Part 10 (1/2)
”A rapid peace, one which does not humiliate anybody, a peace without conquests, this is what we must demand. Every effort in this direction must be favourably received. The continuous and simultaneous affirmation of this desire, in all the belligerent countries, can alone put a stop to the b.l.o.o.d.y ma.s.sacre before the complete exhaustion of all the peoples concerned. A peace based upon the international solidarity of the working cla.s.s and on the liberty of all the peoples can alone be a lasting peace. It is in this sense that the proletariats of all countries must furnish, even in the course of this war, a Socialist effort for peace.
”But my protest is against the war, against those who are responsible for it, against those who direct it; it is against the capitalist policy which gave it birth; it is directed against the capitalist objects pursued by it, against the plans of annexation, against the violation of the neutrality of Belgium and Luxemburg, against military dictators.h.i.+p, against the total oblivion of social and political duties of which the Government and ruling cla.s.ses are still to-day guilty. For this reason, I reject the military credits asked for.”--_From the ”Daily News,”
December 14, 1914._
”KARL LIEBKNECHT.
”BERLIN, _December 2_.”
DANGER OF RUSSIA.
The following is the text of the resolution pa.s.sed by the Central Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Party in reply to M.
Vandervelde's appeal on behalf of the Allied cause:--
”We recognize the anti-democratic character of the Prussian hegemony, but as Russian Social Democrats we cannot forget another enemy of the workers, and no less dangerous--Russian absolutism. In home affairs this enemy remains what it always has been, a merciless oppressor and an unceasing exploiter. Even at the present moment, when we should have thought this despotism would be more cautious, it remains the same and continues the political persecution of the democracy, and of all subject nationalities. To-day all Socialist journals are stopped, all working cla.s.s organizations are disbanded, many hundreds of members are arrested, and our brave comrades are sent to exile just as before.
Should this war end in victory for our present Government, it will become the centre and mainstay of international reaction.... Our immediate objective should be the convocation of a Const.i.tutional a.s.sembly. We demand this in the interests of the same European democracy on whose behalf you appeal. Our party is a very important section of the world's democracies, and by fighting for our interests we are at the same time fighting for the interests of all democracies, enlarging and strengthening them. We hope that our interests are not considered as opposed to those of other European democracies which we esteem as highly as our own. We are persuaded that Russian absolutism is the chief support of reactionary militarism in Europe, and that it has bred in the German hegemony the dangerous enmity towards European democracy.”
LETTER ON RUSSIA FROM P. KROPOTKIN.
”'But what about the danger of Russia?' my readers will probably ask.
”To this question, every serious person will probably answer, that when you are menaced by a great, very great danger, the first thing to do is to combat this danger, and then see to the next. Belgium and a good deal of France _are_ conquered by Germany, and the whole civilization of Europe is menaced by its iron fist. Let us cope first with this danger.
”As to the next, Is there anybody who has not thought himself that the present war, in which all parties in Russia have risen unanimously against the common enemy, will render a return to the autocracy of old materially impossible? And then, those who have seriously followed the revolutionary movement of Russia in 1905 surely know what were the ideas which dominated in the First and Second, approximately freely elected Dumas. They surely know that complete Home Rule for all the component parts of the Empire was a fundamental point of all the Liberal and Radical parties. More than that: Finland then actually _accomplished_ her revolution in the form of a democratic autonomy, and the Duma approved it.
”And finally, those who know Russia and her last movement certainly feel that _autocracy will never more be re-established in the forms it had before_ 1905, _and that a Russian Const.i.tution could never take the Imperialist forms and spirit which Parliamentary rule has taken in Germany_. As to us, who know Russia from the inside, we are sure that the Russians never will be capable of becoming the aggressive, warlike nation Germany is. Not only the whole history of the Russians shows it, but with the Federation which Russia is _bound to_ become in the very near future, such a warlike spirit would be absolutely incompatible.”--_Quoted in ”Freedom,” also in the ”Manchester Guardian,”
October, 1914_.
THE FUTURE OF EUROPE.
_Portion of a letter written by P. Kropotkin to Mr. R.J. Kelly, K.C., of Dublin, December 15, 1915._
”The same for the South Slavs and for all nationalities oppressed in Europe. When the last Balkan War had shown the inner power of the South Slavs, I greeted in it the disintegration of the Turkish Empire, which would be followed by the disintegration of the three other Empires--Austria, Russia, and Germany--so as to open the way for two, three, or more federations. A South Slavonic federation--the Balkan United State was the dream of Bakunin--would be followed by a free Poland, free Finland, Free Caucasia, free Siberia, federated for peace purposes. Yes, dear Mr. Kelly, you are right, we are on the eve of great events in Europe. Warmest wishes that this should become a reality, or receive a sound beginning of realization, during the coming new year, and my very best wishes to you of health and vigour.--Sincerely yours,
”P. KROPOTKIN.”
SERVIA.