V. I. Lenin

Source: ru:LS/v39;es:MT
Translated: machine translation (DeepSeek) from the Russian; AI-translated.

in which his article “The Disease of Reformism” was published, a reply to V. M. Abrosimov’s (V. A.) feuilleton “What Is Our Sickness?”
(see ibid., pp. 218–220).
On the reverse side of the sheet Lenin makes excerpts from the newspaper of the Menshevik-liquidators, *Luch*. Below he sketches a variant of Point 7 of the resolution of the Cracow Meeting of the Central Committee of the RSDLP with Party workers, “The Revolutionary Upsurge, Strikes and the Tasks of the Party”
(see ibid., p. 259).
2 *Pravda*—a daily legal Bolshevik newspaper; the first issue appeared in St. Petersburg on April 22 (May 5), 1912.
*Pravda* was subjected to constant police persecution. It was closed down by the tsarist government eight times, but continued to appear under other names: *Rabochaya Pravda*, *Severnaya Pravda*, *Pravda Truda*, *Za Pravdu*, *Proletarskaya Pravda*, *Put Pravdy*, *Rabochy*, *Trudovaya Pravda*. On July 8 (21), 1914, the newspaper was closed. The publication of *Pravda* was resumed only after the February bourgeois-democratic revolution of 1917. From March 5 (18), 1917, *Pravda* began to appear as the organ of the Central and St. Petersburg Committees of the RSDLP.
3 Yezhov (S. O. Tsederbaum)—a Social-Democrat, Menshevik. During the years of reaction and the new revolutionary upsurge—an active liquidator, he took part in the newspapers and magazines of the Menshevik-liquidators. During the world imperialist war—a defencist. After the October Socialist Revolution he withdrew from political activity.
4 M—sky—Ye. Mayevsky (V. A. Gutovsky)—a Social-Democrat, Menshevik. During the years of reaction and the new revolutionary upsurge—a liquidator, he contributed to the magazine *Nasha Zarya*, the newspaper *Luch* and other organs of the Menshevik-liquidators. During the period of the world imperialist war—a defencist. After the October Socialist Revolution he fought against Soviet power.

ARMAMENTS AND THE GERMAN REICHSTAG¹
(FROM GERMANY)

The German government is doing its utmost to “push through” parliament a new law for increasing the army (from 544,000 to 659,000 in peacetime, i.e., by almost 20%!!). The manufacturers of war materials and supplies have succeeded in creating a “patriotic” mood “among the people” (read: among the bourgeoisie and the bourgeois newspapers, which sell themselves to the highest bidder) on the pretext of—would you believe it!—the “Slav” danger.

But where is the money to be found for this new increase in armaments, when in Germany the people are already groaning everywhere under the burden of taxes and high prices? And no small sum is required: a whole milliard marks, i.e., about 500 million rubles. How much sensible and reasonable work could be done with this money—to help the working people, to ease their

lot, if only... if only the working people were not the wage slaves of the capitalists, who make such excellent profits out of “patriotic” armaments!

The German government, seeing that a new increase in indirect taxes was impossible, at first decided to raise the required milliard by means of a special property tax. At first they wanted to make everyone pay who has 10,000 marks (a little less than 5,000 rubles) and over. But this was opposed not only by the Social-Democrats, who always strive to have taxes paid by the rich, but also by many bourgeois parties, out of fear of the petty-bourgeois voter. For a small peasant or artisan, a property tax on 5,000 rubles (land, house, workshop, etc.) is certainly burdensome.

The government made a concession: it decided, firstly, to exempt from the tax property under 50,000 marks (except property yielding an income of 5,000 marks), and, secondly, to establish a progressive increase in the tax for the rich. Unfortunately, this increase is too slight; indeed, here is the scale of property and tax rates:

A millionaire pays only 7,100 marks, i.e., about 3,500 rubles.

But the capitalists raised a howl even against these tax rates. The reactionary and bourgeois newspapers of Germany shout that this is no longer a tax, it is confiscation of property (??!), that such a measure will, if you please, facilitate the achievement by Social-Democracy of its ultimate goal, i.e., the expropriation of the capitalist class, and so on and so forth. The Social-Democrats, they say, will learn from the German government how to ease the burden on the rich by a really high tax! Well, aren’t they comedians?

Let us note that the Junkers (as the reactionary noble landowners are called in Germany, our equivalent: die-hards or Purishkeviches²) did succeed in obtaining “privileges” for themselves, thanks to the subservience of the German Cadets and Octobrists to the German “Right”.

The Junkers insisted that the value of their property

Property in marks
50,000— (approx. 25,000 rub.)
Tax in marks
75 = 0.15%
10,000,000—
 
100,000,000—
100,000—500,000—
1,000,000—
250 = 0.25%
2,850 = 0.57%
7,100 = 0.71%
127,100 = 1.27%
1,477,000 = 1.47%