V. I. Lenin

The Fourth Social-Democratic Congress of the Latvian Territory {1}

JANUARY 13–26 ( JANUARY 26–FEBRUARY 8 ), 1914

1

REPORT OF THE R.S.D.L.P. CENTRAL COMMITTEE AT THE FOURTH SOCIAL-DEMOCRATIC
CONGRESS OF THE LATVIAN TERRITORY

Le nin (representative of the Central Committee of the Russian Social-Democratic
Labour Party). Comrade Braun said that there was no need to rummage in
scrap paper, in old documents. That is right. Still, one must base oneself
on documents and other evidence. A closer study of the R.S.D.L.P. activity
over the last two years shows up the existence of liquidationism, which has
hampered the re establishment of the Party. Unless we make a study of the
political causes of the Party split, we shall be unable to understand the
present disarray. Erroneous trends were already pointed out at the 1908
Conference and later at the 1910 Plenary Meeting. On the one hand, there is
otzovism, which has failed to understand the new conditions in Russia, and
on the other, liquidationism, which either rejects the

Party or minimises the importance of the illegal Party. These trends arose
under the influence of the bourgeoisie. Liquidationism is a broad
phenomenon. As early as 1906, there appeared men among the
Socialist-Revolutionaries (Narodniks) who tried to legalise the Party. That
is a policy of adaptation we see the Cadets pursuing. The same spirit of
time-serving prevails among the Social-Democrat liquida tots. A strong
party can be set up only in the struggle against this liquidationism. That
was already clearly stated by the 1908 Conference. After the Plenary
Meeting the Party split up. The Central Committee Bureau Abroad, failing to
call a Plenary Meeting, was itself subsequently wound up. The Party had to
be re-established in struggle against the liquidators, and that was done by
the January conference. It adopted a decision to the effect that the
liquidators had to be fought in the workers’ curia, but Comrade Braun
called the decision Asiatic. However, such a decision is merely a more
consistent conclusion from the resolution adopted by the Plenary
Meeting. The January Conference was censured on every hand.

Butwhat was the actual situation over this January Conference? If it
had in fact been nothing but a conference of splitters, the whole Party
should have rallied to prove that the Conference did not represent the
Party. But that did not happen. Comrade Braun said: the broad masses are
not following Lenin. But serious-minded persons do not decide matters in
that way; the facts must be examined to their full extent. And what do the
facts indicate? The data on the results of the elections in the workers’
curia were published: at the elections to the Second Duma the Bolsheviks
received 47 per cent of the votes, at the elections to the Third Dunn, 50
per cent, and at the elections to the Fourth Duma, 67 per cent. These facts
are incontrovertible, and prove that the decisions of the January
Conference were correct. What the Conference decided was realised at the
elections. The majority of class-conscious workers in Russia are following
the Bolsheviks, and this proves that the struggle against the liquidators
was necessary. Even the legal press now admits that the majority of the
class-conscious workers are backing the Bolsheviks.

Accordingto Comrade Braun, the August conference {2} adopted the
demands he put forward: the democratic republic slogan and the need for an
illegal party. Why, in that case, does Comrade Braun want to leave the
Organising Committee set up by the conference? That is not evidence of
political wisdom or steadfastness in political activity. Comrade Braun said
that there were now only a few odd liquidators among the writers but that
liquidationism as such no longer existed. But what then is the meaning of
Luch attacking the illegal Party and fighting against the
pro-Party men? The liquidators have failed to keep their promises to
Comrade Braun: they did not support the democratic republic slogan and the
need for an illegal party. The Latvians want to withdraw from the
Organising Committee. That, too, shows that the August bloc was nothing but
a fiction. It is ridiculous or even demagogic to talk of unity with the
liquidators, until they abandon their present views and adopt views that
are diametrically (completely) opposed to their present ones. There can be
no unity so long as liquidationism remains what it is. Those who stand for
a legal party will not unite with those who stand for an illegal one. There
are now two parties, one real, the other fictitious. This fictitious party
consists of a group of intellectuals whose attacks on the illegal Party
merely disorganise the workers. Luch itself does not unite all the
writers of the August bloc, but only the liquidators. The only thing to do
about the liquidators is to fight them.

“Demagogy”,“unity”, “splitters”, are only loud words and nothing
more; even a parrot can mouth them. But let us look at the facts. In the
course of a year, Pravda united almost 2,000 workers’ groups, and
Luch , only 550. The organ which stands for the illegal Party
mustered four times more supporters than the “all trend” paper. The facts
show that they, the Bolsheviks, united the majority of the Russian
workers. This point was also made by the conference convened in summer.

Leninis being rebuked for splitting the group. But, for a whole year,
six deputies fought against liquidationism in the group. The majority is
for the Bolsheviks, the Party is behind them. The group must submit to the
Party majority and must act together with the Party. By failing to do so they place
themselves outside the Party, by the side of the Party. It is everywhere
established that the group must submit to the decisions of the party. We
must have the same thing in Russia as well. The deputies of the Duma are
not just Social-Democratic chatterboxes, but Party workers who must submit
to the Party.

Everythingthat is behind the liquidators is fiction, phrase-mongering,
name-calling. What has actually happened since the group split up? The six
deputies have got 6,000 signatures, the seven, 2,000. Anyone can read about
this in the press. Martov said that behind the Seven were Marxist
institutions, but these are institutions which do not represent the mass of
Party members, but are only a fiction.

The Bolsheviks stand for unity. But who are those people who are unable
to join the illegal Party? The illegal Party must be united. It must be
united from below. Fighting is the only thing that can be done against
those who attack the illegal Party and belittle the importance of such a
party. Let’s have a guarantee that the illegal Party will remain intact,
that the democratic republic slogan will not be stained—only then is
unity possible at the top and at the bottom. I do not know about Asia, but
in Europe splitters are those who refuse to recognise the
majority. Splitters are a minority who refuse to submit to majority
decisions.

| First published on May 14, 1915 in Latvian in the newspaper Strahdneeks No. 37 (Boston) | Printed from the newspaper text |
| --- | --- |
| | Translated from the Latvian |

2

SUMMING-UP SPEECH AT THE FOURTH SOCIAL-DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS OF THE LATVIAN
TERRITORY

Le nin.

I am being attacked for “demagogic methods”, for splitting, etc. But what
have our opponents been doing? They have always thrown dirt at the
Bolsheviks. You have an example in Martov’s unseemly pamphlet.—I merely expressed my opinion that the Bolsheviks would attend the conference of the
International Bureau. But the decision is still up to the Central
Committee, on which the workers are sitting. It is they and not Lenin that
will decide this question.—Those who say that there is no liquidationism,
show little respect for the Congress. What liquidationism is has already
been clearly stated in Party decisions since 1908. These decisions have not
been revoked and they must be reckoned with. Liquidationist ideas are now
being preached in the newspapers of the “August bloc”. Supporters of the
Organising Committee here insist that they are not opposing the Party, but
what has their paper been saying? Such examples are numerous. The
conciliator An wanted to come out against the no-Party agitation, but the
Editorial Board refused to change its view. There can be no union with
those who stand up for the views of the newspaper Luch . It is
liquidationism to work for an “open labour party”.—The conference which
is being called should not be attended for the purpose of uniting with the
liquidators, but for exposing them and proving that the August bloc is a
fiction.—The liquidationist press has been narrowing down the slogans and
curbing the revolutionary tactics. The liquidators have no illegal
literature of any sort; only the Bolsheviks have such literature. The
existence of Bolshevik organisations in Russia is evident from the last
issue (31). The elections to the Fourth Duma have also shown that the
overwhelming majority of the workers are behind the Bolsheviks. These are
facts which everyone can verify. This is also evidenced by the financial
support to the newspapers.—Cries about unity are not important in
themselves. The ability to unite must be there. The Bolsheviks in Russia
have united a majority, while the August conference; by contrast, has
united nothing. Braun is pulling away from it, Trotsky is doing the
same—the “August bloc” is falling apart. Buryanov, too, has not
remained among the seven deputies.—To make union possible the liquidators
must be condemned.

| First published on July 24, 1915 in Latvian in the newspaper Strahdneeks No. 63 (Boston) | Printed from the newspaper text |
| --- | --- |
| | Translated from the Latvian |

3

DRAFT RESOLUTION ON THE ATTITUDE OF THE SOCIAL-DEMOCRATS OF THE LATVIAN
TERRITORY TO THE R.S.D.L.P.

Ziemelis’s Resolution

1. There is an overriding need to unite all truly Social-Democratic
forces and have strict Party unity in Russia, especially now that the
working-class struggle has been steadily expanding. Such unity is possible
only between Social-Democrats who in their activity recognise that:

a)at the present time the R.S.D.L.P. can exist only illegally and that
all Social-Democrats must join the illegal Party organisation;

b) Russian Social-Democracy must conduct agitation among the masses in
the spirit of the revolutionary demands of 1905, urging the workers to
march in the van of the entire emancipation movement and to work for
another revolution.

The Congress recognises that every town must have a united Social-Democratic organisation to include workers of all nationalities
and to conduct work in all the languages spoken by the local
proletariat. The Congress invites Social-Democrats of all nationalities to
work vigorously for real proletarian unity, a unity which is truly solid
and which is organised by the workers themselves from below.

2. For the last five years, the liquidationist trend has been
the central question of the internal Party struggle. As early as the
All-Russia Conference of 1908, before any splits had occurred, the Party
resolved that it regarded liquidationism as an attempt by a section of the
Party intelligentsia to liquidate the existing R.S.D.L.P. organisation and
to substitute for it an amorphous association within a legal framework,
regardless of anything, even if the price to be paid were patent
repudiation of the Party’s programme, tactics and traditions.

Atthe Plenary Meeting of the R.S.D.L.P. Central Committee in
January 1910, at which all directions and trends in the Party were
represented, liquidationism was once again unanimously condemned by the whole Party as a
“manifestation of bourgeois influence on the proletariat”, which was
expressed in the rejection of the illegal Social-Democratic Party, the
belittling of its role and importance, the attempts to curtail the
programme and tactical tasks and slogans of revolutionary Social-Democracy,
and so on.

Theattempt on the part of the conciliators to unite with the
liquidators at any price (the August 1912 conference) proved to be useless,
and the uniters found themselves ideologically and politically dependent on
the liquidators.

The Fourth Social-Democratic Congress of the Latvian Territory
definitely condemns the liquidationist trend and resolves to recall its
representative from the Organising Committee, which has failed to
dissociate itself from the liquidators.

3.In order to conduct broad political campaigns, the Congress
authorises the Central Committee to contact organisations whose political
line coincides with the resolutions adopted at the Congress.

4. The Congress welcomes the initiative of the International Socialist
Bureau in raising the question of unification in Russian Social-Democracy,
and authorises the Central Committee to promote this through all relevant
steps, while standing up for the views expressed in this resolution.

| First published in 1967 (in part) in the magazine Voprosy Istorii KPSS No. 3 | Printed from the original |

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Notes:
{1}
The Fourth Social-Democratic Congress of the Latvian Territory
was held in Brussels from January 13 to 26 (January 26 to February 8) 1914.

Lenintook an active part in preparing and holding the Congress. He
gave a report on the attitude of the Social-Democracy of the Latvian
Territory to the R.S.D.L.P. and to the split in the Duma group, and took
part in conferences of Bolshevik delegates, helping theta to draft
resolutions. On the eve of the Congress, January 12 (25). Lenin gave a
lecture for the delegates on the national question, setting out the
relevant Bolshevik theory and tactics. Lenin urged the Marxists of Latvia
to strengthen the Party’s real—instead of imaginary—unity and keep its
ranks clean of vacillators and liquidators, who were patent traitors to the
working-class cause. He made wide use of the resolutions of the Fourth
Congress to fight the liquidators and Trotskyites. See his articles “The
Lettish Workers and the Split in the Social-Democratic Group in the Duma”,
“The ‘August’ Fiction Exposed”, “The Liquidators and the Lettish
Working-Class Movement” (see present edition, Vol. 20, pp. 177–81, 182–85, 239–41)

and others. Thanks to the persistent struggle against the conciliatory
tendencies conducted by Lenin and the Latvian Bolsheviks at the Congress,
the Latvian Social-Democrats withdrew from the August bloc, and this, Lenin
said, was a “death blow” at the Trotskyite association.

Theminutes of the Congress have not been discovered, but it is known
that they were prepared for publication by Janson-Braun and were left in
Brussels. At the Central Party Archives of the Institute of
Marxism-Leninism of the C.P.S.U. Central Committee, there are, in the
Poronin-Cracow material, Lenin’s writings relating to the Congress and
characterising the struggle waged by him and the Bolshevik section of the
Congress against the liquidators. Among the documents is a record of the
agenda in Lenin’s hand, notes on the sittings and speeches, and also a
draft resolution on the attitude of the Latvian Social-Democrats to the
R.S.D.L.P., an outline of the report and the summing-up speech. Of great
interest are Lenin’s notes on the speeches and his commentaries. There is,
for instance, a note on Braun’s speech on January 15 (28), 1914. where Braun says, in justification of his
conciliatory stand, that it is “a very fine point”, Lenin writes: = “ That’s where it’s liable to break !”

p. 324

{2}
A reference to the liquidators’ conference held in Vienna in August
1912; it formalised the anti-Party August bloc, which was organised by
Trotsky. It was attended by representatives of the Bund, the Transcaucasian
Regional Committee, the Social-Democracy of the Latvian Territory and
groups of liquidators, Trotskyites and otzovists abroad (the Editorial
Boards of Golos Sotsial-Demokrata and Trotsky’s Vienna
Pravda , and the Vperyod group). Delegates from Russia were sent by the St. Petersburg and Moscow “initiating groups” of
liquidators, the Krasnoyarsk organisation, the Sebastopol Social-Democratic
Military Organisation, the Editorial Boards of the liquidators’
publications, Nasha Zarya and Nevsky Golos ; it was also
attended by a representative of the Spilka Committee Abroad. The
overwhelming majority were resident abroad, were out of touch with the
working class in Russia, and not connected directly with local Party work
in Russia.

Theconference adopted anti-Party, liquidationist decisions on all
questions of Social-Democratic tactics and came out against the existence
of the illegal Party. The liquidators’ attempt to set up their own,
Centrist party in Russia was not supported by the workers. The liquidators
failed to elect a Central Committee and confined themselves to setting up
an Organising Committee. The anti-Bolshevik bloc, consisting a diverse
elements, which it was the main task of the conference to set up, began to
fail apart before the conference was over. See Lenin’s articles “The
Break-up of the ‘August’ Bloc”, “The ‘August’ Fiction Exposed”,
“Disruption of Unity Under Cover of Outcries for Unity” (present edition, Vol. 20, pp. 158–61, 182–85, 325–47).

p. 326