V. I. Lenin

For several days now the bourgeois newspapers of France
( L’Eclair , Le Radical ), Germany ( Berliner Tageblatt ) and Russia ( Utro Rossii , Rech ,
Russkoye Slovo , Novoye Vremya ) have been smacking their
lips over a most sensational piece of news: the expulsion of Gorky from the
Social-Democratic Party. Vorwärts has already published a
refutation of this nonsensical report. The editorial board of
Proletary has also sent a denial to several newspapers, but the
bourgeois press ignores it and continues to boost the libel.

It is easy to see how it originated: some penny-a-liner over heard a
whisper of the dissensions about otzovism and god-building (a question
which has been discussed openly for almost a year in the Party in general
and in Proletary in particular), made an unholy mess in weaving
together his fragments of information and “earned a pretty penny” out of
imaginary “interviews”, etc.

The aim of this slanderous campaign is no less clear. The bourgeois
parties would like Gorky to leave the Social-Democratic Party. The
bourgeois newspapers are sparing no effort to fan the dissensions in the
Social-Democratic Party and to give a distorted picture of them.

Their labour is in vain. Comrade Gorky by his great works of art has
bound himself too closely to the workers’ movement in Russia and throughout
the world to reply with anything but contempt.

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