As to the revolutionary organization and its task, the conquest of the power of the state and militarism:  From the praxis of the French Commune of 1871, Marx shows that “the working class cannot simply take over the governmental machinery as built by the bourgeoisie, and use this machinery for its own purposes.”  The proletariat must break down this machinery.  And this has been either concealed or denied by the opportunists.[9] But it is the most valuable lesson of the Paris Commune of 1871 and the Revolution in Russia in 1905.  The difference between us and the Anarchists is, that we admit the state is a necessity in the development of our Revolution.  The difference with the opportunists and the Kautsky[10] disciples is that we claim that we do not need the bourgeois state machinery as completed in the “democratic” bourgeois republics, but the direct power of armed and organized workers.  Such was the character of the Commune of 1871 and of the Council of Workmen and Soldiers of 1905 and 1917.  On this basis we build.[11]

Lenine went on to outline his program of action, which was to begin a new phase of the Revolution; to carry the revolt against Czarism onward against the bourgeoisie.  Notwithstanding his scorn for democracy, he declared at that time that his policy included the establishment of a “democratic republic,” confiscation of the landed estates of the nobility in favor of the peasants, and the opening up of immediate peace negotiations.  But the latter he would take out of the hands of the government entirely.  “Peace negotiations should not be carried on by and with bourgeois governments, but with the proletariat in each of the warring countries.”  In his criticism of Kerensky and Tchcheidze the Bolshevik leader was especially scornful and bitter.

In a letter which he addressed to the Socialists of Switzerland immediately after his departure for Russia, Lenine gave a careful statement of his own position and that of his friends.  It shows an opportunistic attitude of mind which differs from the opportunistic attitude of the moderate Socialists in direction only, not in the quality of being opportunistic: 

Historic conditions have made the Russians, perhaps for a short period, the leaders of the revolutionary world proletariat, but Socialism cannot now prevail in Russia.  We can expect only an agrarian revolution, which will help to create more favorable conditions for further development of the proletarian forces and may result in measures for the control of production and distribution.

The main results of the present Revolution will have to be the creation of more favorable conditions for further revolutionary development, and to influence the more highly developed European countries into action.[12]

The Bolsheviki at this period had as their program the following: