1. Vil. an observant liberal. tr. 1904

AN OBSERVANT LIBERAL.

Preface


Although a service is dear to us in times of need,
But not everyone knows how to undertake it.
God forbid one should get involved with Struve.
An obliging Struve is more dangerous than an enemy!



In the latest issue (No. 57) of "Osvobozhdenie," Mr. Struve published the following instructive lines:
"The process of stratification within the so-called Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party has entered a new phase."

The extreme centralists ("Leninists," "hardliners," "Bolsheviks") are beginning to lose ground, while the position of their opponents is becoming stronger and stronger - at least in the foreign "colonies." The "Mensheviks" («Martovites») are gaining the upper hand almost everywhere, seizing more and more party organs, while groups and individuals are breaking away from the "Bolsheviks" who, although they do not finally accept the "platform" of the minority, are also unwilling to fight against the latter and are striving to establish peace in the party, which is still in turmoil. "Reconciliators" appear on the scene, wanting to put an end to the obscene (пер. «непристойный, неприличный») mess (пер. «беспорядок») in which people have ceased to understand not only others, but also themselves. The emergence of these "conciliators" forces the irreconcilable centralists to come forward with "the publication of social democratic party literature dedicated to the defense of the principled position of the majority of the second party congress."
(Statements by V. Bonch-Bruevich and N. Lenin.)
We have before us three products of this new publishing house: 1) Towards the Party. Geneva, 1904. Page 16. Price 20 cents, 15 pence. 2) Galerka. Down with Bonapartism! Geneva, 1904. Page 23. Price 25 cents, 20 pence. 3) Galerka and the Private. Our Misunderstandings. Geneva, 1904. Price 50 cents, 40 pence.
The main content of these three pamphlets (пер. «брошюры») consists in a critical examination of some of the truly not entirely blameless methods of the "Menshevik" struggle against the "majority" and in defending the thesis that the convening of a third congress to resolve party frictions is not only possible but necessary. While formally, from the point of view of party loyalty, standing on a more solid position, the "Bolsheviks" are inferior (пер. в значении «уступать») to their opponents in essence.

In fact, the latter are now defending something more vital and effective than the "Bolsheviks." Unfortunately, this defense is not entirely correct, often reaching the point of outright (пер. «явного») indecency (пер. «неприличия») in its choice of means.