Page:The Proletarian Revolution in Russia - Lenin, Trotsky and Chicherin - ed. Louis C. Fraina (1918).djvu/86

 pecting sympathy and support.

"The crowning act in this shameless campaign is the decision of the French parliamentary group of the Socialist Party to send three of its members, E. Lafont, M. Moutet and Marcel Cachin, to Russia to influence the Russian proletariat along lines of national sentiment.

"The nature of this mission is amply characterized, according to newspaper reports, by the fact that it has the sanction of the Parliamentary Commission of Foreign Affairs, whose chairman is a typical representative of French plutocracy, Georges Leygues. And this mission is sanctioned without any pretense at hiding its official nature from the Russian proletariat, by the representatives of a party whose program is the Social Revolution and International Fraternity.

"It is no more than fair to mention, however, that the members Moutet and Lafont have on several occassions in the course of the war defended the interests of Russian emigration, of the Russian Volunteers and of the Russian press in France against the ruling powers. But to avoid disturbing the civil peace with the exploiting classes they, like the party majority, never once protested in Parliament or in the public press against the despicable service that the French Republic rendered to Czarism in persecuting emigration and throttling the Socialist press. Like the majority of the party, they too avoided a break with the government at any cost, whether in connection with the execution of the eleven Russian volunteers in France, or in the case of the brutal suppression with the assistance of the French authorities of the uprising of the Russian expeditionary corps in Marseilles. They did all they could to prevent the French proletariat from learning anything of these heroic deeds of the bourgeoisie, for freedom and justice, and now that they bow down to the floor before the Russian Revolution, the Russian proletariat is fully justified in reminding them that, to the very last, they were silent accessories to the uninterrupted series of misdeeds that constituted the essence of Czarism.

"As for Marcel Cachin, it may be of value to the Russian comrades to know that he has already done similar service on an officially sanctioned mission, in going to Italy to paralyze the agitation of our glorious comrades when they tried to prevent their government from forcing the Italian people into the world-wide slaughter. The presence of this French Sudekum In the delegation and the absence of adherents of the radical minority, which really represents the majority in the party, speaks volumes, but does not