"Russkaya Zhizn" raised a ridiculous outcry concerning "Novy Luch's" attitude toward the Duma social-democratic faction. (Article "Even There!", No. 45.)

Ridiculous because "Russkaya Zhizn" chose a roundabout path instead of attempting to answer our criticism of the faction's conduct in any substantive manner whatsoever.

We said that our faction should in no case have voted for the Cadet candidate for chairman.

We said that our faction, as such, should in no case have gone to the Cadets and the People's SR's for private meetings.

We said, finally, that the faction's conduct could lead to schism, inasmuch as the line of this conduct contradicts both the spirit and the letter of the resolutions of the Stockholm Congress of the party.

We appealed, finally, to the Bolshevik section of our faction with a call to wage the most merciless struggle against the opportunism of the faction's majority and to uphold unwaveringly within it the position of revolutionary social-democracy.

We wrote extensively on this matter; we devoted an entire series of articles to the faction's conduct regarding the Presidium, illuminating the matter from all sides.

On the part of "Russkaya Zhizn"—not a single substantive objection; not a single serious attempt to defend the Mensheviks' tactical line, which in fact directs the Duma faction.

We were entitled to expect—and did expect—that "Russkaya Zhizn" would attempt to prove that its tactical line fully corresponds to the resolutions of the Stockholm Congress of the RSDLP, that precisely this line is the one that should lead our faction in the Duma to hegemony over the entire left wing of the Duma.

But nothing of the sort did we receive. Instead of all this—a heap of pitiful words, ridiculous outcries that "Novy Luch" persecutes the Duma social-democratic faction, that "Novy Luch" is pushing the Bolshevik section of the faction toward immediate schism.

Instead of a substantive answer, a hypocritical challenge: "Let 'Novy Luch' express itself more clearly. Let it dot every i. And let it remember the Gospel counsel: 'What thou doest, do quickly.'"

Comrades! You are truly magnificent in your audacity. Your outcries about schism from the Bolsheviks—a pearl of truthfulness and sincerity.

The only party organization in which schism now exists, and in an extremely grave form, is the Petersburg one. Who split it?—The Mensheviks split it. They split it against the will of the organized workers, to please the Cadets, invoking the Black Hundred danger which did not materialize in Petersburg. And to this day, despite all this, the Mensheviks stubbornly refuse to restore the integrity of the Petersburg organization, stubbornly strive to expand and deepen this schism.

The Bolsheviks fought with all their might against the permissibility of agreements with the Cadets in the elections. But at the party conference in November, such agreements were recognized as permissible. The Bolsheviks pledged at the conference to submit to the decisions of local organizations and, everywhere that local organizations deemed it necessary to enter into electoral agreements with the Cadets, they "scrupulously and inviolably" fulfilled their party duty. The Mensheviks assumed the same obligation, but, having convinced themselves that the organized workers of Petersburg did not agree to follow them at the behest of the Cadets—they split the organization.

And now they outcry about schism! As for the challenge thrown at us by "Russkaya Zhizn", the answer to it can in no way put us in difficulty. Every i has been dotted for all to see: anyone who has eyes can perceive it.

Party unity is extremely precious to us. But the purity of the principles of revolutionary social-democracy is more precious to us. We have submitted and do submit to the will of the majority of the Stockholm Congress of the party. We consider it necessary to fulfill all its resolutions. But we demand that these resolutions be carried out by the central guiding organs of the party. And the opportunistic waverings of the Mensheviks, all their attempts to retreat before the Cadets from the line laid down by the Congress, have met and will continue to meet with merciless criticism and unrelenting resistance from us. This is our right. This is our duty. We shall never renounce this right, we shall never retreat from this duty. And if schism occurs, it will mean only that the Mensheviks themselves have trampled upon the resolutions they themselves carried through the Stockholm Congress. No other schism can occur and will occur. And this schism will mean only one thing: the final transformation of the Mensheviks into Cadet vassals.

"The red banner of the proletariat wavered in the hands of the Duma social-democratic faction," we wrote the day before yesterday. The Cadets demand that it bow before them. On the day when, by the will of the Mensheviks, this incredible shame is accomplished, schism too will be accomplished, because on that day the Mensheviks will cease to be a part of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party.

"Novy Luch" No. 5, February 24, 1907

Printed from the text of the newspaper "Novy Luch"