V. I.

Lenin

Preface to the Symposium: Marxism and Liquidationism [1]

The symposium herewith presented to the reader consists of
articles written between 1909 and 1914. This was a period in which the
working-class movement in Russia encountered particularly serious
difficulties. Marxists, however, were not and could not be content with
simply pointing to the difficulties, with simply complaining about the
general disintegration; break-down, and so forth. It was necessary to
determine the economic and political causes of the break-down from the
point of view of the particular stage of Russia’s capitalist development,
and determine the class significance of the broadest trend that
reflected this break down, namely, the trend of liquidationism .

The basic answer to this question, which is extremely important to the
working-class movement, was given by the Marxists in December 1908 in the
form of very precise, fully formulated and official decisions. [2] These decisions had to be clarified, disseminated and
applied to the everyday problems of the economic and political
movement. This was done in the articles we have collected in the present
symposium, which, for reasons “beyond the editors’ control” is
unfortunately far from complete.

At present, after a Marxist daily press has been in existence in
St. Petersburg for nearly two years, the entire question of the
significance and appraisal of liquidationism, not only in theory, but also
in practice, has been submitted —if one may so express it—to
the decision of the workers themselves. This is tremendously fortunate for
the working-class movement of Russia, and a great sign of its maturity. The
class-conscious workers are themselves seeking the truth, and they will
find it; they will determine the class significance of liquidationism, employ the practical experience of their mass movement
to verify its appraisal, and devise expedient methods to combat it.

Our object in publishing the present symposium is to come to the aid of
all workers interested in the fate of the movement of their class. The
articles are given here, not in their chronological order, but according to
subjects , in the order (approximately) of their transition from
theory to practice.

First come the fundamental questions (Section 1) a solution for which
must be found if we are to have anything like intelligent tactics and an
intelligent policy. Here the reader will, find an appraisal of the present
historical situation and of the class significance of the struggle of the
Marxist trends. The next question dealt with is that of the hegemony of the
proletariat in connection with the criticism of the liquidator’s principal
“work” ( The Social Movement ). And lastly, come articles on the
question of the bourgeoisie s “swing to the left”.

Then come (Section 2) articles on the election campaign, on the results
of the Fourth Duma elections, and on Duma tactics.

After that comes (Section 3) the question of the “open party”, and
the question of unity, which is inseparably connected with it.

Section 4 deals with liberal-labour politics in its various
applications. After a general appraisal of reformism comes an examination
of the questions of “partial demands”, freedom of association, the strike
movement, the attitude of the liquidators towards the liberals, and vice
versa.

The last subject (Section 5) is the liquidators and the working-class
movement. Here the reader will find an appraisal, of the working-class
movement in the years 1905–07 given by Koltsov, one of the leaders of
liquidationism, in his principal work; an examination of the workers’
attitude towards the liquidators in practice; and the most up-to-date
material on the history of the formation of the Russian Social-Democratic
Labour group in the Duma.

In the “conclusion” an attempt is made to review the struggle of
trends in the present-day working-class movement.

We permit ourselves the hope that our symposium will help the workers
to find and study the data on the controversial issues. Naturally, we have
been unable to include a good deal of important material. On the
other hand, in a symposium of articles by different authors written over a
Series of years repetition is inevitable. There are, of course; individual
shades among the authors. But, taken together, all their articles are no
more than a commentary, an application of formulated Marxist decisions,
whose recognition, among other things, distinguishes the class-conscious
organised Marxist workers from the liquidators of the workers’ party, and
from those who are dropping away from the Party. One of our main objects is
to clarify and test these decisions, and to make it easier to formulate
such amendments and addenda to them as may become necessary in the course
of time.

February 1914