The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-01-10
Bolshevism or Trotskyisrn? s. 6 z.,..,


sible posts in the party and the Sow
let's" (Lenin, Collected Works, Vol
ame XVII, Page 37S)
Comrade Lenin makes no reference
whatever to a right" wing.
For myself, l endeavored more than
once before the party and before the
whole Comintern, to deal with my err
ror spoke of it, for example at the
opening of the Fourth World Congress
of the Comintern, which took place
on the fourth anniversary of October,
as follows:
ALLOW me to say word regarding
a personal matter. 1t seems to me
that l, particularly now on the fourth
anniversary of the revolution, am
called upon to say that which l am
about to say. You are aware COM
rades that five years ago l, along with
some other comrades, made a great
mistake, which, as l believe, was the
greatest mistake l have ever made in
my life. At that time / failed to es-
innate correctly the whole counter
Revolutionary nature of the menshe-
wiki. Therein lies the nature of our
mistake before October, 1917. Al
though we had fought against the
mensheviki for over ten years, never
theless, l, as well as many other
comrades, could not at the decisive
moment get rid of the idea that the
Imensheviki and Observation-Disclosures
although they were only the right
fraction and the right wing, never
theiess formed portion of the work
ing class. As a matter of fact they
were and are the left extremely
skillful, pliable and therefore especial.
ly dangerous wing of the international
bourgeoisie. I therefore believe, com
rades, that it is our duty to remind
all our comrades 4. etc."
| spoke of our error in the most
widely circulated book from my pen,
in the History of the Russian Com
munist Party" and on numerous ear
lier occasions.
To consider the writer of these lines
as beloning to the right wing" OF the
Bolsheviki, is simply absurd. The
whole of the Bolshevik party is aware
that I, working hand in hand with
Comrade Lenin in the course of near
ly 20 years, never once had even a
sharp difference OF opinion with him.
except in the one case mentioned. The
epoch OF the years 1914-1917, from the
commencement of the imperialist war
up to the commencement of the probe
tartan revolution in our country, was
la not unimportant epoch. Precisely in
these years there took place the de-
cisive regrouping in the camp of the
international labor movement. The
books Socialism and War" (1915) and
Against the Stream" are sufficient
witness that during that time l in no
way came forward as representative
OF a right wing of boIshevism.
At the April conference OF 1917, the
Importance of which Comrade II otsky
misrepresents, had not the smallest
difference OF opinion with Comrade
Lenin. In the dispute between Com
rade Trotsky on the one side and
comrades kamenev, NogIn and Rykov
on the other side, was wholly on the
side Of Comrade Lenin, as was to be
seen from a number of my reports
and speeches at the April conference.
The whole dispute was naturally con-
fined within the limits of bolshevism
las Comrade Lenin and the party
regarded it-and only under the pen
Of Comrade Trotsky does it assume
the form of a struggle of a fright
wing against the party.
Not the least differences of opinion
occurred between myself and Comrade
Lenin during and after the July days.
We had the opportunity to test this
at our leisure in the course of several
weeks as long as lived together with
Vladimir Ilyitch in hiding. The first