We cannot dwell here on the political content of this work. The most fascinating question of how the work of the six has now profited from the point of view of pronouncing from the Duma tribune the demands, requirements, views and will of the majority of workers, we must, unfortunately, leave for another occasion. Only in two words let us note that for the first time the representatives of the six in the State Duma, Badaev and Malinovskii, in their speeches of March 4, 1914 in the State Duma, gave not a liberal, but a posture worthy of the proletariat in raising the question of freedom of the press, whereas the liquidators in a purely liberal manner became entangled in this question and in the literary society, and on the pages of their publications, and in the Duma speeches of their "seven"; no later than in No. of the *Severnaya Rabochaya Gazeta* of March 13 can one read, on page 2, a discourse as if "advertising of illegal press is capable only of weakening the workers' struggle for their legal press." As to how principally obligatory it was for the formation of an independent Russian Social-Democratic workers' fraction in the State Duma to struggle against such shameful, renegade declarations and opinions as the one just cited, we have already spoken more than once in the text of the book and will speak again more than once.

At the present time, however, we set ourselves the more modest task of drawing the reader's attention to the "external," if one may so express it, proofs of what the Russian Social-Democratic workers' fraction of the State Duma became immediately in distinction from the seven liquidators.

Each fraction prints in its own newspaper financial reports from its treasurer concerning the sums passing through the hands of the given fraction. These sums, intended for repressive measures, for aid to strikers of various factories and branches of industry, for various other needs of the workers' movement, open before us a whole series of aspects of workers' life, show us graphically – through exact, indisputable, impartial figures – what precisely is the connection of this or that fraction of the State Duma with the workers' movement.

The last report of the character described encompasses in both newspapers and in both fractions the period up to January 21, 1914. This means we have in total reports for three months of the separate existence of both fractions: from the end of October to the end of January. Here is a summary of the reports of both fractions for this quarter-year:

Collections passing through the fractions:

These bare figures present a remarkably vivid picture of the organizational connections and the entire life of both fractions. The number of workers' groups that over the quarter-year turned to the fraction of the liquidators is almost eight times less than the number of groups that turned to the fraction of the party members.

On the other hand, for the fraction of the liquidators the sum of collections passing through the hands of the fraction not from workers,[72] is ten times greater: 765 rubles against 71 rubles. For the party members the collections not from workers[73] constitute one percent of the total sum of collections (71 r. out of 6173 r.). For the liquidators – thirty-four percent of the total sum of collections (765 rubles out of 2213 rubles).

These figures give the opportunity to the broad public, standing far from the life of the Duma fractions, to precisely weigh and carefully think through the facts known in detail to people close to it from a thousand daily "trifles" of routine, namely:

– That the fraction of the liquidators (the seven) is a fraction without workers; – That the fraction of the liquidators has thirty times more connections not from the workers' milieu than the Russian Social-Democratic workers' fraction.

These facts have long been noted from various sides. The liberal newspaper *Rech'* correctly called the fraction of the liquidators a fraction of "intellectuals," and the entire liberal press repeatedly confirmed this. Plekhanov indicated long ago that the liquidators had gathered around themselves not a few petty bourgeois opportunistic elements apart from Mr. Potresov. The abundance of contributors to liberal newspapers among the liquidators and vice versa (Enzis, Egorov, St. Novich, E. Smirnov, Antid Oto, Nevedomskii, L'vov-Rogachevskii, Cherevannin and many others) had already been pointed out by the *Putem Pravdy*.

By their actual social significance the liquidators are – a branch of the liberal-bourgeois party, existing for the purpose of introducing into the milieu of the proletariat the ideas of liberal workers' politics and for undermining the will of the majority of the organized and conscious workers of Russia.

Written in March–April 1914, addition to the table – in June 1914.

Printed from the text of the collection