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

NOTES OF A PUBLICIST241when there is an acknowledged common basis in principlefor a union. The question as to who was to join this unionafter all the concessions had been made remained open atthat time; for in principle the provisional assumption wasinevitable that all the Social-Democrats would want toenter the Party, that all the Mensheviks would want loyallyto carry out the anti-liquidationist resolution, and thatall the Vperyodists would want to do the same in regardto the anti-otzovist resolution.Now, however, brokers are not required; there is noplace for them, because there is no question of the extentof concessions. And this question does not arise becausethere is no question of any concessions at all. All the concessions(and even excessive ones) were made at the plenum.Now it is exclusively a question of a principled stand inthe struggle against liquidationism, moreover not againstliquidationism in general, but against a definite groupof liquidator-independents, the group of Mikhail and Co.,the group of Potresov and Co. Should Trotsky and Yonovtake it into their heads to “reconcile” the Party with thegiven persons, groups and institutions, then we all pro-Party Bolsheviks and all pro-Party Mensheviks wouldregard them simply as traitors to the Party, and nothingmore.The conciliator-diplomats were “strong” at the plenumexclusively because and insofar as both the pro-PartyBolsheviks and the pro-Party Mensheviks wanted peaceand attached subordinate importance to the question ofthe conditions of peace compared with-the question of theanti-liquidationist and the anti-otzovist tactics of the Party.I, for instance, considered the concessions excessive andfought over the extent of these concessions (this is hintedat by Golos in No. 19-20 and is openly stated by Yonov).But I was ready then and would be ready now to reconcilemyself even to excessive concessions, provided the lineof the Party was not thereby undermined, provided theseconcessions did not lead to the negation of that line, providedthese concessions paved the way for bringing peopleback from liquidationism and otzovism to the Party. Butnow that Mikhail and Co. and Potresov and Co. have unitedand come out against the Party and against the plenum,