Dear Comrades!

In issue No. 135 of the "Leipziger Volkszeitung," Comrade K. Kautsky writes about the split in the Russian Social Democracy. We must ask you to print our response to the attacks by Comrade Kautsky and also to allow us to correct the factual inaccuracies in the mentioned article. We will be as brief as possible.

Kautsky says, "the German edition of the resolutions of the recently held Russian congress could not have appeared at a more inopportune time," the resolutions "must give the majority of readers a completely false picture of the situation in the Russian Social Democracy." Kautsky goes so far as to call on the German comrades not to disseminate these resolutions.

We take the liberty of responding that nothing can give the German comrades such a true picture of the situation in the Russian Social Democracy as the authentic resolutions of the third party congress of the S.-D. A.-P. of Russia, as well as the resolutions of the "conference" attended by the New Iskra-ists.

We declare that Kautsky is making a great mistake when he writes about things he knows at best by hearsay, and his description of the situation in the Russian Social Democracy is very one-sided. For example, it is simply ridiculous for Kautsky to assume that "the resolutions (of the 3rd Congress of the S.-D. A.-P. of Russia) may already have lost their validity even for those who adopted them[95]." There have been enough and there have always been enough unification negotiations between us and the New Iskra-ists over the past 2-3 months, but so far, the result of these negotiations is zero.

We protest vigorously against the attempt to silence our voice in the German s.-d. press through such a crude, mechanical, and unheard-of means as boycotting the brochure, which contains nothing but the translation of the resolutions of the third party congress of the S.-D. A.-P. of R. and was published by the Munich Party Publishing House of the S.-D. A.-P. of Germany (G. Birk & Co.). Kautsky has no right to speak of his impartiality. He has always been partial in the current struggle within the Russian Social Democracy. It was, of course, his good right. But whoever is partial does better not to talk too much about impartiality, so as not to be accused of hypocrisy.

Kautsky describes all the resolutions of the 3rd Congress of the S.-D. A.-P. of R. as "attacks by Lenin and his friends against Plekhanov and his friends." Three small remarks on this. First, out of the 17 resolutions, only four directly or indirectly concern our opponents within the S.-D. A.-P. of R. Second, Plekhanov has now left the editorial board of "Iskra." See No. 101 of "Iskra." This shows how little Kautsky understands our situation. Third, we ask the German comrades to consider what impression it must make on Russian Social Democrats when a man with the authority of Comrade Kautsky tries to tear down the work of the entire party congress with such a "description": "attacks by Lenin and his friends"? What would people in Germany think of those who presumed to describe, say, the proceedings of the Dresden party congress (without having read the protocols) as "attacks by Kautsky and his friends"?

A word of warning to all German Social Democrats: Party comrades! If you really consider the S.-D. A.-P. of Russia your sister party, then do not believe a single word of what so-called impartial Germans tell you about our split. Demand only documents, authentic documents. And do not forget: prejudice is further from the truth than ignorance.

With social-democratic greetings, the editorial board (of the "Proletary") of the Social Democratic

Workers' Party of Russia

P.S. The French socialists understand impartiality differently than the Germans. Their central organ "Le Socialiste" has just printed the translation of the resolutions of the third party congress of the S.-D. A.-P. of Russia as a special supplement.

Written in German in June, after 12 (25), 1905

First published in 1931 in the Lenin Collection XVI

Printed from the manuscript