Written: Written October 21 (November 3), 1909
Published:
First published in 1929 in the second and third editions of Lenin’s Collected Works, Vol. XIV.
Published according to the manuscript.
Source:
Lenin
Collected Works,
Progress Publishers,
[1974],
Moscow,
Volume 16,
page 77.
Translated:
Transcription\Markup:
R. Cymbala
Copyleft:
V. I. Lenin Internet Archive (www.marxists.org)
© 2004
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terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.
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The editorial board of the Central Organ{2} recognise that the consolidation of our Party and of its unity may at the present time be achieved only by the rapprochement, which has already begun, between definite factions that are strong and influential in the practical workers’ movement, and not by moralising whining for their abolition. Moreover, this rapprochement must take place and develop on the basis of revolutionary Social-Democratic tactics and an organisational policy aiming at a determined struggle against liquidationism both of the “Left” and of the “Right”, especially against the latter, since “Left” liquidationism, being already routed, is a lesser danger.
{1} The “Draft Resolution on the Consolidation of the Party and of Its Unity” was moved by Lenin at the meeting of the editorial board of the Central Organ, Sotsial-Demokrat, on October 21 (November 3), 1909. At this meeting Lenin proposed the publication of an editorial article “Methods of Consolidating the Party and Its Unity” (so far this article has not been found). In the article Lenin demanded a determined fight against liquidationism and upheld the need to preserve and consolidate the independence of the Bolshevik organisation. The majority of the editorial board, who were concealed agents of Trotsky (Zinoviev, Kamenev, Varsky), and the Menshevik Martov, rejected Lenin’s article as an editorial and proposed that it should be printed over the author’s signature as a contribution to discussion. Thereupon Lenin raised the general question of consolidating the Party and its unity for discussion by the editorial board and moved the draft resolution on this subject. The draft, like Lenin’s article, was rejected by the conciliatory-liquidationist majority of the editorial board.
{2} The Central Organ of the R.S.D.L.P.—Sotsial-Demokrat (Social Democrat)—was published illegally from February 1908 to January 1917. Fifty-eight issues appeared; the first issue was printed in Russia, the rest abroad, in Paris and later in Geneva. In conformity with a decision of the R.S.D.L.P. Central Committee, the editorial board consisted of Bolshevik, Menshevik and Polish Social-Democrat representatives. Sotsial-Demokrat published over eighty articles and shorter items by Lenin. Within the editorial board, Lenin fought for a consistent Bolshevik line. Part of the editorial board (Kamenev and Zinoviev) took a conciliatory attitude to wards the liquidators and tried to prevent Lenin’s policy from being carried out. The Menshevik editors, Martov and Dan, sabotaged the work of the editorial, board and at the same time openly defended the liquidators in Golos Sotsial-Demokrata. Lenin’s uncompromising struggle against the liquidators led to the resignation of Martov and Dan in June 1911, and from December 1911 onwards Sotsial-Demokrat was edited by Lenin.
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