struggle" mean? Is it not evident that it means the political training of the workers by revealing to them all the aspects of our despicable autocracy? And is it not clear that precisely for this work we need "allies in the ranks of the liberals and intelligentsia," who are prepared to join us in the exposure of the political attack on the Zemstvo, on the teachers, on the statisticians, on the students, etc.? Is this "cunning mechanism" so difficult to understand after all? Did not P. B. Axelrod repeat to you over and over again since 1897: "The problem of the Russian Social-Democrats acquiring direct and indirect allies from among the non-proletarian classes will be solved principally by the character of the propagandist activities conducted among the proletariat itself?" And Martynov and the other Economists continue to image that the workers must at first accumulate forces (for trade-union politics) in the economic struggle with the employers and the government, and then "go over [we suppose from trade-union "training for activity"] to Social-Democratic activity."
… In its quest, continue the Economists, Iskra "not infrequently departs from the class point-of-view, obscures class antagonisms and puts into the forefront the general discontent prevailing against the government, notwithstanding the fact that the causes and the degree of his discontent vary very considerably among the 'allies.' Such, for example, is Iskra's attitude towards the Zemstvo. …"
Iskra, it is alleged, promises those who are discontented with the government's doles to the nobility the aid of the working class, but does not say a word about the class differences among these strata of the people. If the reader will turn to the series of articles "The autocracy and the Zemstvo" [Nos. 2 and 4 of Iskra] to which, in all probability, the author of the letter refers, he will find that these articles[1] deal with the attitude of the government towards the "mild agitation of the feudal-bureaucratic Zemstvo," and towards the "independent activity of even the propertied classes." In these articles it is stated that the workers cannot look on indifferently while government is carrying on a fight against the Zemstvo, and the are called upon to give up making soft speeches, but to speak firmly and resolutely when revolutionary Social-Democracy confronts the government in all its strength. What there is in this that
- ↑ Among these articles there was one (Iskra, No. 3) especially dealing with the class antagonisms in rural districts. [See The Iskra Period, Book I, p. 101.—Ed.]
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