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 
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