LENIN ON ORGANIZATION
accompanied by anarchistic actions which must
lead to a split in the Party.
Such in fact was the case in the present instance.
The comparatively slight difference of opinion over
par. 1 has assumed tremendous importance simply
because it serves as the starting point for oppor-
tunist profundity and anarchist phrase-mongering
on the part of the minority (especially as expressed
at the league (18) congress and in the pages of
the new “Iskra”). It was this difference which
laid the basis for the coalition of the “Iskra’ minor-
ity and the anti-Iskrists and for that marsh which
finally assumed definite shape during the elections
and without an understanding of which it is impos-
sible to grasp the chief and fundamental differences
which are over the question of the composition of
the centres. The small error of Martov and Axel-
rod in regard to par. 1 was a little crack in our
vessel (as I expressed myself at the League Con-
gress). The vessel might have been bound together
with a tight noose (and not with a death noose, as
Martov, who during the League Congress was in
a state bordering on hysteria, understood me to
have said). All our efforts might have been directed
towards making the crack wider and breaking the
vessel, and, thanks to the boycott and similar anar-
chist actions on the part of the zealous Martovites,
this was what actually happened. The difference
over par. 1 played no small part in the question
of the centres, and the defeat of Martov on this
latter point led him to engage in “a struggle over
129