in the name of the workers and poorest peasants. If the revolution has taught us anything, it has taught us that only through a coalition with the workers and poorest peasants can we succeed. Those who follow the phantom of coalition will in the end lose touch with real life …
Notwithstanding the fact that the defensists of all shades used every means in their struggle against us, we did not turn against them. We proposed that the Congress as a whole should assume authority. Our party held out its hand, with the gunpowder still in it, and said: “Come, let’s seize the power together”; but instead moderate Socialists ran to the City Duma to join the counter-revolutionaries. What are these men but betrayers of the revolution? We shall never form a union with them.
Comrade Avilov said that peace can be attained only through a coalition There are two ways of obtaining peace. One is to bring the Allied and enemy countries face to face with the material and spiritual forces of the revolution, and the other is to form a union with Skobelev and Tereshchenko, which amounts to a complete submission to imperialism. It has been said that in our peace decree we address at the same time both the governments and the people … Of course, we have no hope of having any influence … on the imperialistic governments, but so long as they exist we cannot ignore them. Our whole hope is that our revolution will kindle a European revolution. If the rising of the people does not crush imperialism, then we will surely be crushed. There is no doubt about that. The Russian Revolution will either cause a revolution in the West, or the capitalists of all countries will strangle our revolution. (“There is still a third!” shouts someone.) The third- that’s the course of the Central Executive Committee which holds out one hand to the workers of Western Europe and the other, to the Kishkins and Konovalovs. It is the course of falsehood and hypocrisy which we will never adopt.
We do not say peace will be concluded on the day when the European workers rise. It is possible that the bourgeoisie, frightened by the approaching revolution … will hasten to conclude peace. The day and hour of the rising are not known The important thing is to decide on a course of action. Its underlying principles are the same whether used in foreign or domestic policies, It is this: The Union of the Oppressed Everywhere. That is our course.
The Second Congress of Soviets has worked out a program to be carried through. To all those who really desire to help carry out that program … we say: “Dear comrades, we are brothers-in-arms, we shall be with you to the end.” (Loud applause.)
Source: James Bunyan and H.H. Fisher, ed., Bolshevik Revolution, 1917-1918; Documents and Materials (Stanford: Stanford University Press; H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1934), pp. 135-137.