From the tsarist empire, the telegraph brings news that yesterday the tsar signed a manifesto offering the prospect of a new constitution.† The famous “Duma” is supposed to be given legislative powers, and “those classes of the population that are now completely deprived of electoral rights” are to be granted the right to vote. Also, the granting of personal inviolability and freedoms of conscience, speech, assembly, and association are supposed to be proclaimed. According to assurances by correspondents working for the privately owned bourgeois press and news dispatches from the semi-official Russian press, the population of the tsarist empire broke out into loud rejoicing and shed bright tears of joy in response to these magnanimous promises made by the supposedly beloved Father of His People to his “loyal subjects” (that phrase, “loyal subjects,” was actually used in Bloody Nicholas’s manifesto!).
We are not in a position at this moment to verify the accuracy or reliability of these news reports. But our inclination in any case is to assume that the reception given to this “resounding” constitutional manifesto from a ruler virtually being held captive at Peterhof‡ by the masses of the people—who are embittered in the extreme and are ready to fight with the utmost determination—was given not so much with tears of joy as with the same kind of grim silence and rumble of anger as the fighting masses of Berlin [in March 1848] responded to the “words of reassurance” from the royal palace: “It is the king’s will that…”§
Thus far, what has come from the blood-smeared hands of the absolutist Angel of Death¶ is not freedom but mere promises, not yet any deeds but only words. There are no grounds at hand for rejoicing or for trumpeting fanfares of victory. In all previous revolutions, in fact, the road from liberal words to liberal deeds has always passed over mountains of corpses, through further battles and terrible sacrifices—with the final outcome always remaining in doubt.
In general and for the most part, the concept of “revolution” is perceived from the vulgar and flatfooted police standpoint in the same way as it appears in the narrow-minded outlook of today’s bourgeoisie: as a series of external adversities for the police and legal system. They would always want to assume that once liberal freedoms were actually granted, along with a truly modern constitution, the revolution in Russia would come to an end.
The enormous crisis going on openly and palpably in the tsarist empire since January of this year is above all an internal social process, the rise and development of a new society within the womb of the old, and here, too, the liberating female, “la Révolution,” is not so much the mother as merely the midwife of the new society.
What the limited bourgeois view sees as the sole aim and meaning of the whole crisis—a liberal constitutional order, a state governed by the “rule of law” in the modern sense—is only the outward expression and product of a deep and ongoing social upheaval-cum-transformation, the shifting and rearrangement of relations among classes, parties, and social strata, processes that have been taking place within the womb of the old society of tsarist Russia.
And, therefore, the promised “granting” of constitutional liberties—even if, we repeat, these words were to become deeds—would fail by far to mark the close of the revolutionary era, but rather it would merely begin another stage in this era, in which new classes would form parties, which would develop and ripen. This would by no means bring to a standstill their elaboration of many-sided positions and struggles for the exercise of power. On the contrary, it would for the first time fully open the way for such processes.
Thus, if yesterday’s constitutional manifesto issued by the last “tsar of all the Russias” were to become a reality, then a new phase of revolutionary struggles would begin tomorrow—perhaps one of much longer duration. And who knows whether it would be less uncompromising than the previous phase of struggles of the working class against the half-baked bourgeois, agrarian, liberal, democratic, and other aspirants to political power and dominance? It [will still] struggle for the establishment, maintenance, expansion and utilization of the rights achieved through its enormous sacrifices.
And yet, in a certain sense, we actually can celebrate! Not a premature and childish victory celebration in the spirit of liberalism, which rejoices at every apparent victory, even if the final outcome is still uncertain—and does so above all as an excuse for withdrawing from the field of battle. No, we really can celebrate, based on recognition of what has been accomplished in a real sense at the present moment. And we can do this even if the agonized blurting out of tsarist promises on a temporary basis is nothing more than a vain attempt by despotism to prolong its doomed existence by stealing one more moment of reprieve. Because now that this manifesto has been announced in such clear-cut terms, it cannot be taken back. It represents a swansong compared to the previous manifesto issued by the tsar [in August]; it tolls the death knell for the entire construct and concept of the “Bułygin Duma.” Even before “elections” could be held for that monster sired by frivolous fellows from the tsar’s regime of blood, that supposed “representative body of the people,” the entire farce of the “Bułygin Duma” was knocked to pieces and blown away by the unanimous rebellion of the urban proletariat throughout the tsarist empire, from Petersburg to Odessa, from Warsaw and Łódź to Krasnoyarsk. It was trampled and ground underfoot, and turned into nothing!
The people have been spared the slow agony of a journey through gradual stages, of having its patience tried by a war of frogs and mice* against the bloody absolutist regime. The road to real freedom has been shortened, opened, and cleared in truly revolutionary fashion.
And this is, without a doubt, the work of the class-conscious vanguard of the proletariat of Russia, the work of Social Democracy!
Just when that memorable first week of January 1905 started the sudden powerful upsurge of the Petersburg proletariat (and immediately after that the massive upsurge of the proletariat of all the industrial cities in the Russian empire)—and just when the “liberal” and “democratic” banquet threatened to run into the ground through its own inadequacy and inner uncertainty—the decisive intervention, the raising of the proletarian fist, brought about one good shove that sent the cart rolling forward again. And so, too, now, just at the moment when Russian liberalism and democracy were ready to stumble over a mere straw (the “Bułygin Duma”) and cause the work of the revolution to collapse and fall into decline for a substantial length of time, the men of the zemstvos (and with them many other “democratic” heroes) were getting ready, with much moaning and groaning, to bite the sour apple of the “Bułygin Duma.” At first, they had rejected it with disdain, [but now will] take part with good grace in the “election,” while issuing many fine consoling and reassuring statements about the glorious liberal “thunderous speech” they intended to blast forth—even though, actually, their lips will be sealed by a ban on publication. This liberal “thunder rumbling” supposedly is in defense of and for the benefit of the people, who would remain on the outside as onlookers [Zaungäste].
It was at this point that the urban working class—now under the conscious and firm leadership of Social Democracy—rose up and said: “No, dear sirs, we prefer to establish some order here, with our own hands.” And one week of intensive agitation and tremendous mass strikes was enough to leave all the promised splendor of the “Bułygin Duma” lying in the dust.
Appearing on the field of battle for the second time with a colossal upsurge at the decisive moment, the industrial proletariat of Russia has shown today, just as it did in the first act of the revolution, that it actually carries the load for the entire revolution and is in fact its only reliable load-bearer.
It was also this proletariat that, during the entire interim period, kept the fire of the revolution going by means of a never-ending guerrilla war. It nourished the revolution with the blood of the working class, keeping it on the right course from the beginning up to this very day, reigniting the revolution over and over again with countless sacrifices.
The revolution in the tsarist empire is still far from having exhausted its strength. It still has powerful forces in reserve. Absolutism has already lost one trump card after another from its hand. Meanwhile, the peasant masses have not really stepped onto the stage, and the revolts in the army have not led to any decisive breakthrough! The most difficult and most important work of the revolution has been done, and the first crucial breaches in the bulwark of tsarism have been made, by the industrial proletariat with the use of its strength and power alone. This has been solely the result of the action of the urban workers.
And how quickly the young giant has grown and stretched itself out! One may well recall the semi-fantastical, mystical image of the proletarian trudging on his pilgrimage to the tsar’s palace on the River Nevá, peacefully and defenselessly, with his wife and child, carrying icons and church banners, only nine months ago—and at the same time one can compare that to the swift, thoroughgoing, purposeful actions carried out by the workers during these last weeks and their unbreakable determination to destroy the “Duma” comedy of the tsarists.
Some may say that the activity of Social Democracy in the tsarist empire thus far has been too incoherent and inadequate—and yet its work, its agitation during the interim period was undeniably the driving force behind this miraculous political growth and ripening of the proletariat, and its call to action gave the signal for the outbreak of this latest decisive battle.
Gone are the icons and prophets. All the mists and fogs of illusion have been dispersed. Clear and certain of its goal, with a fully matured outlook, the proletariat of Russia is on the job, fighting for its own emancipation, engaging in class struggle for its own interests. And because the class-conscious workers through their heroic actions thus far have assured themselves leadership of the mass of the people in the coming battles of this ongoing revolution, we have every reason to celebrate and to cry out with full confidence: Ça ira!* “We are moving on!”