Collected Works of V. I. Lenin - Vol. 26 - From Marx to Mao

NOTES54987colours a number of times, and from 1905 became the organ of theBlack Hundreds. After the bourgeois- democratic revolution ofFebruary 1917, it took a counter- revolutionary attitude and conducteda rabid campaign against the Bolsheviks. Closed down bythe Revolutionary Military Committee of the Petrograd Sovieton October 26 (November 8), 1917. Lenin said it was an exampleof the corrupt press. p. 211This and the letter on pp. 223-27 are a reflection of Lenin’s struggleagainst Kamenev and Zinoviev, who tried to frustrate the C.C. decisionon an armed uprising. They were defeated at the CentralCommittee meeting on October 10 (23), 1917, which discussedthe question of an uprising, and on the next day sent the C.C.a statement of their views and a letter opposing the C.C. decisionentitled “On the Current Situation” to the Petersburg, Moscow,Moscow Regional, and Finnish Regional Committees of theR.S.D.L.P.(B.) and the Bolshevik groups of the Central ExecutiveCommittee of the Soviets and the Congress of Soviets of the NorthernRegion. Having failed to rally support at an enlarged meetingof the Petersburg Committee on October 15 (28), which heardtheir letter and the enlarged meeting of the Central Committeeon October 16 (29), where they again spoke against any armeduprising Kamenev and Zinoviev stooped to downright treason.On October 18 (31), the semi- Menshevik newspaper, NovayaZhizn, carried an item entitled: “Kamenev about the ‘Uprising’”,in which the author, on behalf of Zinoviev and himself arguedagainst the armed uprising and incidentally gave away a mostimportant secret Party decision to the enemy. That same day,Lenin wrote his first letter (p. 216) and the next day the second(p. 223), branding the move as betrayal of the revolution. He calledthe two men strike- breakers and demanded their expulsion fromthe Party.Lenin’s letter was discussed by the Central Committee onOctober 20 (November 2), when Dzerzhinsky, who spoke first,motioned that “Kamenev should withdraw from political activityentirely”. As for Zinoviev, he said, he was in hiding from theauthorities and was not participating in any Party activity anyway.Sverdlov said Kamenev’s act could have no justificationwhatever, but the Central Committee was not authorised to expelmembers from the Party. He suggested that Kamenev shouldresign from the Central Committee. Stalin spoke twice. He firstproposed that the discussion should be transferred to a C.C. plenarymeeting, and when the proposal was voted down, he declaredthat “expulsion from the Party was no remedy”. He proposedthat Zinoviev and Kamenev should be left in the C.C. and shouldbe bound to abide by C.C. decisions.Kamenev was removed from the C.C., and both were forbiddento make any statement against decisions of the C.C. and its policies.It was also decided that members of the C.C. should be prohibitedfrom making public statements against decisions passed bythe C.C.