V. I. Lenin

The Second Congress of the League of Russian Revolutionary Social-Democracy Abroad^{2}

OCTOBER 13–18 (26–31), 1903

Published:
Source: Lenin Collected Works, Progress Publishers, 1977, Moscow, Volume 41, pages 104.3-107.1.
Translated: Yuri Sdobnikov
Transcription\Markup: R. Cymbala
Copyleft: V. I. Lenin Internet Archive (www.marxists.org) © 2004 Permission is granted to copy and/or distribute this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.  

There is no point in limiting the deliberations on the Rules beforehand. This is to be a new set of rules and, consequently, the words “working out the Rules” may be left in.^{3}

I need more than an hour for my report. I can, of course, fold it up, but I believe that that is not in the interests of the assembly. I request the chairman to ask the Congress for its opinion. Will it give me more time or must I cut down my report?

3

The League has elected two delegates. Comrade Martov has resigned, and I am now the only authorised delegate. Since there is no longer any time limitation on speeches, I do not understand the meaning of Martov’s proposal.^{4} There are many here who attended the Congress, and I think we may have not one co-report, but a whole series of them.

2

PREFATORY REMARK TO THE REPORT ON THE SECOND CONGRESS OF THE R.S.D.L.P.

OCTOBER 13 (26)

I did indeed ask the assembly myself, and no one stopped me. I think that it is quite all right to talk freely about everything. There is a tremendous difference between private conversations and the meetings of the Iskra organisation. At any rate, let the meeting express its views. I shall not speak of the private meetings of the Iskra organisation until the League finds it necessary for me to do so.

I declare that now that Martov’s so-called co-report yesterday has given an undignified turn to the debate I consider it unnecessary and impossible to take part in any debates on this point of the = Tagesordnung^{1} and, consequently, also waive my summing-up speech, especially in view of the fact that if Martov has the courage to make definite and open charges, he must do so before the whole Party in a pamphlet which in my formal challenge yesterday I suggested he should write.^{5}

4

SPEECHES IN THE DEBATE ON THE LEAGUE RULES

OCTOBER 17 (30)

1

There is no need to object at length to these arguments.^{6} § 6 gives the right to organise and consequently to reorganise as well,^{7} and a reorganised League will still be the same League, the only Party organisation abroad.

2

To Comrade Martov’s question about whether or not functionaries should be confirmed by the Central Committee, I reply that I see no obstacles to the elected administrative officers being approved by the Central Committee.

...Lenin declares on his own behalf and on behalf of the comrades who voted with him that he regards the rejection of Comrade Konyagin’s resolution and the adoption of Comrade Martov’s resolution as a crying violation of the Party Rules.^{8} (“Which paragraph of the Rules specifically does the vote contradict?”) I refuse to answer such questions, because this has been sufficiently well clarified in the course of the debate. (“State the paragraph of the Rules which the resolution we have adopted contradicts.”) It is up to the Party’s central institutions to interpret the Rules; and that is what they will do.

Notes

{1} Agenda.—Ed.

{2} The Second Congress of the League of Russian Revolutionary Social-Democracy Abroad was held at Geneva from October 13 to 18 (26–31), 1903. It was called at the insistence of the Mensheviks who wanted to oppose it to the Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. Lenin objected to its convocation and wrote: “A League Congress now will generate more heat than light, i.e., it will contribute nothing to the work abroad” (see present edition, Vol. 34, p. 176).

The congress of the League was attended by 15 supporters of the majority led by Lenin (14 from the second sitting), who had 18 votes, and by 18 Mensheviks (19 from the second sitting) with 22 votes. The congress discussed the following questions: 1) report by the administration of the League Abroad; 2) report by the League’s delegate at the Second Party Congress; 3) the League’s Rules; 4) elections of the administration.

The central question of the agenda was a report by Lenin, who had been the League’s delegate at the Party Congress. He described the work of the Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. and exposed the opportunism of the Mensheviks, showing their unprincipled behaviour at the Congress. (For Lenin’s report and speeches see present edition, Vol. 7, pp. 69–85.) Taking advantage of their majority at the League congress, the opposition decided to have Martov as a co-rapporteur. Martov spoke out in defence of the Mensheviks’ behaviour at the R.S.D.L.P. Second Congress and made slanderous accusations against the Bolsheviks. Realising that it was futile and impossible to continue the polemic the opposition, Lenin and the supporters of the majority congress and refused to take part in any further debates on this question. The Menshevik majority at the congress, in an effort to secure the Party’s central bodice, adopted three resolutions on the second item of the agenda, in which it opposed Lenin’s approach to organisational questions and called for sustained struggle against the Bolsheviks.

The congress also adopted the League’s Rules, some of which were aimed against the Party Rules (such as publication of general Party literature under the League’s auspices, relations between the League’s administration and other organisations, bypassing the C.C. and the C.O.); the Mensheviks also contested the right of the R.S.D.L.P. Central Committee to approve the League’s Rules. F. V. Lengnik, the representative of the R.S.D.L.P. Central Committee who attended the congress, demanded on behalf of the Central Committee that the League’s Rules should be brought   into line with the Party Rules, and when the opposition refused to do so, declared the assembly invalid and walked out. The Party Council approved of his action (see p. 107 of this volume).

Lenin said that the congress of the League was the “climax of the opposition’s campaign against the central bodies” (see present edition, Vol. 7, p. 123). After the League’s Second Congress, the Mensheviks turned it into a stronghold in their fight against the Party.

The “Preparatory Material” section in Vol. 41 of the Fifth Russian edition of Lenin’s Collected Works contains two relevant documents: an outline-plan of Lenin’s report on the Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. at the League congress, and Lenin’s notes at the first sitting of the League congress. p. 104

{3} This is in reply to L. G. Deutsch’s proposal on item 3 of the agenda: substitute “amendment of the Rules” for “working out the Rules”. The working out of a new set of rules for the League was a question of principle. The League’s old Rules (1901), drawn up at a time when the Party was not yet a single whole, no longer met the new demands. The Party Rules adopted at the Second R.S.D.L.P. Congress gave the League the same rights as the Party committees, with the exception, however, that it could support the Russian revolutionary movement only through persons and groups specially appointed by the Central Committee (see K.P.S.S. v rezolutsiyakh resheniyakh syezdov, konferentsii i plenumov TsK, Part I, 1954, p. 47). In his consistent efforts to have the decisions of the Second R.S.D.L.P. Congress implemented, Lenin demanded the working put of a new set of rules for the League in accordance with the Party Rules. p. 104

{4} A reference to L. Martov’s proposal that he should be allowed to give a co-report on the Party’s Second Congress. p. 105

{5} L. Martov’s pamphlet, The Struggle Against the “State of Siege” in the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party, was issued at Geneva in 1904. p. 106

{6} A reference to Trotsky’s efforts, with the aid of various sophisms and arbitrary interpretations of the Party Rules, to show that the League Abroad was empowered to approve the draft of the League’s Rules the congress was debating, independently of the R.S.D.L.P. Central Committee. p. 106

{7} A reference to § 6 of the R.S.D.L.P. Rules adopted by the Party’s Second Congress (see K.P.S.S. v rezolutsiyakh i resheniyakh syezdov, konferentsii i plenumov TsK, Part I, 1954, p. 46). p. 106

{8} The resolution motioned by L.Y. Galperin (Konyagin), which the Bolsheviks supported, said that the League Rules would enter into force upon their approval by the Central Committee. This resolution was drawn up in accordance with the R.S.D.L.P. Rules and safeguarded the principles of democratic centralism in the Party.

Martov’s resolution, adopted by the opportunist majority of the League congress, was based on the assumption that the League had the right to adopt its own Rules without preliminary approval by the Party Central Committee. p. 107