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

252V. I. LENINThe obviously false and untenable position taken up bythe above-mentioned “conciliators” should have openedtheir eyes to the fact that they are wrong in their point ofdeparture, namely, that the political significance of theunity reached at the plenum lies In the agreement with“given persons, groups and institutions”. We must not allowourselves to be deceived by the outward forms of Partyevents and their individual peculiarities; it is necessary toappraise the ideological and political significance of whatis taking place. Judging by outward appearances the agreementwas made with specified Golosists. But the basis,the condition for agreement was the adoption by the Golosistsof Plekhanov’s position; that is evident from the analysisgiven above of the resolution on the state of affairsin the Party.* Outwardly it was the Golosists who appearedas the representatives of Menshevism in the Party judging,for example, by the composition of the Central Organ.In reality, after the plenum the Central Organ began totransform itself into an organ of “collaboration” betweenthe pro-Party Bolsheviks and the Plekhanovites, with theGolosists in full opposition. The result was a zigzag in thedevelopment of Party unity; at first there was somethingin the nature of an indiscriminate conciliatory mass withouta clear definition of the ideological basis for unity, but lateron the logic of political tendencies gained the upper hand,the sifting of the independents from the Party was acceleratedby the maximal concessions that were made to theGolosists at the plenum.When I heard at the plenum and saw in Golos (No. 19-20,p. 18) fierce attacks on the slogan “an agreement betweenthe strong factions for the fight against the liquidators ofthe Right and of the Left” (this slogan is put in quotationmarks by Golos, but for some reason it is not stated openlythat I defended this slogan both before and at the plenum)—* Of the four Menshevik members of the Central Committee whowere present at the plenum, two directed all their efforts to winningover the Golosists, in effect to Plekhanov’s position—by makingthe maximum concessions to them. This does not mean that thesetwo were firm pro-Party men, that they were proof against a returnto the Golos camp. It merely means that Menshevism was caught atthe moment when it could not as yet renounce the Party principle.