V. I.

Lenin

The liquidators are doing their utmost to “unite”. The other day they almost “united” with the Polish Socialist

Party [1] —with its Left wing (Lewica), which is a faction of Polish
social-nationalism.

For more than ten years Polish Social-Democrats have been waging a
struggle against the social-nationalism of the P.S.P. As a result, a
section of the P.S.P. (the Left wing) had some of its nationalist
prejudices knocked out of their heads. But the struggle continues. Polish
worker Social-Democrats are opposed to unity with the above-mentioned faction of the P.S.P. as an organisation because they think
it would be harmful to their cause. Individual workers and groups of the
Left wing, who refuse to stop at a half-way revision of the nationalist
principles of the P.S.P., are joining the ranks of the Social-Democratic
Party. And this is the time when our liquidators are out to “unite” with
the P.S.P. Left wing!

It is just as if the Russian Social-Democrats began, independently of
the Bund, to “unite” with, say, so-called “Socialist-Zionists” [2] or, ignoring the Lettish Social-Democracy,
with the so-called “Lettish Social-Democratic

Union” [3] (actually a Socialist-Revolutionary organisation).

This is apart from the formal aspect of the matter. At the Stockholm
Congress, the Polish Social-Democratic Party concluded an agreement with
the R.S.D.L.P., by which any groups in Poland wishing to join the
R.S.D.L.P. can do so only by joining an organisation of the

P.S.D. [4] And at the All-Russia Conference of the R.S.D.L.P. held in
December 1908, even a proposal to discuss the question of uniting with the
Left wing was voted down by an overwhelming majority.

It is quite clear that, while constantly shouting about “unity”,
Trotsky and his liquidationist friends are actually aggravating the split in Poland. Fortunately for the R.S.D.L.P., this whole band of
liquidators, together with the “conciliators” trailing behind them, is
completely powerless to accomplish anything in practice , and this
refers to Poland as well. Otherwise the amalgamation of the liquidators
with the P.S.P. would certainly cause a very sharp split in Poland.

Why, then, have the liquidators embarked on this obviously adventurist
policy? Certainly not because things are going well with them. The point
is that they are in need of uniting with someone, of forming some sort of
“party”. Social-Democrats, the Polish Social-Democracy, refuse to go
along with them, so, instead of Social-Democrats, they have to take members
of the P.S.P., who have nothing in common with our Party. In the Russian
towns, our old Party organisations refuse to go along with them, so they
have to take, instead of the Social-Democratic nuclei, the so-called
“initiating groups” of liquidators, who have nothing in common with the
R.S.D.L.P.

“ One does not fly from a good life.” Is it not time, liquidator
gentlemen, you started to unite with the Socialist-Revolutionaries (the
Socialist-Revolutionary liquidators ) as well? After all, these
gentlemen, too, seem very anxious to “unite”. What a “broad” party you
would then have! Larin himself would be content. [5]

*     * *
While “uniting” with “foreign powers”, the liquidators continue to bargain with the “conciliators” over the terms of “uniting”
the liquidator-conciliator camp. Mr. V. Levitsky contributed to Nasha Zarya an article which is a sort of manifesto addressed to “all
trends” that are prepared to fight against the recent Conference of the
R.S.D.L.P.

Mr. Levitsky entitled his article “For Unity—Against a
Split”. Quite like Trotsky, isn’t it? Ever since the pro-Party elements
thoroughly rebuffed the liquidators in all the spheres of
activity, Levitsky and Co. have been using a very “conciliatory”
language. Why, they are wholly in favour of “unity”. They only advance the following four modest conditions
for “unity”:

(1) A fight against the Conference of the R.S.D.L.P., which has united
all the Social-Democrats, except a handful of waverers.

(2) The formation, in place of the Party, of “a central initiating group ” (Mr. Levitsky’s italics, Nasha Zarya No. 4,
p. 31). (What is meant by the liquidators’ “initiating” groups has
recently been explained in the press by Plekhanov—see his Dnevnik Sotsial-Demokrata [6] No. 16. Both the Bund and Trotsky, who are
doing service for the liquidators, are concealing Plekhanov’s explanation
from their readers. But you can’t conceal it, gentlemen!)

(3) No revival of the “ politically dead nuclei ” (ibid.,
p. 33).

(4) Acceptance of the slogan “ against the cult of the underground ” (ibid., p. 33).

The programme has been outlined clearly enough if not as frankly and
confidently as in the past. And there and then Levitsky explains at great
length to all the Trotskys:

After all, gentlemen, you have no choice. You had better accept our terms,
and in exchange we (i.e., Levitsky and Co.) will readily agree to the
following: “to console yourselves”, you (i.e., Trotsky and his like) can
say that it is not you who have moved closer to the liquidators, but the
other way round.

Martov, writing in the same issue of Nasha Zarya , threatens in
advance the future Social-Democratic group in the Fourth Duma that if it
turns out to be anti-liquidationist like its crafty predecessor, then
“cases like the Belousov affair [7] will not be exceptions, but the rule”, meaning, in plain
language, that the liquidators will split the Duma group. Your
bark, liquidator gentlemen, is worse than your bite. Had you had the
strength to do so, you would long ago have formed your own liquidationist
group in the Duma.

The cause of “unity” is in good hands, sure enough.

The miserable comedy of “unification” enacted by the liquidators and
Trotsky is repellent to the least exacting people. Unity is being
achieved, only it is not unity with the liquidators, but against
them.

*     * *
As regards the incredibly

Khlestakovian [8] role staged by Trotsky, Lieber (the Bund), and the
liquidators, with their vaunted “Organising Commission”, we think it
sufficient to call the attention of the readers—those who prefer not to
trust words but to verify the points at issue by a serious and careful
study of the documents—to the following facts .

In June 1911, following the withdrawal of Lieber and Igorev from the
meeting of the Central Committee members, the Organising Commission

Abroad [9] was formed in Paris. The first organisation in Russia to be
approached by it was the Kiev organisation. Even Trotsky admits that its
status as an organisation is indisputable. In October 1911, the Kiev
organisation took part in forming the Organising Commission in Russia. In
January 1912 the latter convened the conference of the R.S.D.L.P.

In January 1912, a meeting was held by the representatives of the Bund,
the Central Committee of the Letts and the Caucasian Regional Committee
(all three being liquidationist groups). The Poles withdrew at once , declaring that the whole undertaking was a liquidationist
affair. The “conciliators” and Plekhanov followed suit and refused to join , Plekhanov declaring in Dnevnik Sotsial-Demokrata No. 16
that that conference was being called by the liquidators . It is now June 1912, and yet neither the Bund nor Trotsky
have succeeded in “uniting” anyone , except the Golos and the Vperyod groups; they have not won over a single
serious and indisputable organisation in Russia, have not said a
word to deny the substance of Plekhanov’s statement, nor made the slightest
change in the propaganda conducted by the liquidators in Nasha Zarya and similar press organs.

For all that, there is no end of phrase-mongering and bragging about
“unity”.