To this protest we
answered the 11th of November by appealing to all the workers, soldiers
and peasants. In this appeal we declared that under no circumstances
would we permit our army to shed its blood under the club of the foreign
bourgeoisie. We swept aside the threat of the Western imperialists and
took upon ourselves the responsibility for our peace policy before the
international working class. First of all, we published, in accordance
with our promises, made as a matter of principle, the secret treaties
and declared that we would relinquish everything in these treaties that
was against the interests of the masses of the people in all countries.
The capitalist governments made an attempt to make use of our
disclosures against one another, but the masses of the people understood
and recognized us. Not a single social patriotic publication, as far as
we know, dared to protest against having all the methods of diplomacy
radically changed by a government of peasants and workers; they dared
not protest against us for denouncing the dishonest cunning, chicanery
and cheating of the old diplomacy. We made it the task of our diplomacy
to enlighten the masses of the peoples, to open their eyes to the real
meaning of the policy of their governments, in order to weld them
together in a common struggle and a common hatred against the bourgeois
capitalist order. The German bourgeois press accused us of "dragging on"
the peace negotiations; but all nations anxiously followed the
discussions at Brest-Litovsk, and in this way we rendered, during the
two months and a half of peace negotiations, a service to the cause of
peace which was recognized even by the more honest of our enemies.
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