V. I. Lenin
Collected Works, Vol. 31
Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1960, pp. 248-9
"Speech on the Terms of Admission to the Communist International July 30"
"Crispien went on to speak of high wages. The position in Germany, he
said, is that the workers are quite well off compared with the workers
in Russia or in general, in the East of Europe. A revolution, as he sees
it, can be made only if it does not worsen the workers' conditions 'too
much'. Is it permissible, in a Communist Party, to speak in a tone like
this, I ask? This is the language of counter-revolution. . .The workers'
victory cannot be achieved without sacrifices, without a temporary
deterioration of their conditions. We must tell the workers the very
opposite of what Crispien has said. If, in desiring to prepare the
workers for the dictatorship, one tells them that their conditions will
not be worsened 'too much', one is losing sight of the main thing, namely,
that it was by helping their 'own' bourgeoisie to conquer and strangle
the whole world by imperialist methods, with the aim of thereby ensuring
better pay for themselves, that the labor aristocracy developed. If
the German workers now want to work for the revolution they must make
sacrifices, and not be afraid to do so. . . .
"To tell the workers in the handful of rich countries where life is
easier, thanks to imperialist pillage, that they must be afraid of 'too
great' impoverishment, is counter-revolutionary. It is the reverse that
they should be told. The labour aristocracy that is afraid of sacrifices,
afraid of 'too great' impoverishment during the revolutionary struggle,
cannot belong to the Party. Otherwise, the dictatorship is impossible,
especially in West-European countries."
