V. I.

Lenin

Some controversies and conflicts of opinion in the press
help the reader to obtain a better understanding of political problems, to
appreciate their importance more profoundly, and to solve them more
confidently.

Other controversies, however, degenerate into recrimination, intrigues
and squabbling.

The advanced workers, who are aware of the responsibility they
bear for the progress of the work of educating and organising the
proletariat, must keep careful watch to prevent the inevitable
controversies, the inevitable conflict of opinions, from
degenerating into recrimination, intrigues, squabbling and
slander.

This is a question of the workers’ cause, the workers’ organisation, it
is the most serious and important question of combating the slightest
attempts at disruption. It can not be treated lightly. Those who have not
learned to cut at the very roots of disruption are useless as organisers;
and without an organisation the working class is nothing. No movement,
including the working-class movement, is possible without debates,
controversy and conflict of opinions; and no organisation is possible if resolute measures are not taken to prevent controversies
from degenerating into recrimination and squabbling.

We invite class-conscious workers to examine from this angle the
conflict between the six and the seven Social Democrat Duma deputies.

The six considered it their duty to respect the will and decisions of
the Marxist conference. The Duma representatives of the proletariat are
duty bound to obey the will of the majority of the class-conscious, organised, Marxist workers outside the
Duma.

This is a general principle, the general basis of all our views on the
tasks of the working-class movement.

If this view is wrong it must be refuted and rejected. If it is
correct, if it is the ABC without which no policy can be pursued, without
which no organisation is possible, then this view must be accepted and
firmly adhered to in spite of all the howling, outcries, attacks and
slander.

Worker comrades! Debate this question. Arrange debates, talks and
discussions to obtain absolute clarity on this question, but have no
dealings with those who resort to recrimination instead of argument.

What did the liquidators say in reply to the first and fundamental
argument of the six deputies?

Their only reply was abuse! They abused the conference; they abused the
“underground” a hundred times over, and that is all.

Is that a reply? Is it not simply an attempt to disrupt, to wreck the
organisation?

Things have gone so far that F. D. in No. 70, writes literally the
following: “Where are the responsible bodies that promoted their
candidatures and gave them their instructions?”

Worker comrades, think over what this question means! You will find
that it is one worthy of ... those who carry out interrogations!... Will
you not realise, F. D. and other liquidators, that we cannot argue
with you when you put questions of that sort .

Examine the substance of the matter. Is the decision of the conference
correct; does it correctly express the interests and views of the majority
of the workers? Pravda answers this question by quoting a series
of exact figures (see Za Pravdu , Tuesday, October 29, 1913). [1]

These figures show that the Pravda trend enjoys the support of the
absolute and indisputable majority of class-conscious workers,
i.e., of those who take an active part in politics.

These figures compared the elections to the Second, Third and Fourth
Dumas in the worker curia—-and they referred to the number of workers represented by the six and the seven, and
to the number of workers’ groups which openly assisted in collecting funds
for the respective news papers, etc.

What did the liquidators say in reply to this argument on the substance
of the question of the majority?

Abuse was their only reply. The liquidators do not, refute a single
figure, not a single one. They do not even make an attempt to correct them,
or quote others in place of them!

The thing is as clear as daylight. Those who evade precise data on the
question of the majority run counter to the will of the majority;
they are disruptors.

The seven Duma deputies are inclining towards liquidationism, for they
sanction abuse of the “underground” and take a hand in flouting the will
of the majority. This shows that the seven are non-Party . And no
man in his senses will allow seven non-Party men to suppress Party
decisions and the supporters of Party decisions by one vote.

No amount of liquidator abuse will refute this plain and simple fact.

The six deputies performed their duty, and the more the liquidators
shout and rave the sooner will all workers and Marxists understand that the
six are right, and that the establishment of equality and coincide with the
non-Party Social-Democratic deputies in the State Duma is inevitable.

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Notes:
[1]
See pp. 458 74 of this volume— Ed .