Although Kautsky’s position is to the right of the Centre, we choose him as an example rather than another because his theory is typical of the centrist outlook.
The chief characteristic of centrist policy is the way in which it wobbles between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The Centre is unsteady on its legs; wants to reconcile irreconcilables; and at the critical moment betrays the proletariat. During the Russian November revolution, the Russian Centre (Martov & Co.) vociferated against the use of force by the bolsheviks; it endeavoured to “reconcile” everybody, thus actually helping the White Guards, and reducing the energy of the proletariat in the hour of struggle. The mensheviks did not even exclude from their party those who had acted as spies and plotters for the military caste. In the crisis of the proletarian struggle, the Centre advocated a strike in the name of the Constituent Assembly against the dictatorship of the proletariat. During Kolchak’s onslaught, some of these mensheviks, solidarising themselves with the bourgeois plotters, raised the slogan, “Stop the civil war” (the