ldness of manner which characterizes the Manifesto
may be attributed to two causes--weakness of the movement and a resulting
lack of assurance, together with a lack of conviction arising from the fact
that many of the leaders, while they hated the Czar and all his works, and
could not reconcile themselves to the idea of making any kind of truce with
their great enemy, nevertheless were pro-Ally and anxious for the defeat of
German imperialism. In other words, these leaders shared the national
feeling against Germany, and, had they been free citizens of a
democratically governed country, would have loyally supported the war.

When the Duma met, on August 8th, for the purpose of voting the war
credits, the Social Democrats of both factions, Bolsheviki and Mensheviki,
fourteen in number,[2] united upon a policy of abstention from voting.
Valentin Khaustov, on behalf of the two factions, read this statement:

A terrible and unprecedented calamity has broken upon the people
of the entire world. Millions of workers have been torn away from
their labor, ruined, and swept away by a bloody torrent. Millions
of families have been delivered over to famine.

War has already begun. While the governments of Europe were
preparing for it, the proletariat of the entire world, with the
German workers at the head, unanimously protested.

The hearts of the Russian workers are with the European
proletariat. This war is provoked by the policy of expansion for
which the ruling classes of all countries are responsible.

The proletariat will defend the civilization of the world against
this attack.

The conscious proletariat of the belligerent countries has not
been sufficiently powerful to prevent this war and the resulting
return of barbarism.

But we are convinced that the working class will find in the
international solidarity of the workers the means to force the
conclusion of peace at an early date. The terms of that peace will
be dictated by the people themselves, and not by the diplomats.

We are convinced that this war will finally open the eyes of the
great masses of Europe, and show them the real causes of all the
violence and oppression that they endure, and that therefore this
new explosion of barbarism will be the last.

As soon as this declaration was read the fourteen members of the Social
Democratic group left the chamber in sil