Question

During World War I, two revolutions took place in Russia while Russia was at war with Germany. Vladimir Lenin, leader of the Bolshevik Revolution, said: There can be no doubt that our army is absolutely in no condition…to beat back German offensive successfully… Source: V.I. Lenin, Collected Works, 4th English Edition, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1964, p.447. What did this mean/show?

Answer 1

The statement means two things:

The first is that Lenin believed that Russia should withdraw from the war, instead of trying to defeat Germany.

The second is that Lenin realized that the weak state of the Russian army, the lack of popular support of the war, and the general disorder of the tsarist administration were conditions favorable for the emergence of a revolution. In the end, Lenin used this unfavorable conditions to his favor, and was successful in bringing about a revolution that lasted for seven decades.