V. I.

Lenin

The Results of Workers’ Press Day Summed Up

FROM THE REPORT PUBLISHED IN PUT PRAVDY

It is only now that we are able to sum up some of the results of Workers’ Press Day of
April 22. [2]

The second anniversary of the newspaper Pravda became a day of
review of the Marxist forces.

On that day all class-conscious workers came to the assistance of their
working-class newspapers, and hundreds and thousands of rubles were
collected kopek by kopek.

The latest report on sums collected on Workers’ Press Day was published
only on June 14, in issue No. 15 of Trudovaya Pravda . Press Day
lasted nearly two months.

“ Better late than never,” many comrades wrote, contributing their
mite after April 22.

Resolutions received by the editors have been so numerous that it has
been impossible to list them all, let alone publish them.

But they have had the desired effect. They have convinced us that we
are on the right road, and that the vast majority of the workers have
accepted the slogans of consistent Marxism.

As is well known, the liquidators proclaimed the second anniversary of
the newspapers of the Pravda trend as Press Day for their own
newspaper, too. They raised a hullaballoo at the time to prove that they
had a right to participate in Press Day precisely on April 22. Already at
that time they proposed federation, an equal sharing of all the money
collected. April 22 showed that the liquidationist newspaper had spoken too
soon about “federation” and “equality”.

The workers of St. Petersburg flatly rejected the proposal for
“general collections”. This call on the part of the liquidationist newspaper evoked a certain response only among a section of the students,
and in a few factories in the provinces.

The sums obtained by general collections hardly affected the total
amount of Press Day collections. Nasha Rabochaya Gazeta , issue
No. 34, for June 13, already attempted to compare the collections made for
that newspaper with those made for Put Pravdy . We say an attempt,
because the comparison made by Nasha Rabochaya Gazeta cannot
possibly be regarded as final and complete. If we wanted to obtain such a
complete comparison from Nasha Rabochaya Gazeta we should have to
wait till doomsday, for it is greatly to the liquidators’ advantage to
quote general figures with out going into a detailed analysis of the
amounts, and with out ascertaining the sources they came from.

Consequently, we must ourselves undertake the task of analysing the
liquidators’ reports.

Nasha Rabochaya Gazeta has arrived at highly gratifying
conclusions, namely, (1) that the Pravdists have the backing of somewhat under three-fifths of
the class-conscious workers of Russia, and (2) that the Pravdists predominate strongly only in St. Petersburg, whereas
in the provinces the reverse is the case; there the supporters of Nasha Rabochaya Gazeta predominate.

First of all, we must make a slight addition to the figures of our
total collections which Nasha Rabochaya Gazeta has quoted from
Trudovaya Pravda of June 11. In that issue, the total figures were
given up to June 1, but as Nasha Rabochaya Gazeta gives the total
of its collections up to June 10, we must, to make a fair comparison, add
the amounts collected from June 1 to June 10, reported in issue No. 15, of
June 14. Moreover, the figures up to June 10 were not quite accurate, as
certain small contributions received from the provinces were included in
the figures for St. Petersburg.

After making these corrections we obtain the following final amounts,
which we shall quote in the course of this article.

Collected in St. Petersburg . . . . . . . . . . . R. 11,680.96
” in the provinces . . . . . . . . . . . R. 6,325.28
” abroad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . R. 104.97
Total . . . . . . . . . . . . R. 18,111.21

Collected in St. Petersburg . . . . . . . . . . . R. 4,446.13
” in the provinces . . . . . . . . . . . R. 6,409.12
” abroad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . R. 946.55
Total . . . . . . . . . . . . R. 11,801.80

At first sight the difference is not very great and would seem to show
that Nasha Rabochaya Gazeta has the backing of two-fifths of the
class-conscious workers. But as soon as these figures are distributed by
source, namely, contributions from workers and non-workers, the picture
changes completely.

The country-wide response to the appeal by Put Pravdy on
Workers Press Day was: 1,915 workers’ groups, which collected R.16,163.71 .

The response to the appeal by Severnaya Rabochaya Gazeta was:
588 workers’ groups, which collected R.5,651.78 .

From non-workers, Put Pravdy received R.1,842.53, whereas
Severnaya Rabochaya Gazeta received from this source R.6,062.02,
i. e., more than it received from workers.

These figures on the collections made for Workers’ Press Day reveal
much the same thing as the figures of the collections and groups during the
period commencing January 1, 1914. Of the total number of workers’ groups
which responded on Workers’ Press Day, only a little over one-fifth
responded to the liquidationist newspaper’s appeal, this despite the
liquidators’ efforts to change the balance of forces in their favour on the
eve of Workers’ Press Day. In this they failed. Four-fifths of the
class-conscious workers support Pravdism. This fact, deduced from the
figures covering the entire period of two years that the legal news papers
have been in existence, was also confirmed on Workers’ Press Day.

Let us now examine the situation in St. Petersburg and in the
provinces. In St. Petersburg the number of collections (groups) made for
the Pravdist newspaper amounted to 1,276 , and the sum collected
totalled R.10,762.46. The corresponding figures for the liquidators’
newspaper were 224 and R.2,306.27. The difference is so striking
that even the liquidators do not dare deny that the Pravdists predominate among the most advanced, energetic, organised and politically experienced
proletariat of the capital city.

But they claim the provinces.

“ In the provinces,” wrote Nasha Rabochaya Ooze to , “we see the reverse of things in St. Petersburg. In the provinces
Severnaya Rabochaya Gazeta alone collected more than the
Pravdist organ.”

This is a sample of deception , which we strongly advise our
comrades, the workers, to examine very closely. What is true is true: in
the provinces the Pravdists collected R.6,325.28 and the liquidators
R.6,409.12. More, is it not? But please look at the following figures.

In the provinces, the Pravdist newspaper received R.5,401.25
from 639 workers’ groups and R.924.03 from non-workers.

But the liquidationist newspaper received R.3,345.51 from
364 workers’ groups and R.3,004.89 from 78 groups of non-workers and from individuals.

Yes, in the provinces the liquidators undoubtedly predominate ,
only not among the workers, but among wealthy “friends and sympathisers”.

The liquidators did a very simple thing. To prove that they
“ predominate ” in the provinces they lumped the workers’ kopeks
with the large sums contributed by their friends among the bourgeoisie, and
thereby “squashed” the Pravdists!

A clever move, perhaps, but in doing so, good gentlemen, you have not
proved your preponderance in the provinces, but merely that you are no less
divorced from the workers in the provinces than you are from the
St. Petersburg workers.

What counts in establishing a working-class press and a
working-class body is not big contributions from wealthy
“friends”, but the activities of the workers themselves.

The fact that in building up a working-class newspaper and a
working-class body the liquidators received nearly as much from non-workers
as they did from workers (R.5,115 and R.5,651) is, in our opinion,not an
advantage, but a shortcoming; it is only further proof of the close
connection between liquidationism and bourgeois intellectualist circles.

We, on our part, are proud that our “cast-iron reserve” consists
almost entirely of kopeks from workers who, in the course of six weeks,
collected over R.16,000 for their newspaper.

How was this sum made up? Workers of which trades and areas helped in
one degree or another to establish a consistently Marxist newspaper?

The answer to this is given in the following table, a document highly
characteristic of the present state of the working-class movement. This
table shows the Sums received by Put Pravdy from various
industries (trades). The list is headed by the metalworkers, of
course. Greetings to you, comrades!

St. Petersburg Provinces
Groups Amount (rubles)
Metalworkers 393 5,304.95 108 1,319.02
Woodworkers 116 1,014.73 24 172.10
Printers 113 966.34 37 236.47
Railwaymen 24 165.93 34 345.24
Shop assistants 59 238.11 18 132.76
Inn employees 27 107.58 3 68.73
Tailors 49 203.21 28 245.82
Tanners 36 271.50 5 23.89
Electricians 31 275.35 6 39.76
Textile workers 41 303.88 24 130.32
Municipal employees (tramway, etc.) 32 340.93 11 132.14
Builders 12 57.14 4 15.71
Plumbers 10 27.10 1 3.00
Gold- and silversmiths 29 128.45 2 16.50
Bakers 39 124.06 11 28.60
Miners — 14 71.44
Workers’ organisations 9 79.97 112.04
House painters 12 50.20 3 14.60
Sausage makers 8 31.45 2 5.63
Chemical workers 22 92.59 6 32.04
Coach builders 16 78.62 1 5.00
Confectioners 12 79.76 3 14.25
Pasteboard makers 5 13.45 — Tobacco workers 12 83.63 — Baku oil workers — 12 83.98
Salaried emloyees (office and other) 38 273.11 18 123.65
Exiles — 23 67.72
Servants (janitors) 12 27.90 — Miscellaneous and unspe- cified 99 422.52 232 1,960.84
Total 1,276 10,762.46 639 5,401.25

ST. PETERSBURG

During the past few years St. Petersburg has been at the head of the
working-class movement. While the proletariat in some (now few) parts of
the provinces cannot yet rouse themselves from the lethargy of 1907–11,
and in other parts are only just taking the first steps to fall into line
with the St. Petersburg proletariat, the latter has developed tremendous
activity and, like a delicate barometer, has reacted to all events of
concern, to the working-class movement. The St. Petersburg proletariat is
in the forefront. Even Severnaya Rabochaya Gazeta will scarcely
attempt to deny this.

And this is how the St. Petersburg proletariat responded to Workers’
Press Day.

Collections for Put Pravdy were made here by 1,276 groups,
which gave R.10,762.46; for Severnaya Rabochaya Gazeta collections
were made by 224 groups, which gave R.2,306.27.

Counting by the number of groups, the liquidators in the working-class
movement in St. Petersburg are supported not by one-fifth but by
one-seventh of the class-conscious workers; their collections amount only
to a little over one-sixth of those made by the Pravdists.

These figures show that the bulk of the St. Petersburg proletariat,
which stands at the head of the working-class movement, has turned away
from the liquidators and supports the old and uncurtailed slogans.

Even among the printers, that sole refuge of the liquidators among the
organised workers, nearly five times as much was collected for the Pravdist
press as was collected for the liquidationist press (R.966.34 for Put Pravdy , as against R.201.21 for Severnaya Rabochaya Gazeta ).

The same thing is shown by the collections among the metalworkers. Here, Put Pravdy collected R.5.075.49 as against R.1,283.66 collected for
Severnaya Rabochaya Gazeta , i. e., four times as much; during the
union’s existence this was confirmed by the constant defeats of the
liquidators at elections, general meetings, etc.

Among other trades in St. Petersburg, the position of the liquidators
is still worse. Woodworkers, for example, contributed

R.1,014.73 to Put Pravdy , but only
R.38.14 [1] to Severnaya Rabochaya Gazeta .

The liquidationist press has often proclaimed from the house-tops that
only the most ignorant masses, who do not understand serious questions,
follow the lead of Pravda . In the recently published June issue of
Nasha Zarya , the overzealous liquidator, Mr. A. Gorev, asserts
that the collections and resolutions in support of Pravda “come
from those sections of the workers who, for the first time in the history
of the Russian working-class movement, are being drawn into the sphere of
Interests and controversies of Social Democracy”—from the midst of the
ignorant, non-class-conscious youth and backward workers.

Do the liquidators dare include in those “sections” the metalworkers
and printers, who have always been in the forefront of the working-class
movement? Mr. Gorev, of course, has no evidence whatever in support of his
argument, which is based entirely on subjective assumptions. Well, let him
keep to them. We have however proved with the aid of irrefutable figures
that even among advanced trades like the printers and metalworkers of
St. Petersburg, the liquidators have the support of barely one-fifth of the
workers.

Lack of space prevents us from quoting the comparative figures of the
collections in all the other trades. We shall therefore quote only the
total figures for these trades.

In addition to the trades already enumerated, Put Pravdy
received R.3,700 from workers, and Severnaya Rabochaya Gazeta
R.500.00 (in round figures). These sums were contributed by shop
assistants, tailors, tanners, textile workers, bakers, and other workers
engaged in small industry.

Here, too, Put Pravdy received seven times as much as
Severnaya Rabochaya Gazeta did. Not a single trade contributed
more to Severnaya Rabochaya Gazeta than it did to Put Pravdy . Even office and other salaried employees collected R.273.11
for Put Pravdy , whereas for Severnaya Rabochaya Gazeta
the office employees and shop assistants combined (figures quoted by Severnaya Rabochaya Gazeta ) collected
R.262.32. The shop assistants collected R.238.11 for Put Pravdy .

In addition, we give below a list of the factories that were most
active in collecting funds for their workers’ newspaper:

1) the Novy Aivaz Works—R.791.37 (for Severnaya Rabochaya Gazeta —R.464.67);
2) the Putilov Works—R.335.46 (for Severnaya Rabochaya
Gazeta—R.59.38);
3) the St. Petersburg Metalworks—R.273.36 (for Severnaya Rabochaya Gazeta—R.116.92);
4) the Tubing Works—R.243.80 (for Severnaya Rabochaya Gazeta —R.113.41);
5) Siemens Schuckert—R.229.26;
6) Erickson—R.228.82 (for Severnaya Rabochaya Gazeta—R.55.13);
=

7) Perviainen—R.183.93;
8) the Old Lessner Works—R.168.30;
9) the France-Russian Works—R.148.82;
10) the New Lessner Works—R.116.25;
11) the Gable Works—R.112.62;
12) Siemens-Halske—R.104.30;
13) the Obukhov Works—R.91.02;
14) the Stationery Of flce—R.79.12 (for Severnaya Rabochaya Gazeta —R.54.00). [3]

Notes:
[1]
We ask Severnaya Rabochaya Gazeta in advance to excuse us if,
in examining its reports, we omitted one or two workshops, whose trades
were not specified. This Would not have happened had Severnaya Rabochaya Gazeta tabulated its figures in greater detail. — Lenin