We stand on the eve of the parliamentary Social-Democratic faction’s appearance before the State Duma. There is no doubt that this faction can now render great service to the cause of the workers’ movement and to the cause of revolution through its resolute, consistent stance—firmly and unequivocally advancing demands and slogans rooted in uncompromising democratic principles and in the proletarian class struggle for socialism. Now that the question of the Social-Democrats’ participation in the Duma has been settled by the Unifying Congress of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers’ Party, there is no longer any disagreement among Social-Democrats on this matter. We believe that our comrades from the Caucasus acted entirely correctly when they signed the infamous “solemn pledge” of State Duma members{95} and, at the same time, issued a notable statement in the newspapers—signing, they declared, “in order to be able to carry out the task entrusted to us by the people, and we emphasize that we recognize any political obligations only insofar as they are directed toward the people.”

The more crucial it is for our Party that its representatives should speak out in the State Duma, the more essential it becomes to weigh the principles of Social-Democratic tactics in the present moment with the utmost care. And we must admit that the course of political events—unusually accelerated over the past few weeks—has shed much light on questions that were still unclear just yesterday, helping us to define our position with clarity and precision and to smooth out many of the differences between the right and left wings of our Party.

In this regard, we are particularly pleased to highlight the arguments advanced by our former Menshevik comrades in today’s issue of “Kuryer.” The editorial, “Duma ‘Laws,’” does indeed begin with a somewhat ambiguous jab at the notion of the Duma’s legislative output being nothing more than idle chatter. But it soon becomes clear that our comrades have good reason to place the word “laws” in quotation marks. They are defending—and in this they are absolutely right—a kind of legislation that ought not to be called “laws,” but rather “declarations,” “proclamations of the people’s right to freedom,” “proclamations abolishing the old barriers.”

This is perfectly justified. Popular thought, in truth, becomes hopelessly entangled in the thickets of “organic” legislative tinkering. This kind of legislative activity obscures, dulls, and even corrupts popular consciousness, for “these laws will never actually be brought into effect. To realize them, one must first wrest power from the hands of those who currently hold it. And only a popular movement capable of replacing the Duma itself with an institution far more powerful and far more democratic—unbound by the ‘laws’ crafted by the Duma—can accomplish this.” By shifting popular attention to the absolute necessity of seizing power, to the establishment of an institution “far more powerful,” one that pays no heed to the laws of the Cadet Duma, this approach rightly addresses the fundamental tasks of the revolutionary proletariat and the pressing needs of the present moment.

For failing to grasp these tasks, the comrades at “Kuryer” deliver a masterful rebuke to the Cadets in the very same article. The Cadets draft their bills “as if they were true legislators, forgetting that in reality they possess not a shred of legislative authority.” “They write their ‘bills’ as though tomorrow the courts would be called upon to adjudicate citizens’ actions under the new Cadet laws.”

“It is shameful to hold such a view,” “Kuryer” admonishes the Cadets. From this threefold, utterly justified admonition, there remains but one conclusion—and that conclusion suggests itself. Revolutionary Social-Democracy cannot and must not support the demand for the appointment of a responsible ministry drawn from the Duma majority! For such a ministry would be a Cadet ministry, and it would in fact be tasked tomorrow with meting out punishments for abuses of freedom. Such a ministry could, while power has not yet been wrested from the Star Chamber{96}, serve only as a liberal façade for the old regime. Today, such a ministry might be nothing more than a new guise behind which the very same rioters would temporarily conceal themselves! Of course, we will expose this pretense—and very soon. We will make use of every available means to exploit this new situation, once it takes shape—and once both the old regime and the Cadets, together with it, become ensnared in this new disguise, swept away by the rising tide. But we must neither directly nor indirectly, neither by word nor by silence, assume, as the Party of the Proletariat, even the slightest share of responsibility for this masquerade of the old regime. We must not raise, either explicitly or implicitly, the slogan of supporting our demand for the formation of a responsible ministry drawn from the Duma majority. For regardless of our intentions, the objective conditions of the contemporary political situation inevitably mean that such a slogan would amount to placing a portion of the responsibility for this masquerade—this bargain between the bourgeoisie and the old regime—upon the Party of the Proletariat. Such a slogan, in a subtle way, contains within it an implicit endorsement of the Cadet “bills” so brilliantly criticized by “Kuryer,” for it is impossible to deny the close connection between how the Cadets envision punishing abuses of freedom and how they envision securing, through the ministry, a small slice of power to enforce those very punishments—obtaining a piece of power from the old regime, in order to strengthen the old regime, through a deal with the old regime, cloaked in a façade designed to shield the people’s growing resistance against the old regime.

And such a slogan is entirely unnecessary for the workers’ party. It can carry out all its work of propaganda, mass agitation, and the establishment of broad-based organizations even more effectively, more cohesively, more systematically, and with greater boldness—without this slogan—counterposing the brazen insolence of pogrom-mongers and the “draft laws” of the Cadets with our own social‑democratic “decrees,” “proclamations,” and appeals to the people, delivered through the medium of the Social‑Democrat faction in the Duma (and, under certain conditions, together with the Trudoviks as well); and, finally, those very “calls to the populace to form a people’s militia—alone capable of safeguarding their lives and honor”—the very calls we advocated in No. 9 of “Vpered”[43], which are recommended by the Bund’s organ, “Volkszeitung”{97}, and which are so rightly endorsed by “Kurier.”

To unity, comrades! The unity of the proletariat’s political actions is taking shape with irresistible force, driven by the overarching revolutionary atmosphere. Let us not complicate this unity by introducing optional and contentious slogans into our tactics. Let us seize the opportunity at hand to achieve complete consensus among all Social Democrats at a moment that may well prove to be the most crucial phase of the great Russian Revolution!

Written on June 9 (22), 1906

Printed on June 10, 1906, in the newspaper “Vpered,” No. 14

Reprinted from the newspaper’s text