LENIN ON ORGANIZATION
I should (in spiite of the fact there is no justification
for such a doubt, as I have above shown) agree
to add to my par. 1 something like the following:
“As large a number of workers’ organizations as
possible which accept the program and statutes of
the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party should
be included among the Party organizations.” Strictly
 speaking, of course, such an expression of wish
should not be embodied in the statutes, which
should be confined to legal definitions, but should
find a place in explanatory commentaries and in
pamphlets (and, as I have already said, long before
the statutes were thought of I gave such explanations
 in my pamphlets); but such a statement at
least would not contain the least shadow of an
untruth tending to lead to disorganization, nor the
least shadow of opportunist argument* or “anarchist
 conception” such as are undoubtedly to be
found in the draft of Comrade Martov.
* Among such arguments, which are bound to arise in any
attempt to justify Martov’s formula, should be particularly
noted the statement of Comrade Trotsky to the effect that
“opportunism is brought about by more complex (or, is determined
 by more profound) causes than a clause in a statute;
it is brought about by the relative level of development of
bourgeois democracy and of the proletariat.” The point is
not that a clause in a statute may give rise to opportunism,
but that out of such clauses a more of less powerful weapon
against opportunism may be forged. The more profound the
causes are the more powerful must that weapon be. Therefore,
 to cite the “profound causes” of opportunism as a justification
 of a formula which opens the door to opportunism is
“khvostism” of the crassest kind. When Comrade Trotsky
was opposed to Comrade Liber he understood that a statute
is the “organized mistrust” displayed by the whole towards

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