The Stalin school of falsification - Marxists Internet Archive

Stalin School of Falsification - Chapter 5
greatest dangers. In appraising the situation and its problems, we were in full accord.
"After this conference, Vladimir Ilyich sent for comrade Kamanev in order to assure a majority in the
Political Bureau. There were then five members in the Political Bureau. With comrade Kamenev, we
were three and consequently a majority, but in our delegation to the Comintern, there were, on one side,
comrades Zinoviev, Bukharin and Radek; on the other, Vladimir Ilyich, comrade Kamenev and myself.
And, by the way, we had formal sittings of these groups. Vladimir Ilyich said at that time: 'Well, we are
forming a new faction.' During further negotiations as to the text of the resolutions to be introduced, I
served as the representative of the Lenin faction while Radek represented the Zinoviev faction."
ZINOVIEV: "Now the state of affairs is changed."
TROTSKY: "Yes, it has changed. Moreover, comrade Zinoviev rather categorically accused comrade
Radek at that time of 'betraying' his faction in those negotiations; that is, of making presumably too great
concessions. There was an intense struggle throughout all the parties of the Comintern, and Vladimir
Ilyich conferred with me as to what we should do if the Congress voted against us. Should we submit to
the Congress whose decisions might be ruinous, or should we not submit?
"The reflection of that conference you can find in the stenographic report of my speech. I said at that
time, in agreement with Ilyich, that if you, the Congress, adopt a decision against us, I trust you will
leave us a sufficient frame work in which to defend our point of view in the future. The meaning of this
warning was perfectly clear. I ought to add, however, that the relations then existing within our
delegation, thanks to the leadership of Vladimir Ilyich, continued to be perfectly comradely." (Minute&
of the Political Bureau of the C.P.S.U., March 18, 1926.)
In agreement with Lenin, I defended our common position in the E.C.C.I., whose session preceded the
sessions of the Third World Congress. I was the target of a fierce attack by the so-called
"Leftists."Vladimir Ilyich hurried to the session of the E.C.C.I. and this is what he said there:
"....I came here in order to protest against the speech of comrade Bela Kun who took the floor against
comrade Trotsky instead of defending him as he ought to have done if he wanted to be a genuine
Marxist....
"Comrade Laporte was absolutely wrong and comrade Trotsky, protesting against it, was absolutely
right. Comrade Trotsky was a thousand times right when he stressed that point. And here is another
Luxemburg comrade who reproached the French party because it did not sabotage the occupation of
Luxemburg.[22] There you have it. He thinks that this is a geographical question, just as comrade Bela
Kun does. No, this is a political question and comrade Trotsky was entirely right in protesting against it.
"That is why I considered it my duty to support fundamentally all that comrade Trotsky said. . ."
Throughout all of Lenin's speeches relating to the Third World Congress recurs this sharp emphasis upon
his complete solidarity with Trotsky.
THE QUESTION OE EDUCATING THE PARTY YOUTH
34. In 1922, there was created upon the initiative of comrade Ter-Vaganyan a magazine, Pod
Znamenyem Marxisma [Under the Banner of Marxism]. For the first issue, I contributed an article on the
difference in the conditions of education of the two generations of the party-the old and the new-and on
the necessity of a special theoretical approach toward the new generation in order to safeguard the
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