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

305TWO WORLDSMuch has been written in all the newspapers about theMagdeburg Congress of the German Social-DemocraticParty. All the main events of this Congress, all the vicissitudesof the struggle are sufficiently known. The outwardaspect of the struggle of the revisionists with the orthodox,the dramatic episodes of the Congress overmuch engagedthe attention of the readers, to the detriment of a clarificationof the principles involved in this struggle, the ideologicaland political roots of the divergence. Yet the debatesin Magdeburg—above all on the question of the Badenitesvoting for the budget—provide exceedingly interestingmaterial for characterising the two worlds of ideas and thetwo class tendencies within the Social-Democratic LabourParty of Germany. The voting for the budget is but oneof the manifestations of this division into two worlds, adivision which is so deep that it is undoubtedly bound tobe expressed on much more serious occasions, much moreprofound and important. And now, when, as everybody cansee, a great revolutionary storm is impending in Germany,the Magdeburg debates should be regarded as a small reviewof forces covering a small fraction of the army (for the questionof voting for the budget is only a small fraction of thefundamental questions of Social-Democratic tactics) beforethe beginning of the campaign.What has this review shown as to how different sectionsof the proletarian army understand the tasks that confrontthem? How, judging by this review, will these differentsections of the army conduct themselves when the timecomes?—these are the questions on which we intend to dwell.We will begin with one minor (at first glance) clash ofopinion. The leader of the revisionists, Frank, strongly