Socialism and the Second International

Many socialist parties started behaving in revisionist ways, even if they were not explicitly revisionist in their doctrine. The left wing argued that capitalism could not be reformed step by step until it became socialism. Capitalism had to be destroyed, root and branch. They warned their comrades that they were all in grave danger of losing sight of this fundamental fact. In the context of czarist russia, there was no freedom of speech or freedom of the press or freedom of assembly. There was no parliament to legislate from.