Page:Grigory Zinoviev - Twelve Days in Germany (1921).pdf/34

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lished on the front page in heavy type the manifesto of the Armenian so-called "Labour Party" addressed to the Second International, i.e., to the so-called International Socialist Bureau. In this manifesto the Armenian Scheidemannists, in the name of Armenian "democracy," begged the Second International to protect them from the wicked Bolsheviks, who were alleged to be preparing an attack against the Armenian nation. There is not the slightest doubt that M. Hilferding knows quite well the present role of the so-called Armenian "democracy!" He is well aware that the present bourgeois Armenian government is simply a pawn in the hands of the Allies, that it served as a store agent for munitions for Wrangel, etc. He must have known that the so-called Labour Party of Armenia is a branch of international Scheidemannism. If, in spite of all that, Hilferding chose to print the manifestoes of this Armenian pseudo-Labour Party, it is precisely because the "Freiheit" has become a disreputable anti-Bolshevik rag. All the Right Independents at the Halle Congress were most anxious to make capital out of the question of "upper ranks and lower ranks," which has lately become the question of the day in our party. Martov brought to Halle the Moscow papers, with detailed reports of the discussions at our last All-Russian Party Conference, and articles on this question. Hilferding's paper immediately republished this material, throwing out, of course, everything it deemed unsuitable, and distorting the real meaning. Dittmann "himself" undertook the task of "explaining" that material at public meetings. He quoted with great satisfaction and gusto the articles by Comrade Preobrajensky, published in "Pravda" on the eve of our last All-Russia Party Conference. Dittmann recited with even greater pleasure extracts from my report at our party conference, in which I spoke of some of the dark sides of our party life, and pointed out the prevailing inequalities, etc. Having embellished it all with his own eloquence, Dittmann concluded triumphantly: "Is it not clear to everyone that this means the utter failure of the Bolshevik Party, a complete failure of the idea of centralism?"

I fully analysed this circumstance in my speech. Dittmann's game was soon turned against him. I acknowledged that their were some faults to be found in our party. We are suffering