Postscript to the Article “The Debate on the Extension of the Duma’s Budgetary Powers”

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At the present time the Duma has started discussing the budget. The bloc of reactionaries with the betrayers of the people’s freedom forming the pseudo-opposition showed its face during the very first day of the debates. We find the same picture in the legal press—the Novoye Vremya people hail the unity of all, except the “Left fanatics” (read: the Social-Democrats and the Trudoviks...). Nasha Gazeta[1] of the “Bezgolovy” fraternity goes into ecstasies. It was a “business” day that “made up” for “the drawback of having the budget scrutinised by separate estimates”....

The “opposition” trails in the wake of overt reaction. It is just here that responsibility and the honourable role of true representatives of the plundered people devolves upon the deputies of the working class and democracy. Unfortunately, the first budgetary speeches of our Duma comrades are very lame and deeply mistaken. In the next issue of Proletary we shall deal in detail with these mistakes and indicate what we believe to be the necessary line of action for Social-Democrats in the budgetary debates and voting.[2]

  1. Nasha Gazeta (Our Newspaper)—a newspaper of a semi-Cadet trend, published in St. Petersburg from 1904 to 1908.
  2. Proletary (The Proletarian), No. 29, April 16 (29), 1908, published a letter of the Central Committee of the RSDLP to the local organisations concerning the work of the Social-Democratic deputies in the Duma.