Date: 1912
Source: ru:PSS/v21
Source: CW vol 21

Any reasonable person understands that empty phrases about alleged, liquidator-sympathizing secret "organizations" do not deserve any trust.

We assert that all organizations of the liquidators in Russia are fictitious.

For someone who does not personally have accurate information about the state of affairs in Russian social-democratic circles, it is difficult to establish the truth. But even for him, it is possible to find it if he seeks it through documents and checks their meaning, without taking them at face value. The first verifiable and well-known fact we have already cited – this is the division of forces within the Duma's social-democratic faction between the liquidators and the anti-liquidators.

But now, after half a year of struggle by the liquidators against the party, there exist the following, entirely objective and even more convincing facts.

In the letter of June 24 (pages 5 and 6), the Latvians mention legal Marxist newspapers in St. Petersburg. They name *Zhivoye Delo* and *Nevsky Golos*, which follow the Menshevik line (*Golos Sotsial-Demokrata*), and oppose to them the newspapers *Zvezda* and the St. Petersburg *Pravda* (not to be confused with the liquidator Vienna *Pravda* of Trotsky), which, according to the Latvians, "are in the possession and under the guidance of Lenin's group."

Even if this statement is unfortunate, still the Latvians inadvertently brought up a serious fact against the liquidators here.

If the "open party" is only an empty liberal phrase of the liquidators, then open activity in the Duma and in the press is the main activity of Marxist propaganda. Here and only here can one find facts that objectively prove the strength of the liquidators and the anti-liquidators.

There are no other political all-Russian organs except those named by the Latvians. For the liquidators – *Zhivoye Delo* and *Nevsky Golos*, for the anti-liquidators – *Zvezda*, later *Nevskaya Zvezda* and (St. Petersburg) *Pravda*. There are no other directions or factions in Russia, neither in the press nor on the public mass arena; all the foreign groups named by the Latvians are complete zeros.

Now before us are the results of six months of activity of both trends.

During these six months (January – June 1912), all Russian parties began and have already completed preparations for the elections. Now there are only 6 or 8 weeks left until the elections. The electoral lists have already been largely drawn up. In fact, the outcome of the elections is already predetermined precisely on the basis of this six-month preparation.

The liquidators were supported by points 1–7 in the Latvian list (Organizational Committee, Bund, Latvian Social Democracy, *Golos*, Vienna *Pravda*, Caucasian Regional Committee, *Vpered*), while the anti-liquidators were supported by the Central Committee, which united the Russian organizations, i.e., those operating in Russia (only the "Leninist trend," as the liquidators assert).

So, let us see what each side has done.

The liquidators published in St. Petersburg from January 1 to June 30 (O.S.) 1912, 16 issues of the newspaper *Zhivoye Delo* and 5 issues of the newspaper *Nevsky Golos*, a total of 21 issues.

The anti-liquidators in the same six months – 33 issues of the newspaper *Zvezda*, 14 issues of the newspaper *Nevskaya Zvezda*, and 53 issues of the newspaper *Pravda*, a total of 100 issues.

21 against 100.

This is the ratio of forces between the liquidators and the party in Russia. The data on the newspapers are open data; anyone can verify and substantiate them.

What about the circulation of the newspapers? The Latvians claim that the liquidators published 30,000 copies. Let us assume that this is not exaggerated. For the anti-liquidator newspapers, a figure of 60,000 copies was named to the Board by a person seen by Comrade Gaaze and other members. This ratio reduces the influence of the liquidators compared to the influence of the party to a ratio of 1:10.

If the information about the circulation is not published and therefore may seem exaggerated, then other, more important, and more convincing data are published.

These are the data on the connection of the liquidators and the party with the working masses in Russia.