Page:Grigory Zinoviev - Twelve Days in Germany (1921).pdf/9

 —Org. Esch., or commonly Orgesh). These gentry also came "to meet" us. The second group of representatives of the same honourable organisation, which consisted of a few young men of an equally disagreeable type, were waiting for us on the staircase of the hotel, where we remained a couple of hours until the next train. After a few hours we were sitting in a train on the way to Berlin. Comrade Geher was so considerate as to bring with him all the papers and news of the last few days. They showed that the gulf between the "Rights" and the "Lefts" of the Independents had greatly widened, and the leaders of the "Rights" were acting basely. The German comrades, who accompanied us, were anxious about our safety. They assured us that the "Orgesh" and the "Noskeites" (that is the name given in Germany to the cut-throats of Mr Noske) would undoubtedly try to play a dirty trick on us.

For several days past no bourgeois papers appeared in Berlin, as a printers' strike was in progress. Only the Communist and the so-called "Socialist" papers appeared. "Vorwarts" and "Freiheit" met us with howls and gnashing of teeth. The same night—midnight of the 12th October—we arrived at Halle. Here we were met by Comrade Levi and some other members of the German Communist Party, as well as by the grey-haired Adolf Hoffman, Daumig, Koennen, and other leaders of the Left Wing of the Independents.

At 2 a.m. we organised a short preliminary consultation. We agree on our tactics. The main thing we are striving to achieve is to force the Right Independents to accept battle on points of principle, to force them to take part in a political discussion.

The fact is that on their return from Moscow, Crispien, Dittman and Co. immediately side-tracked the issue in Germany to the question of organisation. They were ever ready to vow that—"We stand for the Third International. There is hardly any question on which we disagree with the Third International. We only demand a greater independence for for party. We do not wish to be altogether deprived of our autonomy. We have agreed to eighteen conditions worked out in Moscow, but we object to the Bolsheviks stiffening these conditions by adding, at the last moment, three new conditions. We wish