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

460 NOTES56575859606162P.—the Menshevik Plekhanovite F. I. Tsederbaum (P. N. Dnevnitsky).p. 100For the article “‘Golos Sotsial-Demokrata’ and Cherevanin” Leninused his remarks on Cherevanin’s book The Contemporary Situationand the Possible Future, and especially the “summary of importantremarks” written by him on the cover at the end of this book. p. 103This document is the beginning of an article written by Lenin inParis at the end of November (beginning of December) 1909.The last portion of the article has not been preserved. The articlewas intended for Proletary No. 50, but was not published in it. p. 107Eduard Bernstein—leader of the extreme opportunist wing ofGerman Social-Democracy and the Second International, a theoreticianof revisionism and reformism. p. 108The Letter of an “Old Iskrist and Old Bolshevik” quoted by Leninwas published over the signature “Tr” in the newspaper ProletaryNo. 50 of November 28 (December 11), 1909 (“Letters from St.Petersburg. Letter III”). p. 109Zubatov, S. V.—colonel of gendarmerie and chief of the MoscowSecret Police, who carried out a policy known as “police socialism”.In 1901-03, on his initiative legal workers’ organisations were setup in order to divert the workers from the political struggle againstthe autocracy. Zubatov’s activity in setting up legal workers’ organisationswas supported by V. K. Plehve, Minister of the Interior.Zubatov tried to direct the working-class movement towardsthe achievement of purely economic demands and to make theworkers think that the government was ready to meet their demands.The first Zubatov organisation was set up in Moscow inMay 1901 under the name “Society for the Mutual Assistance ofWorkers in Mechanical Industry”. Zubatov organisations wereset up also in Minsk, Odessa, Vilna, Kiev and other cities.The reactionary character of Zubatovism was unmasked bythe revolutionary Social-Democrats, who made use of legal workers’organisations to draw wide sections of the working class into thestruggle against the autocracy. Owing to the upsurge of the revolutionarymovement in 1903, the tsarist government was compelledto liquidate the Zubatov organisations. p. 111This refers to Stolypin’s agrarian policy, which aimed at establishingstrong kulak farms as a bulwark of tsarism in the countryside.On November 9 (22), 1906, Stolypin issued a law allowing peasantsto withdraw from the village communes and settle on farmsteads;it proposed that the peasant should take his land holding into hispersonal possession and leave the village commune. The peasantcould sell his allotment, which was previously forbidden. Stolypin’sland law benefited the kulak top section in the countrysideand finally ruined the village poor. p. 117