V. I.

Lenin

Objective Data on the Strength of the Various Trends in the Working-Class Movement [3]

There can be no more important duty for class-conscious
workers than that of getting to know their class movement, its
nature, its aims and objects, its conditions and practical forms. That is
because the strength of the working-class movement lies entirely in its
political consciousness, and its mass character. At each step in
its development, capitalism increases the number of proletarians, wage
workers; it rallies, organises and enlightens them, and in this way moulds
a class force that must inevitably march towards its goal.

The Marxists’ programme and their decisions on tactics, as constantly
expounded in the press, help the masses of the workers to understand the
nature, aims and objects of the movement.

The struggle between the various trends in the working-class movement
of Russia has deep class roots. The two “trends” which are fighting
Marxism (Pravdism) in the working-class movement of Russia and which,
because of their mass form and their roots in history, deserve to be called
“trends”, i.e., Narodism and liquidationism, express the bourgeoisie’s
influence on the proletariat. This has been explained many times by the
Marxists and acknowledged in a number of decisions adopted by them in
regard to the Narodniks (the fight against whom has been going on for
thirty years) and in regard to the liquidators (the history of
liquidationism goes back about twenty years, for liquidationism is the
direct continuation of Economism and Menshevism).

More objective data on the strength of the different trends in
Russia’s working-class movement are now steadily accumulating. Every
effort must be made to collect, verify and study these objective data
concerning the behaviour and moods, not of individuals or groups, but of the
masses , data taken from different and hostile newspapers, data
that are verifiable by any literate person.

Only from such data can one learn and study the movement of one’s
class. One of the greatest, if not the greatest, faults (or crimes against the
working class) of the Narodniks and liquidators, as well as of the various
groups of intellectuals such as the Vperyodists, Plekhanovites and Trotskyists,
is their subjectivism . At every step they try to pass off their
desires, their “views”, their appraisals of the situation and their
“plans”, as the will of the workers, the needs of the working-class
movement. When they talk about “unity”, for example, they
majestically ignore the experience acquired in creating the genuine
unity of the majority of Russia’s class-conscious workers in the
course of two-and-a-half years, from the beginning of 1912 to the middle of
1914.

Let us then tabulate the available objective data on the strength of
the various trends in the working-class movement. Those who believe in
subjective appraisals and promises are free to go to the
“groups”. We invite only those who desire to study objective
figures. Here they are:

Prav- dists Liqui- dators Per cent Left Narod- niks
Prav- dists Liqui- dators
Duma Elections
1. Number of deputies elected by worker curia:
Second Duma, 1907 . . . . 11 12 47 53 — Third Duma, 1907–12 . . . 4 50 50 } boy- cott
Fourth Duma, 1912 . . . . 6 3 67 30 }
Number of Workers’ Groups Which Donated Funds :
2. Number of contributions by workers’ groups to St. Pe- tersburg newspapers:
1912 . . . . . . . . . . . 620 89 — 1913 . . . . . . . . . . . 2,181 661 76.9 23.1 264
up to May 13, 1914 . . . . 2,873 671 81.1 18.9 524
Election of Workers’ Delegates to Insurance
Boards :
3. Number of delegates to All- Russia Insurance Board 47 10 82.4 17.6 ?1-2?
4. Ditto Metropolitan Insurance Board 37 7 84.1 15.9 4
Signatures to Resolutions in Favour of Each of the Duma Groups :
5. Number of signatures pub- lished in both newspapers in favour of
the Six (Pravdists) and for the Seven (liquida- tors)
. . . . . . . . . . . | 6,722 | 2,985 | 69.2 | 30.8 | —
Connection with Workers’ Groups :
6. Number of contribution letters from workers’ groups to either
of the Duma Groups (Oct. 1913 to June 6, 1914) | 1,295 | 215 | 85.7 | 14.3 | —
Circulation of St. Petersburg Newspapers :
7. Number of copies printed (figures collected and pub- lished by E. Vandervelde) 40,000 16,000 71.4 28.6 12,000 (3 times a week)
Press Abroad :
8. Number of issues of the leading newspaper published after August (1912) Confer- ence of liquidators up to June 1914 5 0 — 9
9. Number of references in these issues to non -legal organisations (one locality counted as one reference) 44 0 — 21
Dependence on the Bourgeoisie :
10. Funds collected for St. Pe- tersburg newspapers (from January 1 to May 13, 1914). Percentage of contributions from non-workers . — 13 56 50
11. Number of financial reports published in the newspapers during entire period . . . 3 1 — ?(0?)
12. Percentage of such reports showing deficits covered from unspecified, i.e., bour- geois sources
. . . . . . . | — | — | 0 | 100 | ?
13. Funds handled by either of the Duma groups (from October 1913 to June 6, 1914). Percentage of funds obtained from non-workers — 6 46
14. Number of items of cor- respondence passed off as coming from workers, but actually taken from bour- geois newspapers without indicating source . . . . — 5 (in two issues, Nos. 17 and 19 of Nasha Rabochaya Gazeta) 0
Trade Unions :
15. Number of trade unions in St. Petersburg in which majority of members (judg- ing by majority on exe- cutives) sympathise with respective trends . . . . . 14

1/2 [1] | 3

1/2 [2] | — | — | 2

First of all we shall briefly explain the above figures and then draw
the conclusions that follow from them.

It will be best to make the explanations point by point.

Point 1.
Figures showing the number of electors and delegates elected are not available . To complain about our using “curia” figures is simply
ridiculous, for no other are available. The German Social-Democrats measure
their successes under the Bismarck electoral law, which excludes women and
thereby creates a “male” curia!

Point 2.
The number of workers’ groups which pay and not only “sign resolutions”
is the most reliable and true criterion, not only of the strength of the
trend, but also of its state of organisation and its Party spirit.

That is why the liquidators and the “groups” betray such subjective
dislike for this criterion.

The liquidators argued: We have also a Yiddish and a Georgian
newspapers, but the Pravda stands alone. That is not true. Firstly, the Estonian and Lithuanian newspapers are
Pravdist. [4] Secondly, if we take the provinces, is it permissible to
forget Moscow? During 1913 the Moscow workers’ newspaper [5] rallied, united 390 workers’ groups
( Rabochy No. 1, p. 19), whereas the Yiddish newspaper
Zeit , from issue No. 2 (December 29, 1912) to June 1, 1914, united
296 workers’ groups (of these 190 were united up to

March 20, 1914, and 106 from March 20 to June 1, 1914). Thus, Moscow alone
amply “covered” the liquidators’ subjective reference to Zeit !

We invite the Georgian and Armenian comrades to collect data on the
liquidators’ newspapers in the Caucasus. How many workers’ groups are
there? Objective data covering all aspects are needed.

Mistakes in counting the groups may have been made, but only in
individual cases. We invite everybody to verify the figures and correct
them.

Points 3 and 4 require no explanation. It would be desirable to initiate an enquiry for
the purpose of collecting new data from the provinces.

Point 5.
The 2,985 liquidator signatures include 1,086 Bundist and 719
Caucasian signatures. It is desirable that the local comrades verify these
figures.

Point 6.
The treasurers of the two groups publish reports of all funds each
group receives for various objects. These figures serve as an exact and
objective index of contacts with the workers.

Point 7.
Circulation of newspapers. The figures were collected and published by
E. Vandervelde but hushed up by the liquidators and the liberals
( Kievskaya Mysl ). “Subjectivism.” It is desirable that fuller
figures be collected, if only for one month.

Points 8 and 9.
Here we have an objective illustration of the liquidators’ renunciation of
the “underground”, i. e., of the Party. But from January 1 to May 13,
1914, receipts from abroad gave the Pravdists R.49.79 (one-fourth of one
per cent) and the liquidators R.1,709.17 (fourteen per cent). Don’t say,
“I can’t”; say, “I don’t want to”!

Points 10 to 14.
These are objective evidence of the dependence of the liquidators and
Narodniks on the bourgeoisie, evidence of their bourgeois
character. Subjectively , the liquidators and Narodniks are
“socialists” and “Social Democrats”. Objectively , both as
regards the substance of their ideas as well as the experience of the mass movement, they are groups of bourgeois
intellectuals, which are splitting the minority of workers away from the
workers’ party.

We especially draw our readers’ attention to the way in which the
liquidators fake workers’ correspondence. This is an unprecedented and downright fraud! Let all Marxists in the localities
expose this fraud and collect objective data (see Trudovaya Pravda
No. 12, June 11, 1914 [6] ).

Point 15.
These figures are particularly important and ought to be supplemented and
verified by means of a separate enquiry. We have taken the figures from
Sputnik Rabochego , Priboi Publishers, St. Petersburg,
1914. [7] Among the unions included in the liquidators’ list were the
Clerks’ Union, the Draftsmen’s Union, and the Druggist Employees’ Union (at
the last election of the Executive of the Printers’ Union on April 27,
1914, half the members of the Executive and more than half of the alternate
members elected were Pravdists). The Narodnik list of unions includes the
Bakers’ Union and the Case-Makers’ Union. Aggregate membership about
22,000.

Of the thirteen unions in Moscow, ten are Pravdist and three
indefinite, although they are closer to the Pravdists. There is not a
single liquidationist or Narodnik union in Moscow.

The conclusions to be drawn from these objective data are that Pravdism
is the only Marxist, proletarian trend, really independent of the
bourgeoisie, and has organised and united over four-fifths of the
workers (in 1914, 81.1 per cent of the workers’ groups as compared with the
liquidators). Liquidationism and Narodism are undoubtedly
bourgeois-democratic, not working-class trends.

The correctness of the Pravdists’ programmatic, tactical and
organisational ideas, their decisions and line has been wholly and
splendidly confirmed by the experience of the mass movement in 1912, 1913
and half of 1914. From our conviction that we are on the right road we
should draw the strength for still greater efforts.

Notes:
[1]
In one union the Pravdists and liquidators had an equal number of
supporters. — Lenin

[2]
In one union the Pravdists and liquidators had an equal number of
supporters.  — Lenin

[3]
The article “ Objective Data on the Strength of the Various Trends in the Working-Class Movement ” was written by Lenin on the basis of a
wide range of facts and figures, carefully collected and analysed,
concerning money collections for the workers’ press, which served as
objective evidence of the strength of the various trends in the
working-class movement in Russia. The Central Party Archive of the
Institute of Marxism-Leninism under the Central Committee of the
C.P.S.U. has in its possession the manuscripts of Lenin’s computations of
the collections made by the newspaper Pravda , the number of
workers’ groups united by the newspaper Zeit and their contributions, the computations to the table given in the article (See
pp.382–85 of this volume),and tabulated figures showing what collections
were made for the various newspapers and where they were made. The original
draft conspectus and a synopsis of the article are also to be found in the
Archive. The figures quoted in this article ware used by Lenin in
subsequent articles.

[4]
This refers to Töö Hääl ( The Voice of Labour ), an Estonian newspaper of a Pravdist trend, which appeared
in Narva three times a week from January to May 1914, and the Lithuanian weekly Flints
( The Wave ), published in Riga in 1913–14.

[5]
This refers to the legal workers’ newspaper Nash Put (Our Way )
published in Moscow, the first issue appearing on August 25 (September 7),
1913. Lenin took an active pert in the newspaper, sending his articles
simultaneously to Pravda and Nash Put . The latter published a number of articles by Lenin, namely: “The Russian Bourgeoisie
and Russian Reformism”, “The Role of Social Estates and Classes in the
Liberation Movement”, “Class War in Dublin”, “A Week After the Dublin
Massacre”, “Questions of Principle in Politics”, “Harry Quelch” and
others.

Other contributors to the newspaper were Maxim Gorky, Demyan Bedny,
M. S. Olminsky, I. I. Skvortsov-Stepanov, and the Bolshevik deputies in the
Fourth Duma A. Y. Badayev, F. N. Samoilov, and N. R. Shagov.

Nash Put was very popular among the workers, as many as 395
workers’ groups supporting the newspaper with money contributions. The
newspaper was persistently persecuted by the police and closed down on
September 12 (25), 1913, after publishing 16 issues. The Moscow workers
struck in protest against its suppression, but the paper was unable to
resume publication.

[6]
The newspaper Trudovaya Pravda No. 12 for June 11, 1914,
published a paragraph entitled “How Does It Happen?”, in which it quoted
a number of instances of Nasha Rabochaya Gazeta , the organ of the
liquidators, reprinting, under the guise of workers’ correspondence,
information from the bourgeois newspapers which distorted the facts of
reality in working-class life.

[7]
Sputnik Rabochego for 1914 ( Worker’s Companion for 1914 )—a pocket calendar issued by the Priboi Party Publishers in
December 1913, and sold out in a single day. A second revised edition was
issued in February 1914. The calendar contained the article by Lenin
“Strikes in Russia”. (See present edition, Vol. 19, p. 385.)