V. I. Lenin

Rosa Luxemburg and the Polish “Partei” Vorstand in Martov’s Wake {20}

RosaLuxemburg’s statement in Vorwärts (on
September 14) in defence of the so-called Polish Vorstand and carrying
charges against Comrade Radek has forced me to take up the pen despite my
great unwillingness to interfere in this matter. I cannot remain
silent. when the struggle against the liquidators of the Russian Party is
being used to vindicate the worst methods of the liquidators.

Ihave personally witnessed Comrade Radek’s vacillation from defence of
the extreme Left to defence of the Russian liquidators; I have always
fought and will continue to fight politically against all those who defend
liquidationism, but that is precisely why I must stand up against
the disgusting methods used by the so-called Polish Vorstand in the Radek
“affair” {21}

Whatis the principal specific of Martov’s “well-known” (bekannt)
pamphlet, of which Rosa Luxemburg makes such opportune mention? {22}

Itis that Martov, the leader of the liquidators, after all
the Social-Democrats of Russia, in January 1910, solemnly and unanimously
accepted the condemnation of liquidationism and after peace in the
Party was proclaimed on the basis of this condemnation {23} —a year later, when the liquidators destroyed the
Party’s C.C. and split away from the Party—Martov put out a pamphlet
accusing his opponents of 1,001 dishonest and criminal offences. At the
time the Poles called this pamphlet a “stinkbomb”, and even
(sogar, and not selbst) Kautsky called it “abscheulich”. {1}

Thevery same thing has now been done by the so-called Polish Vorstand
with Rosa Luxemburg at its head.

Comrade Radek was recommended tomepersonally , in 1909 and 1910, as a fitting collaboratorforour Party’s
C. 0. and was personally introduced to me, with the best of references , at the International Congress at Copenhagen, by the
selfsame members of this very Vorstand.

Butthen, in 1911, Comrade Radek took a political stand against this
Vorstand, supporting the Party’s Warsaw

Committee, a number of Party members and two of its prominent leaders
(Malecki and Hanecki), who exposed the Vorstand for disorganising
activity. Comrade Radek helped to establish the truth, namely, that the
Polish Partei vorstand is a Vorstand without a party. In
Warsaw, the capital of Poland, this Vorstand no longer represents
the Warsaw Committee, but its own fictitious little group. The German
comrades will soon learn about all this in greater detail. Members of the
Russian Social-Democratic Party are aware that there is already a whole literature about it, and it is futile on Rosa Luxemburg’s part to hush
it up (totzuschweigen) before the International!

After Radek took his political stand against the so-called
Parteivorstand ( without a party), this “Partei”vorstand
cooked up a “trial” against Radek over a “case”—listen to
this!—dating back to
1 9 0 6 !

Thatis the crux of the matter, and that is what our illustre {2}

Rosa has been trying wegzuschwatzen! {3}

Rosa Luxemburg and her “Partei”vorstand are currently conducting an
unprecedentedly fierce fight against their own party’s best workers,
stooping so low as to throw out suspicions of their connection with the
secret police. Rosa Luxemburg and her “Partei”vorstand have lost their
head waging such a war against their political opponents.

Isit not now clear why, without going into the substance of
the “Radek affair”, I consider it to be my duty to declare that the substance of the case is political revenge by Rosa Luxemburg and her
“Partei”vorstand?

Certainmethods were described in Russian literature by Turgenev long
ago. One old rascal, he wrote, once gave this wise advice: when doing
something base, see that you shout loudest about the baseness of the acts
you are yourself committing. When robbing the public till, be sure to shout
loudest about the vileness of embezzlement....

Whenthe Polish “Partei”vorstand stooped to a repetition of Martov’s
methods against Comrade Radek—the “Partei” (v)orstand got Rosa
Luxemburg to raise the greatest possible noise in Vorwärts about
Martov’s baseness!... Es ist eine alte

Geschichte, {4} but for us Russian émigrés ist sie leider gar nicht
“neu” {5}

....

Rosa Luxemburg has been trying to assure her German readers that
Comrade Radek “nie die geringste Rolle gespielt hat”, {6} and so on, and so forth. It is my duty to reply to this elenden
Altweiberklatsch {7} and state the precise facts : in 1909 and 1910, Comrade Radek did a
great deal of successful work as a contributor to the Central Organ of the
Social-Democratic Party of Russia. I was one of the editors of the Central
Organ and I cannot let Rosa Luxemburg’s malicious bit of gossip go
unanswered.

Inorder to denigrate Comrade Radek, Rosa Luxemburg praises herself
under the name of “polnische
Wortf\"uhrer”. {8}

She puts out a hint that Comrade Radek’s “taktischen
Ideen” {9} are tenuous.

Letme say right away that I consider this tenuousness, this readiness
to have “peace” with the Russian liquidators, Comrade Radek’s great
sin. But I believe it is more excusable in a collaborator who is not
responsible for C.0. and C.C. policy than in C.C. and
C.O. members . It is patent “Intrigenf\"uhrer”, {10} like Tyszka, who have always played the prevailing role among the notorious
“Polish Wortf\"uhrern” and it is their tenuousness that has done
tremendous damage to the whole party.

Letme give two examples to substantiate what I say. The Plenary
Meeting of the C.C. of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party in
January 1910 unanimously condemned liquidationism. The only
section of the resolution leaving T\"ur und
Thor {11} for opportunism (the so-called § 1) was carried on Tyszka’s
initiative. What is Rosa Luxemburg going to say about that? Will she dare
stand up for this § 1 from the standpoint of the “radikale
Richtung”? {12}

Whenin the spring of 1911 the Bolsheviks withdrew from the so-called
C.C. Bureau Abroad in view of the destruction of the C.C. by the
liquidators, the Poles remained in that institution for months together with the Bundists and the
Latvians, {24} of whom even (sogar) Plekhanov wrote: “Diese
Parteiinstitution, die zum Werkzeug in den H\"anden einer Gruppe von Leuten
geworden war, die die Partei liquidieren wollten und die daher der Sache
des russischen Proletariats grossen Schaden zuzuf\"ugen drohte, konnte
diesem nur einen Gefallen erweisen: n\"amlich das Zeitliche segnen” (Note:
=

“Tagebuch eines S.D.” 2 Beilage zu N 15, S. 1, zitiert in der Schrift:
“Der Anonymus aus dem Vorwärts und die Sachlage in der
Soz. Dem. Arb. P. Russlands”; diese Schrift wurde in die Redaktionen aller
s.d. Bl\"atter in Deutschland gesandt). {13}

Onthe strength of these facts, the reader will judge whether there is
a great deal of truth in Rosa Luxemburg’s boastful words to the effect that
the Poles “mit starker Faust die liquidatorische Richtung in Russland
niederzuhalten geholfen haben”. {14}

Inactual fact, by their intrigues the Poles did much more to
hinder the struggle against this “Richtung” {15}

.

Up to now, eight months after the formal expulsion of a
definite group of liquidators from the Party (the magazine
Nasha Zarya {25} the notorious “polnische Wortf\"uhrer” have been unable
to give a straightforward answer as to whether or not they want
“peace” with this group. It is, of course, not as easy to give a
straightforward answer as to plagiarise the anti-liquidators today and the
liquidators tomorrow, declaring oneself, on the strength of that, to be “ superior ” to both
“factions”!

Rosa Luxemburg takes the occasion of the “Radek case” to assure her
German readers that nothing “ausser
Tr\"ummern” {16} is left of the “russische
Partei”. {17}

Inresponse to that I must state the actual facts. It is the Polish
“Partei”vorstand that is the “Tr\"ummer”, because it has not belonged to the Party for a whole year. For a whole year, it has not had any organisational ties either with the Party C.C., which was
elected by the January 1912
Conference, {26} or with the so-called “Organising Committee” of the
liquidators.

The Party of the Russian Social-Democratic proletariat, which has
divested itself of the liquidators and the intriguers of the Polish
“Partei”vorstand, is so far from being Tr\"ummer that it has been
developing with especial success since January 1912. Since some—and at
times, regrettably, influential—comrades in the German party lend an ear
to the frequently biased stories and Klatsch of the Wortf\"uhrer des
polnischen “Partei”vorstandes, who are outside the Party, I shall confine
myself to a brief indication of the facts.

Legal Marxist newspapers are the only open measure (Maßstab) of the Social-Democrats’ influence in Russia and their
ties with the workers’ masses. Only two “trends”—the Party and
the liquidators—are represented in Russia. All the rest are a
Schwindel. {18}

Inthe first half of 1912, the liquidators put out 21 issues of their
paper and the anti-liquidators, 100. In the two months of the second
half-year (July and August) the former had 4, and the latter—6O. In the
eight months (from January to August 1912) the former were able to retort
direct assistance to them from 16 workers’ groups, and the
latter—from
551 . {19}

Rosa Luxemburg with her stories about “Tr\"ummer” should try to
refute these facts!

Thestories of the polnische “Partei”vorstand about the Russian Party
are even less credible than their stories about Radek.

N. Lenin

---
Notes:
{1}
Disgusting, foul.— Ed .

{2}
Illustrious.— Ed .

{3}
To talk herself out of.— Ed .

{4}
It is an old story.— Ed .

{5}
It is unfortunately not “new” at all.— Ed .

{6} “Never played the slightest role.”— Ed .

{7}
Petty old wives’ tale.— Ed .

{8} “Polish representatives.”— Ed .

{9} “Tactical ideas.”— Ed .

{10} “Masters of intrigue.”— Ed .

{11}
A loophole.— Ed .

{12} “Radical trend.”— Ed .

{13} “This party institution, which became a tool in the hands of gentlemen
intent on liquidating the party, and which in consequence threatened to
inflict great damage on the cause of Russian Social-Democracy, could do the
revolutionary proletariat only one good service: suffer a timely demise”
(Note: Dnevnik Sotsial-Demokrata , Second Supplement to No. 15,
p. 1, quoted in “Anonymous in Vorwärts , and the State of
Affairs in the Social-Democratic Labour Party of Russia”; this article was
circulated to the editorial boards of all Social-Democratic newspapers in
Germany).— Ed .

{14} “Lent their strong fist to help put down the liquidationist trend in
Russia.”— Ed .

{15}
Trend.— Ed .

{16}
Except debris.— Ed .

{17}
Russian Party.— Ed .

{18}
Swindle.— Ed .

{19}
Vgl. die Schrift “Zur gegenw\"artigen Sachlage in der
Soz. Dem. A. P. Russlands”. Leipzig 1912. Diese Schrift gelangt jetzt in
Chemnitz zur Verteilung an die Delegierte den Partei (cf. the article “On
the Present Situation in the Social-Democratic Labour Party of Russia”,
Leipzig 1912. This article is now available in Chemnitz for distribution to
party delegates.— Ed .).

{20}
The article, written in September 1912, dealt with the state of affairs
in the Social-Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, which was
split. One section consisted of those who supported the Party’s
Chief. Executive headed by Rosa Luxemburg and J. Tyszka—the so-called “ Zarzadists ”. On the whole, the Chief Executive
took an internationalist stand and waged a struggle kit Poland against
nationalism and reformism, but followed an erroneous line on the struggle
within the R.S.D.L.P., taking a conciliatory attitude to the Menshevik
liquidators; it tended to detach itself from the general Party life and
weakened contacts with the R.S.D.L.P. Central Committee, despite the fact
that the Social-Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania was an
autonomous organisation within the R.S.D.L.P. In the struggle against the
mistakes of the Chief Executive, there took shape an opposition represented
by the so-called “Rozlamists”, who relied on the Party’s Warsaw
organisation headed by former members of the Chief Executive I. Hanecki,
A. Malecki and others. Rozlamists were in close contact with the Bolsheviks
and supported their action. Lenin said that in that period the Warsaw
organisation was the strongest and most consistently revolutionary of all
the organisations of the Polish Social-Democrats (see Lenin’s article “ The Split Among the Polish Social-Democrats ”,
Vol. 18, pp. 479–83).

Thearticle was aimed against the erroneous line of the Chief
Executive, which objectively inflicted grave harm on the unity of the
working-class movement in Russia as a whole and played into the hands of
the anti-Bolshevik trends in the R.S.D.L.P. While criticising the grave
errors of Rosa Luxemburg and J. Tyszka, Lenin put a great value on their
activity and tried to help them to take a correct stand. Lenin was known to
regard Rosa Luxemburg as an outstanding leader of the Polish, German and
the entire international working-class movement. He wrote later that for
all her mistakes, Rosa Luxemburg was “an eagle” and that “Communists all
over the world cherish her memory” (see present edition, Vol. 33, p. 210).

Thearticle was written for the Bremer B\"urger-Zeitung which
was under the influence of the Left-wing Social-Democrats; it was