Collected Works of V. I. Lenin - Vol. 16 - From Marx to Mao

TOWARDS UNITY153putable and to intensified co-operative work on the basis ofthis acknowledgement.The resolution notes that two kinds of deviations from thecorrect path are inevitably engendered by the presenthistorical situation and by bourgeois influence on the proletariat.The characteristic features of one of these deviationsare essentially the following: “Rejection of the illegal Social-DemocraticParty, belittling of its role and significance,attempts to curtail the programmatic and tactical tasks andslogans of revolutionary Social-Democracy, etc.” The connectionbetween these errors within the Social-Democraticmovement and the counter-revolutionary bourgeois currentoutside it is obvious. Nothing is so hateful to the bourgeoisieand tsarism as the illegal Social-Democratic Party, whichproves by its work its loyalty to the behests of the revolution,its unswerving readiness to wage a relentless struggleagainst the foundations of Stolypin’s “legality”. Nothing isso hateful to the bourgeoisie and the servitors of tsarism asthe revolutionary aims and slogans of Social-Democracy. Itis our imperative task to defend both the one and the otherand it is the combination of illegal and legal work that especiallydemands from us that we combat every “belittling ofthe role and significance” of the illegal Party. It is just theneed to defend the Party position on minor matters, in moremodest measures, in particular instances, in the legalframework, that especially requires us to see to it that theseaims and slogans are not curtailed, that the changed formof the struggle does not destroy its content, does not makeit less irreconcilable, does not distort the historical perspectiveand historical aim of the proletariat, viz., through aseries of bourgeois revolutions that achieve a democraticrepublic to lead all working and exploited people, the wholemass of the people, to the proletarian revolution whichoverthrows capitalism itself.On the other hand—and here we proceed to characterisethe other deviation—it is impossible to carry out in practicedaily revolutionary Social-Democratic work withoutlearning how to change its forms, adapting them to the specificcharacter of each new historical period. “Rejection of Social-Democraticwork in the Duma and of utilising legalopportunities, a failure to understand the importance of