The questions of the present-day working-class movement are
in many respects vexed questions, particularly for representatives of that
movement’s recent past (i. e., of the stage which historically has just
drawn to a close). This applies primarily to the questions of so-called
factionalism, splits, and so forth. One often hears intellectuals in the
working-class movement making nervous, feverish and almost hysterical
appeals not to raise these vexed questions. Those who have experienced the
long years of struggle between the various trends among Marxists since
1900—01, for example, may naturally think it superfluous to repeat many of
the arguments on the subject of these vexed questions.

But there are not many people left today who took part in the
fourteen-year-old conflict among Marxists (not to speak of the eighteen- or
nineteen-year-old conflict, counting from the moment the first symptoms of
Economism appeared). The vast majority of the workers who now make up the
ranks of the Marxists either do not remember the old conflict, or have
never heard of it. To the overwhelming majority (as, incidentally, was
shown by the opinion poll held by our journal [5] ), these vexed questions are a matter of exception ally great
interest. We therefore intend to deal with these questions, which have been
raised as it were anew (and for the younger generation of the
workers they are really new) by Trotsky’s “non-factional workers’
journal”, Borba .

I. “FACTIONALISM”

Trotsky calls his new journal “non-factional”. He puts this word in
the top line in his advertisements; this word is stressed by him in every
key, in the editorial articles of Borba itself, as well as in the
liquidationist Severnaya Rabochaya Gazeta , which carried an
article on Borba by Trotsky before the latter began publication.

What is this “non-factionalism”?

Trotsky’s “workers’ journal” is Trotsky’s journal for workers, as there is not a trace in it of either workers’ initiative, or
any connection with working-class organisations. Desiring to write in a
popular style, Trotsky, in his journal for workers, explains for the
benefit of his readers the meaning of such foreign words as “territory”,
“factor”, and so forth.

Very good. But why not also explain to the workers the meaning of the
word “non-factionalism”? Is that word more intelligible than the
words “territory” and “factor”?

No, that is not the reason. The reason is that the label
“non-factionalism” is used by the worst representatives of the worst
remnants of factionalism to mislead the younger generation of
workers. It is worth while devoting a little time to explaining this.

Group-division was the main distinguishing feature of the
Social-Democratic Party during a definite historical period. Which period?
From 1903 to 1911.

To explain the nature of this group-division more clearly we must
recall the concrete conditions that existed in, say, 1906—07. At that time
the Party was united, there was no split, but group-division existed,
i. e., in the united Party there were virtually two groups, two
virtually separate organisations. The local workers’ organisations were
united, but on every important issue the two groups devised two sets of
tactics. The advocates of the respective tactics disputed among themselves
in the united workers’ organisations (as was the case, for example, during
the discussion of the slogan: a Duma, or Cadet, Ministry, in 1906, or
during the elections of delegates to the London Congress in 1907), and
questions were decided by a majority vote . One group was defeated
at the Stockholm Unity Congress (1906), the other was defeated at the
London Unity Congress (1907).

These are commonly known facts in the history of organised Marxism in
Russia.

It is sufficient to recall these commonly known facts to realise what
glaring falsehoods Trotsky is spreading.

For over two years, since 1912, there has been no factionalism
among the organised Marxists in Russia, no disputes over tactics in
united organisations, at united conferences and congresses. There is a complete break between the

Party, which in January 1912 formally announced that the liquidators do not belong to it, and the liquidators. Trotsky often calls this state
of affairs a “split”, and we shall deal with this appellation separately
later on. But it remains an undoubted fact that the term “factionalism”
deviates from the truth .

As we have said, this term is a repetition, an uncritical,
unreasonable, senseless repetition of what was true yesterday ,
i. e., in the period that has already passed. When Trotsky talks to us
about the “chaos of factional strife” (see No. 1, pp. 5, 6, and many
others) we realise at once which period of the past his words
echo.

Consider the present state of affairs from the viewpoint of the young
Russian workers who now constitute nine-tenths of the organised Marxists in
Russia. They see three mass expressions of the different views, or
trends in the working-class movement: the Pravdists, gathered around a
newspaper with a circulation of 40,000; the liquidators (15,000
circulation) and the Left Narodniks (10,000 circulation). The circulation
figures tell the reader about the mass character of a given tenet.

The question arises; what has “chaos” got to do with it? Everybody
knows that Trotsky is fond of high-sounding and empty phrases. But the
catchword “chaos” is not only phrase-mongering; it signifies
also the transplanting, or rather, a vain attempt to transplant,
to Russian soil, in the present period, the relations that existed
abroad in a bygone period. That is the whole point.

There is no “chaos” whatever in the struggle between the Marxists and
the Narodniks. That, we hope, not even Trotsky will dare to
deny. The struggle between the Marxists and the Narodniks has been going on
for over thirty years, ever since Marxism came into being. The cause of
this struggle is the radical divergence of interests and viewpoints of two
different classes, the proletariat and the peasantry. If there is any
“chaos” anywhere, it is only in the heads of cranks who fail to
understand this.

What, then, remains? “Chaos” in the struggle between the Marxists and
the liquidators? That, too, is wrong, for a struggle against a
trend , which the entire Party recognised as a trend and condemned
as far back as 1908, cannot be called chaos. And everybody who has the least concern for the history of
Marxism in Russia knows that liquidationism is most closely and inseverably
connected, even as regards its leaders and supporters, with Menshevism
(1903—08) and Economism (1894—1903). Consequently, here, too, we have a
history extending over nearly twenty years. To regard the history of one’s
own Party as “chaos” reveals an unpardonable empty-headedness.

Now let us examine the present situation from the point of view of Paris or Vienna. At once the whole picture
changes. Besides the Pravdists and liquidators, we see no less than five Russian groups claiming membership of one and the same
Social-Democratic Party: Trotsky’s group, two Vperyod groups, the
“pro-Party Bolsheviks” and the “pro-Party
Mensheviks”. [6] All Marxists in Paris and in Vienna (for the purpose
of illustration I take two of the largest centres) are perfectly well aware
of this.

Here Trotsky is right in a certain sense; this is indeed
group-division, chaos indeed!

Groups within the Party, i. e., nominal unity (all claim to
belong to one Party) and actual disunity (for, in fact, all the groups are
independent of one another and enter into negotiations and agreements with
each other as sovereign powers).

“Chaos”, i. e., the absence of (1) objective and verifiable proof that these groups are linked with the
working-class movement in Russia and (2) absence of any data to enable us to judge the actual ideological and
political physiognomy of these groups. Take a period of two full
years—1912 and 1913. As everybody knows, this was a period of the revival
and upswing of the working-class movement, when every trend or tendency of
a more or less mass character (and in politics this mass character
alone counts) could not but exercise some influence on the Fourth
Duma elections, the strike movement, the legal newspapers, the trade
unions, the insurance election campaign, and so on. Throughout those two
years, not one of these five groups abroad asserted itself in the slightest
degree in any of the activities of the mass working-class movement
in Russia just enumerated!

That is a fact that anybody can easily verify.

And that fact proves that we were right in calling Trotsky a
representative of the “worst remnants of factionalism”.

Although he claims to be non-factional, Trotsky is known to everybody
who is in the least familiar with the working-class movement in Russia as
the representative of “Trotsky’s faction ”. Here we have
group-division, for we see two essential symptoms of it:
(1) nominal recognition of unity and (2) group segregation in fact. Here there are remnants of group-division,
for there is no evidence whatever of any real connection with the mass
working-class movement in Russia.

And lastly, it is the worst form of group-division, for there is
no ideological and political definiteness. It cannot be denied
that this definiteness is characteristic of both the Pravdists (even our
determined opponent L. Martov admits that we stand “solid and
disciplined” around universally known formal decisions on all questions)
and the liquidators (they, or at all events the most prominent of them,
have very definite features, namely, liberal, not Marxist).

It cannot be denied that some of the groups which, like Trotsky’s,
really exist exclusively from the Vienna-Paris, but by no means from the
Russian, point of view, possess a degree of definiteness. For example, the
Machist theories of the Machist Vperyod group are definite; the emphatic repudiation of these theories and defence of
Marxism, in addition to the theoretical condemnation of liquidationism, by
the “pro-Party Mensheviks”, are definite.

Trotsky, however, possesses no ideological and political definiteness,
for his patent for “non-factionalism”, as we shall soon see in greater
detail, is merely a patent to flit freely to and fro, from one
group to another.

To sum up:

1)
Trotsky does not explain, nor does he understand, the historical
significance of the ideological disagreements among the various
Marxist trends and groups, although these disagreements run through the
twenty years’ history of Social Democracy and concern the fundamental
questions of the present day (as we shall show later on); 2)
Trotsky fails to understand that the main specific features of
group-division are nominal recognition of unity and actual
disunity; 3)
Under cover of “non-factionalism” Trotsky is championing the interests of
a group abroad which particularly lacks definite principles, and has no
basis in the working-class movement in Russia.

All that glitters is not gold. There is much glitter and sound in
Trotsky’s phrases, but they are meaningless.

II. THE SPLIT

“Although there is no group-division, i. e., nominal recognition of
unity, but actual disunity, among you, Pravdists, there is something worse,
namely, splitting tactics,” we are told. This is exactly what Trotsky
says. Unable to think out his ideas or to get his arguments to hang
together, he rants against group-division at one moment, and at the next
shouts: “Splitting tactics are winning one suicidal victory after
another”. (No. 1, p. 6.)

This statement can have only one mending: “The Pravdists are
winning one victory after another” (this is an objective, verifiable fact,
established by a study of the mass working-class movement in Russia during,
say, 1912 and 1913), but I, Trotsky , denounce the Pravdists
(1) as splitters, and (2) as suicidal politicians.

Let us examine this.

First of all we must express our thanks to Trotsky. Not long ago (from
August 1912 to February 1914) he was at one with F. Dan, who, as is well
known, threatened to “ kill ” anti-liquidationism, and called upon
others to do so. At present Trotsky does not threaten to “kill” our trend
(and our Party—don’t be angry, Citizen Trotsky, this is true!), he only
prophesies that it will kill itself !

This is much milder, isn’t it? It is almost “non-factional”, isn’t
it?

But joking apart (although joking is the only way of retorting mildly
to Trotsky’s insufferable phrase-mongering).

“Suicide” is a mere empty phrase, mere “Trotskyism”.

Splitting tactics are a grave political accusation. This accusation is
repeated against us in a thousand different keys by the liquidators and by
all the groups enumerated above, who, from the point of view of Paris and
Vienna, actually exist.

And all of them repeat this grave political accusation in an amazingly
frivolous way. Look at Trotsky. He admitted that “splitting tactics are
winning [read: the Pravdists are winning] one suicidal victory after
another”. To this he adds:

“ Numerouss advanced workers, in a state of utter political bewilderment, themselves often become active agents of a split .” (No. 1, p. 6.)

Are not these words a glaring example of irresponsibility on this
question?

You accuse us of being splitters when all that we see in front of us in
the arena of the working-class movement in Russia is liquidationism. So you
think that our attitude towards liquidationism is wrong? Indeed,
all the groups abroad that we enumerated above, no matter how much
they may differ from each other, are agreed that our attitude towards
liquidationism is wrong, that it is the attitude of “splitters”. This,
too, reveals the similarity (and fairly close political kinship) between
all these groups and the liquidators.

If our attitude towards liquidationism is wrong in theory, in
principle, then Trotsky should say so straightforwardly , and state
definitely , without equivocation, why he thinks it is wrong. But
Trotsky has been evading this extremely important point for years .

If our attitude towards liquidationism has been proved wrong in
practice, by the experience of the movement, then this experience should be
analysed; but Trotsky fails to do this either. “Numerous advanced
workers,” he admits, “become active agents of a split” (read:
active agents of the Pravdist line, tactics, system and organisation).

What is the cause of the deplorable fact, which, as Trotsky admits, is
confirmed by experience, that the advanced workers, the
numerous advanced workers at that, stand for Pravda ?

It is the “utter political bewilderment” of these advanced workers,
answers Trotsky.

Needless to say, this explanation is highly flattering to Trotsky, to
all five groups abroad, and to the liquidators. Trotsky is very fond of
using, with the learned air of the expert, pompous and high-sounding
phrases to explain historical phenomena in a way that is flattering to Trotsky. Since
“numerous advanced workers” become “active agents” of a political and
Party line which does not conform to Trotsky’s line, Trotsky settles the
question unhesitatingly, out of hand: these advanced workers are “in a
state of utter political bewilderment”, whereas he, Trotsky, is evidently
“in a state” of political firmness and clarity, and keeps to the right
line!... And this very same Trotsky, beating his breast, fulminates against
factionalism, parochialism, and the efforts of intellectuals to impose
their will on the workers!

Reading things like these, one cannot help asking oneself:
is it from a lunatic asylum that such voices come?

The Party put the question of liquidationism, and of condemning it,
before the “advanced workers” as far back as 1908, while the question of
“splitting” away from a very definite group of liquidators (namely, the
Nasha Zarya group), i. e., that the only way to build up the Party
was without this group and in opposition to it—this question was
raised in January 1912, over two years ago. The overwhelming majority of
the advanced workers declared in favour of supporting the
“January (1912) line”. Trotsky himself admits this fact when he talks
about “victories” and about “numerous advanced workers”. But Trotsky
wriggles out of this simply by hurling abuse at these advanced
workers and calling them “splitters” and “politically bewildered”!

From these facts sane people will draw a different conclusion. Where
the majority of the class-conscious workers have rallied around
precise and definite decisions, there we shall find unity of
opinion and action, there we shall find the Party spirit, and the Party.

Where we see liquidators who have been “removed from office” by the
workers, or half a dozen groups outside Russia, who for two years have
produced no proof that they are connected with the mass working-class
movement in Russia, there, indeed, we shall find bewilderment and
splits . In now trying to persuade the workers not to carry out the decisions of that “united whole”, which the Marxist Pravdists
recognise, Trotsky is trying to disrupt the movement and cause a
split.

These efforts are futile, but we must expose the arrogantly conceited
leaders of intellectualist groups, who, while causing splits themselves,
are shouting about others causing splits; who, after sustaining utter defeat at the hands of the “advanced workers” for the past two years
or more, are with incredible insolence flouting the decisions and
the will of these advanced workers and saying that they are
“politically bewildered”. These are entirely the methods of
Nozdrev, [7] or of “Judas”
Golovlyov. [8]

In reply to these repeated outcries about a split and in fulfilment of
my duty as a publicist, I will not tire of repeating precise ,
unrefuted and irrefutable figures. In the Second Duma, 47 per cent of the
deputies elected by the worker curia were Bolsheviks, in the Third Duma 50
per cent were Bolsheviks, and in the Fourth Duma 67 per cent.

There you have the majority of the “advanced workers”, there you have
the Party; there you have unity of opinion and action of the majority of
the class-conscious workers.

To this the liquidators say (see Bulkin, L. M., in Nasha Zarya
No. 3) that we base our arguments on the Stolypin curias. This is a foolish
and unscrupulous argument. The Germans measure their successes by the
results of elections conducted under the Bismarckian electoral law, which
excludes women. Only people bereft of their senses would reproach the
German Marxists for measuring their successes under the existing
electoral law, without in the least justifying its reactionary
restrictions.

And we, too, without justifying curias, or the curia system, measured
our successes under the existing electoral law. There were curias
in all three (Second, Third and Fourth) Duma elections; and within
the worker curia, within the ranks of Social-Democracy, there was
a complete swing against the liquidators. Those who do not wish to
deceive themselves and others must admit this objective fact, namely, the
victory of working-class unity over the liquidators.

The other argument is just as “clever”: “Mensheviks and liquidators
voted for (or took part in the election of) such and-such a Bolshevik.”
Splendid! But does not the same thing apply to the 53 per cent
non-Bolshevik deputies re turned to the Second Duma, and to the 50 per cent
returned to the Third Duma, and to the 33 per cent returned to the Fourth Duma?

If, instead of the figures on the deputies elected, we could obtain the
figures on the electors, or workers’ delegates, etc., we would gladly quote
them. But these more detailed figures are not available, and
consequently the “disputants” are simply throwing dust in people’s eyes.

But what about the figures of the workers’ groups that assisted the
newspapers of the different trends? During two years (1912 and
1913), 2,801 groups assisted Pravda , and 750 assisted
Luch . [1]

These figures are verifiable and nobody has attempted to disprove them.

Where is the unity of action and will of the majority of the
“advanced workers”, and where is the flouting of the will of the
majority?

Trotsky’s “non-factionalism” is, actually, splitting tactics, in that
it shamelessly flouts the will of the majority of the workers.

III. THE BREAK-UP OF THE AUGUST BLOC

But there is still another method, and a very important one, of
verifying the correctness and truthfulness of Trotsky’s accusations about
splitting tactics.

You consider that it is the “Leninists” who are splitters? Very well,
let us assume that you are right.

But if you are, why have not all the other sections and groups proved
that unity is possible with the liquidators without the
“Leninists”, and against the “splitters”?... If we are splitters, why have not you, uniters, united among yourselves, and with the
liquidators? Had you done that you would have proved to the workers by deeds that unity is possible and beneficial!...

Let us go over the chronology of events.

In January 1912, the “Leninist” “splitters” declared that they were
a Party without and against the liquidators.

In March 1912, all the groups and “factions”: liquidators,
Trotskyists, Vperyodists, “pro-Party Bolsheviks” and “pro-Party

Mensheviks”, in their Russian news sheets and in the columns of the German
Social-Democratic newspaper Vorw\"arts, united against these
“splitters”. All of them unanimously, in chorus, in unison and in one
voice vilified us and called us “usurpers”, “mystifiers”, and other no
less affectionate and tender names.

Very well, gentlemen! But what could have been easier for you than to
unite against the “usurpers” and to set the “advanced workers”
an example of unity ? Do you mean to say that if the advanced
workers had seen, on the one hand, the unity of all against the usurpers,
the unity of liquidators and non-liquidators, and on the other,
isolated “usurpers”, “splitters”, and so forth; they would not
have supported the former?

If disagreements are only invented, or exaggerated, and so forth, by
the “Leninists”, and if unity between the liquidators, Plekhanovites,
Vperyodists, Trotskyists, and so forth, is really possible , why
have you not proved this during the past two years by your own
example?

In August 1912, a conference of “uniters” was convened. Disunity started at once: the Plekhanovites refused to
attend at all; the Vperyodists attended, but walked out after protesting
and exposing the fictitious character of the whole business.

The liquidators, the Letts, the Trotskyists (Trotsky and Semkovsky),
the Caucasians, and the Seven “united”. But did they? We stated at the
time that they did not, that this was merely a screen to cover up
liquidationism. Have the events disproved our statement?

Exactly eighteen months later, in February 1914, we found:

1.
that the Seven was breaking up. Buryanov had left them.

2.
that in the remaining new “Six”, Chkheidze and Tulyakov, or somebody
else, could not see eye to eye on the reply to be made to Plekhanov. They
stated in the press that they would reply to him, but they could not .

3.
that Trotsky, who for many months had practically vanished from the columns
of Luck , had broken away , and had started “his own” journal, Borba . By calling this journal “non-factional”, Trotsky
clearly (clearly to those who are at all familiar with the subject) intimates that in his, Trotsky’s,
opinion, Nasha Zarya and Luch had proved to be “factional”, i. e., poor uniters.

If you are a uniter, my dear Trotsky, if you say that it is possible to
unite with the liquidators, if you and they stand by the “fundamental
ideas formulated in August 1912” ( Borba No. 1, p. 43, Editorial
Note), why did not you yourself unite with the liquidators in
Nasha Zarya and Luch ?

When, before Trotsky’s journal appeared, Severnaya Rabochaya Gazeta published some scathing comment stating that the physiognomy of
this journal was “unclear” and that there had been “quite a good deal of
talk in Marxist circles” about this journal, Put Pravdy
(No. 37) [2] was naturally obliged to expose this falsehood. It said: “There has been
talk in Marxist circles” about a secret memorandum written by Trotsky
against the Luch group; Trotsky’s physiognomy and his breakaway from the August bloc were perfectly “clear”.

4.
An, the well-known leader of the Caucasian liquidators, who had attacked
L. Sedov (for which he was given a public wigging by F. Dan and Co.), now
appeared in Borba . It remains “unclear” whether the Caucasians
now desire to go with Trotsky or with Dan.

5.
The Lettish Marxists, who were the only real organisation in the “August
bloc”, had formally withdrawn from it, stating (in 1914 )
in the resolution of their last Congress that:

“ the attempt on the part of the conciliators to unite at all costs with the liquidators (the August Conference of 1912) proved fruitless, and the uniters themselves became ideologically and politically dependent upon the liquidators .”

This statement was made,after eighteen months’ experience, by an
organisation which had itself been neutral and had not desired to establish connection with either of the two
centres. This decision of neutrals should carry all the more
weight with Trotsky!

Enough, is it not?

Those who accused us of being splitters, of being unwilling or unable
to get on with the liquidators, were themselves unable to get on with them. The August bloc proved to be a fiction and
broke up.

By concealing this break-up from his readers, Trotsky is deceiving
them.

The experience of our opponents has proved that we are right, has
proved that the liquidators cannot be co-operated with.

IV. A CONCILIATOR’S ADVICE TO THE “SEVEN”

The editorial article in issue No. 1 of Borba entitled “The
Split in the Duma Group” contains advice from a conciliator to the seven
pro-liquidator (or inclining towards liquidationism) members of the
Duma. The gist of this advice is contained in the following words:

“first of all consult the Six whenever it is necessary to reach an agreement with other groups....” (P. 29.)

This is the wise counsel which, among other things, is evidently the
cause of Trotsky’s disagreement with the liquidators of Luch . This
is the opinion the Pravdists have held ever since the outbreak of the
conflict between the two groups in the Duma, ever since the resolution of
the Summer (1913) Conference was adopted. The Russian Social-Democratic
Labour group in the Duma has reiterated in the press , even after
the split, that it continues to adhere to this position, in spite of the
repeated refusals of the Seven.

From the very outset, since the time the resolution of the Summer
Conference was adopted, we have been, and still are, of the opinion that
agreements on questions concerning activities in the Duma
are desirable and possible; if such agreements have been repeatedly arrived
at with the petty-bourgeois peasant democrats (Trudoviks), they are all the
more possible and necessary with the petty-bourgeois, liberal-labour
politicians.

We must not exaggerate disagreements, but we must face the facts: the
Seven are men, leaning towards liquidationism, who yesterday entirely
followed the lead of Dan, and whose eyes today are travelling longingly
from Dan to Trotsky and back again. The liquidators are a group of
legalists who have broken away from the Party and are pursuing a liberal- labour policy. Since they repudiate the “underground”, there can be no
question of unity with them in matters concerning Party organisation and
the working-class movement. Who ever thinks differently is badly mistaken
and fails to take into account the profound nature of the changes that have
taken place since 1908.

But agreements on certain questions with this group, which
stands outside or on the fringe of the Party, are, of course, permissible:
we must always compel this group, too, like the Trudoviks, to
choose between the workers’ (Pravdist) policy and the liberal policy. For
example, on the question of fighting for freedom of the press the
liquidators clearly revealed, vacillation between the liberal formulation
of the question, which repudiated, or overlooked, the illegal press, and
the opposite policy, that of the workers.

Within the scope of a Duma policy in which the most important
extra-Duma issues are not directly raised, agreements with the
seven liberal-labour deputies are possible and desirable. On this point
Trotsky has shifted his ground from that of the liquidators
to that of the Party Summer (1913) Conference.

It should not be forgotten, however, that to a group standing outside
the Party, agreement means something entirely different from what Party
people usually understand by the term. By “agreement” in the Duma,
non-Party people mean “ drawing up a tactical resolution, or
line”. To Party people agreement is an attempt to enlist others
in the work of carrying out the Party line.

For example, the Trudoviks have no party. By agreement they understand
the “voluntary”, so to speak, “drawing up” of a line, today with the
Cadets, tomorrow with the Social-Democrats. We, however, understand
something entirely different by agreement with the Trudoviks. We have Party
decisions on all the important questions of tactics, and we shall never
depart from these decisions; by agreement with the Trudoviks we mean
winning them over to our side, convincing them that we are right, and not rejecting joint action against the Black
Hundreds and against the liberals.

How far Trotsky has forgotten (not for nothing has he associated with
the liquidators) this elementary difference between the Party and non-Party point of view on agreements, is shown by
the following argument of his:

“The representatives of the International must bring together the two sections of our divided parliamentary group and jointly
with them ascertain the points of agreement and points of
disagreement.... A detailed tactical resolution formulating the principles
of parliamentary tactics may he drawn up....” (No. 1, pp. 29—30.)

Here you have a characteristic and typical example of the
liquidationist presentation of the question! Trotsky’s journal forgets
about the Party; such a trifle is hardly worth remembering!

When different parties in Europe (Trotsky is fond of inappropriately
talking about Europeanism) come to an agreement or unite, what they do is
this: their respective representatives meet and first of all ascertain the
points of disagreement (precisely what the International proposed in
relation to Russia, without including in the resolution Kautsky’s
ill-considered statement that “the old Party no longer exists” [9] ). Having ascertained the points of disagreement, the
representatives decide what decisions (resolutions, conditions,
etc.) on questions of tactics, organisation, etc., should be submitted to the congresses of the two parties . If they succeed in drafting
unanimous decisions, the congresses decide whether to adopt them or not. If
differing proposals are made, they too are submitted for final
decision to the congresses of the two parties.

What appeals to the liquidators and Trotsky is only the
European models of opportunism, but certainly not the models of
European partisanship.

“A detailed tactical resolution” will be drawn up by the members of
the Duma! This example should serve the Russian “advanced workers”, with
whom Trotsky has good reason to be so displeased, as a striking
illustration of the lengths to which the groups in Vienna and Paris—who
persuaded even Kautsky that there was “no Party” in Russia—go in their
ludicrous project-mongering. But if it is some times possible to fool
foreigners on this score, the Russian “advanced workers” (at the risk of
provoking the terrible Trotsky to another outburst of displeasure) will
laugh in the faces of these project-mongers.

“Detailed tactical resolutions,” they will tell them, “are drawn up
among us (we do not know how it is done among you lion-Party people) by
Party congresses and conferences, for example, those of 1907, 1908, 1910,
1912 and 1913. We shall gladly acquaint uninformed foreigners, as well as
forgetful Russians, with our Party decisions, and still more gladly ask the
representatives of the Seven, or the August bloc members, or Left-wingers
or anybody else, to acquaint us with the resolutions of their congresses,
or conferences, and to bring up at their next congress the definite
question of the attitude they should adopt towards our resolutions, or
towards the resolution of the neutral Lettish Congress of 1914, etc.”

This is what the “advanced workers” of Russia will say to the various
project-mongers, and this has already been said iii the Marxist
press, for example, by the organised Marxists of St. Petersburg. Trotsky
chooses to ignore these published terms for the liquidators? So much the
worse for Trotsky. It is our duty to warn our readers how ridiculous that
“unity” (the August type of “unity”?) project-mongering is which
refuses to reckon with the will of the majority of the class-conscious
workers of Russia.

V. TROTSKY’S LIQUIDATIONIST VIEWS

As to the substance of his own views, Trotsky contrived to say as
little as possible in his new journal. Put Pravdy (No. 37) has
already commented on the fact that Trotsky has not said a word either on
the question of the “underground” or on the slogan of working for a legal
party, etc. [3]

That, among other things, is why we say that when attempts are made to form
a separate organisation which is to have no ideological and
political physiognomy, it is the worst form of factionalism.

Although Trotsky has refrained from openly expounding his views, quite
a number of passages in his journal show what kind of ideas he has been
trying to smuggle in.

In the very first editorial article in the first issue of his journal,
we read the following:

“The pre-revolutionary Social-Democratic Party in our country was a workers ’ party only in ideas and aims. Actually, it
was an organisation of the Marxist intelligentsia, which led the awakening
working class.” (5.)

This is the old liberal and liquidationist tune, which is really the
prelude to the repudiation of the Party. It is based on a
distortion of the historical facts. The strikes of 1895—96 had already
given rise to a mass working-class movement, which both in ideas
and organisation was linked with the Social-Democratic movement. And in
these strikes, in this economic and non-economic agitation, the
“intelligentsia led the working class”!?

Or take the following exact statistics of political offences in the
period 1901—03 compared with the preceding period.

| Period | Agriculture | Industry and commerce | Liberal professions and students | No definite occupation, and no occupation |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1884—90 | 7.1 | 15.1 | 53.3 | 19.9 |
| 1901—03 | 9.0 | 46.1 | 28.7 | 8.0 |

We see that in the eighties, when there was as yet no Social-Democratic
Party in Russia, and when the movement was “Narodnik”, the intelligentsia
predominated, accounting for over half the participants.

But the picture underwent a complete change in 1901—03, when a
Social-Democratic Party already existed, and when the old Iskra
was conducting its work. The intelligentsia were now a minority
among the participants of the movement; the workers (“industry
and commerce”) were far more numerous than the intelligentsia, and the
workers and peasants together constituted more than half the total.

It was precisely in the conflict of trends within the Marxist movement
that the petty-bourgeois intellectualist wing of the
Social-Democracy made itself felt, beginning with Economism (1895—1903)
and continuing with Menshevism (1903—1908) and liquidationism
(1908—1914). Trotsky repeats the liquidationist slander against the Party and is afraid to
mention the history of the twenty years’ conflict of trends within the
Party.

Here is another example.

“In its attitude towards parliamentarism, Russian
Social-Democracy passed through the same three stages ... [as in other
countries] ... first ‘boycottism’ ... then the acceptance in principle of
parliamentary tactics, but ... [that magnificent “but”, the “but” which
Shchedrin translated as: The ears never grow higher than the forehead, never! [4] ]...

for purely agitational purposes ... and lastly, the presentation from the
Duma rostrum ... of current demands....” (No. 1, p. 34.)

This, too, is a liquidationist distortion of history. The distinction
between the second and third stages was invent ed in order to smuggle in a
defence of reformism and opportunism. Boycottism as a stage in “the
attitude of Social-Democracy towards parliamentarism” never existed
either in Europe (where anarchism has existed and continues to
exist) or in Russia, where the boycott of the Bulygin Duma, for example,
applied only to a definite institution, was never linked
with “parliamentarism”, and was engendered by the peculiar nature of the
struggle between liberalism and Marxism for the continuation of the
onslaught. Trotsky does not breathe a word, about the way this struggle
affected the conflict between the two trends in Marxism!

When dealing with history, one must explain concrete questions and the
class roots of the different trends; anybody who wants to make a Marxist
study of the struggle of classes and trends over the question of
participation in the Bulygin Duma, will see therein the roots of the
liberal-labour policy. But Trotsky “deals with” history only in order to
evade concrete questions and to invent a justification,
or a semblance of justification, for the present-day opportunists!

“Actually, all trends,” he writes, “employ the same methods of struggle and organisation.” “The outcries about the liberal
danger in our working-class movement are simply a crude and sectarian
travesty of reality.” (No. 1, pp. 5 and 35.)

This is a very clear and very vehement, defence of the liquidators. But
we will take the liberty of quoting at least one small fact, one of the very latest. Trotsky merely slings words about;
we should like the workers themselves to ponder over the facts.

It is a fact that Severnaya Rabochaya Gazeta for March 13
wrote the following:

“ Instead of emphasising the definite and concrete task that confronts the working class, viz., to compel the Duma to throw out the bill [ on the press ], a vague formula is proposed of fighting for the ‘uncurtailed slogans’, and at the same time the illegal press is widely advertised, which can only lead to the relaxation of the workers’ struggle for their legal press .”

This is a clear, precise and documentary defence of the liquidationist
policy and a criticism of the Pravda policy. Well, will any
literate person say that both trends employ “the same methods of struggle
and organisation” on this question? Will any literate person say that the
liquidators are not pursuing a liberal-labour policy on
this question, that the liberal menace to the working-class movement is
purely imaginary?

The reason why Trotsky avoids facts and concrete references is because
they relentlessly refute all his angry outcries and pompous phrases. It is
very easy, of course, to strike an attitude and say: “a crude and
sectarian travesty”. Or to add a still more stinging and pompous
catch-phrase, such as “emancipation from conservative factionalism”.

But is this not very cheap? Is not this weapon borrowed from the
arsenal of the period when Trotsky posed in all his splendour before
audiences of high-school boys?

Nevertheless, the “advanced workers”, with whom Trotsky is so angry,
would like to be told plainly and clearly:
Do you or do you not approve of the “method of struggle and organisation”
that is definitely expressed in the above-quoted appraisal of a definite
political campaign? If you do, then you are pursuing a liberal-labour
policy, betraying Marxism and the Party; to talk of “peace” or of
“unity” with such a policy, with groups which pursue such a policy, means deceiving yourself and others.

If not, then say so plainly. Phrases will not astonish, satisfy or
intimidate the present-day workers.

Incidentally, the policy advocated by the liquidators in the
above-quoted passage is a foolish one even from the liberal point of view, for the passage of a bill in the Duma depends on
“Zemstvo-Octobrists” of the type of Bennigsen, who has already shown his
hand in the committee.

*     * *
The old participants in the Marxist movement in Russia know Trotsky
very well, and there is no need to discuss him for their benefit. But the
younger generation of workers do not know him, and it is therefore
necessary to discuss him, for he is typical of all the five groups abroad,
which, in fact, are also vacillating between the liquidators and the Party.

In the days of the old Iskra (1901—03), these waverers, who
flitted from the Economists to the Iskrists and back again, were dubbed
“Tushino turncoats” (the name given in the Troublous Times in Rus to
fighting men who went over from one camp to another [10] ).

When we speak of liquidationism we speak of a definite ideological
trend, which grew up in the course of many years, stems from Menshevism and
Economism in the twenty years’ history of Marxism, and is connected with
the policy and ideology of a definite class—the liberal bourgeoisie.

The only ground the “Tushino turncoats” have for claiming that they
stand above groups is that they “borrow” their ideas from one group one
day and from another the next day. Trotsky was an ardent Iskrist in
1901—03, and Ryazanov described his role at the Congress of 1903 as
“Lenin’s cudgel”. At the end of 1903, Trotsky was an ardent Menshevik,
i. e., he deserted from the Iskrists to the Economists. He said that
“between the old Iskra and the new lies a gulf”. In 1904—05, he
deserted the Mensheviks and occupied a vacillating position, now
co-operating with Martynov (the Economist), now proclaiming his absurdly
Left “permanent revolution” theory. In 1906—07, he approached the
Bolsheviks, and in the spring of 1907 he declared that he was in agreement
with Rosa Luxemburg.

In the period of disintegration, after long “non-factional”
vacillation, he again went to the right, and in August 1912, he entered
into a bloc with the liquidators. He has now deserted them again, although in substance he reiterates their
shoddy ideas.

Such types are characteristic of the flotsam of past historical
formations, of the time when the mass, working-class movement in Russia was
still dormant, and when every group had “ample room” in which to pose as
a trend, group or faction, in short, as a “power”, negotiating
amalgamation with others.

The younger generation of workers should know exactly whom they are
dealing with, when individuals come before them with incredibly pretentious
claims, unwilling absolutely to reckon with either the Party
decisions, which since 1908 have defined and established our attitude
towards liquidationism, or with the experience of the present-day
working-class movement in Russia, which has actually brought about the
unity of the majority on the basis of full recognition of the
aforesaid decisions.

---
Notes:
[1]

A preliminary calculation made up to April 1, 1914, showed 4,000 groups
for Pravda (commencing with January 1,1912) and 1,000 for the
liquidators and all their allies taken together. — Lenin