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Polemic on General Line of International ... - From Marx to Mao

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Like other parties <strong>of</strong> the Sec<strong>on</strong>d Internati<strong>on</strong>al the RussianSocial-Democratic Labour Party had a revoluti<strong>on</strong>ary as wellas an opportunist group. The Bolsheviks led by Lenin c<strong>on</strong>stitutedthe former and the Mensheviks the latter.The Bolsheviks led by Lenin c<strong>on</strong>ducted prol<strong>on</strong>ged theoreticaland political struggles against the Mensheviks in order<strong>to</strong> safeguard the unity <strong>of</strong> the proletarian party and the purity<strong>of</strong> its ranks, and finally in 1912 expelled the Mensheviks fortheir persistence in opportunism and splitting activities.All the opportunist facti<strong>on</strong>s abused Lenin in the most viciouslanguage. They tried by every means <strong>to</strong> label him a splitter.Lining up with all the anti-Leninist facti<strong>on</strong>s and raising thebanner <strong>of</strong> “n<strong>on</strong>-facti<strong>on</strong>alism”, Trotsky want<strong>on</strong>ly attacked theBolshevik Party and Lenin, whom he called a “usurper” and“splitter”. Lenin replied that Trotsky, who paraded as “n<strong>on</strong>facti<strong>on</strong>al”,was “a representative <strong>of</strong> the ‘worst remnants <strong>of</strong>facti<strong>on</strong>alism’ ” 1 and “the worst splitters”. 2Lenin put it clearly, “Unity is a great thing and a greatslogan. But what the workers’ cause needs is the unity <strong>of</strong><strong>Marx</strong>ists, not unity between <strong>Marx</strong>ists, and opp<strong>on</strong>ents and dis<strong>to</strong>rters<strong>of</strong> <strong>Marx</strong>ism.” 3Lenin’s struggle against the Mensheviks was <strong>of</strong> great internati<strong>on</strong>alsignificance, for Menshevism was a Russian form andvariant <strong>of</strong> the revisi<strong>on</strong>ism <strong>of</strong> the Sec<strong>on</strong>d Internati<strong>on</strong>al andwas supported by the revisi<strong>on</strong>ist leaders <strong>of</strong> the Sec<strong>on</strong>d Internati<strong>on</strong>al.While combating the Mensheviks, Lenin also waged a series<strong>of</strong> struggles against the revisi<strong>on</strong>ism <strong>of</strong> the Sec<strong>on</strong>d Internati<strong>on</strong>al.Before World War I, Lenin criticized the revisi<strong>on</strong>ists <strong>of</strong> theSec<strong>on</strong>d Internati<strong>on</strong>al <strong>on</strong> the theoretical and political plane1V. I. Lenin, “Disrupti<strong>on</strong> <strong>of</strong> Unity Under Cover <strong>of</strong> Outcries for Unity”,Selected Works, Eng. ed., FLPH, Moscow, 1952, Vol. I, Part 2, p. 251.2V. I. Lenin, “The Break-up <strong>of</strong> the ‘August’ Bloc”, Collected Works,Eng. ed., Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1964, Vol. XX, p. 161.3V. I. Lenin, “Unity”, Collected Works, Eng. ed., Progress Publishers,Moscow, 1964, Vol. XX, p. 232.311

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