3. Why was it necessary to draw up a new program?
A considerable period intervened between 1908 and the revolution of 1917, and during this time circumstances altered profoundly. In Russia, large-scale industry advanced with giant strides, and concomitantly there occurred a great increase in the numbers of the working class. As early as the revolution of 1905, the workers showed their strength. By the time of the second revolution (1917) it had become plain that the victory of the revolution could only be achieved through the victory of the working class. But in 1917 the working class could not be satisfied with that which might have contented it in 1905. The workers had now so fully matured that it was inevitable they should demand the seizure of the factories and workshops, the overthrow of the capitalists, and the establishment of working-class rule. That is to say, since the formulation of the first program there had occurred in Russia a fundamental change in internal conditions. Yet more important is it that in like manner there had taken place a change in external conditions. In the year 1905, “peace and quiet” prevailed throughout Europe. In the year 1917, no intelligent person could fail to see that the world war was leading up to the world revolution. In 1905, the Russian revolution was followed by nothing more than a slight movement among the Austrian workers, and by revolutions in the more backward countries of the east — Persia, Turkey, and China. The Russian revolution of 1917 is being followed by revolutions in the west as well as in the east, by revolutions in which the working class raises its banner on behalf of the overthrow of capitalism. Both at home and abroad, therefore, conditions are very different from those of the year 1908. It would be absurd for the party of the working class to have one and the same program in 1908 and in 1917-19, seeing that now the circumstances are utterly different. When the mensheviks find fault with us on the ground that we have “repudiated” our old program, and that in so doing we have repudiated the teaching of Marx, we reply that the essence of Marx’s teaching is to construct programs,