Having become acquainted with the ISB resolution on Russian affairs... we resolved to welcome the Bureau’s decision.

The full clarification of the serious differences existing in the Russian working-class movement, which the Bureau has placed in the forefront, is in our opinion the most important and absolutely necessary precondition for further steps.

We therefore decided to assist our comrades in every way in acquainting them with the existing state of affairs in Russia.

On the other hand, we cannot pass over in silence the unfamiliarity of the foreign comrades with the affairs of the R.S.D.L.P. that came to light during the discussion of this question in the Bureau. We would not be fulfilling our direct duty as members of the R.S.D.L.P. if we left without protest the statement made at the Bureau meeting by the representative of the German Social-Democracy, Kautsky, that “the party does not exist.”

Considering this statement to be the result of this comrade’s insufficient or one-sided knowledge of the Russian working-class movement, we consider it our duty to point out that the acquaintance with the basic facts of the movement (elections, composition of the parliamentary representation, party press, decisions of party bodies, the course of the strike movement, etc.), which is obligatory for every socialist who speaks on Russian affairs, would lead Comrade Kautsky to recognize that our party, having lived through an epoch of counter-revolutionary terror, is the guiding force of the entire working-class movement in Russia, in all its most diverse manifestations.

We express the hope that the steps being taken by the Bureau to acquaint itself with the state of affairs in Russia will not only clarify the real relationship between the R.S.D.L.P. and the groups that have broken away from it, but will also make it impossible in the future for responsible leaders of international Social-Democracy to make statements like that made by Comrade Kautsky.