I do not see any weighty arguments against an invitation. The Organising Committee has taken the first step in bringing the Polish comrades closer to the Russian. By inviting them to our Congress we shall take a second step in the same direction. I do not see this producing any complications.
| Vtoroi ocherednoi syezd R.S.D.R.P. Polny tekst protokolov, Central Committee publication, Geneva, 1904 | Printed from the text of the book |
{1} The question of the representatives of the S.D.K.P. and L. attending the Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. was first raised on the initiative of the Iskra Editorial Board in a letter sent by the Organising Committee for the Convocation of the Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. to the S.D.K.P. and L. Committee Abroad on February 7, 1903.
The terms on which the Polish Social-Democrats could be united with the R.S.D.L.P. were discussed at the Fourth Congress of the S.D.K.P. and L. which was held from July 11 to 16 (24–29), 1903. The Congress formulated a number of terms for a possible merger, one of them being the demand for a change in the formulation of the R.S.D.L.P.’s Programme clause on the right of nations to self-determination.
When the Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. opened, its delegates had no knowledge of this decision. The committee to deter mine the composition of the Congress end verify mandates, in its report to the Congress on July 18 (31), read out a letter from the Polish Social-Democrat A. Warski (A. S. Warszawski), which it had at its disposal. But the letter did not clarify the relations the Polish Social-Democrats wanted to establish with the R.S.D.L.P. The committee decided to invite the Polish Social-Democrats to attend the Congress with voice only. A. Warski and J. Hanecki arrived at the Congress on July 22 (August 4) and Warski announced the decision of the Fourth Congress of the S.D.K.P. and L. concerning the terms for unification with the R.S.D.L.P. A special committee was elected to examine these terms.
The point on the right of nations to self-determination, raised by the Polish Social-Democrats, was discussed in the Programme Committee. No minutes were taken, but the notes made at the third sitting of the committee by Lenin (see Fifth Russian edition of the Collected Works, Vol. 7, pp. 423–24) show that the Polish Social-Democrats objected to the point on the right of nations to self-determination and proposed that the programme should contain a demand for the establishment of institutions guaranteeing complete freedom of cultural development for all nations within a state. As Lenin later pointed out: “instead of self-determination they practically proposed the notorious ‘cultural-national autonomy’, only under another name” (see present edition, Vol. 20, p. 444). The committee rejected the proposals of the Polish Social-Democrats. Realising that they would be unable to maintain these proposals at the Congress, they left it after making a statement setting out their standpoint. Their statement was read out at the Congress on July 29 (August 11). On August 6 (19), in connection with the report by the committee, which had examined the terms for a merger of the S.D.K.P. and L. with the R.S.D.L.P., as proposed by the Polish Social-Democrats, the Congress adopted a resolution expressing regret over the fact that the withdrawal of the Polish Social-Democrats from the Congress deprived it of the possibility of completing the discussion of the S.D.K.P. and L.’s joining the R.S.D.L.P., and instructed the Central Committee to continue the negotiations.
The speech reported here is Lenin’s second. The first was given in Vol. 6 of the present edition, p. 485. p. 36
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