**Source:** PSS vol. 24

The Report and Concluding Remarks were first published on May 14 and July 24, 1915 in the Latvian language in the newspaper *Stradniekc* nos. 37 and 63 (Boston)

The Draft Resolution on the Attitude of the Social-Democracy of the Latvian Region toward the RSDLP was first published in 1957 (incomplete) in the journal *Voprosy istorii KPSS* no. 3

Published in Russian for the first time, from the text of the newspaper. Translated from Latvian

Printed from the manuscript

## 1. Report of the CC of the RSDLP at the IV Congress of Social-Democracy of the Latvian Region

**Lenin** (representative of the Central Committee of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party). Comrade Braun said that one should not rummage through waste paper, in old documents. That is correct. However, it is still necessary to proceed from documents and other evidence. Having familiarized myself more closely with the activity of the RSDLP over the past two years, the presence of liquidationism becomes clear, which hindered the restoration of the party. If we do not familiarize ourselves with the political causes of the party split, then the present state of fragmentation will also be incomprehensible to us. Already at the 1908 conference, and later at the 1910 plenum, erroneous tendencies were pointed out. On the one hand – Otzovism, which did not understand the new conditions of Russia; on the other hand – liquidationism, which either denies the party or disparages the significance of the illegal party. These tendencies arose under the influence of the bourgeoisie. Liquidationism is a broad phenomenon. Among Socialist-Revolutionaries (Populists) already in 1906 there appeared people attempting to legalize the party. This is a policy of accommodation, which we see among the Kadets. The same spirit of accommodationism dominates liquidationism among Social-Democrats. Only in the struggle against this liquidationism can a strong party be built. The 1908 conference already declared this plainly. The party split after the plenum. The Foreign Bureau of the Central Committee{109}, without convening a plenum, later liquidated itself. It fell to the party to restore itself in the struggle against the liquidators, and this was done by the January conference. It adopted a resolution that in the workers' curia it was necessary to struggle against the liquidators, but Comrade Braun called this resolution Asiatic. However, such a resolution is merely a more consistent conclusion from the resolution adopted by the plenum. The January conference was condemned from all sides.

But how did matters actually stand with this January conference? If it had truly been a conference only of splitters, then the entire party ought to have united and proved that this conference did not represent the party. But this did not happen. Comrade Braun said: the broad masses do not follow Lenin. But a serious person does not resolve the question in that manner; one must examine the facts in their full scope. What do the facts say? Data were published on the results of elections in the workers' curia: in the elections to the II Duma, 47 percent of votes were cast for the Bolsheviks; in the elections to the III Duma – 50 percent; in the elections to the IV Duma – 67 percent. These facts are indisputable; they testify that the decisions of the January conference were correct. What the conference decided came to pass in the elections. The majority of conscious workers of Russia are going with the Bolsheviks, and this proves that the struggle against the liquidators was necessary. Now even the legal press recognizes that the majority of conscious workers are behind the Bolsheviks.

According to Comrade Braun, the August conference adopted the demands he put forward: the slogan of a democratic republic, the necessity of an illegal party. But why then does Comrade Braun wish to withdraw from the Organizational Committee created by this conference? This does not testify to political prudence and firmness in political activity. Comrade Braun said that now there are only individual liquidators among journalists, and that liquidationism in general does not exist. But what do the attacks of *Luch* say about the illegal party, its struggle against party members? The liquidators did not fulfill what they promised to Comrade Braun: they did not support the slogan of a democratic republic and the necessity of an illegal party. The Latvians want to withdraw from the Organizational Committee. This too proves that the August bloc was only a fiction. It is absurd, even demagogical, to speak of unity with liquidators so long as the latter do not renounce their present views and do not adhere to diametrically (completely) opposite views. So long as liquidationism remains what it is – unity is impossible. Those who stand for a legal party cannot unite with those who stand for an illegal party. Now there are two parties, one – real, the other – a fiction, an empty invention. This fictitious party is a group of intellectuals who merely disorganize the workers with their attacks on the illegal party. Even *Luch* does not unite all the journalists of the August bloc, but only the liquidators. Against the liquidators, only struggle is possible.

"Demagogy," "unity," "splitters" – these are merely loud words; even a parrot can repeat such words. But one must look at the facts. *Pravda* over the course of a year united approximately 2,000 workers' groups, while *Luch* united only 550. An organ advancing the illegal party gathered 4 times more supporters than the newspaper of "all tendencies." The facts show that they, the Bolsheviks, have united the majority of Russian workers. The meeting convened in the summer demonstrated the same thing.

Lenin is reproached for splitting the faction. But for a whole year 6 deputies struggled against liquidationism within the faction. Behind the Bolsheviks – the majority; behind them – the party. The faction must submit to the majority of the party, must act together with it. If they do not do this, they place themselves outside the party, on the periphery of the party. Everywhere it is established that the faction must submit to the decisions of the party. So it must be in Russia. Deputies to the State Duma are not some sort of Social-Democratic prattlers, but workers of the party, who must submit to the party.

Everything that stands behind the liquidators is a fiction, a phrase, abuse. What happened after the faction split? Behind six deputies – 6,000 signatures; behind seven – 2,000. Anyone can read about this in the press. Martov said that behind the seven stand institutions of Marxists, but these are such institutions as do not represent the masses of party members; they are only a fiction.

The Bolsheviks stand for unity. But who are these people who cannot enter the illegal party? Unity of the illegal party is necessary. Unity from below. But against those who attack the illegal party, who disparage the significance of this party – against them struggle is the only course. Let them give a guarantee that the illegal party remains inviolable, that the slogan of a democratic republic will not be besmirched – only then is unity from above and below possible. I do not know how it is in Asia, but in Europe those are called splitters who do not recognize the majority. Splitters are the minority, which does not submit to the decisions of the majority.

## 2. Concluding Remarks at the IV Congress of Social-Democracy of the Latvian Region

**Lenin.** I am attacked for "demagogical methods," for splitting, etc. But how did my opponents proceed? They always sling mud at the Bolsheviks. The unseemly brochure by Martov{110} alone can serve as an example of this. – I merely expressed my opinion that at the conference of the International Bureau the Bolsheviks would take part. But this is something that the Central Committee, where workers sit, will have to decide. They will decide this question, not Lenin. – Those who say that liquidationism does not exist do not respect the congress. In the decisions of the party already from 1908 it is clearly stated what liquidationism is. These decisions have not been rescinded; they must be reckoned with. Now liquidationist ideas are being preached in the newspapers of the "August bloc." Supporters of the Organizational Committee here claim that they are not acting against the party – but what does their newspaper say? There are many such examples. And the conciliator An wanted to speak against non-party agitation, but the editorial board stuck to its opinion. One cannot unite with those who defend the views of the newspaper *Luch*. The struggle for an "open workers' party" is liquidationism. – One must go to the conference being convened not in order to unite with the liquidators, but in order to expose them and prove that the August bloc is a fiction. – The liquidationist press narrows the slogans, limits revolutionary tactics. The liquidators have no illegal literature whatsoever; such literature exists only among the Bolsheviks. The fact that Bolshevik organizations exist in Russia can be seen from the latest (31st) issue. The elections to the IV State Duma also showed that the overwhelming majority of workers are behind the Bolsheviks. These are facts that everyone can verify. This is also testified to by the material support of the newspapers. – Cries for unity have no significance whatsoever; one must know how to unite. The Bolsheviks in Russia have united the majority, while the August conference, on the contrary, united nothing. Braun is leaving it, Trotsky is leaving it – the "August bloc" is falling apart. Buryanov also did not remain among the 7 deputies. – In order for unification to become possible, it is necessary to condemn the liquidators.

## 3. Draft Resolution on the Attitude of the Social-Democracy of the Latvian Region toward the RSDLP

**Resolution by Ziemelis**

1. The unification of all genuine Social-Democratic forces and strict unity of the party in Russia is absolutely necessary – especially now, when the struggle of the working class is expanding ever more. This unity is possible only among those Social-Democrats who recognize in their activity:

a) that the RSDLP at the present moment can exist only illegally and that all Social-Democrats must enter into the illegal party organization;

b) that Russian Social-Democracy must conduct agitation among the masses in the spirit of the revolutionary demands of 1905, calling upon the workers to march at the forefront of the entire liberation movement and to struggle for a new revolution.

The Congress recognizes that in each city there must exist one united Social-Democratic organization, into which workers of all nationalities must enter and which must conduct its work in all those languages in which the local proletariat speaks. The Congress invites Social-Democrats of all nationalities to struggle energetically for genuine, firm, conducted by the workers themselves from below, genuinely proletarian unity.

2. At the center of the internal party struggle over the past 5 years stands the question of the liquidationist tendency. Already at the All-Russian Conference of 1908, before any splits, the party resolved that by liquidationism it understands the attempt by a certain part of the party intellectuals to liquidate the existing organization of the RSDLP and to replace it with an amorphous association within the bounds of legality at all costs, even if the latter were purchased at the price of an obvious renunciation of the program, tactics, and traditions of the party.

In January 1910 a plenary session of the CC of the RSDLP, at which all the tendencies and currents of the party were represented, again unanimously condemned liquidationism by the entire party as a "manifestation of bourgeois influence on the proletariat," which expressed itself in the negation of the illegal Social-Democratic party, in the depreciation of its role and significance, in attempts to curtail the programmatic and tactical tasks and slogans of revolutionary Social-Democracy, and so forth.

The attempt by the conciliators to unite at all costs with the liquidators (the August conference of 1912) proved fruitless, and the uniters themselves fell into ideological-political dependence on the liquidators.

The IV Congress of Social-Democracy of the Latvian Region definitively condemns the liquidationist tendency and resolves to recall its representative from the Organizational Committee, which has not dissociated itself from the liquidators.

3. For the conduct of broad political campaigns, the Congress instructs the Central Committee to enter into relations with those organizations whose political line coincides with the resolutions adopted at the Congress.

4. The Congress greets the initiative of the International Socialist Bureau in placing on the agenda the matter of unification in Russian Social-Democracy and instructs the Central Committee to facilitate this by all appropriate measures, defending the views expressed in this resolution.