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

374THE HISTORICAL MEANINGOF THE INNER-PARTY STRUGGLE IN RUSSIA 137The subject indicated by the above title is dealt within articles by Trotsky and Martov in Nos. 50 and 51 ofNeue Zeit. Martov expounds Menshevik views. Trotsky followsin the wake of the Mensheviks, taking cover behindparticularly sonorous phrases. Martov sums up the “Russianexperience” by saying: “Blanquist and anarchist lack ofculture triumphed over Marxist culture” (read: Bolshevismover Menshevism). “Russian Social-Democracy spoke toozealously in Russian”, in contrast to the “general European”methods of tactics. Trotsky’s “philosophy of history” isthe same. The cause of the struggle is the “adaptation ofthe Marxist intelligentsia to the class movement of theproletariat”. “Sectarianism, intellectualist individualism,ideological fetishism” are placed in the forefront. “Thestruggle for influence over the politically immature proletariat”—thatis the essence of the matter.IThe theory that the struggle between Bolshevism and Menshevismis a struggle for influence over an immature proletariatis not a new one. We have been encountering it since1905 (if not since 1903) in innumerable books, pamphlets,and articles in the liberal press. Martov and Trotsky are puttingbefore the German comrades liberal views with a Marxistcoating.Of course, the Russian proletariat is politically far lessmature than the proletariat of Western Europe. But of all