V. I. Lenin

Letter to the Executive of the German Social-Democratic Party {3}

Dear Comrades!

On the proposal of the Central Committee, the conference of representatives of
the C.C. and local workers in Russia operating in various branches of
Social-Democratic activity, has discussed your letter of December 28, 1912,
stating your desire to “call a conference and direct debates”.

While expressing gratitude for your attention to our Party affairs, the
conference has unanimously decided to reject your proposal.

We Russian revolutionary Social-Democrats have very great respect for the party
of the German revolutionary proletariat. We want the most fraternal relations to
exist between the Russian and the German Social-Democratic parties. Being
unwilling, therefore, to leave any misunderstanding, we shall try to make a
frank statement to you, dear comrades, of the motives by which we were guided in
rejecting your proposal.

Let us start, for instance, with the aim of your projected conference.

You believe that it should have the aim “to work out a common party
programme and organisational rules,” and invite us to inform you of our
draft for the one and the other.

But our Party has had a Party programme for a long time. Back in 19Q3, i.e., ten
years ago, our programme was approved by our Party’s Second
Congress. Since then hundreds of thousands, and in the revolutionary years,
millions of proletarians in Russia have proved their loyalty to this programme
by fighting under our Party’s standard. We remain true to this programme
today. We believe its revision to be quite superfluous.

For your information we wish to tell you that up to now not even the
liquidators have demanded any revision of the Party programme—at any rate
they have not done so openly.

Efforts to reach agreement by different groups and groupings concerning a new
programme imply the absence of a party . But the R.S.D.L.P. is there , and the working class of Russia continues to struggle under its standard. Our Party has faced and
partially still faces some very hard times. But it has not ceased to exist for a
single minute—contrary to the liquidators’ assertions. Only the latter
(i.e., men outside the Party) will find acceptable any negotiations on working
out some new Party programme—apparently for some new party. (What has
been said applies, with slight modifications, to the working out of a new set of
Party rules.)

Furthermore, we are divided from the liquidators by profound differences of
principle—above all on the question of another revolution in Russia. Our
Party (including the pro-Party Mensheviks, with G. V. Plekhanov at
their head) takes the stand that the working class of Russia and its Party must
work for a new revolution in Russia which alone could bring our country true
political freedom. That is precisely what the liquidators deny. All their
tactics are based on the assumption that development in Russia will take a more
or less peaceful constitutional way.

You will easily understand, dear comrades, that from these cardinal
differences inevitably flows a series of contradictions on all questions of
Party work. The liquidators repudiate our present R.S.D.L.P., which can now
exist only illegally (although it is capable of conducting and does conduct legal Social-Democratic work in many branches). The liquidators
have been trying to wreck our present organisation in the hope of establishing
a legal labour party in present-day Russia. (Let us note here that even the
liberal Cadets have been unable to secure legal status for their party.) Hence
the split, which is entirely and exclusively the work of the liquidators.

Very naturally these disputes, these cardinal differences can be resolved
only by the conscious Russian workers themselves, only by
our own Russian
Social-Democratic organisations and no one else .

In fact, the Russian workers have already taken a long step in that direction.

The recent election to the Fourth Duma has shown that the Russian proletariat is
overwhelmingly behind the standpoint taken by our old Party with its
revolutionary programme and tactics.

All six deputies elected under the law from the workers’ curia are Bolsheviks .

These six deputies represent nine-tenths of working-class Russia and
they have openly declared themselves to be opposed to the liquidators.

Russia’s first working-class Social-Democratic daily (the
St. Petersburg Pravda ) was founded and is kept going by the
workers themselves, on the pennies of the workers, namely, workers
belonging to the same (Bolshevik) trend. Consequently, the unity of the
vast majority of workers is being created in action, at the grass
roots, in the depths of the, working mass. That is the only unity
that is vital, and it alone will lead to the complete cohesion of the
workers’ forces.

We shall not conceal from you, comrades, that in the given
circumstances we regard mediation by the German
Parteivorstand {1} as being altogether unacceptable. Either for lack of information or for
some other reason, the Vorstand has not displayed impartiality in respect
of the liquidators and us. Let us recall at least these two facts.

1) The Central Organ of the fraternal German Party
( Vorw\"arts ) {4} sets aside whole columns for gross attacks by
the liquidators on our January 1912 Party Conference, whereas we are being
denied the opportunity of inserting even a purely factual refutation, which
is a violation of the most elementary duties in respect of us.

2) During the election campaign, the Vorstand, despite our protests,
gave cash assistance to the liquidators, but denied it to the Central
Committee. The Vorstand gave a subsidy to the Bund, to the Caucasian
Regional
Committee {5} and the Latvians, i.e. , the liquidator
O.C., {6} because everyone knows that it is these three organisations
that mainly constitute the liquidator O.C. And the liquidators used the
German workers’ money to start their publication of a
Konkurrenzorgan {2}
Luch in St. Petersburg, whose first issue appeared on the very day of the election and helped to aggravate the split.

To give cash assistance to one side against the other during a split is
a step absolutely unheard of throughout the International.

Having taken such a step, the Vorstand issued a challenge to the supporters
of the January Conference and showed that it was unable to remain
impartial.

It is with deep regret that we must frankly tell you, comrades, that
the German comrades’ supply of information concerning Russian affairs is
thoroughly defective . This also explains your various proposals,
such as a conference of 12 “trends” (small semi-student groups abroad),
ignoring the organisations in Russia, or the plan to call together five
organisations, etc. This also explains the bare faced attempts on the part
of the liquidators simply to deceive you: for example, their attempt to
obtain money from you on the strength of the allegation that in the summer
of 1912 the Bolsheviks of Kharkov and Moscow united with the
liquidators. Actually, however, it is in Kharkov and Moscow that
Bolsheviks, implacable opponents of liquidationism (deputies Muranov and
Malinovsky), were elected, and they were elected in the struggle
with the latter. This also explains why during the elections you gave cash
aid to the groups (the Bund, P.P.S., P.S.D. {7} ) which clashed sharpest at the election and which produced
from their midst Jagiello, the only deputy not to be accepted as a
full-fledged member of the Social-Democratic group, and who was admitted by
the slimmest majority of 7 votes to 6.

It is high time, comrades, to put an end to all this. Instead of
listening to incompetent informants, you must open the pages of your organs
for an objective explanation of the state of affairs in the Russian
Social-Democratic Labour Party and for its illumination in the light of
principle, namely, for articles signed by responsible spokesmen of the
several Party groups.

If you want to know about our affairs, you must draw your information
about them from documents and literature, as you do, for instance, in
following the struggle of various trends in Italy, Britain, etc. Otherwise,
you will unwittingly take steps which may frequently be seen by Russian
workers as a quite undeserved affront.