Page:Lenin - The Collapse of the Second International - tr. Sirnis (1919).pdf/51

 of the proletariat, numerically not large, with the lower middle class, both benefiting by the crumbs which fall from the privileges enjoyed by "their" national capital, in opposition to the mass of proletarians who labour and who are generally oppressed. (2) The ideological and political contents of both currents are the same. (3) Taken as a whole, the old division of Socialists into opportunists and revolutionaries—as was the case during the existence of the Second International (1889–1914)—corresponds to the new division into Jingoes and Internationalists.

To become convinced of the truth of the last proposition we must remember the rule that the science of Sociology (as Science in general) is concerned with mass phenomena, and not with individual cases. Take the following ten European countries: Germany, England, Russia, Italy, Holland, Sweden, Bulgaria, Switzerland, France and Belgium. In the First eight countries the new division of Socialists (according to internationalism) corresponds to the old (according to opportunism): in Germany the monthly Sozialistische Monatshefte, a stronghold of opportunism, has become a stronghold of Chauvinism. The idea of internationalism is supported by those of the extreme Left. In the British Socialist Party in England the internationalists comprise about 3–7 (66 voted for an internationalist resolution and 84 against, according to the latest account). whereas in the opportunist block (the Labour Party plus the Fabian Society and the Independent Labour Party) the internationalists comprise less than 1–7. In Russia the revisionist "Nasha