Written in June and July 1905, Lenin here set forth his basic views on the bourgeois revolution in Russia, on which serious differences had developed with the Mensheviks. The revolution was then in progress, and Lenin felt the need for a clear understanding of the character and driving forces of that revolution, the role of the working class in it, the revolutionary prospects, and the tactics arising from this analysis.

Here is developed in full the concept of the revolutionary democratic government of the proletariat and the peasantry and the path of transition from the bourgeois democratic to the socialist revolution. The views elucidated in this work were followed by the Bolsheviks in the Russian Revolution of 1905-1907, which Lenin later called the "dress rehearsal" for the Revolution of 1917.

To help the reader understand Lenin's numerous references to the events and personages of the time and his historical comparisons, explanatory notes have been supplied by the editors.