The Balkan wars conflicts over colonial policy, growth militarism and the arms race engendered tensions amongst European powers, which threatened to upset the relative equilibrium which had underpinned the European state system since 1870. To prepare himself for the impending war and revolutionary storms Lenin devoted himself to a more intense study of imperialism and the interrelations between nationalities and nations. His writings on these issues constitute some of his best contribution to the deepening and enrichment of Marxist theory. These intensified inter imperialist rivalries ultimately led to war which broke out in 1914. Lenin denounced this war as an imperialist one in which neither side could be supported by the socialist. He was deeply shocked by the position adopted by all the Major European Socialist Parties, the German, Italian and French Parties who all supported their governments and voted for war credits in their countries Parliaments to finance the war effort. Lenin rallied anti-war socialists in other European countries to develop an anti-war Movement and prepare for the building of a new International Socialist Movement. In February 1917, a revolution broke out in Russia which led to the abdication of the Tsar and proclamation of a republic. A provisional Government was set up led by the bourgeois liberal Cadet Party with the support of the moderate Socialists, the Mensheviks and the Social revolutionaries. At the same time there spontaneously emerged the soviets, popularly elected democratic councils, organised and set up by workers and soldiers in the Capital Petrograd and other Russian cities interests. In the countryside, Peasants set up their own soviets to articulate their demands and represents their interests.
Having awoken to political life on a mass scale, the masses were constantly on the move, broadening and deepening the revolutionary process across the country. British Historian, Professor Christopher Read captures torrent of revolution thus “In the rural areas Peasants took the initiative to reduce the rent they paid to the landlords, sowed seed on land abandoned by landowners. Workers set up militias to defend their factories and their homes, massive numbers joined the trade unions factory committees kept a close eye on the Management and even encroached on Managerial functions” (C. Read – Lenin, A revolutionary Life p155). Lenin arrived in Russia from exile in Switzerland at the beginning of April 1917. Shortly after his arrival he presented his “April Theses” to the Bolshevik leadership in which he briefly analysed the political situation and elaborated the Party’s tactics. He pointed out that the “provisional Government had to be overthrown because it was a bourgeois government which could not satisfy the demands of the people...................but that it could not be overthrown immediately because it rested on the trust and confidence of the masses.....The task before the Bolsheviks was to persistently and patiently explain to the masses their error in placing their trust in this Government as well the need to transfer power to the soviets of the workers and soldiers deputies “(V. I.. Lenin – The Tasks of the Proletariat in the Present Revolution Collected works Volume 24 p140 )” Lenin theses were met with vehement opposition not only from the Mensheviks and the social revolutionaries but from sections of the Bolsheviks leadership.On behalf of the old Bolsheviks, Lev Khamenev argued ‘ comrade Lenin’s scheme appears to me to be unacceptable in as much as it proceeds from the assumption that the bourgeois democratic revolution is completed, and builds on the immediate transformation of this revolution into a socialist revolution’(L Kamenev cited in Tony cliff –Lenin volume 2 p 127)After a vigorous debate within Party ranks, Lenin’s theses was adopted at the All Russian 7th Conference of the Bolsheviks Party held towards the end of April.
