LENIN ON ORGANIZATION
rade Akimov frankly declared that he regarded
“their aim (i. e. Plekhanov’s, Martov’s and mine,
namely, to create a controlling organization of
revolutionaries) as unrealizable and dangerous”;
he sticks, as does Comrade Martynov* to the idea
of the economists that an “organization of revolu-
tionaries” is unnecessary. He is “full of the belief
that life will penetrate into our Party, whether we
bar its way by Martov’s formula or by Lenin’s for-
mula.” There would be no need to dwell upon
this “khvostist” conception of “life” if it were not
shared by Comrade Martov. The second speech
of Comrade Martov is as a whole so interesting
that it is worth a detailed analysis.
Comrade Martov’s first argument is that the con-
trol of the Party over members who do not belong
to Party organizations “is possible, in as much as
the committee, having entrusted a certain function
to a certain person, is able to supervise its execu-
* Comrade Martynov, it should be said, wants to dissociate
himself from Comrade Akimov; he wants to show that con-
spiracy (here the Russian word for conspiracy is used by
Lenin.—Trans.) does not mean conspiracy (Lenin here uses
the word of Latin origin.—Trans.), that the difference in
these words conceals a difference of meaning. What that
meaning is, neither Comrade Martynov, nor Comrade Axel-
rod, who is following in his footsteps, has explained. Comrade
Martynov “pretends” that in “What is to he Done?” (as also
in the “Tasks”) I did not definitely declare myself opposed
to “narrowing down the political struggle to a conspiracy.”
Comrade Martynov wants to make his hearers forget that
those whom I fought had failed to see the necessity for an
organization of revolutionaries, as Comrade Akimov fails to
see it now.
147