From V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, 4th English Edition,
Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1968
NOTES
[16]
This refers to the Sixth (Prague) All-Russia Conference of the R.S.D.L.P., held January 5-17 (18-30), 1912.
[p. 22]
[17]
Bulgarin, F. V. -- a reactionary journalist and publisher of the first half of the nineteenth century who engaged in denouncing and slandering progressive magazines and writers of his day. He was notorious for his denunciations of Alexander Pushkin.
Burenin, V. P. -- a journalist who contributed to the reactionary newspaper Novoye Vremya. He engaged in vicious attacks against representatives of all progressive social and political trends.
Lenin uses these two names as synonyms for individuals who resort to dishonest methods of conducting polemics.
[p. 22]
[18]
Vorwärts (Forward ) -- central organ of the German Social-Democratic Party, published from 1891 to 1933. The slanderous articles against the Prague Conference of the R.S.D.L.P. which appeared in Vorwärts were written by Trotsky.
[p. 22]
[19]
This refers to the Organising Committee set up by the January 1912 meeting of liquidators representing the Bund, the Caucasian Regional Committee and the Central Committee of the Social-Democrats of the Lettish Territory. Among those who took an active part in the work of the Organising Committee in addition to the non-Russian Social-Democratic organisations were the editorial boards of the Vienna Pravda and of Golos Sotsial-Demokrata, the Vperyod group and representatives of the liquidators' St. Petersburg "initiating group". Trotsky was the virtual head of the Organising Committee, which was officially entrusted with convening
the August 1912 anti-Party conference.
[p. 22]
[20]
The Vperyod group was an anti-Party group of otzovists, ultimatumists, god-builders and empirio-monists (adherents of the reactionary, idealist philosophy of Mach and Avenarius). The group was formed in December 1909 on the initiative of A. A. Bogdanov and G. A. Alexinsky. It published a printed organ called Vperyod. In 1912 it united with the Menshevik liquidators to form a general anti-Party bloc (the August bloc) against the Bolsheviks. This bloc was organised by Trotsky. Failing to gain support among the workers, the group virtually fell to pieces in 1913-14. Its final disintegration occurred in 1917 after the February Revolution.
The Golos supporters were Menshevik liquidators grouped around Golos Sotsial-Demokrata (P. B. Axelrod, F. I. Dan, L. Martov, A. S. Martynov, A. N. Potresov and others), which was published from February 1908 to December 1911 first in Geneva and then in Paris.
The pro-Party Bolsheviks were a group of Bolsheviks who took a conciliatory view of liquidationism and otzovism. Most of the conciliators opposed the Lenin bloc of Bolsheviks and pro-Party Mensheviks. They urged unprincipled unification of the Bolsheviks with various groups that had no support among the masses but sought to exert influence in the Party.
The pro-Party Mensheviks were a small group of Mensheviks led by Plekhanov. They had broken away from the Menshevik liquidators, and opposed liquidationism in 1908-12.
[p. 23]
[21]
Pravda (Vienna) -- a factional newspaper published by the Trotskyists from 1908 to 1912. Its first three issues were published in Lvov, the rest in Vienna. Twenty-five issues appeared in all.
With the exception of its first two issues, which appeared as the organ of the Ukrainian Spilka (Union), the newspaper represented no Party organisation in Russia and was described by Lenin as "a private undertaking". Its editor was Trotsky. Under cover of "non-factionalism", the newspaper opposed Bolshevism from the outset, and upheld liquidationism and otzovism. It advocated the centrist theory of "co-operation" between revolutionaries and opportunists within one and the same party. Following the January 1910 Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee it took a frankly liquidationist stand. It also backed the anti-Party Vperyod group of the otzovists and ultimatumists.
In 1912 Trotsky and his newspaper were the initiators and chief organisers of the anti-Party August bloc.
[p. 23]
[22]
Za Partiyu (For the Party ) -- a sheet which the pro-Party Mensheviks and conciliators published at irregular intervals in Paris from April 16 (29), 1912, to February 1914. Five issues were brought out. Among those who wrote for it were G. V. Plekhanov, S. A. Lozovsky and A. I. Lyubimov. It was disseminated chiefly abroad and expressed mainly the views of the Paris group of Plekhanov's supporters.
[p. 24]
[23]
The Bund (The General Jewish Workers' Union of Lithuania, Poland and Russia) came into being in 1897, at the founding congress of the Jewish Social-Democratic groups in Vilna. In the main, it comprised semi-proletarian Jewish artisans in the west of Russia. It represented nationalism and separatism in Russia's working class movement.
[p. 24]