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

340V. I. LENINbecome weak in the extreme and this weakness has been mostshamelessly utilised by the Vperyodists and Golosists, whoare developing their anti-Party activity with the aid of theRussian and foreign factional centres.Under such conditions to continue playing at conciliationwith these factional centres, to close one’s eyes hypocriticallyto their independence, to “invite” their representativesfor a joint fight against their own policy, to shield themin the eyes of the Party by accepting their members in thecentres—means dooming oneself to hopeless squabbling. Itmeans putting a brake on the work of the centres abroad,which even without that has been slowed down to such anextent that during the year it has not been possible to arrangea single meeting of the Central Committee in Russia, andnot only not a single conference, but not even an unofficialmeeting of local Party workers (whereas the otzovists’“school” and the liquidators’ legal organs repeatedly managedto organise against the Party all sorts of conferencesand meetings of agents, correspondents of journals, andso on).We are obliged to repudiate responsibility for this completestoppage of the work of those who have been entangledin conciliation with the Golosists of these centres and tobegin immediately the most energetic independent workin uniting the orthodox Bolsheviks, pro-Party Mensheviksand non-factional Social-Democrats for organising meetings,conferences, regional bureaux, groups for connections withParty publications, etc. It is to this work, which alone isactually capable of leading the Party out of the impasseand freeing the centres from “courting” the Golosists, thatwe are calling all pro-Party Social-Democrats.Even before the plenum, in the spring of 1909, in the nameof the Bolshevik faction, we proclaimed the policy of arapprochement with the pro-Party Mensheviks, and sincethen this policy has borne considerable fruit, despite theunsuccessful attempt to trust the “promises” of the Golosistsand regard them as pro-Party elements. All that hasbeen done since then to really strengthen not the Vperyodistpropaganda nor the Golosist defence of liquidationismbut the line of the Party, to really bring closer togetherthe basic core of both the chief factions, has been done by