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policy, etc. But the most "responsible" of them kept silent or tried to turn the question off with a jest.
A more blackguardly attitude to one's teacher and theoretical guardian can hardly be imagined. These men are utterly devoid of all conviction.
At the beginning of the Moscow Congress, when Dittmann and Crispien thought that our conditions for entering the Communist International would not be so rigid, and that they would be able to slip into the Third International, both of them, especially Dittmann, often renounced Kautsky in private conversations. They even subtly hinted that, if we came to terms with them, they would go as far as to expel Kautsky from the party. Their lack of principles is so great that each of them is always prepared to betray the other—provided he will thereby consolidate his own position.
There is no doubt whatever now that the Right Independents have seceded and formed a separate party; their theoretical chief will remain Kautsky, the same Karl Kautsky whom Dittmann and Crispien were only the other day prepared to sacrifice and expel from the party. It may be that owing to the great unpopularity of Karl Kautsky among the German workers, the wire-pullers of the new party will try to keep him for the time being behind the scenes, and let him out "" rarely as possible. But there is not the slightest doubt that this famous renegade will still continue to formulate the "theory" of the Right Independents.
Needless to say, the attitude towards Soviet Russia was practically the chief topic of discussion at the Halle Congress. The leaders of the Right Independents made an attempt to split the question: the attitude to Soviet Russia as a distinct question from the attitude to the Third International. The leaders of the Right Independents were ever ready to vow that they were entirely for Soviet Russia, and will "continue to support" it in the future irrespective of whether there is a split in the party or not.
The draft resolution proposed by the Right. Independents states: The Right Independents will of course continue to lend all possible aid to Soviet Russia . . . .
