LEAFLETS during Russian Revolution

LEAFLETS during Russian Revolution
A collection of Leaflets 1905 - 1917
partly from “The Voice of the Great Revolution” (in Russian) the book consists of leaflets published by the Bolshevik Party from
February 1917 to November 1920

Slander should be exposed’

Leaflet from the Central Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Workers’ Party, countering the charges of being German agents.

July 18 , 1917

To the people of Petrograd!

To workers! To soldiers! To all honest citizens!

Slander should be exposed! Take the slanderers to court!

An unprecedented accusation has been lodged against Comrade Lenin – the charge that he received and still receives money from German sources for his agitation. Newspapers have already aired this monstrous slander. Already we see underground leaflets making reference to the former deputy [Grigory] Alexinsky. They already print calls to murder Bolsheviks. Deceived soldiers are already circulating from hand to hand lists of people who may be exterminated.

The goal is clear. The counter-revolutionaries want to decapitate the revolution by avery simple means, by confusing the minds of the masses and inciting them against their most popular leaders, the tried and tested champions of the revolution.

We declare: all information about Comrade Lenin’s financial ties or other ties to the ruling classes of Germany is a lie and slander.

[Grigory] Alexinsky, who initiated the case, is a notorious slanderer, who has accused many people of having been bribed by the Germans. In France, a union of journalists from Russia, Britain, Italy, and neutral countries already condemned him for dishonesty and malicious slander and excluded him from all the democratic organizations of Paris. He was not admitted to the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies.

We demand that the Provisional Government and the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies institute an immediate public inquiry into all the circumstances of the vile plot of the reactionaries and hired slanderers against the honour and lives of the leaders of the working class.

This entire affair needs to be cleared up. This investigation will convince all the people that there is not even one stain on comrade Lenin’s revolutionary honor.

The slanderers and slandermongers must be brought to trial. The pogromists and liars must be pilloried!”

Central Committee of the RSDWP

Source: A.G. Shliapnikov, Semnadtsatyi god, volume 4, 1931, pp. 282, 300.