And in addressing ourselves to
all the peoples who are being destroyed and ruined in this terrible war, we
declare that the time has come in which the decisive struggle against the
attempts at conquest by the governments of all the nations must be begun.
The time has come in which the peoples must take the matter of deciding the
questions of war and peace into their own hands.
Conscious of its own revolutionary strength, the democracy of Russia
declares that it will fight with all means against the policy of conquest
of its ruling classes, and it summons the peoples of Europe to united,
decisive action for peace. We appeal to our brothers, to the
German-Austrian coalition, and above all to the German proletariat. The
first day of the war you were made to believe that in raising your weapons
against absolutist Russia you were defending European civilization against
Asiatic despotism. In this many of you found the justification of the
support that was accorded to the war. Now also this justification has
vanished. Democratic Russia cannot menace freedom and civilization.
We shall firmly defend our own liberty against all reactionary threats,
whether they come from without or within.
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