V. I.

Lenin

That was how Sotsial-Demokrat posed the alternative with regard to the German Social-Democratic Party, back in its
issue
No. 35 [1]

,

when it elaborated the fundamental ideas of the Manifesto on war issued by our Party’s Central
Committee. [2]

Notice how the facts bear out this conclusion.

The German Social-Democratic Party is clearly disintegrating. Otto Ruhle, Karl Liebknecht’s closest
associate, quite apart from the I.S.D. group (International
Socialists of
Germany), [3] which has been consistently fighting the hypocritical Kautskyites, has openly come
out for a split. Vorwarts had no serious, honest answer. There are actually two workers’
parties in Germany.

Even in Britain, a statement was made by T. Russell Williams in
the moderate, pacifist Labour Leader (the Central Organ
of the Independent Labour Party), and he was supported by many
local functionaries. Comrade
Ornatsky , [4] who has done very good internationalist work in Britain, came out in the
conciliatory Nashe Slovo in Paris for tin immediate split there. We are naturally in full agreement with
Ornatsky in his polemic with T. Rothstein, a correspondent of
Kommunist , [5] who takes a Kautskyite attitude.

In France, Bourderon is a fervent opponent of any split
but–has proposed to the Party Congress a resolution calling for outright disapproval both of the Party’s Central
Committee and the parliamentary group! Adoption of such a
resolution would mean an immediate split in the Party.

In America, the Socialist Party appears to be united. Actually,
some of its members, like Russell and others, preach “preparedness”, stand for war, and want an army and
navy. Others, like Eugene Debs, the Party’s presidential
candidate, openly preach civil war “in the event” of an
imperialist war, rather, in connection with one.

There are now actually two parties all over the world. There are
in fact already two Internationals. And if the Zimmerwald
majority are afraid to recognise this, if they dream of unity
with the social-chauvinists, and declare their readiness to
have such unity, these “pious hopes” in practice remain nothing
but hopes, expressive of inconsistency and timidity of thought,
Consciousness lags behind reality.

---
Notes:
[1]

Vol. 21, “The War and Russian Social-Democracy”
— Lenin

[2]

Ibid., “Dead Chauvinism and Living Socialism”
— Lenin

[3]

A group of German Left-wing Social-Democrats which emerged
during the First World War. Its organ, Lichtstrahlen ( Rays of Light ), was published in Berlin from 1913 to
1921. The I.S.D. openly opposed war and opportunism and took the
most consistent stand in Germany on separation from the
social-chauvinists and Centrists. Borchardt, representing the
group at the Zimmerwald Conference, alone of the 10 German
delegates signed the draft resolution and draft manifesto of the
Zimmerwald Left. Soon after the conference, the Bureau of the
Zimmerwald Left was informed that the I.S.D. group had joined
it, and this was reported in Internationale Flugblatt (International Leaflets) No. 1. The group had no extensive ties
with the masses and soon broke up.

[4]

G. V. Chicherin.

[5]

A magazine founded by Lenin and published by the Editorial Board of Sotsial-Demokrat jointly with
G. L. Pyatakov and E. B. Bosch, who financed it; Bukharin was one
of the editorsss. Only one (double) issue was published. It
carried, apart from the article “The Honest Voice of a French
Socialist”, two other articles by Lenin: “The Collapse of the
Second International” and “Imperialism and Socialism in Italy”.

The publication plan was worked out by Lenin in the spring of
1915. The organisational meeting of the editorial board was held
under his guidance. Lenin planned to make Kommunist an international organ of the Left-wing Social-Democrats, but it
soon transpired that there were grave contradictions between the
Editorial Board and Bukharin, Pyatakov and Bosch, which were
aggravated after the No. 1-2 issue. The Bukharin-Pyatakov-Bosch
took an incorrect stand on a number of points of principle in
the Party’s Programme and tactics-the right of nations to
self-determination, the role of democratic demands and the
minimum programme in general, etc.-and tried to make use of the
magazine for factional purposes. On the Editorial Board Lenin
fought the Bukharin-Pyatakov-Bosch group, exposed their
anti-Bolshevik views and factional activites, and sharply
criticised the concilatory attitude to the group on the part of
G. Y. Zinoviev and A. G. Shlyapnikov.

In view of the groups anti-Party attitude, the
Sotsial-Demokrat Editorial Board declared, on Lenin’s proposal, that it considered it impossible to continue
publication. Lenin wrote the draft resolution of the
R.S.D.L.P. Central Committee terminating the publication of the
Kommunist . The Central Committee Bureau in Russia, having heard a report on the contradictions on the
Kommunist Editorial Board, declared its full solidarity
with the Editorial Board of the Central Organ, Sotsial-Demokrat , ad expressed the wish that “all
publications of the Central Committee should be edited on lines
strictly in conformity with the Central Committee’s policy and
adopted before the outbreak of the war”. From October 1916, the
Editorial Board of Sotsial-Demokrat began publication of Sbornik Sotsial-Demokrata .