those who were bourgeois have become workers; there can be no question of war between socialist States. But it is necessary to remember that socialism cannot gain the victory simultaneously in, all the countries of the world. Some countries will, of course, lag behind the others in the matter of abolishing class and of realising socialism. In such circumstances, the countries in which the bourgeoisie has been overthrown and where all the bourgeois have become workers, may have to fight or to be prepared to fight against the bourgeoisies of those States in which the dictatorship of the proletariat has not yet been established; or they may have to give armed assistance to the proletariat of those lands in which the dictatorship of the working class has been inaugurated but in which the struggle with the bourgeoisie has not yet been carried to a successful issue.
62. The Need for the Red Army; its Class Composition.
Most of the socialists who adhere to the Second International consider that socialism can be realised by securing a parliamentary majority. Since the socialists of this calibre were cradled in such ideas, since they were nurtured in the peaceful atmosphere of petty-bourgeois villadom, it was natural that they should give no heed to the possibility of or the need for organising a proletarian army in the period of the fight for socialism. Other socialists, though they recognised the inevitability of a forcible transformation effected by the armed workers, failed nevertheless to foresee that this armed struggle would be long drawn out, that Europe would have to pass through a phase, not only of socialist revolutions, but also of socialist wars. Consequently not one of the socialist programs voiced the need for the organisation of the Red Army, that is to say, of an army consisting of the armed workers and peasants. First in all the world,1 the Russian working class was able to create such an army. We mean that, first in all the world, the Russian workers were able to get a firm grip of the State authority, and were able to defend what they had gained against