Krylenko Calls Workers and Peasants to Arms
N. V. Krylenko, Workers and Peasants to Arms. January 11, 1918
Original Source: Sobranie uzakonenii i rasporiazhenii raboche-krestian'skogo pravitel'stva, 1918, No. 13, pp. 202-203.
Comrades: Before the Russian workers and peasants stands the question of defending the conquests of the Revolution and carrying on a holy war against ... the bourgeoisie of Russia, Germany, England, and France ... The bourgeoisie will never forgive the Russian people for making the revolution ... The bourgeoisie is a most cruel beast ... The problem is to form an army of defense.
The old army is not fit for this task. We must have a new army ... of the workers. I call on all men to whom freedom is dear to help form such an army ... Everyone who joins this Socialist, worker-peasant guard, should know that he is entering the ranks of those who are ready to fight and die for the cause. The strictest discipline will be enforced ...
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), p. 568.