Objections to Martynov's Amendments to the Resolution on the Attitude Towards Bourgeois Parties May 16 (29) (original) (raw)

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Objections to Martynov’s Amendments to the Resolution on the Attitude Towards Bourgeois Parties

May 16 (29)

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Martynov’s amendment is another attempt to introduce the Menshevik view that the peasants are more reactionary (or may be more reactionary) in the present revolution than the Cadets, since the Mensheviks do not say a single word about the reactionary nature of the Cadets. Martynov’s argument is all mixed up—the dualism is not due to the peasants’ wavering between revolution and reaction but to their wavering between the Cadets and the Social-Democrats. The Mensheviks will inevitably and unavoidably include their favourite idea of the reactionary nature of the confiscation of landed estates and the progressiveness of compensation in the anarchist tendencies of which Martynov speaks. “Anarchist tendencies” in the peasants is a liberal landlord phrase. As to the subjugation of the proletarian movement to the peasant movement—it is ridiculous to speak of this after having declared the reverse, and expressed it scores of times in resolutions.