The Stalin school of falsification - Marxists Internet Archive

Stalin School of Falsification - Chapter 5
would follow it." (A. Maslow, Die Interna jionale, Berlin, 1921, p.254.) "The March Action as an
isolated action of the party would be-our opponents are right to this extent-a crime against the proletariat.
The March Action as the introduction to a series of constantly rising actions, a redeeming act." (A.
Thaiheimer, Taktik and Organisation der revo1utionare Offensive, Berlin, 1921, p. 6.) "The slogan of the
party can, therefore, be nothing but: offensive, offensive at any cost, with all means, in every situation
that offers serious possibilities of success." (Heyder, Ibid., p. 22.) The Third Congress of the Comintern,
confronted with this problem, was almost on the verge of a split. The Bukharin wing was supported by
the majority of the delegates and leaders, including Pepper (Pogany) and Rakosi, who had really directed
the March Action, Bela Kun, Munzenherg, Thalheimer, Frolich, most of the Italians, etc. Lenin, who
placed himself demonstratively in the "Right wing of the Congress," threatened it with a split if the
supporters of Bukharin and the "offensive" carried the day. Supported by Trotsky, and through the
medium of Radek, who played the role of a conciliator, Zinoviev and Bukharin were outvoted in the Rus
sian delegation, with the final result that Lenin's views tri umphed. The theses of the Third Congress and
the slogan "To the masses!" which introduced the broad policy of the united front adopted shortly
afterward, was a definite blow at the Leftists and put an effective end for a long period of time to
putschist moods in the International. [BACK TO TEXT]
22. The criticism of the French party by the delegate from the Communist Party of Luxemburg, L.
Reiland, dealt with the strike that broke out in March, 1921, in the mining district of his country, that is,
on the very frontier of France. The Communist Party of France, then headed by the notorious
opportunists, L.-O. Frossard and Marcel Cachin, paid no attention at all to the strike in the columns of the
party organ, l'Humanite', nor was any protest made when the armed forces of France intervened and
helped to crush the strike with the aid of bayonets. Reiland proposed the expulsion from the International
of Frossard and Cachin. Coming on the heels of the speech by Maurice Laporte, leader of the French
Communist Youth, who proposed that the party should have organized for a struggle against the
mobilization of the Class of 1919 "with revolver in hand," Reiland's criticism were exploited by the
ultra-Leftists at the Third Congress and drew the fire of Trotsky and Lenin. [BACK TO TEXT]
23. Early in 1925, Bukharin, addressing himself to the Russian peasantry, exclaimed: "Enrich yourselves
" — the slogan with which Guizot helped to fortify the French reaction. This was one of the many
manifestations of the growing tendency of the ruling Soviet bureaucracy to base itself upon the rich
peasants (Kulaks), a tendency which was one of the main causes of the rise of an Opposition in
Leningrad, led by Zinoviev, Kamenev and Krupskaya, in 1925, and the merger of the Trotskyist and
Zinovievist groups in 1926 into the United Opposition bloc. — Towards the end of 1925, Bukharin made
a formal acknowledg ment of error in advancing his slogan, but nothing was changed in the main policies
of the Stalin-Bukharin régime with regard to the countryside. [BACK TO TEXT]
24. In a polemic against Radek in 1929, Trotsky wrote concerning his pre-revolutionary conflict with
Lenin: " . . I never endeav ored to create a grouping on the basis of the theory of the per manent
revolution. My inner-party stand was a conciliatory one and when at certain moments I strove for
groupings, then it was precisely on this basis. My conciliationism was derived from a certain Social
Revolutionary fatalism. I believed that the logic of the class struggle would compel both factions to
pursue the same revolutionary line. The great historical significance of Lenin's stand was still unclear to
me at that time, his policy of irreconcilable ideological demarcation and, when necessary, split, for the
purpose of uniting and steeling the backbone of the truly revolutionary party. . . . By striving for unity at
all costs, I involuntarily and unavoidably had to idealize the Centrist ten dencies in Menshevism. Despite
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