argument could be reinforced by appeal to the German example and to German theories, notably those of Engels.
The duma elections necessitated a revision of opinions concerning the essential nature of mass organisation, and disclosed the inadequacy of the method of secret organisation. During the close of the nineties, vigorous discussions were in progress concerning kružkovščina.[1] Subterranean secret societies and conspiracies, and the Machiavellianism and Jesuitism apt to be associated with such activities, are in fact essentially undemocratic. Publicity is the precise converse of aristocracy and aristocratic absolutism.
In the disputes between the majority and the minority this question played a considerable part. Lenin protested against conspiracies, but Lenin's adversaries accused him of being himself a conspirator, and declared that there was an aristocratic taint about the central committee of professional revolutionaries advocated by this leader of the majority. The social democratic party was in actual fact led by a central committee which acted in association with local committees. To a predominant extent the leaders of the party were intellectuals and this gave the social democratic organisation the character of an undemocratic and aristocratic secret society. In this connection, we have, of course, to bear in mind the nature of Russian conditions, which rendered it impossible to constitute a comprehensive united organisation such as exists in European lands, for in Russia there are obstacles to the union and association of the workers such as do not exist to the same degree in Europe. Owing to the defective development of means of communication, a comprehensive and elastic union of the masses is hard to secure. The industrial centres are widely separated; the towns are smaller and less populous than in Europe; there are fewer operatives, and the proportion of those who have had some political culture is much smaller. Further difficulties are imposed by the repressive policy of the government, which refuses to permit the radical parties to organise on laivful lines. Last of all (and the importance of this factor must not be underestimated), owing to the widespread illiteracy of Russian operatives they are far more de-
- ↑ Kružkovščina is derived from kružok, a small circle of persons, and denotes the pettifogging activities of such a circle. It is frequently applied by Marxists to the revolutionaries. Many terrorists have spoken adversely of kružkovščina, Tkačev being especially adverse.
