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

390V. I. LENINthe confidence exclusively of the liquidators and theVperyodists.The extent of Trotsky’s shamelessness in belittling theParty and exalting himself before the Germans is shown,for instance, by the following. Trotsky writes that the“working masses” in Russia consider that the “Social-DemocraticParty stands outside [Trotsky’s italics] their circle”and he talks of “Social-Democrats without Social-Democracy”.How could one expect Mr. Potresov and his friends torefrain from bestowing kisses on Trotsky for such statements?But these statements are refuted not only by the entirehistory of the revolution, but even by the results of theelections to the Third Duma from the workers’ curia.Trotsky writes that “owing to their former ideologicaland organisational structure, the Menshevik and Bolshevikfactions proved altogether incapable” of working in legalorganisations; work was carried on by “individual groupsof Social-Democrats, but all this took place outside the factions,outside their organisational influence”. “Even themost important legal organisation, in which the Menshevikspredominate, works completely outside the control of theMenshevik faction.” That is what Trotsky writes. But thefacts are as follows. From the very beginning of the existenceof the Social-Democratic group in the Third Duma, the Bolshevikfaction, through its representatives authorised by theCentral Committee of the Party, has all the time assisted,aided, advised, and supervised the work of the Social-Democratsin the Duma. The same is done by the editorial boardof the Central Organ of the Party, which consists of representativesof the factions (which were dissolved as factionsin January 1910).When Trotsky gives the German comrades a detailed accountof the stupidity of “otzovism” and describes thistrend as a “crystallisation” of the boycottism characteristicof Bolshevism as a whole, and then mentions in a few wordsthat Bolshevism “did not allow itself to be overpowered” byotzovism, but “attacked it resolutely or rather in an unbridledfashion”—the German reader certainly gets no idea howmuch subtle perfidy there is in such an exposition. Trotsky’sJesuitical “reservation” consists in omitting a small, very