NOTES
[208] Report of the C.C. of the R.S.D.L.P. exists in the shape of two (incomplete) manuscripts, one of them Lenin's, the other a handwritten copy made by N. K. Krupskaya's mother, Y. V. Krupskaya, with corrections by Lenin. Other existing manuscripts are Lenin's instructions to the C.C. delegation to the conference, namely, "Notes
Privées ", notes "Not for the Report" and letters on this question. These documents illustrate Lenin's struggle against Russian and international opportunism. The Report marks an
epoch in the development of Bolshevism in the period of reaction and the years of a new revolutionary upswing.
Concerned about the victory of the Bolsheviks over all the opportunist trends and groups in the Russian working-class movement, the leadership of the Second International hastened to the assistance of these trends and groups. With this aim in view the Brussels Conference was convened, ostensibly "to exchange opinions" on the question of the possibility of restoring unity in the
R.S.D.L.P. Under the guise of establishing "peace'! within the R.S.D.L.P., the leaders of the International planned the liquidation of the independent Bolshevik Party, a party of a new type, which was conducting an irreconcilable struggle against opportunism in the Russian and international labour movement.
The Brussels "Unity" Conference, convened by the Executive Committee of the I.S.B. in accordance with the December 1913 decision of the Bureau's meeting, was held on July 16-18, 1914. The following were represented at the Conference: the Central Committee of the R.S.D.L.P. (Bolsheviks); the Organising Committee (Mensheviks) and its affiliated organisations (the Caucasian Regional Committee and the Borba group (Trotskyists)); the Duma Social-Democratic group (Mensheviks); Plekhanov's
Yedinstvo group; the Vperyod group; the Bund; the Social-Democrats of the Lettish Region; the Social-Democrats of Lithuania, the Polish Social-Democrats; the Polish Social-Democratic opposition; and the P.S.P. (Left wing).
The C.C. of the R.S.D.L.P. sent a delegation to the Conference, consisting of Inessa Armand (Petrova), M. F. Vladimirsky (Kamsky), and I. F. Popov (Pavlov). Lenin thoroughly prepared the delegation of the C.C. for the Conference. He wrote for it the Report and detailed instructions, and supplied it with the necessary materials, documents and factual data revealing the Russian opportunists and their inspirers in their true colours.
Lenin was in the closest touch with the delegation, whose work he directed from Poronin.
From the very outset the Conference was marked by a very sharp struggle of the Bolsheviks against the Russian and international opportunists.
At Kautsky's proposal the Conference adopted the following agenda: 1. Programmatic differences; 2. Tactical differences; 3. The organisational question. Although the Conference was to have been confined only to an exchange of opinions, Vandervelde warned the delegates that the Conference would adopt decisions on all three items of the agenda. On Lenin's instructions, the C.C.'s delegation proposed that the Conference should hear reports by the delegations and the concrete terms which each of them considered essential for unity. Because of the Bolsheviks' persistence it was decided to waive the agenda and proceed to the reports on the questions at issue, and to the formulation by the delegations of concrete conditions for unity.
The highlight of the Conference was the Report of the C.C. of the R.S.D.L.P., as written by Lenin, which was read by Inessa Armand in French at the morning session on July 17. The leaders of the I.S.B. did not allow the full text of the Report to be read so that Armand was obliged to set forth only part of it and proceed to the terms for unity. As formulated by Lenin these terms met with indignant protests from the opportunists, Plekhanov declaring that these were not terms for unity, "but articles of a new criminal code". Martov, Alexinsky, Yonov, Semkovsky and others shouted that the report of the C.C. characterised the "intolerance
of the Leninists", that "the Leninists had no right to call themselves 'Bolsheviks'", that the "terms" were "a mockery of the International", and so on.
On behalf of the I.S.B., Kautsky proposed a resolution for the unification of the R.S.D.L.P. which affirmed that within Russian Social-Democracy there were no essential disagreements standing in the way of unity. Kautsky was supported by the Organising Committee and by Plekhanov, who violently attacked the C.C. and Lenin. Rosa Luxemburg took an erroneous stand by joining Plekhanov, Vandervelde, Kautsky and others in advocating unity between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. Since the Conference was not authorised to pass resolutions, the Bolsheviks and the Lettish Social-Democrats refused to take part in the voting, but the resolution of the I.S.B, was carried by a majority. The Polish opposition, which joined the Bolsheviks and Lettish Social-Democrats at the Conference, voted for the resolution of the I.S.B.
Guided by Lenin, the Bolsheviks refused to accept the decisions of the Brussels Conference. The attempt by the Second International's opportunist leaders to liquidate the Bolshevik Party met with failure. In the sight of the international proletariat, Lenin and the Bolsheviks exposed the true aims of the leaders of the International, who wore the mask of peacemakers. For their capable and vigorous defence of the Party line, the Central Committee passed a vote of thanks to the C.C. delegation at the Brussels Conference.
   
At a private meeting of the liquidators, Trotskyists, Vperyodists, Plekhanovites, Bundists and representatives of the Caucasian Regional organisation held after the Brussels Conference, these groups formed a bloc against the Bolsheviks. The Brussels ("Third of July") bloc served as a hypocritical screen concealing the politically rotten position of all its participants. The bloc shortly afterwards fell apart, showing how false the policy of the Russian and West-European "uniters" of the R S.D.L.P. was.
[p. 495]
[209] The Anti-Socialist Law was introduced in Germany in 1878 by the Bismarck government with the object of combating the labour and socialist movement. The law banned all Social-Democratic Party and mass working-class organisations, and the labour press; socialist literature was confiscated, and Social-Democrats were hounded and deported. These repressions, however, did not break the Social-Democratic Party, which readjusted its activities to the conditions of illegal existence: the Party's central organ
Sozial-Demokrat was published abroad and Party congresses were held regularly there (1880, 1883, and 1887); in Germany, Social-Democratic underground organisations and groups headed by an illegal Central Committee were rapidly restored. Simultaneously, the Party made wide use of legal opportunities to strengthen contact with the masses, and its influence steadily grew. The number of votes cast for the Social-Democrats in the Reichstag elections increased more than threefold between 1878 and
Tremendous assistance to the German Social-Democrats was given by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. The Anti-Socialist Law was repealed in 1890 as a result of pressure from the mounting mass labour movement.
[p. 500]
[210] "Trusted agents" -- leading workers chosen to maintain constant contact between the C.C. and the local Social-Democratic group and create flexible forms of leadership for local activities in the large centres of the labour movement.
The task of establishing a system of trusted agents was set by the Cracow Conference of the C.C. of the R.S.D.L.P. in 1913.
[p. 500]
[211] The Technical Commission of the Bureau Abroad of the Central Committee (the Technical Commission Abroad -- T. C.) was set up by the June Conference of members of the C.C. of the R.S.D.L.P at its sitting of June 1 (14), 1911, with the aim of carrying out technical functions in connection with Party publications, transport, etc. As a temporary body pending the plenary session of the C.C., the Technical Commission was subordinated to a group of C.C. members who had attended the June Conference. The T.C. consisted of one representative each from the Bolsheviks the conciliators, and the Polish Social-Democrats. The conciliator majority on the T.C., namely, M. K. Vladimirov, supported by V. L. Leder, held up the payment of money to the Organising Commission Abroad for the Party Conference Convocation Fund, as well as appropriations for the publication of the Bolshevik newspaper
Zvezda. They tried to hold up the publication of the Party's Central Organ -- the newspaper
Sotsial-Demokrat. In their organ -- Information Bulletin -- the T.C. attacked Lenin and the Bolsheviks. During the discussion of the "Report" and resolutions of the Russian Organising Commission at the meeting of the T.C. on October 19 (November 1) the Bolshevik representative M. F. Vladimirsky moved a resolution accepting decisions of the Russian Organising Commission, but his proposal was rejected. Vladimirsky walked out of the Commission, and the Bolsheviks broke off all contacts with it.
[p. 502]
[212] Russian Organising Commission (R.O.C.) for convening the All-Russia Party Conference was set up in accordance with the decision of the June 1911 Conference of members of the R.S.D.L.P.'s Central Committee. It was constituted at the end of September at a meeting of representatives of the local Party organisations, and functioned until the opening of the Sixth (Prague), All-Russia Conference of the R.S.D.L.P.
[p. 502]
[213] Lenin is referring to the resolution of the "February 1913 meeting of the C.C. of the R.S.D.L.P.: "The Revolutionary Upswing, Strikes and Tasks of the Party", published in the pamphlet
Report and Resolutions of the Meetings of the Central Committee of the R.S.D.L.P. with Party Workers. February 1913. Published by the C.C. of the R.S.D.L.P.
[p. 509]
[214] The reference is to the shooting down of unarmed workers by the tsarist troops at the Lena gold-fields in Siberia on April 4 (17), 1912.
[p. 510]
[215] The Social-Democratic Bolshevik organisations in the Caucasus were set up on the basis of internationalism, uniting within their ranks the advanced proletarians of different nationalities. Lenin thought very highly of the activities of the Bolshevik organisations in the Caucasus, and repeatedly held them up as an examples of unity among the workers of all nations.
[p. 517]
[216] Strakhovanie Rabochikh (Workers' Insurance
) -- a journal of the Menshevik liquidators, published in St. Petersburg from 1912 to 1918.
[p. 521]
[217] On behalf of the German Social-Democratic Party Executive A. Bebel wrote a letter to Lenin in February 1905, offering himself as arbiter between the supporters of the Menshevik
Iskra and the Bolshevik newspaper Vperyod. Lenin replied "that neither he nor any other
Vperyod supporters within his knowledge had the right to take any action binding upon the whole Party, and that Bebel's proposal would therefore have to be submitted to the Party Congress that was being called by the Russian Bureau". (See present edition, Vol. 8, p. 178.) The Third Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. rejected Bebel's offer.
[p. 535]