Preface

At a revolutionary moment it is very hard to keep up with events, which provide an astonishing amount of new material for assessing the tactical slogans of the revolutionary parties. The present pamphlet was written before the Odessa events. We have already pointed out in Proletary (No. 9, “The Revolution Teaches”) that these events have forced even those Social-Democrats who created the theory of insurrection as a process, and who rejected propaganda for a provisional revolutionary government, to go over, or to begin to go over, in fact to the side of their opponents. The revolution teaches, undoubtedly, with a speed and a thoroughness that seem incredible in peaceful epochs of political development. And, what is especially important, it teaches not only the leaders but the masses.

There can be no doubt whatever that the revolution will teach Social-Democracy to the working masses in Russia. The revolution will confirm the programme and tactics of Social-Democracy in practice, showing the true nature of the different classes of society, showing the bourgeois character of our democracy and the real aspirations of the peasantry, which is revolutionary in a bourgeois-democratic spirit but carries within itself not the idea of “socialisation” but a new class struggle between the peasant bourgeoisie and the rural proletariat. The old illusions of the old Narodism, which show through so plainly, for example, in the draft programme of the “Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries”, in the question of the development of capitalism in Russia, in the question of the democratic character of our “society”, and in the question of the significance of a complete victory of a peasant uprising, all these illusions will be mercilessly and finally dispelled by the revolution. It will give the various classes their first real political baptism. These classes will emerge from the revolution with a definite political physiognomy, having shown themselves not only in the programmes and tactical slogans of their ideologists but in the open political action of the masses.

Undoubtedly the revolution will teach us, will teach the masses of the people. But the question for a fighting political party now is this: shall we be able to teach the revolution anything? Shall we be able to use the correctness of our Social-Democratic doctrine, and our connection with the only thoroughly revolutionary class, the proletariat, to put a proletarian stamp on the revolution, to carry the revolution to a real and decisive victory in deed and not in word, and to paralyse the instability, half-heartedness and treachery of the democratic bourgeoisie?

It is to this aim that we must direct all our efforts. And achieving it depends, on the one hand, on the correctness of our assessment of the political situation and of our tactical slogans, and on the other hand on these slogans being backed by the real fighting strength of the working masses. All the ordinary, regular, current work of all the organisations and groups of our party, the work of propaganda, agitation and organisation, is directed towards strengthening and extending our ties with the masses. This work is always necessary, but at a revolutionary moment it can less than ever be considered sufficient. At such a moment the working class instinctively strains towards open revolutionary action, and we must know how to set the tasks of this action correctly, so as then to spread acquaintance with these tasks, and understanding of them, as widely as possible. We must not forget that the current pessimism about our ties with the masses now very often covers bourgeois ideas about the role of the proletariat in the revolution. No doubt we still have a great deal of work to do in educating and organising the working class; but the whole question now is where the main political centre of gravity of this education and this organisation should lie. In the trade unions and legal societies, or in the armed uprising, in the work of creating a revolutionary army and a revolutionary government? The working class is educated and organised by both. Both, of course, are necessary. But the whole question now, in the present revolution, comes down to this: where will the centre of gravity of the education and organisation of the working class lie, in the first or in the second?

The outcome of the revolution depends on whether the working class plays the part of an auxiliary of the bourgeoisie, mighty in the force of its onslaught on the autocracy but politically powerless, or the part of leader of the people’s revolution. The class-conscious representatives of the bourgeoisie sense this perfectly well. That is precisely why Osvobozhdenie praises Akimovism, the “Economism” in Social-Democracy that now puts the trade unions and legal societies in the forefront. That is why Mr. Struve welcomes (in No. 72 of Osvobozhdenie) the Akimovist tendencies of principle in new-Iskrism. That is why he falls upon the hateful revolutionary narrowness of the decisions of the Third Congress of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party.

Correct tactical slogans of Social-Democracy are now of especially great importance for the leadership of the masses. Nothing is more dangerous in a revolutionary period than to belittle the importance of tactical slogans that are consistent in principle. Iskra in No. 104, for example, in fact goes over to the side of its opponents in Social-Democracy, but at the same time speaks disparagingly of the importance of slogans and tactical decisions that run ahead of life and point out the path along which the movement is going, with a series of failures, mistakes and so on. On the contrary, working out correct tactical decisions is of enormous importance for a party that wishes to lead the proletariat in the spirit of the consistent principles of Marxism, and not merely to trail in the tail of events. In the resolutions of the Third Congress of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party and of the Conference of the section of the party that has split away we have the most precise, the most carefully considered and the most complete expression of tactical views, views not stated by chance by individual writers but adopted by responsible representatives of the Social-Democratic proletariat. Our party is ahead of all the others in having a precise programme accepted by all. It must set the other parties an example in its strict attitude to its tactical resolutions too, as against the opportunism of the democratic bourgeoisie of Osvobozhdenie and the revolutionary phrase-mongering of the Socialist-Revolutionaries, who only during the revolution bethought themselves to come forward with a “draft” programme and to take up for the first time the question of whether it is a bourgeois revolution that is taking place before their eyes.

That is why we consider it the most urgent task of revolutionary Social-Democracy to study carefully the tactical resolutions of the Third Congress of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party and of the Conference, to determine where they deviate from the principles of Marxism, and to get a clear idea of the concrete tasks of the Social-Democratic proletariat in the democratic revolution. The present pamphlet is devoted to this work. Testing our tactics from the standpoint of the principles of Marxism and of the lessons of the revolution is necessary, moreover, for anyone who wishes really to prepare unity of tactics as the basis for the future complete unification of the whole Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party, and not to confine himself to words of exhortation.