**Source:** PSS vol. 24

Lenin (representative of the Central Committee of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party). Comrade Braun said that one should not rummage through waste paper, old documents. This is correct. However, it is still necessary to base oneself on documents and other corroboration. Having become more closely acquainted with the activities of the RSDLP over the past two years, it becomes clear that liquidationism exists, which has hindered the restoration of the party. If we do not become acquainted with the political causes of the party's split, then the present state of fragmentation will remain incomprehensible to us. Already at the 1908 conference, and later at the 1910 plenum, erroneous tendencies were pointed out. On the one hand – recallism, which failed to understand Russia's new conditions; on the other hand – liquidationism, which denies the party or belittles the significance of the illegal party. These tendencies arose under the influence of the bourgeoisie. Liquidationism is a widespread phenomenon. Among Socialist-Revolutionaries (Populists) already in 1906 there appeared people attempting to legalize the party. This is a policy of adaptation, which we see among the Cadets. The same spirit of opportunism dominates liquidationism among Social-Democrats. Only in the struggle against this liquidationism can a strong party be created. The 1908 conference already stated this clearly. The party split following the plenum. The Foreign Bureau of the Central Committee{109}, without convening a plenum, subsequently liquidated itself. It fell to the party to restore itself in struggle against the liquidators, and this was accomplished by the January conference. It adopted a resolution that in the workers' curia it was necessary to struggle against the liquidators, but comrade Braun called this resolution Asiatic. However, such a resolution is merely a more consistent conclusion drawn from the resolution adopted by the plenum. The January conference was condemned from all sides.

But what was actually the situation with this January conference? If it had truly been a conference only of splitters, then the entire party ought to have united and proved that this conference does not represent the party. But this did not happen. Comrade Braun said: the broad masses do not follow Lenin. But a serious person does not decide the question in this manner; one must examine the facts in all their breadth. What do the facts speak to? Data were published on the results of elections in the workers' curia: in the elections to the II Duma, 47 percent of votes went to the Bolsheviks; in the elections to the III Duma – 50 percent; in the elections to the IV Duma – 67 percent. These facts are incontrovertible; they testify that the decisions of the January conference were correct. What the conference decided was realized in the elections. The majority of conscious workers in Russia follows the Bolsheviks, and this proves that the struggle against the liquidators was necessary. Now even the legal press recognizes that the Bolsheviks have the majority of conscious workers behind them.

According to comrade Braun, the August conference adopted the demands he put forward: the slogan of a democratic republic, the necessity of an illegal party. But why then does comrade Braun wish to withdraw from the Organizational Committee created by this conference? This does not testify to political prudence and steadfastness in political activity. Comrade Braun said that now there are only individual liquidators among the literati, and there is no liquidationism in general. But what does *Luch* say with its attacks on the illegal party, its struggle against party members? The liquidators did not fulfill what they promised to comrade Braun: they did not support the slogan of a democratic republic and the necessity of an illegal party. The Latvians wish to withdraw from the Organizational Committee. This too proves that the August bloc was only a fiction. It is absurd, even demagoguery, to speak of unity with liquidators so long as the latter do not renounce their present views and do not adhere to diametrically (completely) opposite views. So long as liquidationism remains what it is – unity is impossible. Those who stand for a legal party cannot unite with those who stand for an illegal party. Now there are two parties: one – real, the other – a fiction, an empty fabrication. This fictitious party is a group of intellectuals who merely disorganize the workers with their attacks on the illegal party. *Luch* does not even unite all the literati of the August bloc, but only the liquidators. Against the liquidators, only struggle is possible.

"Demagoguery," "unity," "splitters" – these are merely loud words; even a parrot can learn to repeat such words. But one must look at the facts. *Pravda* over the course of a year united approximately 2,000 workers' groups, while *Luch* only 550. The organ that stands for an illegal party gathered 4 times more supporters than the newspaper of "all tendencies." The facts show that they, the Bolsheviks, have united the majority of Russian workers. The conference convened in the summer proved the same thing.

Lenin is reproached with splitting the faction. But for an entire year 6 deputies struggled against liquidationism in the faction. The Bolsheviks have the majority; the party is with them. The faction must submit to the majority of the party, must act together with it. If they do not do this, then they place themselves outside the party, alongside the party. Everywhere it is established that the faction must submit to the decisions of the party. So it must be in Russia. Deputies to the State Duma are not some sort of Social-Democratic chatterboxes, but workers of the party who must submit to the party.

Everything that stands with the liquidators is fiction, phrase-mongering, abuse. What happened after the split in the faction? For six deputies – 6,000 signatures; for seven – 2,000. Anyone can read about this in the press. Martov said that behind the seven stands the institutions of Marxists, but these are institutions that do not represent the masses of party members; they are only fiction.

The Bolsheviks stand for unity. But who are these people who cannot enter the illegal party? Unity of the illegal party is necessary. Unity from below. But against those who attack the illegal party, who belittle its significance – against them one can only struggle. Let them give a guarantee that the illegal party remains inviolate, that the slogan of a democratic republic will not be besmirched – only then is unity from above and below possible. I do not know how it is in Asia, but in Europe those are called splitters who do not recognize the majority. It is the minority that does not submit to the decisions of the majority who are the splitters.