V. I.

Lenin

The revolutionary upswing in Russia made itself clearly
felt in the first half of 1912. The number of political strikers, as
calculated by the factory owners, reached 515,000 for five months. A
particularly important document, reprinted in full in No. 27 of the Central
Organ, namely, the May Day appeal of the St. Petersburg workers, provides
evidence as to the nature of the strikers’ slogans, their demands, the
political content of their demonstrations, meetings, etc.

The slogans with which the St. Petersburg workers came forward in those
memorable days were not reformist but revolutionary Social-Democratic
slogans: a constituent assembly, an eight-hour working day, confiscation of
the land ed estates, the overthrow of the tsarist government, and a
democratic republic.

The revolts and attempted revolts of soldiers and sailors—in
Turkestan, in the Baltic Fleet and on the Black Sea—supplied fresh
objective evidence that after long years of rampant counter-revolution and of a lull in the working-class movement, a new
revolutionary upswing had begun.

This upswing coincided with the period of the elections to the Fourth
Duma, when all parties and all political trends had to present, in
one form or another, their general appraisal of the political
situation. Now, if we want to analyse our political tasks seriously, as the
tasks of the working class and not the pious wishes of little groups, and
if we want to test programmes and platforms in a Marxist way by comparing
them with the facts of the mass struggle and with the actions of
all the classes of this society, we must also test the various election platforms on the touch stone of
this revolutionary upswing of the masses. For, as far as the
Social-Democrats are concerned, elections are not a special political
operation, not an attempt to win seats through all sorts of promises and
declarations, but merely a special occasion for advocating the basic
demands and the principles of the political world outlook of the
class-conscious proletariat.

The programmes and platforms of all the government parties, from the
Black Hundreds to Guchkov, leave no room for doubt. They are plainly and
openly counter-revolutionary. It is common knowledge that these parties
lack a foothold of any real importance not only among the working class and
the peasantry, but even among wide sections of the bourgeoisie. These sections have almost completely turned away from the
Octobrists.

The programmes and platforms of the liberal bourgeois parties have been
published in part almost officially (the platform of the Moslem group) and
are partly known quite accurately through the “big” political press (the
platforms of the “Progressists” and of the Cadets). The essence
of all these programmes and platforms has been inimitably expressed in the
declarations of the garrulous Cadet, Gredeskul, which were reprinted in
Rech and from there found their way into the Marxist press.

“ A public denial of the need for a new revolution in Russia”
is how Gredeskul himself formulated his views (cf. Sotsial-Demokrat No. 27, p. 3). It was he, too, who contrast
ed the real platform of the liberals (with the Cadets at their
head) with that of the revolutionaries, saving that “what we need is
merely quiet, persevering and confident constitutional work”.

We stress the words “real platform”, for in Russia, as in all
bourgeois countries, most platforms are mere window dressing .

The crux of the matter is what was admitted (in a rare fit of
truthfulness) by Mr. Gredeskul. The liberal monarchist bourgeoisie is
opposed to a new revolution and advocates only constitutional reforms.

The Social-Democrats consistently, and the bourgeois democrats
(Narodniks) hesitantly, uphold the “need” for a new revolution, and are carrying on propaganda in favour of such a
revolution. The upswing of the mass struggle has begun . The revolutionary Social-Democrats are trying to extend and
strengthen it, helping it develop to a still higher plane, to the stage of
revolution . The reformists, however, regard the upswing as a mere
“revival”; their policy is a policy aimed at obtaining constitutional
concessions, constitutional reforms. It follows that the bourgeoisie and
proletariat have entered, at this “stage” of Russian history as well,
into a struggle for influence over the “people”, over the masses. No one
can foretell the outcome of this struggle, but neither can anyone entertain
any doubts as to the position which the R.S.D.L.P. must occupy in
this struggle.

It is in this way, and only in this way, that one can start to appraise
the election platform of the Party and the election platform
issued the other day by the “Organising Committee” elected by the
liquidationist conference.

The election platform of the Party, published by the Central Committee
after the January Conference, was draft ed before the events of
April and May. These events proved it correct. A single theme runs
through the whole platform—criticism of constitutional reforms in
present-day Russia as hopeless and utopian, and the propaganda of
revolution. The slogans of the platform have been framed precisely
in such a way as to express the revolutionary tasks with perfect clarity
and make it absolutely impossible to mistake them for promises of
constitutional reforms. The platform of the Party represents a direct
appeal of the revolutionary Social-Democrats to hundreds of thousands of political strikers, to those who are in the front ranks
of the millions of the muzhik armed forces, to whom it explains
the tasks of an uprising. A revolutionary party could not even dream of a
better test for its platform, of a better confirmation of it by experience,
than this direct response to the explanations of the Party—the May
strikes and the attempted military revolts in June and July.

Look at the platform of the liquidators. Its liquidationist essence is
artfully concealed by Trotsky’s revolutionary phrases. This camouflage may
sometimes blind na\"ive and altogether inexperienced people, and may even
appear to be “reconciliation” between the liquidators and the Party. But the most
cursory examination will rapidly dissipate this self-deception.

The platform of the liquidators was written after the May
strikes and the attempted revolts in the summer. And in seeking a real
practical answer to the question of the essence of this platform, the first
thing we ask is: how does it appraise those strikes and those
attempts?

“ The economic upswing...”, “...by the growth of its strike movement,
the proletariat has signalled the coming new social upswing...”, “...the
powerful April movement of the proletariat demanding freedom of
association”—that is all the liquidators’ platform says about
the April and May strikes.

But this is indeed an untruth! It is a crying distortion of the issue!
The main thing is omitted here, namely, the revolutionary
character of the political strike, which is not aimed at winning a
constitutional reform, but at over throwing the government, i.e.,
at revolution.

How could such an untruth come to be written in an illegal,
revolutionary leaflet full of “red” phrases? It had to be,
because such is the view of the liberals and the liquidators. They see in strikes what they wish to see—a struggle for
constitutional reforms. They do not see what they do not wish to see,
namely, a revolutionary upswing. We liberals want to fight for reform, but
not for revolution—there you have the truth of the class
position that found expression in the untruth of the liquidators.

With regard to the attempted revolts we read, “...the soldiers in the
barracks are driven by violence, humiliation and starvation to
outbursts of desperate protest , then they are suppressed with
bullets, the rope”, etc.

This is a liberal appraisal. We revolutionary Social-Democrats regard
the attempted revolts as the beginning of an uprising of the masses , even if an unsuccessful, untimely, incorrect beginning. And we
know that the masses learn how to make a successful uprising only
from the experience of unsuccessful ones, just as the Russian workers, by a
series of unsuccessful, and sometimes particularly unsuccessful, political
strikes in 1901–04 learned to organise the successful strike of
October 1905. We say that the workers and peasants who are most downtrodden by the barracks have begun
to rise in revolt. Hence the plain and obvious conclusion: we must
explain to them how and for what purpose they should prepare for a
successful uprising.

The liberals take a different view. The soldiers are “driven” to “outbursts of desperate protest”, they say. To a
liberal, an insurgent soldier is not the subject of the revolution, not the
forerunner of the masses rising in revolt, but an object of
governmental evil (“driven to desperation”), serving to demonstrate that
evil.

See how bad our government is—it drives the soldiers to
desperation and then suppresses them with bullets, says the
liberal (the inference being: if we liberals were in power, there would be
no soldiers’ mutinies).

See how deeply and widely revolutionary energy is maturing among the
masses—says the Social-Democrat—even the soldiers and sailors who are
downtrodden by barrack drill are beginning to rise in revolt, and by rising
badly they teach how to rise successfully.

As you see, the liquidators have “ interpreted ” (in the
senatorial sense of the word interpret) the revolutionary upsurge in Russia
during the spring and the summer.

After which they “interpreted” the programme of our Party.

The Programme of the R.S.D.L.P. says:

“ The R.S.D.L.P. sets itself the immediate political task of
overthrowing the tsarist autocracy and replacing it by a democratic
republic, whose constitution would ensure :
(1) the sovereignty of the people” ... etc., and then comes a list of
“liberties” and “rights”.

One would think that this could not be misunderstood; the “immediate”
task is the overthrow of the autocracy and its replacement by a republic,
which would ensure liberties.

The liquidators have revised all this.

In their platform we read: “The Social-Democrats call on
the people to fight for a democratic republic....

“ Striving for this aim, which the people will be able to
achieve only as a result of revolution , the Social-Democrats
in the present election campaign [listen to this!] call on the
working masses to rally to the following current demands:
(1) universal, etc., suffrage ... in the elections to the Duma” ,
etc.

Mr. Peshekhonov, a Socialist-Revolutionary liquidator, wrote in the
autumn of 1906, when he was founding an “open party” (and almost
succeeded in founding it, but the police stepped in and put him in quod!),
that the republic was a “remote prospect”, that “the question
of a republic requires extreme caution”, that the immediate
demands now were reforms.

But the Socialist-Revolutionary liquidator was na\"ive, simple, clumsy
and blunt. Do the “European” opportunists ever act in that way? No. They
are more cunning, more clever, more diplomatic.

They do not renounce the slogan of a republic—what a libel! They only
“interpret” it in a suitable fashion, being prompted by considerations
obvious to every philistine. It is a moot point whether there will be a
revolution or not, says the man in the street simply, and Trotsky repeats
it in a scholarly fashion in Nasha Zarya (No. 5, p. 21). A
republic “only as a result of revolution”, but the “ current ” issue “in the present election campaign” is
constitutional reforms!

Everything went off so smoothly: the republic is both recognised and
relegated to the distant future. Heaps of r-r-revolutionary words were
spoken, but in reality the demands put forward “in the present election
campaign” (the whole platform is written only for this present campaign! ) as “current are those for reforms.

Yes, it was certainly great “masters of diplomacy” who were present
at the liquidators’ conference. But what puny masters they are! While they
may delight the group diplomatists and mislead the simple-minded
“conciliators” the Marxists will talk to them in a different strain.

The philistine is satisfied with the undoubted, holy and empty
truth that it is impossible to say in advance whether there will be a
revolution or not. A Marxist is not satisfied with that; he says: our
propaganda and the propaganda of all worker Social-Democrats is one of the factors determining whether there will be a revolution or
not. Hundreds of thousands of political strikers and the foremost men of
various units of the armed forces ask us, our Party, what they should
strive for, for the sake of what they should rise, what they should try to
achieve, whether they should expand the up- surge that has begun into a revolution, or whether they should direct it
towards a struggle for reforms.

The revolutionary Social-Democrats have given their answer to these
questions, which are more interesting and important than the
philistine-Trotskyist attitude of uncertainty: will there be a revolution
or not, who can tell?

Our answer is—criticism of the utopia of constitutional reforms,
explanation of the futility of the hopes placed in them, the utmost
all-round promotion of the revolutionary upsurge, utilisation of
the election campaign for this purpose . Whether or not there will
be a revolution does not depend on us alone . But we shall
do our work, and this work will never be in vain. It will sow the
seeds of democracy and proletarian independence deep among the masses, and
these seeds will certainly sprout and produce either a democratic
revolution tomorrow, or a socialist revolution the day after.

Those , however, who preach to the masses their vulgar, intellectualist. Bundist-Trotskyist scepticism—“we don’t know
whether there will be a revolution or not, but the ‘ current ’ issue
is reforms”—are already corrupting the masses, preaching
liberal utopias to them.

Instead of permeating the election campaign with the spirit of
the present, real, “ actual ” political situation, in which half a
million workers are engaged in revolutionary strikes, and the foremost men
in the muzhik armed forces are firing on their aristocrat
officers—instead of this they dismiss from their would-be
“European” (they are so European, so European, are our liquidators!)
“parliamentary” considerations this real situation (in which there is
very little of the “European”, but very much of the “Chinese”, that is to say , of the democratic-revolutionary), and having dismissed it
by means of a few non-committal phrases, they declare the reformist
election campaign to be the real thing.

The Social-Democratic Party needs a platform for the elections to the
Fourth Duma in order once more to explain to the masses—in connection
with the elections, on the occasion of the elections, and in
debates on the elections— the need for, and the urgency and inevitability of , the revolution.

They, the liquidators, need a platform “ for ” the elections,
i.e., a platform enabling them politely to dismiss considerations about a revolution as an uncertain eventuality and to declare the election
campaign for a list of constitutional reforms to be the “real” thing.

The Social-Democratic Party wants to use the elections in order again
to drive home to the masses the idea of the need for revolution, and the
fact of the revolutionary up swing which has begun. That is why the
Social-Democratic Party, in its platform, says briefly and plainly to those
voting in the elections to the Fourth Duma : not constitutional reforms, but a republic, not reformism, but
revolution.

The liquidators are using the elections to the Fourth Duma to preach
constitutional reforms and weaken the idea of revolution. It is
for this purpose and because of this that they depict soldiers’
revolts as “outbursts of desperate protest” to which soldiers are
“driven”, and not as the beginning of a mass uprising which will
grow or subside according, among other things, to whether or not
all the Social-Democratic workers of Russia at once begin to
support it with all their might, with all their energy, with all their
enthusiasm.

It is for this purpose that the May strikes have been “interpreted”
from being revolutionary into being reformist.

It is for this purpose that the Party programme has been
“interpreted”, and instead of the “immediate” task of establishing a
republic that will ensure liberties, it has been decreed to regard
as current in the “present election campaign”—for the Fourth
Duma, don’t laugh!—the demand for various liberties.

How much that is old Chinese there is in Russian life! What an amount
of old Chinese practices there is in our tsarism, and also in our
liquidators, who wish to fit the “ceremonials” of parliamentary struggle
and reformism into a setting which has the Purishkeviches and Treshchenkovs
on top and revolutionary attempts of the masses below! How much that is old
Chinese there is in these vain efforts of intellectuals to defend
themselves against the Khvostovs and Makarovs by producing a letter of
recommendation from MacDonald and Jaurès, from Bissolati and
Bernstein, from Kolb and Frank!

The diplomatic “reconciliation” of liquidationist views with those of
the Party that was staged by Trotsky at the liquidationist conference does not in reality “reconcile” anything at
all. It does not remove the greatest political fact, which determines the
entire social and political situation in present-day Russia. That fact is
the struggle between the reformist and the revolutionary Social-Democratic
platforms; it is the pronouncement of the bourgeoisie, as represented by
its liberal party leaders, against the need for a new revolution in Russia
and in favour of purely constitutional “work”, in opposition to the
revolutionary strike of hundreds of thousands of proletarians, which is a
call to the masses to begin a real struggle for freedom.

To make one bow to the reformists and another to the revolutionary
Social-Democrats does not do away with this objective political fact, does
not weaken its force and weight in the slightest degree. Good intentions to
smooth over differences arising from this fact—even assuming that these
intentions are indeed perfectly “good” and sincere—are powerless to
alter the irreconcilably hostile political tendencies arising from the
entire counter-revolutionary situation.

The proletariat has risen with its revolutionary Social-Democratic
banner, and on the eve of the Fourth, Black Hundred, Duma, It will not
lower it before the liberals, will not furl it to please the reformists,
will not consent to blunt or tone down its platform for reasons of group
diplomacy.

The platform of revolutionary Social-Democracy versus the platform of
reformism—this was the watchword under which the May strikes took
place. Under it, too, the R.S.D.L.P. is entering the elections to a
landlord and priest Duma, and under it the Party will carry on its entire
work in that Duma and among the masses.

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