V. I.

Lenin

The Social-Democratic Group in the Second Duma [1]

An Account of the Whole Affair

Four years have passed since all the members of the
Social-Democratic group in the Second Duma, victims of an infamous plot by
our government, were put on trial and sent to penal servitude like, the
worst of criminals. The Russian proletariat fully understood that the
charges against its representatives were based on a forgery, but this was
the period of unbridled reaction and in addition, sentence was passed
behind closed doors so that sufficient evidence of the crime committed by
tsarism was not available. Only quite recently the convincing facts
contained in the confession of Brodsky, an agent of the secret political
police, have thrown full light on the revolting intrigues of our
authorities.

This is what actually happened.

Despite the very limited franchise, the Russian proletariat returned 55
Social-Democrats to the Second Duma.

This Social-Democratic group was not only numerically large, but
outstandingly sound ideologically. It bore the hallmark of the revolution
from which it sprang. Its pronouncements, in which there could still be
heard the echoes of the great struggle that had involved the whole country,
levelled deep and well-founded criticism, not only at the bills submitted
to the Duma, but also at the whole tsarist and capitalist system of
government in general.

Armed with the invincible weapon of contemporary socialism this
Social-Democratic group was, of all the Left groups, the most revolutionary, the most consistent? and the most deeply
imbued with class-consciousness. It drew the others in its wake and set its
revolutionary seal on the Duma. Our rulers considered the group to be the
last strong hold of the revolution, its last symbol, the living proof of
the powerful influence of Social-Democracy on the proletarian masses and,
consequently, a constant threat to reaction, the last obstacle to its
triumphant march. Therefore, the government considered it essential not
only to rid itself of this too revolutionary Duma, but also to restrict the
electoral rights of the proletariat and of the democratically-inclined
peasantry to the minimum, thus preventing any possibility of the election
of a similar Duma in the future. The best method for the realisation of
such a coup d’état was to get rid of the socialist Duma group, to
compromise it in the eyes of the country—to cut off the head in order to
destroy the body.

However, some pretext had to be found for this,—for in stance, the
possibility of accusing the group of some serious political crime. The
inventiveness of the police and the secret political police soon found such
an excuse. It was decided to compromise the parliamentary socialist group,
accusing it of close ties with the Social-Democratic combat organisation
and with the Social-Democratic military organisation. With this aim in
view, General Gerasimov, the chief of the secret political police,
suggested to his agent Brodsky that he enter these organisations. (All
these facts are taken from

L’Avenir [2] No. 1. [ The Future ], issued under the editorship of Burtsev in Paris, 50, Boulevard St. Jacques.) Brodsky
succeeded in doing so as a rank-and-file member, and later became a
secretary. Several members of the military organisation had the idea of
sending a delegation of soldiers to the socialist parliamentary group. The
secret police decided to use this for its own ends, and Brodsky, having won
the confidence of the military organisation, undertook to execute this
plan. Several soldiers were elect ed; a list of soldiers’ demands was drawn
up and a day was appointed for the delegation to visit the Duma group at
its headquarters, without the group even having been warned. As the
soldiers were not allowed to go there in army uniform they were obliged to
change their clothes. This was actually carried out at the home of one of the agents of the secret police,
where they changed into clothes bought and prepared for them by the secret
police. According to this vile plan of Gerasimov’s, Brodsky was to have
arrived at the premises of the socialist group at the same time as the
soldiers, bringing with him revolutionary documents which would implicate
our delegates even more. Further, it was agreed that Brodsky would be
arrested together with the others, and then, aided by the secret police who
would enable him to effect a sham escape, he would be at liberty. But
Brodsky arrived too late, and when he reached the premises of the group
with the compromising documents, the search had already commenced, and he
was not allowed to enter.

Such was the setting prepared most thoroughly by the secret police
which allowed reaction, not only to condemn and send to penal servitude the
representatives of the proletariat, but, apart from this, to dissolve the
Second Duma and to carry out its coup d’état of June 3 (16),
1907. Actually, on that date the government announced in its manifesto
(which, like all tsarist manifestos, astounds one with its shameless
hypocrisy) that it was compelled to dissolve the Duma, for, instead of
supporting and aiding the government in its desire to re-establish peace in
the country, the Duma, on the contrary, had acted against all the proposals
and intentions of the government and, incidentally, did not wish to append
its signature to repressive measures against the revolutionary elements of
the country. Furthermore (and I give the text word for word), “acts
hitherto unheard of in the annals of history were committed. The judiciary
discovered a plot by a whole section of the State Duma against the state
and the power of the tsar. When our government demanded the temporary
removal of the 55 members of the Duma accused of the crime until the
conclusion of the trial, and the imprisonment of those most guilty, the
State Duma did not immediately carry out the lawful demands of the
authorities which brooked no delay”.

Incidentally, the proofs of the tsar’s crime were known not only to the
government and its closest friends. Our dear Constitutional-Democrats, who
never tire of babbling about legality, justice, truth, and so on, who
embellish their Party with such a high-sounding title as “party of
people’s freedom”, have for the past four years also known all the vile details of
this dirty affair which had been kept so secret. They looked on passively
for four long years while our deputies were tried in defiance of all law,
while they suffered penal servitude, while some died and others lost their
reason, and ... they remained cautiously silent. Yet they could have spoken
for they had deputies in the Duma and had many daily newspapers at their
disposal. Caught between reaction and revolution—they feared the
revolution more. For this reason they flirted with the government and by
their silence shielded it for four long years and so became its accomplices
in crime. It is only recently (the sitting of the Duma of the 17th October,
1911) that during debates on the secret police, one of them, Deputy
Teslenko, at last decided to let the cat out of the bag. Here is part of
his speech (word for word according to the Verbatim Report):

“When it was proposed that proceedings be taken against 53 members [3] of the Second State Duma, a commission was set up by the
Duma. This Commission was given all the documents that were to provide
evidence that 53 members of the State Duma had organised a plot to set up a
republic in Russia by means of an armed uprising. The Commission of the
Second State Duma (I made the report on its behalf) came to the conclusion,
a unanimous conclusion, that what was being discussed was not a plot
hatched against the state by the Social-Democrats, but a plot hatched by
the St. Petersburg department of the secret police against the Second State
Duma. When the Commission’s report, based on documents, was ready, on the
eve of the day when all these facts were to be made public from this
rostrum, the Second State Duma was dissolved and it was not possible to
state (from this rostrum) what had been brought to light. When the trial of
the accused commenced, these 53 members of the State Duma demanded that it
be heard in public, and that the public should be told that it was not they
who were the criminals but the St. Petersburg department of the secret
police—the doors were closed and the public was never told the truth.”

Such are the facts. For four years our deputies have been languishing
in chains in terrible Russian prisons, the severity and savagery of which
you are, of course, aware. Many have already died there. One of the deputies has lost his reason, the
health of many others, as a result of unendurable living conditions, has
been impaired and they may die any day. The Russian proletariat can no
longer calmly look on while its representatives, whose only crime is that
they waged an unremitting struggle in its interests, perish in tsarist
prisons. It is even more impossible for it to look on calmly, since from
the legal point of view Brodsky’s admissions provide complete justification
for demanding a fresh trial. A campaign for the release of the deputies has
already commenced in Russia.

The workers’ paper Zvezda , appearing in St. Petersburg devoted
a considerable part of its issue dated October 29, 1911 to the question. It
appeals to the press, to liberal and Left deputies, to associations and
trade unions, but mostly to the proletariat. “There is not, and cannot
be,” exclaims the paper, “calmness and peace of mind while every hour and
every minute all can hear the clanging of the chains fettering those who
have been immured, deprived of freedom and every political and civil right
only because they had the courage to carry out before the whole country
their duty as men and citizens. The public conscience cannot and should not
remain calm after the exposure of the horrifying truth. No matter what the
difficulties may be they must be over come and a retrial of the deputies to
the Second State Duma demanded! But in the first instance the proletariat
must make its powerful voice heard, for it was its representatives who were
falsely tried, and who at the present moment languish in penal servitude.”

In commencing this struggle, the Russian proletariat appeals to
socialists of all countries to give it support, and together with it to
proclaim loudly to the whole world their indignation at the savagery and
infamy of our present ruling autocracy which, screening itself with a mask
of pitiful hypocrisy, surpasses even the barbarism and uncivilised
behaviour of the Asiatic governments.

In France, Comrade Charles Dumas has already started the campaign and
in an article printed in the newspaper L’Avenir has called for
energetic support to be given to the Russian proletariat at this difficult
moment. Let socialists of all countries follow this example, let them
everywhere, in parliament, in their press, at their public meetings, express their
indignation and demand a review of the case of the Social-Democratic group
in the Second Duma.

---
Notes:
[1]
This report was published by the Executive Committee of the
International Socialist Bureau as a supplement to Circular No. 24. The
article and material relating to the affair of the Social-Democratic
deputies to the Second Duma were published in German, French, and English
in the Bulletin périodique du Bureau Socialiste International , No. 8. After the publication of Lenin’s report the
campaign abroad for the release of the Social-Democratic deputies was
intensified. In an editorial appearing in No. 8 of the Bolshevik newspaper
Rabochaya Gazeta it was stated that “following the call of the
International Socialist Bureau, which sent all parties the report on this
matter by Comrade Lenin, our Party representative on the I.S.B., the
campaign was considerably intensified by Social-Democratic parties abroad. All Social-Democratic
deputies in Germany, France, Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Austria, etc., made
public protests.”

The heading to the document has been provided by the Institute of
Marxism-Leninism of the Central Committee of the C.P.S.U.

[2]
L’Avenir ( The Future )—a liberal-bourgeois Russian newspaper which was published in Paris from October 22, 1911 to January 4,
1914 (N.S.) and edited by V. L. Burtsev (some items were published in
French). Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries also contributed to its
columns.

[3]
Fifty-five members of the Social-Democratic group in the Second Duma
were tried, and two of them died shortly after, during imprisonment. It was
for this reason that 53 deputies were referred to at the sitting of the
Duma held on October 17 (30), 1911.