24 JANUARY 1912
I would like to focus on another aspect of the question. This is about flexibility... The resolution was correct 573. I would like to direct attention to what is important. For example, let's take a legal society. I cannot speak for all of Russia, but for 5 cities, it can be said that... it is possible. So, what does a legal society primarily provide? Marxist lectures; apparently, they are allowed. I see in the press that in major cities they are permitted. It is said that it is difficult to find lecturers... Workers should themselves propose and pay for the lecturers. Then there is a library and reading room. I do not know if "Zvezda" 574 is allowed. Then, legal societies organize various entertainments.

This is important from a financial perspective, and on the other hand, thanks to these entertainments, it becomes something like a club. If such a type of society is not a fiction but a reality, which is undoubtedly the case, then we must ask, have we worked on expanding such societies? Have reports on these societies been made in factories and plants? Have we tried to organize such societies? Furthermore, how should such societies be utilized? We are now approaching the type of German organization during the period of exceptional laws. But it is both more difficult and easier for us. More difficult because they had open legal possibilities. The Central Committee consisted of members of the parliamentary faction, met legally, and invited non-legals. Among us, there is much sympathy and support for the Social Democrats in the masses. In each society, there should be small cells of Social Democrats, closely linked to the party, and every issue should be resolved in the spirit of the party's resolutions... These cells should not be as cumbersome as districts and sub-districts. The type [of legal societies] includes Petersburg and Riga. In Moscow, little has been done in this regard. And these cells allow for a different type of party building. Previously, in my time, we had to do everything ourselves. Now, trade unions and organizations have taken on part of the work. As far as possible, the political struggle is often carried out by the legal Duma faction, and if there were more legal societies with such an arrangement, the revolution would be invincible. This is the question of the flexibility of organizations. This will be the ideal for the re-creation of our organization. These illegal cells, surrounded by a network of legal cells, will give us a new base. All contacts are reduced to a minimum, as if there is an organization and there is not. Let there be no meetings. Party work has taken on a different form. The new form has already embedded itself in the old. Let it be less formalized, but expanding through work in legal societies. Every step towards culture should be imbued with the spirit of Social Democracy, with Social Democratic culture.

This will be a decisive struggle against liquidationism... They have a cell, are connected to the Central Organ 575, communicate once a year, and do a hundred times more than before. We have done too little in legal societies. We need to wrest them from the hands of liberals, [to wrest] the entire legal movement. We need to spread and expand legal societies. Pay specific attention to how work is set up in legal societies. Everywhere, illegal cells should be surrounded by a network of legal cells.

Published for the first time, based on a handwritten protocol

*ROZA LUXEMBURG AND THE POLISH "PARTY" VORSTAND*

Roza Luxemburg's speech in "Vorwarts" (from September 14) defending the so-called Polish Vorstand and accusing Comrade Radek compels me, despite all reluctance to intervene in this matter, to take up the pen. One cannot remain silent when the struggle against the liquidators of the Russian party is used to justify the worst methods of the liquidators.

I personally observed Comrade Radek's vacillations from defending the extreme left to defending the Russian liquidators; I have always fought and will continue to fight politically against any defenders of liquidationism, but precisely for this reason, I must rise against the abhorrent methods of the so-called Polish Vorstand in the "Radek case" 577.

What is the main feature of the "well-known" (bekannt) pamphlet by Martov, which Roza Luxemburg so conveniently recalled? 578
It is that the leader of the liquidators, Martov, after the solemn and unanimous condemnation of liquidationism by all Social Democrats of Russia in January 1910, and the proclamation of peace in the party based on this condemnation 579, - a year later, when the liquidators destroyed the Central Committee of the party and broke away from it, he published a pamphlet with accusations of his opponents in 1001 dishonorable and criminal acts. The Poles then called this pamphlet a "Stinkbombe"* and even (sogar, not selbst) Kautsky called it "abscheulich"**.

Literally the same thing was done now by the so-called Polish Vorstand with Roza Luxemburg at the head.

Personally, it was none other than members of this very Vorstand in 1909 and 1910 who recommended Comrade Radek as a collaborator for our party's Central Organ and introduced him to me, giving the best references, at the international congress in Copenhagen.

But then, in 1911, Comrade Radek politically opposed this Vorstand, supporting the Warsaw Party Committee, a number of party members, and two of its most prominent leaders (Malecki and Ganczarek), who exposed this Vorstand for its disorganizing activities. Comrade Radek helped establish the truth, namely, that the Polish Parteivorstand is a Vorstand without a party. In Warsaw, the capital of Poland, this Vorstand no longer represents the Warsaw Committee, but its fictitious group. German comrades will soon learn more about this. Members of the Russian Social Democratic Party know that there is already a whole literature on this, and Roza Luxemburg vainly tries to hush it up (totzuschweigen) before the International!

And so, after Radek politically opposed the so-called Parteivorstand (without a party), this "Partei"vorstand concocted a "trial" against Radek on the "case" - listen! - of 1 9 0 6!

This is the crux of the matter, this is what our illustre*** Roza is trying to wegzuschwatzen****!

Roza Luxemburg and her "Partei"vorstand are now waging an unprecedentedly furious war against the best workers of their own party, stooping to such baseness as to insinuate their connection with the secret police. Roza Luxemburg

* - a stinking bomb. Ed.
** - abominable, disgusting. Ed.
*** - famous. Ed.
**** - talk away, chatter away. Ed.

and her "Partei"vorstand have lost their heads, waging such a war with their political opponents.

Is it not clear now why, without going into the essence of the "Radek case," I consider it my duty to state: the essence of this case is the political revenge of Roza Luxemburg and her "Partei"vorstand.

Turgenev long ago characterized certain methods in Russian literature. An old scoundrel, Turgenev wrote, once gave wise advice: when you commit a low act, shout the loudest about the baseness of exactly those actions you are committing.

When you rob the treasury, shout the loudest about the vileness of embezzlement...

When the Polish "Partei"vorstand stooped to repeating Martov's methods against Comrade Radek, - this "Partei"vorstand sent Roza Luxemburg to "Vorwarts" to shout the loudest about the baseness of Martov! ... Es ist eine alte Geschichte*, but for us, Russian emigrants, ist sie leider gar nicht "neu"**...

Roza Luxemburg tries to convince German readers that Comrade Radek "nie die geringste Rolle gespielt hat"*** and so on. I am obliged to respond to this elenden Altweiberklatsch**** by stating the precise fact: Comrade Radek worked a lot and successfully in 1909 and 1910 as a collaborator of the Central Organ of the Social Democratic Party of Russia. I was one of the editors of the Central Organ, and I cannot leave Roza Luxemburg's malicious gossip unanswered.

Roza Luxemburg, to blacken Comrade Radek, praises herself under the name of "polnische Wortfuhrer"*****. She hints at the shakiness of der "taktischen" Ideen****** of Comrade Radek.

I will say straight out that I consider this shakiness, this readiness for "peace" with the Russian liquidators, a great sin of Comrade Radek. But I think it is more forgivable

* - This is an old story. Ed.
** - it, unfortunately, is not at all "new." Ed.
*** - "never played the slightest role." Ed.
**** - pitiful old women's gossip. Ed.
***** - "Polish representatives." Ed.

- "tactical" ideas. Ed.

Such a sin by an irresponsible employee of the Central Organ and Central Committee is less serious than that of members of the Central Committee and Central Organ. And among the notorious "Polish Wortfuhrers," those known to be "Intrigenfuhrer"* like Tyszka, and their instability caused great harm to the entire party.

To avoid being unsubstantiated, I will provide two examples. In January 1910, the plenum of the Central Committee of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party unanimously condemned liquidationism. The only section of the resolution that opened the door and gate** to opportunism (the so-called § 1) was passed on Tyszka's initiative. What will Rosa Luxemburg say about this? Will she perhaps defend this § 1 from the standpoint of the "radikale Richtung"***?

When the Bolsheviks left the so-called Foreign Bureau of the Central Committee in the spring of 1911 due to the destruction of the Central Committee by the liquidators, the Poles remained in this institution for months together with the Bundists and Latvians 580, about whom even Plekhanov wrote at the time: "Diese Parteiinstitution, die zum Werkzeug in den Handen einer Gruppe von Leuten geworden war, die die Partei liquidieren wollten und die daher der Sache des russischen Proletariats gro.en Schaden zuzufügen drohte, konnte diesem nur einen Gefallen erweisen: nämlich das Zeitliche segnen" (Note: "Tagebuch eines S. D." 2 Beilage zu N 15, S. 1, cited in the pamphlet: "Der Anonymus aus dem «Vorwarts» und die Sachlage in der Soz. Dem. Arb. P. Ru.lands"; this pamphlet was sent to the editorial offices of all S.D. newspapers in Germany)****.

The reader can judge from these facts how much truth there is in Rosa Luxemburg's boastful words that the Poles "mit starker Faust die liquidatorische Richtung in Ru.land niederzuhalten geholfen haben"*. 

In reality, the Poles, with their intrigues, hindered the struggle against this "Richtung"** far more. Even now, 8 months after the formal exclusion of a certain group of liquidators (the journal "Nasha Zarya") 581, the notorious "Polish Wortfuhrers" have not been able to give a direct answer as to whether they want "peace" with this group or not. To give a direct answer, of course, is not as easy as plagiarizing today from the anti-liquidators, tomorrow from the liquidators, and declaring oneself "above" both "factions"!

Rosa Luxemburg uses the "case of Radek" to assure German readers that nothing remains of the "russische Partei"*** "außer Trümmern"****.

In response to this, I must state the exact facts. The "Trümmer" is the Polish "Partei"vorstand, for it has not belonged to the party for a whole year. For a year, it has had no organizational connection either with the Central Committee of the party, which was elected at the January 1912 conference 582, or with the so-called "Organizational Commission" of the liquidators.

The party of the Russian S.-D. proletariat, freed from the liquidators and the intriguers of the Polish "Partei"vorstand, is so little like Trümmer that it has been developing particularly successfully since January 1912. Since some—and sometimes, unfortunately, influential—comrades from the German party often listen to biased stories and gossip***** from the Wortfuhrer des polnischen "Partei"vorstandes******, I will limit myself to a brief indication of the facts.

The only open measure (Maßstab) of the influence of S.-D. in Russia and their connections with the working masses are the legal Marxist newspapers. In Russia, only 2 "currents" are represented: the party and the liquidators. All the rest is Schwindel*.

The liquidators published 21 issues of the newspaper in the first half of 1912, while the anti-liquidators published 100. In the two months of the second half (July and August): the former published 4, the latter 60. The former, over 8 months (I-VIII 1912), were able to print direct support from 16 workers' groups, the latter from 551**.

Let Rosa Luxemburg, with her stories about "Trümmer," try to refute these facts!

The stories of the Polish "Partei"vorstand about the Russian party are even less credible than their stories about Radek.

N. Lenin