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

74V. I. LENINBolshevism. Of course these inspirers of the otzovists, too,will suffer (and are already suffering) defeat, but to rid ourfaction and Party more rapidly of the disease of otzovismultimatumism,more drastic methods are required and themore decisively we combat the overt and covert otzoviststhe sooner we shall be able to rid the Party of this disease.“An accidental majority” of the ultimatumists—say ourfriends in St. Petersburg. You are profoundly mistaken,comrades. What you see at present among you is a smallparticle of the general phenomenon and you call it “accidental”because you do not see its connection with the whole.Recall the facts. In the spring of 1908 otzovism raises itshead in the Central Region and collects 14 votes (outof 32) at the Moscow City Conference. In the summer andautumn of 1908 the otzovist campaign in Moscow: RabocheyeZnamya opens a discussion and refutes otzovism. InAugust 1908 Proletary too takes up the controversy. Theautumn of 1908: the otzovists form a separate “trend” atthe Party’s All-Russian Conference. The spring of 1909: theotzovists’ campaign in Moscow (see Proletary No. 47-48,“Conference of the Moscow Area Organisation”). The summerof 1909: the ultimatumist resolution of the Executive Committeeof the St. Petersburg Committee.In the face of these facts to speak of the ultimatumistmajority as “accidental” is sheer naïveté. In some localitiesvery marked variations in the make-up of our organisationsare inevitable, while reaction is so strong and the membershipof the Social-Democratic organisations is so weak, asis the case now. Today the Bolsheviks declare “accidental”an ultimatumist majority in X. Tomorrow the ultimatumistsdeclare “accidental” a Bolshevik majority in Y.There are hosts of people ready to squabble on this score—but we are not among them. It must be understood that thesesquabbles and wrangles are a product of a deep-seated ideologicaldivergence. Only if we understand this can we helpthe Social-Democrats to replace fruitless and degradingsquabbles (over “accidental” majorities, organisational conflicts,money matters, contacts, etc.) by an explanation ofthe ideological causes of the divergence. We know perfectlywell that in many towns the struggle between the ultimatumistsand the Bolsheviks has spread to the most diverse