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

the Duma who took advantage of a majority of one to suppressthe Marxists who were in the minority. Leninpointed out that although the seven liquidationists constitutedthe majority, they could not possibly represent theunited will, united resolutions, united tactics of the majorityof the advanced and conscious Russian workers whowere organized in a Marxist way, and that therefore allshouts about unity were sheer hypocrisy. “The seven non-Party men want to swallow the six Marxists; and theydemand that this should be called ‘unity’.” 1 He continuedthat it was precisely these six Marxists in the Party fractionin the Duma who were acting in accordance with thewill of the majority of the proletariat, and that unity couldbe preserved only if those seven delegates “abandon theirsteam-roller tactics”. 2The delegation of the CPC continued that Lenin’s wordsshow:. . . that even within a Party group the majority is notalways correct, that on the contrary sometimes the majorityhave to “renounce the policy of suppression” if unity isto be preserved, and this is particularly the case whererelations among fraternal Parties are concerned. Thecomrades of the Central Committee of the CPSU rashlyquoted a passage from Lenin without having fully graspedits meaning. Moreover, they purposely deleted an importantword. Even so, they failed in their aim!We have quoted at length from a speech of the delegationof the CPC at the 1960 Moscow Meeting in order to show thatthe absurd charge of the leaders of the CPSU that we“frustrate the will of the majority” was completely refuted by1V. I. Lenin, “The Duma ‘Seven’”, Collected Works, Eng. ed., FLPH,Moscow, 1963, Vol. XIX, p. 450.2V. I. Lenin, “Material on the Conflict Within the Social-DemocraticDuma Group”, Collected Works, Eng. ed., FLPH, Moscow, 1963, Vol.XIX, p. 470.339