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

NOTES OF A PUBLICIST221ing at in Otkliki Bunda when he writes: “The comradeswho are now clinging to formalities know perfectly wellhow the last plenum would have ended if it had taken aformal point of view.”In this sentence, Comrade Yonov speaks in hints. LikeTrotsky, he considers such a mode of expressing his thoughtsextremely “tactful”, non-factional and specifically pro-Party. In point of fact, this is the very method employedby sectarian diplomats which does nothing but harm to theParty and the pro-Party cause. Such hints are lost to some,pique the sectarian curiosity of others, and set off morescandalmongering and back-biting. Hence Yonov’s hintsmust be deciphered. If he is not referring here to the plenumseeking an agreement (not merely a majority decision)on a number of questions we shall ask him to express himselfmore explicitly and not put ideas into the heads of the gossipsabroad.If, however, Yonov is referring here to the agreementbetween the factions at the plenum, his criticism of “thecomrades who cling to formalities” vividly shows us yetone more trait of those alleged conciliators who, in effect,are secretly helping the liquidators.A number of unanimous resolutions were adopted at theplenum by agreement between the factions. Why was thisnecessary? Because actually the relations between the factionswere tantamount to a split and, as is always and inevitablythe case in any split, the discipline of the whole body(in this instance the Party) is sacrificed to the disciplineof the part (in the present instance the faction).Party conditions in Russia being what they are therewas no other way to unity than through an agreement betweenthe factions (whether all the factions or the chiefones, whether parts of factions or whole ones, is anotherquestion). Hence, the necessity of a compromise, i.e., concessionson certain points which were not recognised by themajority but were demanded by the minority. One of theseconcessions was the deletion of the word liquidationismfrom the resolution. A particularly conspicuous sign of thecompromise character of the resolutions of the plenum wasthe Bolsheviks’ conditional surrender of their factionalproperty to third persons. One section of the Party condi-