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The Transitional Program

A comparison between the Russian and English texts

This comparison is based on the Russian-language text as published in the Bulletin of Left Opposition (issue no.66/67, 1938) and the English-language text from the 1974 Pathfinder edition. (Page numbers and position on the pages apply to those editions only, obviously).

The Russian text is not included here, but replaced instead by an English-language translation in parentheses. (Please keep in mind that English is not my first language).

Where text is simply missing from one language or the other, this is indicated in square brackets.

 

RUSSIAN

ENGLISH

Title, page 1: (Agony)

(page 72) Death Agony

Subtitle, page 1: (The mobilisation of the masses on the basis of transitional demands as preparation to the seizure of power)

[missing from this text]

Heading, bottom of page 1 (Action program, proposed to the attention of the sections of the F.I. by the International Secretariat)

[missing from this text]

Page 1, 2nd column [missing from this text]

(page 72, 4 lines from bottom) political perplexity

Page 3, at the top ... (When the bourgeoisie with the right hand takes back every time twice as much as it gave with the left (taxes, custom duties, inflation, “deflation”, high prices, unemployment, police control of strikes etc.)

page 75, end 2nd para (five lines of text missing, between the words “living standards” and “when every serious demand”)

page 8, 2nd column, 13 lines from bottom (They make an exception only for the fascist countries, i.e. those in which they don't play any role)

page 88, 5 lines from bottom: (2 lines of text missing)

page 9, end column one: (In the pacifism and even patriotism of the oppressed there is a progressive kernel, on which it is necessary to seize upon in order to draw the requisite conclusions. It is necessary to counterpose against each other this two aspects of pacifism and patriotism)

page 90, end 1st para (text is different) In the pacifism and even patriotism of the oppressed there are elements which reflect on the one hand a hatred of destructive war, and on the other a clinging to what they believe to be their own good elements which we must know how to seize upon in order to draw the requisite conclusions.

page 10, col.1, last line (agitation in favor of the workers’ state and of the colonial country (...)

page 92, mid page: (text is different) agitation (...) in favor of a workers' state in a colonial country (...)

Page 13,2nd column, 3rd para (in Italy)

Page 100, 3rd line from top: in Spain [this is internally contradictory, as can be seen from the next para, which says: “... in Italy and Germany.”

Page 14, last para col.: [missing sentence]

Page 101, mid page: (after the words “democratic slogans”, the English continues with: “as a means of mobilizing the masses against fascism.“

Page 14, subhead 2nd column: (The situation of the USSR and the tasks of the transitional epoch)

Page 102, subhead: (The USSR and problems of the transitional epoch

Page 16, end 1st column: [The organizers of the forgeries must bear the punishment they deserve. It is impossible to put this program into practice without overthrowing the bureaucracy, which maintains itself through violence and forgery]

Page 106 [Five lines of text missing]

Page 16, last para 2nd col.: – the same again: Page 17, 1st line 1st col.: (“of new words”)

Page 107, at the top: – the same again: Page 107, end 1st para.: of “new ways”

Page 17 last para before subhead (to base oneself on the logic)

Page 108 (to base one's program on the logic)

Page 18, 2nd col. after subhead: (But has the moment for the creation of a new International yet arrived?)

Page 111, after subhead: But has the moment for the creation of the Fourth International yet arrived?”

Page 18, 5 lines from end: (in general)

Page 111, 2nd line from end: of the world

 


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