Two Conferences
J. V. Stalin
July 24, 1917
Works, Vol. 3, March - October, 1917
Two conferences. Both city conferences, Petrograd conferences.
One a Menshevik conference. The other a Bolshevik conference.
The first representing 8,000 workers in all. The second representing 32,000.
The first a scene of chaos and disintegration, for it is on the point of splitting into two.
The first derives its strength from compromise with the Cadet bourgeoisie. And it is for this very reason that it is divided, for there are still honest people among the Mensheviks who refuse to follow in the wake of the bourgeoisie.
The second, on the contrary, derives its strength not from arrangements with the bourgeoisie, but from the revolutionary struggle of the workers against the capitalists and landlords.
The first believes that the "salvation of the country" lies in eradicating Bolshevism and betraying the revolution.
The second believes that it lies in sweeping away the counter-revolutionaries and their "socialist" hangers-on. They say that Bolshevism is dead and buried.
But our esteemed gravediggers are showing undue haste in burying us. We are still alive, and the bourgeoisie will have plenty of occasion to start and tremble at the sound of our voice.
On the one hand, 32,000 united Bolsheviks standing for the revolution; on the other, 8,000 disunited Menshe-viks the majority of whom have betrayed the revolution. Make your choice, comrade workers!
Rabochy i Soldat, No. 2, July 24, 1917
Notes
1. The two conferences were the Emergency Petrograd City Conference of the Bolsheviks, held July 1-3 and 16-20, 1917 (see Note 36), and the Second City Conference of the Mensheviks, held July 15-16.
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