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

NOTES OF A PUBLICIST217passes on to the specific “ideological and political tasks”,which are not always or absolutely imperative but whichresult from the conditions of the particular period. §4 isdevoted only to these special tasks, and in the preamble toall of its three points it is directly stated that these ideologicaland political tasks “have come to the fore in their turn”.What is the result? It is nonsense, as if the task of broadeningand deepening the work has also come to the forein its turn! As if there could be a historical “turn” whenthis task was not present, as it is always!And in what way is it possible to overcome deviationsby means of broadening and deepening Social-Democraticwork? In any broadening and deepening of our work thequestion of how it should be broadened and deepened inevitablyrises; if liquidationism and otzovism are not accidents,but trends engendered by social conditions, thenthey can assert themselves in any broadening and deepeningof the work. It is possible to broaden and deepen the workin the spirit of liquidationism—this is being done, forinstance, by Nasha Zarya and Vozrozhdeniye 95 ; it is alsopossible to do so in the spirit of otzovism. On the otherhand, the overcoming of deviations, “overcoming” in thereal sense of the word, inevitably deflects certain forces,time and energy from the immediate broadening and deepeningof correct Social-Democratic work. The same Yonov,for instance, writes on the same page of his article:“The plenum is over. Its participants have gone theirseveral ways. The Central Committee in organising itswork has to overcome incredible difficulties, among whichnot the least is the conduct of the so-called [only “socalled”,Comrade Yonov, not real, genuine ones?] liquidatorswhose existence Comrade Martov so persistently denied.”Here you have the material—little, but characteristicmaterial—which makes it clear how empty Trotsky’s andYonov’s phrases are. The overcoming of the liquidationistactivities of Mikhail, Yuri and Co. diverted the forces andtime of the Central Committee from the immediate broadeningand deepening of really Social-Democratic work. Wereit not for the conduct of Mikhail, Yuri and Co., were it notfor liquidationism among those whom we mistakenly continueto regard as our comrades, the broadening and