"People of Petrograd! We stand at a most critical hour for the fate of mankind. You, people of Petrograd, though it has not yet been made clear to you, are at the forefront of this process. That which is ancient, rotten, and ossified has reached the natural state- death and extinction. The capitalists not of just Petrograd, not even just of the entire Russian Empire, but of the entire world, have sat upon the workers and soldiers ever since time immemorial. For centuries your ancestors believed their honeyed words and the lies they told you that you might remain happy and content, scarcely conscious of your own oppression, placidly turning the gears which operate the machine oppressing you. Yet you, people of Petrograd, you have taken the first step forward into a world without such cruelty. It is through the collective mass action of the workers of Petrograd that the human race might take its first step into a brave new world. Your own efforts, and the efforts of all the proletariat of Russia, have brought about this General Strike, this refusal to be oppressed and put upon any further.
But the most stringent, fervent expression of the will of the people can not survive if not properly directed. Else it shall become confused, ill-focussed, lacking in purpose and subject to defeat by counter-revolutionary aspects. It is in this, people of Petrograd, that you are lacking. Fortunately, it is far easier to remedy a lack of focus and of ideological knowledge than of raw popular desire for change. Your innate loathing of the capitalist and noble who have lorded over you since time immemorial and feeling that revolution and equity must be achieved at your hands shall serve as the basis for revolution. Armed with this, it shall not be long before we all reap the harvest of socialism.
I now offer the following directives to the masses, that they might serve as future planks not just of the Revolution but of the worker's socialist state which must be its outcome:
1. The specific feature of the present situation in Russia is that it has yet to attain the first stage of the revolution- it remains, contrary to mistaken notions, a pre-revolutionary society by the unreasoning confidence of the masses in the government of tsars and of capitalists, the worst enemies of peace and socialism.. Russia must first experience a revolution to shatter the monarchist institutions and place power in the hands of a coalition, thence to the second stage, which must place power into the hands of the proletariat and the poor strata of the peasantry. This specific situation demands of us the ability to adapt ourselves to the specific requirements of Party work among unprecedented large masses of proletarians who have just awakened to political life.
2. No support must be given to the regime of Xenia Alexandrovna Romanova; the utter falsity of all its promises must be explained, particularly those relating to the liberalisation of political institutions within the monarchist framework. Exposure, and not the unpardonable, illusion- breeding “demand” that this government, a government of capitalists, should cease to be an imperialist government.
3. The fact must be recognized that in most of the unions directing this General Strike our Party is in a minority, and so far in a small minority, as against a bloc of all the petty-bourgeois opportunist elements, who have yielded to the influence of the bourgeoisie and convey its influence to the proletariat. It must be explained to the masses that the Soviet of Workers’ Deputies is the only possible form of revolutionary government, and that therefore our task is, as long as this government yields to the influence of the bourgeoisie, to present a patient, systematic and persistent explanation of the errors of their (the non-Bolshevik socialists) tactics, an explanation especially adapted to the practical needs of the masses. As long as we are in the minority we carry on the work of criticizing and explaining errors and at the same time advocate the necessity of transferring the entire power of state to the Soviets of Workers’ Deputies, so that the masses may by experience overcome their mistakes.
4. A republic of Soviets of Workers’, Agricultural Laborers’ and Peasants’ Deputies throughout the country, from top to bottom. A parliamentary republic may become a necessity under the first stage of revolution, but only as an intermediary measure through which revolutionary government may advance and the masses may become politically enlightened. Abolition of the police, the Army and the bureaucracy. The salaries of all officials, who are to be elected and subject to recall at any time, must not exceed the average wage of a competent worker.
5. in the agrarian program the emphasis must be laid on the Soviets of Agricultural Laborers’ Deputies. Confiscation of all landed estates. Nationalization of all lands in the country, the disposal of the land to be put in charge of the local Soviets of Agricultural Laborers’ and Peasants’ Deputies. The organization of separate Soviets of Deputies of Poor Peasants. The creation of model farms on each of the large estates… under the control of the Agricultural Laborers’ Deputies and for the public account.
6. The immediate amalgamation of all banks in the country into a single national bank, control over which shall be exercised by the Soviet of Workers’ Deputies.
7. Our immediate task is not to “introduce” socialism, but only to bring social production and distribution of products at once under the control of the Soviet of Workers’ Deputies. The present General Strike represents a substantial step forward in that direction.
8. Party tasks:
(a) Immediate summoning of a Party congress.
(b) Alteration of the Party program, mainly on the question of imperialism, on the question of our attitude towards the state and our demand for a “commune state”, and amendment of our antiquated minimum program.
(c) A new name for the Party
9. A new International. Instead of ” Social Democrats”, whose official leaders throughout the world have betrayed socialism … we must call ourselves a Communist Party."