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Kautsky was in their way, and they endeavoured to remove him from the scene during the critical period. A short time before the congress at Halle, Hilferding, the "pupil and friend" of Karl Kautsky, purposely mentioned in his paper that Karl Kautsky proposed to transfer his residence to Vienna, hinting that the question of Kautsky's position in the Independent Party has become of lesser importance. Vienna, however, is not far enough from Germany. The "ingenious" pupils of Kautsky came to the conclusion that the old man must be removed farther, for the time being at any rate, and they accordingly despatched him to Tiflis to pay a call on Mr Noah Jordania, the hangman of the Georgian workers.
Being as we are, opponents of the Right Independents, we should not think of regarding this attempt on the part of Hilferding and Co., to establish the "alibi" of Kautsky, as anything else but a trick. We put the question categorically. We reminded them of the numerous pamphlets of Karl Kautsky, in which he extolled the notorious idea of "pure" democracy, in which he threw dirt at the Russian workers and the Russian Workers' Revolution. We reminded them of the commonly known fact that the pamphlets of Karl Kautsky were printed as leading articles in the White Guard press of the Tsarist generals, who were fighting against the Soviet Government. We criticised all the counter-revolutionary tendencies of Karl Kautsky.
It is most interesting to note the reply of the honourable pupils of Karl Kautsky. It is so characteristic of the Right Independents that we shall refer to it on more than one occasion. All the theoretical learning displayed at Halle by Dittmann, Crispien, and Hilferding was borrowed from the pamphlets of Kautsky. Among the so-called ideas of Hilferding, Dittman, Crispien and Co. we can hardly detect a particle that is not borrowed from Kautsky. With regard to ideas they owe everything to Kautsky. None of them, however, dared to own Kautsky as their leader in the presence of the workers' delegates. To all the questions on their attitude to Kautsky no one was able to declare a straight "Yes" or "No." Individual hotheads from the Right benches shouted that they had nothing to do with Kautsky, that Kautsky had no influence on their
