The elections in Petersburg provide remarkably instructive material for studying in practice the character of various parties and class tendencies or the class significance of their politics.

Most interesting in this respect are two facts: the negotiations of the Kadets with the leader of the Black Hundred government Stolypin, and the negotiations of petty-bourgeois parties with liberal landowners, the Kadets.

Of the negotiations of the Kadets with the Black Hundreds we know so far only little: Milyukov's audience with Stolypin – attempts to legalize the Cadet party at the price of refusing a bloc with the left. These negotiations are conducted in complete secrecy, and their exposure belongs to the future.

The other negotiations are to some extent visible to all. The role of the opportunists among the S.D.'s stands out here with particular clarity.

Why did they split from Petersburg social-democracy?

For a deal with the Kadets.

But the Kadets are not going in for a deal with the Mensheviks alone.

And so the Mensheviks conclude a bloc with all the petty-bourgeois parties, that is, with the S.R.'s, with the Trudoviks and with the N.-S.'s.

The opportunists who split from social-democracy go over to the petty bourgeoisie!

What are the conditions of this bloc?

The condition is that they jointly enter into an agreement with the Kadets to grant the left bloc three Duma seats out of six.

We know that the agreement of the Mensheviks with the petty-bourgeois parties was concluded in writing – there was at least a joint resolution. The new allies apparently do not wish or are in no hurry to make it public.

We also know that in the negotiations for concluding this bloc, comrade Dan participated, although he was authorized to do so neither by the group of split Petersburg S.D.'s (31 persons) nor by any other party organization.

We could not even have dreamed of better confirmation, through the course of political events, of our constant assertion – that the Mensheviks represent the opportunistic, petty-bourgeois part of the workers' party, distinguished by the same unprincipledness and shakiness as all the petty bourgeoisie in general.

Just think over what the Mensheviks are doing! Were they not crying to the whole world that they were preserving the class purity of social-democracy from the Bolsheviks, who were supposedly inclined toward the petty-bourgeois Socialist Revolutionaries.

And now events expose them. The Bolsheviks openly propose to the petty bourgeoisie to follow the proletariat against the liberal bourgeoisie.

The Mensheviks refuse and secretly (for no one knows the conditions of their bloc, and no one authorized comrade Dan) enter into a bloc with all, even the most right-wing (N.-S.) petty bourgeois, in order together to accomplish the transfer of the workers under their influence under the leadership of liberal bourgeoisie!

All petty-bourgeois parties, and the Mensheviks among them (it is no accident that *Rech'* has already counted them in the "opposition bloc" separated from the revolution, and called the N.-S. and the Mensheviks "moderately-socialist parties"), prefer to haggle with the liberals rather than struggle together with the proletariat.

Let all the conscious workers of Petersburg think carefully about where the Mensheviks are leading the workers' party!

What, then, is the result of these negotiations of petty bourgeois with liberals?

So far we know only from today's newspapers (January 19) that yesterday a meeting took place in Petersburg of representatives of the S.R.'s, the Labor Group, N.-S.'s and Mensheviks (that is, of the entire new petty-bourgeois bloc) with the Kadets. The Kadets, according to this report, decisively refused to give 3 seats to the "left bloc." The "left" bloc refused to accept two seats.

*Rech'* remarks on this occasion: "Representatives of the S.D. Bolsheviks did not appear at the conference." Yes, we do not go together with petty bourgeois to betray the workers' party to the liberals!

What next? Unknown. The haggling of the petty-bourgeois bloc with the Kadets will probably continue.

But in the S.R. party there is, as they report, a workers' committee resolutely condemning blocs with the Kadets. How much truth there is in this report we do not know, for the Socialist Revolutionaries deliberately conceal from the public both the conditions of their bloc with the N.-S.'s (no one even knows exactly when and by whom it was concluded!), and the currents within their own party on the question of blocs with the Kadets.

Today (January 19) *Rech'* reports a resolution of the Petersburg Committee of the S.R. party, confirming rumors that the workers' part of the S.R. party does not stand for blocs with the Kadets. Here is the report from *Rech'*:

"The Petersburg Committee of the S.R. party, having entered into an agreement (what agreement? when? on what conditions?) with the groups of the Labor party and N.-S., resolved to address the factions of the S.D. party – the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks – with a proposal to create an agreement of socialist (?) groups for the most expedient conduct of the pre(?)election campaign, – and moreover, if no agreement is reached with both factions, then to confine itself to an agreement with the Bolshevik faction. In creating a general socialist agreement, representatives of the S.R.'s must defend (?!?) the impermissibility of agreement with the Kadets and the independence of the action of the socialist agreement.

If, however, the majority of groups (?) finds it more expedient not independent action, but a technical (!?) agreement with the Kadets, then the P.C. of the S.R. party submits (!) to the decision of the majority (the majority of other parties!), making the obligatory condition of such an agreement the allocation in this case of all the seats appertaining to the socialist groups exclusively to the workers' curia."

One could offer a prize of a million rubles to whoever understands anything in this gibberish! To defend the impermissibility of agreements with the Kadets and – preliminarily to enter into a bloc with the N.-S., who stand entirely for the Kadets! To demand from the Kadets three seats exclusively for the workers' curia, – and at the same time to go on a "conference" with the Kadets together with the N.-S.'s and Trudoviks, who make no such conditions! To boast of their independence as a party in distinction from "groups," – and at the same time to submit to the "majority," that is, to three groups (Trudoviks, N.-S., Mensheviks)! Wise Oedipus, resolve this!

And the workers' delegates of the S.R.'s (of the Moscow District) approve such petty-bourgeois muddiness, veiling the betrayal of their interests to the liberals! But these workers add: "to express their deep indignation with the Menshevik faction of the S.D. over its obstructionist behavior toward the other socialist groups and parties."

Oh, naive Socialist Revolutionary proletarians!

Why, while indignant at the Mensheviks, are you not indignant at the P.C. of the S.R. party? Both alike are dragging you under the wing of the liberals.

The lining of this dispute within the petty-bourgeois bloc is clear. A break with the Kadets is threatening. The N.-S.'s and Mensheviks are inclined, perhaps, to take themselves a couple of seats from the Kadets and betray the rest of the petty bourgeoisie, just as the Mensheviks have betrayed the proletariat!

That is where the dog is buried!

Step by step. Betray the workers' party and go over to the petty-bourgeois bloc. Betray the petty-bourgeois democratic bloc and go over to the Kadets! Good riddance!

And Milyukov converses at an audience with Stolypin: "You see, your excellency, I have split the revolution and torn the moderates from it! Perhaps you might stand me a glass of tea…" Stolypin: "Well, yes, I will put in a word for your legalization. You know, Pavel Nikolaich, you soften up the workers' rabble with kindness, and I'll work them over with a club. Then we between us both…" Done and done, Pavel Nikolaich!"

Written January 19 (February 1), 1907.

Published January 25, 1907 in the newspaper *Proletariy* No. 12

Printed from the newspaper text