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

GOLOS (VOICE) OF LIQUIDATORS AGAINST THE PARTY163Thus the same people who declare in print, with theassistance and approval of Axelrod, Dan, Martov andMartynov, that Plekhanov “falsely calls them ‘liquidators’”are directly disrupting the very existence of the C.C. andare proclaiming its existence harmful.The same people who are exclaiming in the illegal press(through Golos) and in the legal press (through the liberals)about “the universally known phenomenon of the necrosisof the Party units”, are themselves disrupting attempts toput in order, restore and set going these Party units and evensuch a Party unit as the Central Committee.Let all Social-Democrats be aware now who the manifestoof Comrades Axelrod, Dan, Martov and Martynov is alludingto when it speaks of “leaders of the legal movementwho have now occupied the advanced posts of the militantproletariat”. Let all Social-Democrats be aware now who itis that the editorial board of Golos is addressing when itwrites: “We should like the comrades [of the type of Mikhail,Roman and Yuri] to appreciate the breach which has beenmade in the official dogma that has actually condemned theParty organisation to inevitable decay, and to attempt tooccupy the positions that have been opened to them [Mikhail,Roman, Yuri and the like] owing to this breach.”We address ourselves to all organisations, to all groupsof our Party, and we ask them: do they intend to toleratethis flouting of Social-Democracy? Is it permissible now toremain passive spectators of what is taking place, or is itobligatory for them to undertake a resolute fight againstthe trend that is undermining the very existence of theParty?We ask all Russian Social-Democrats: can they now stillremain in doubt as to the practical, real political significanceof the “theory of equality” of trends, of the equalityof the legalists and the illegal Party, of the theory of thefight for legality”, etc., etc.?These theories, these arguments, these loopholes, arethe verbal shield behind which are concealed such enemies ofSocial-Democracy as those like Mikhail, Roman and Yuri,such political accomplices of them as the sixteen HerostrateanMensheviks, such ideological leaders as the literati whoconduct the “Voice of the Liquidators”.