The Stalin school of falsification - Marxists Internet Archive

Stalin School of Falsification - Chapter 4
"Ultimatum of the majority of the Central Committee to the minority. . . . It is proposed to exclude Lenin
and Trotsky. This is a proposal to decapitate our party and we do not accept it."
That very day, that is, on the 1st (14th) of November, Lenin spoke on this issue at the meeting of the
Petrograd Committee. The minutes of the Petrograd Committee meetings for 1917 were published on the
tenth anniversary of October. Originally the minutes of this session of the 1st (14th) of November 1917,
were likewise included in that edition. In the first proof of the table of contents, this session is indicated.
But afterwards, under orders from above, the minutes of November 1 (14) were deleted and concealed
from the party.[11]1 It is easy to understand why. On the question of compromise, Lenin spoke to the
party as follows:
"As for a compromise-I cannot even speak about that seriously. Trotsky said long ago that unification is
impossible. Trotsky understood this and from that time on there has been no better Bolshevik."
The speech ends with the slogan: "No compromise! A homogeneous Bolshevik government!"
19. It is worth noting that these same minutes of the session of the Petrograd Committee clearly show
what was Lenin's attitude to the question of discipline when discipline was being used to cover a patently
opportunistic line. After the report of comrade Fenigstein, Lenin announced:
"If you want a split, go ahead. If you get the majority, take power in the Central Executive Committee
and carry on. But we'll go to the sailors."
It was precisely by means of this bold, decisive, irreconcilable way of putting the question that Leom
saved the party from a split.
Iron discipline, yes, but on the basis of a revolutionary line. On the fourth of April, Lenin said (at the
so-called March Party Conference)[12]
"Even our Bolsheviks show confidence in the Provisional] Government. That can be explained only by
intoxication incidental to revolution. That is the death of socialism. You, comrades, place confidence in
the government. If that's your position, our ways part."
And further:
"I hear that in Russia there is a trend toward unification. Unification with the defensists[13] -- that is
betrayal of socialism. I think it would be better to stand alone like Liebknecht -- one against a hundred
and ten."[14]
20. Why did Lenin pose this question so sharply-one against a hundred and ten? Because in the March
Conference of 1917, semi-defensist and semi-coalitionist tendencies were very strong.
At that conference, Stalin supported the resolution of the Krasnoyarsk Soviet of Deputies which
advocated:
"Support of the Provisional Government in its activities, only in so far as it follows a course of satisfying
the demands of the working class and the revolutionary peasantry in the revolution that is taking place."
More than that, Stalin stood for unification with Tseretelli. Here is the verbatim excerpt from the minutes
of the conference:
"Order of the day: Tseretelli's proposal for unification.
http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1937-st2/sf04.htm (10 of 16) [06/06/2002 15:06:13]