An Appeal to the Communist International and Its Sympathising Proletariat - The International Group of Communists

An Appeal.
To the Communist International and Its Sympathising Proletariat.

The Workers' Group of the Communist Party of Russia1 consists exclusively of those who work, not as officials in the soviets, trade unions, and party organs, but in the factories and workshops.

It was formed in March, 1923. The ruling faction of the Russian Communist Party, though it now permits the bourgeois press to exist in Russia, does not allow the Workers' Group a legal existence. From the first, therefore, the group has been obliged to work underground as an illegal body. Nevertheless it increased in numbers and strength.

Like the Berlin "Opposition" of the Communist Party of Germany [KPD] and the Communist Workers' Parties (4th International)2 the Workers' Group of Russia opposed the united front with the right or reformist parties.

The Workers' Group further demanded free speech and free press for the Russian workers. It endeavours to gain more power for the soviets, the workers' councils in factories, etc., so that the soviets may manage the industries and services. The Workers' Group has nothing in common with the so-called "Workers' Truth," which attempts to wipe out everything that was communist in the revolution of October, 1917, and is, therefore, completely Menshevist.

The central committee of the Russian Communist Party misrepresents the position of the Workers' Group from fear of its influence and even lies about it. The government persecution of the Workers' Group is kept as secret as possible, not only internationally, but in Russia itself. It is largely hidden, even from the representatives of the foreign communist parties who sit on the central executive of the Third International in Moscow. More arrests of members of the Workers' Group take place, followed by imprisonments, transportation to Siberian prisons, exile, and hunger strikes by the prisoners. Those who are suspected even of sympathy with the Workers' Group are banished from Moscow. Comrades Myasnikov, Kusnetzov and Prostatnov are amongst those imprisoned in Siberia.

This policy of the Russian Communist Party is destructive of the proletarian international. . . .3 Never can the proletarian communists pardon the oppression of the communist Workers' Group. . . . We believe that the communist parties adhering to the Third International, on reading the manifesto of the Workers' Group, will judge for themselves whether the central committee of the Russian Communist Party acted rightly in following this oppressive policy and whether it does not thereby increase the difficulty of out fight against the "socialist" traitors [i.e. the social democrats].

We urge you, communists of all countries, to compel your ruling comrades in Moscow to liberate the working class communist prisoners in Russia.

Quick to the rescue, comrades!

The International Group of Communists:

Moskovskiy, Russia.
Vasilev, Russia.
L. Bersyn, Lettland [Latvia].
Berger, Czecho Slovakia.
Alla Akbar, India.
M. Safar, Afghanistan.
A. Lepin, Lettonia [Latvia].
Puhringer, Germany, Berlin.
E. Kasakova, Russia.
Bratzky, Poland.
Hartz, Germany, Hamburg.
K Steinbrecher, Germany, Hamburg.
E. Lauterback, Germany, Hamburg.
Achmed Halljev, Tartar Republic.

The following information is attached to this appeal:

According to the Soviet constitution members of the soviets can only be arrested after a resolution sanctioning the arrest is passed by the soviets. Yet Demidor and Bersina, members of the Moscow soviets, were quickly thrown into prison without notice.

Many communists are imprisoned without trial. A. Medwedyev was imprisoned, without trial or charge, and held for 21 days. A seven days hunger strike procured his freedom.

The old Bolshevik, G. Myasnikov, an influential and much beloved worker communist, was imprisoned in Perm and shots were fired into his cell. The shots missed him and he was released.4 He returned without bitterness to his work. He continued criticising the Russian Communist Party, the Third International, and the Soviet government, and making suggestions for their improvement. He was thrown, therefore, into the Siberian prison of Tomsk, and his wife, with her two young children, one a baby, was exiled to Siberia. Comrades Kuznetzov, Prostatov, and many others were also imprisoned in Siberia. The wife of Kuznetzov, with her two babies, one only two months old, was ordered to Barnaul and Mrs. Prostatova with her two children was sent to Semipalatinsk.

To judge what these things mean comrades should study the map of Russia.

———

The Russian Workers' Group add the following appeal:

"If we can force bourgeois governments to release comrades of the struggle, surely we can demand their release a hundred times more from the Soviet government. By organising demands for the release by the international working class, and through pressure upon the representatives of the Third International and Soviet government in all countries, we must secure the release of the worker revolutionaries of Russia, our brothers in spirit, from the clutches of those leaders of Soviet Russia who have become megalomaniacs and are struck with blindness.

"In all your meetings, comrades, pass resolutions for the immediate release of Myasnikov, Kuznetzov, Prostatov, Remidov, Bersina, and the many other revolutionary victims. Demand from the C.P. of Russia and the Third International an immediate cessation of repressive measures against the revolutionary proletarians of the Workers' Group.

"The Russian statesmen see no danger in liberating and amnestying bourgeois bandits, fathers of the Church, counter-revolutionary generals, who are in league with world capitalism. We must insist that they free also the hundreds of comrades who fight with all their energy and hearts to maintain the achievements of the October Revolution. Among these we must mention comrades Svorin, Ochnov, Tiyanov, Ilyin, Michailov, Moisseiv [and] Polossov.

"Only by means of international proletarian solidarity can we free the communist prisoners who think as we do from the uncommunist revenge directed against them.

"Comrades, communists and sympathisers, let us unitedly demand from the Russian C.P., the Third International, and the Soviet government:

"HANDS OFF THE CONSTRUCTIVE COMMUNIST WORKERS!"

Note: spelling and punctuation have been slightly modified. Text taken from the Vol. 11 No. 11 issue of the Workers' Dreadnought (31 May 1924).

• 1Despite being expelled from the Russian Communist Party in February 1922, Miasnikov called his opposition group the Workers' Group of the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik), highlighting how Miasnikov was interested in correcting the repressive errors of the Russian Communist Party rather than overthrowing them completely; in other words, the Workers' Group had constructive rather than destructive intentions.—adri
• 2This part was in reference to the various Workers' Parties that affiliated with the left-communist Communist Workers' International, which was also called the Fourth International (not to be confused with the later Trotskyist one). The Fourth International was founded by the KAPD and included other parties like Pankhurst's UK-based Communist Workers' Party as affiliates.—adri
• 3Pankhurst seems to have omitted parts of the appeal here and in subsequent places.—adri
• 4The authors were likely referring to an earlier incident following the 11th Party Congress held from March-April 1922, in which Miasnikov was arrested by the GPU and had an attempt made on his life. Miasnikov had been expelled from the RCP in February of that year. See Avrich's article in The Russian Review entitled "Bolshevik Opposition to Lenin: G. T. Miasnikov and the Workers' Group," p. 16.—adri