sheviks were beaten in July, 1917; over 15,000 German Communists were killed by means of the clever provocation and the artful maneuvers of Scheidemann and Noske, working with the bourgeoisie and monarchist generals; White Terror is raging in Finland and Hungary. But in all cases and in all countries Communism grows and is hardened; its roots are so deep that persecution neither weakens nor debilitates, but rather strengthens it. Only one thing more is needed to lead us surely and firmly to victory, namely, the consciousness everywhere that all Communists, in all countries, must display a maximum flexibility in their tactics. The only thing wanting to Communism, which is splendidly advancing, especially in the advanced countries, is this consciousness and the skill of applying it in practice.
That which has happened to Kautsky, Otto Bauer and others, highly erudite Marxists, devoted to Socialism, and leaders of the Second International, could and ought to serve as a useful lesson. They fully appreciated the necessity of pliable tactics, they learned and taught to others the Marxist dialectics—and much of what they have done in that respect will remain for ever a valuable acquisition to Socialist literature. But in the application of these dialectics they made a great mistake; they showed themselves in practice to be so undialectic, and so incapable of reckoning with the rapid changes of forms and the rapid filling of old forms with new contents, that their fate is not much more enviable than that of Hyndman, Guesde and Plekhanoff. The main reason for their bankruptcy was that their eyes were "fastened" upon one fixed form of the growth of the working-class movement and of Socialism. They forgot all about its one-sidedness, and were afraid to perceive the sharp break which, by virtue of objective conditions, became unavoidable; so they continue to repeat the simple, at first glance self-evident truth, once learned by rote; "Three are more than two." But politics resembles algebra more than arithmetic, and it is more like higher than lower mathematics. In reality all the old forms of the Socialist movement have been filled with new contents; there appears before the figures, consequently, a new sign, a "minus"; and our wiseacres stubbornly continue to persuade themselves and others that "minus three" is more than "minus two!"
