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

TO THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE R.S.D.L.P.193and hence absolutely requires changes in the compositionof the Central Organ. The plenum wanted to give the possibilityof returning to the Party and working loyally in theParty to all Golosists, all Social-Democrats, all legal participantsin the workers’ movement desiring to come over tothe pro-Party position. It was counting not on a split betweenthe two sections of Menshevism but on a general passage ofboth sections to the pro-Party position.The blame rests with the Russian centre of the legalists(Potresov, Mikhail and Co.) and with Golos Sotsial-Demokratathat things turned out otherwise. Their split with thepro-Party Mensheviks became a fact. Around the CentralOrgan and Diskussionny Listok we united a number ofpro-Party Mensheviks (Plekhanov, Rappoport, Avdeyev),with whom we were fully able to arrange Party work devoidof any kind of factionalism, despite all our differences ofopinion. Steps are being taken abroad to unite the Bolshevikgroups and the pro-Party Mensheviks. The Golos groups,on the other hand, have definitely taken a course againstunion.Consequently, it is not for accidental or personal reasonsthat an absolutely impossible situation has been createdwithin the editorial board of the Central Organ. If a stateof continual squabbling, from which there is no way out,prevails on our editorial board, if we three are definitelypowerless to overcome the hostile attitude of the two othereditors, if all work in the Central Organ is held up, it isthe inevitable result of the false position. In accordance withthe plenum decisions, rapprochement with the pro-PartyMensheviks is essential, but in our Central Organ the anti-Party Mensheviks wage a relentless struggle against thepro-Party Mensheviks who are outside the Central Organand helping it!We are fully confident that the comrades in the CentralCommittee will realise the absolute impossibility of thissituation and will not demand that we exemplify it byrecounting the innumerable conflicts and rows in the editorialboard. These conflicts, accusations and frictions, thetotal disruption of the work, are simply the result of thechanged political situation, which is inevitably bound tolead to the disintegration of the Central Organ if the step