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

197ITHE “PLATFORM” OF THE ADHERENTSAND DEFENDERS OF OTZOVISMA pamphlet published by the Vperyod group recentlyappeared in Paris under the title The Present Situationand the Tasks of the Party. A Platform Drawn Up by aGroup of Bolsheviks. This is the very same group of Bolsheviksabout whom, in the spring of last year, the enlargededitorial board of Proletary declared that they had formeda new faction. Now this group, “consisting of fifteen Partymembers—seven workers and eight intellectuals” (as thegroup itself states), comes forward with an attempt to givea complete, systematic and positive exposition of its ownspecial “platform”. The text of this platform bears cleartraces of careful, painstaking collective work in an effortto smooth out all rough spots, to remove sharp edges andto stress not so much those points on which the group isat variance with the Party as those on which it is in agreementwith the Party. All the more valuable to us, therefore,is the new platform, as the official presentation of the viewsof the trend concerned.This group of Bolsheviks first gives its own “interpretationof the present historical situation of our country” (§ I, pp.3-13), then it gives its own “interpretation of Bolshevism”(§ II, pp. 13-17). And it interprets both the one and theother badly.Take the first question. The view held by the Bolsheviks(and by the Party) is set out in the resolution of the DecemberConference of 1908 on the present situation. Do the authorsof the new platform share the views expressed in thatresolution? If they do, why do they not say so plainly?