V. I. Lenin

Source: ru:PSS/v46; en:CW/CW34;es:MT
Translated: machine translation (DeepSeek) from the Russian; AI-translated.

P.S. 262 2. I. 04. I have just received the proofs of Axelrod’s article in No. 55 of Iskra
(No. 55 will appear in about two days). It is even more vile than Martov’s article (“Our
Congress”) in No. 53. Here we have “ambitious fantasies,” “inspired by the traditions of
Schweitzer’s dictatorship.” Again accusations that the “omniscient centre” “disposes at its
personal (sic!) discretion” of “party members, who have been turned (!!) into cogs and
wheels.” “The establishment of an infinite number of all sorts of boards, departments,
sections, offices, workshops.” The transformation of revolutionaries (by God, it’s true!) “into
heads of departments, clerks, sergeant-majors, non-commissioned officers, privates, guards,
artisans” (sic!). The C.C. (according to the majority’s idea) “must be only a collective agent
of this authority (the authority of the Iskra editorial board), be under its strict guardianship
and vigilant control.” Such is the “organisational utopia of a theocratic character” (sic!).
“The triumph of bureaucratic centralism in the party organisation—such is the result”... (by
God, it’s true!). With regard to this article I again and again appeal to all members of the
C.C.: can this really be left without protest and struggle? Do you not feel that by tolerating
this in silence you are becoming nothing more nor less than purveyors of slander (about
Schweitzer and his pawns) and disseminators of calumny (about bureaucrats, i.e., yourselves
and the whole majority)? And under such “ideological leadership” do you consider it possible
to carry on “positive work”? Or do you know any other means of honest struggle besides a
congress??

((The Martovites apparently have Kiev, Kharkov, the Mining District, Rostov and the
Crimea. That is 10 votes + the League + the Central Organ editorial board + 2 on the
Council = 16 votes out of 49. If all forces are immediately directed to Nikolayev, Siberia and
the Caucasus, they can quite easily be left with one-third.))