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    The conference of the St. Petersburg Social-Democratic organisation adopted a resolution not to enter into a bloc with the Cadets, but to propose an agreement with the Trudoviks and the Socialist-Revolutionaries. The Mensheviks made a number of protests on formal grounds and, being in a minority, walked out of the conference.

    The liberal newspapers have already made a lot of noise about this event. They predict a split in the Social-Democratic Party, and hasten to draw a number of political conclusions. In view of this it is extremely important for every class-conscious worker to understand what is really taking place in the Social-Democratic organisation in St. Petersburg and what attitude to adopt towards this.

    We propose, therefore, to examine the main questions that arise in connection with this event, namely: (1) the composition of the conference; (2) the immediate reason why the Mensheviks walked out of the conference -- the attempt of the Central Committee to divide the conference into two parts, one for the city and one for the gubernia; and (3) the significance of the whole event, especially in view of the election campaign now proceeding in St. Petersburg.

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NOTES



  ^[172] The pamphlet The Social-Democrats and the Duma Elections was printed in January 1907 by the Novaya Duma Publishers in St. Petersburg at the print-shop of the Dyelo association which simultaneously printed Lenin's pamphlet "When You Hear the Judgement of a Fool. . . ." (From the Notes of a Social-Democratic Publicist). In 1912 both pamphlets were prohibited by the government.    [p. 431]

  ^[173] Chernyshevsky, N. G. (1828-89) -- the great Russian revolutionary democrat, materialist philosopher and writer.
    Lenin is referring to Chernyshevsky's work Carey's Letters on Political Economy to the President of the United States of America.    [p. 448]

 
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  ^[174] Lidval case -- the case of E. Lidval, big businessman and speculator, and V. I. Gurko -- Deputy Minister of the Interior. With Gurko's assistance Lidval made a deal with the government to supply during October-December 1906, 10,000,000 poods of rye to the famine-stricken provinces of Russia. Lidval received a large sum of government funds from Gurko as advance payment but by mid-December 1906 had brought up to the railways less than one-tenth of the total amount of grain. The discovery of the embezzlement of government funds and speculation on the famine became common knowledge and the government was forced to bring the matter to the courts. But the case never came to trial and the only result for Gurko was that he was removed from his post. Lidval case helped to expose the anti-popular policy of the tsarist government, and to bring about the failure of the Right-wing parties in the elections to the Second State Duma.    [p. 450]

  ^[175] Lenin is referring to the tsarist government's farcical trial of the murderers of M. Y. Herzenstein, a Cadet member of the First State Duma (killed by Black-Hundred agents in Finland on July 18 (31), 1906). In spite of the fact that wide circles of the public knew who were responsible for the murder, the tsarist government did everything to prevent the murderers from being convicted. The investigation was deliberately dragged out the trial was several times postponed and finally, on April 3 (16), 1907, the case was dropped.    [p. 450]