Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 2.pdf/326

300 gained experience in political organisations, yet more in trade union and cooperative organisations, and in the numerous strikes. The workers were consequently in a position to compare detail work in the legislative field with the illegal and so-called "underground" revolutionary activities, and could form their own opinions concerning the comparative efficiency of the respective methods.

None the less, the confusion is still extensive, and its degree may be measured by the fact that Plehanov, the real leader of the men'ševiki, has left his party on the ground that it is too opportunist. But Plehanov is now writing busily, and it may be that the real motive for his withdrawal was the desire for a detachment which would enable him to continue his work in the theoretical field. In the fourth duma, six bolševiki were at feud with seven men'ševiki. The men'ševiki were subdivided into the so-called "liquidators" and the "faithful" (partiicy) who desired to maintain the party organisation. The small force of bolševiki broke up into otzovisty, Leninists, and other sections; the organs of the respective groups continuing to fight one another with notable vigour.

The fury of the reaction, the light thrown upon the government by the Azev affair, the disclosures concerning the provocative suppression of the second duma, the relationship of the tsar to the crafty rogue Rasputin, and various other matters, are an incessant demonstration to the social democracy that it is necessary for it to close its ranks and to organise a central executive committee.

HE understanding of Russian Marxism will be facilitated if we make it clear to ourselves that Marxism in Russia is faced by special philosophical and socio-political tasks, Russian socialism has a tradition of its own, and Russian history has