Lenin CW-Vol. 23.pdf - From Marx to Mao

171THE CHKHEIDZE FACTION AND ITS ROLEWe have maintained all along that Messrs. Chkheidzeand Co. do not represent the Social-Democratic proletariatand that a genuine Social-Democratic Labour Party willnever be reconciled or united with this faction. Our contentionwas based on the following incontrovertible facts:(1) Chkheidze’s “save the country” formula does not in substancediffer from defencism; (2) the Chkheidze faction hasnever opposed Mr. Potresov and Co., not even when Martovdid; (3) the decisive fact: the faction has never opposed participationin the war industries committees.Nobody has attempted to deny these facts. Chkheidze’sadherents simply evade them.The pressure of facts has increasingly compelled NasheSlovo and Trotsky, who reproach us for our “factionalism”,to take up the struggle against the O.C. and Chkheidze. Thetrouble, however, is that it was only “under pressure” (ofour criticism and the criticism of the facts) that the NasheSlovo supporters retreated from position to position; butthey have not yet said the decisive word. Unity or a splitwith the Chkheidze faction? They are still afraid to decide!No. 1 of the Bulletin of the Bund Committee Abroad(September 1916) contains a letter from Petrograd datedFebruary 26, 1916. It is a valuable document and fully confirmsour view. Its author declares unequivocally that thereis “a definite crisis in the Menshevik camp itself”, and whatis particularly characteristic, he says nothing about theMensheviks opposed to participation in the war industriescommittees! He has not seen or heard of them in Russia!Three out of the five members of the Chkheidze faction,he writes, are opposed to the “defencist position” (like theO.C.) and two are in favour of it.