bourgeois party, a party of imperialist war, and after the October Revolution, an avowedly counter-revolutionary party against the Proletarian Dictatorship. You surely know that the Social-Democrats in our country have participated in the civil war on Koltchak's and Denikin's side against the Soviet Government. At the present time this party is a party of capitalist restoration, a party which stands for the liquidation of the Proletarian Dictatorship. I think that this development of Social-Democracy is typical not only of the USSR but also of the other countries. In our country Social-Democracy was more or less revolutionary so long as Tsarism existed. This, as a matter of fact, explains the circumstance that we Bolsheviks were then together with the Mensheviks, with the Social-Democrats in one party. Social-Democracy becomes an opposition or government and bourgeois party when the so-called democratic bourgeoisie comes into power. It becomes a party of avowed counter-revolution when the revolutionary proletariat seized power.
Interjection by a delegate. Does this mean that Social Democracy is a counter-revolutionary force only here in the Soviet Union, or can it be classified as a counter-revolutionary force also in other countries?
STALIN: I have already stated that, in this respect, there is a certain difference. In the country of Proletarian Dictatorship Social-Democracy is a counter-revolutionary force fighting for the restoration of capitalism and the liquidation of the Proletarian Dictatorship in the name of the "bourgeois" democracy. In the capitalist countries, where the proletariat is not yet in power, the Social-Democrats constitute either an opposition party or a semi-governmental party in coalition with the liberal-bourgeoisie against the most reactionary forces of capitalism, or a thoroughly governmental party openly and avowedly defending capitalism and "bourgeois" democracy, against the revolutionary movement of the proletariat. Social-Democracy becomes openly counter-revolutionary, and its counter-revolutionary action is directed
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