Written: Written later than August 25 (September 7), 1904
Published:
First published in 1960 in Vol. 9 of the Fifth Russian edition of the Collected Works.
Printed from the original.
Source:
Lenin
Collected Works,
Progress Publishers,
1977,
Moscow,
Volume 41,
pages 127.3-128.
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.
While by and large subscribing to the Riga Declaration{1} as being a quite correct and principled expression of the views and policy of the Party majority of the Second Congress, the meeting deems it necessary to take a definite stand on the new step taken by the C.C.
The meeting voices its deep conviction that the C.C. declaration{2} (see Iskra No. 72{3}) strikes a major blow for clanishness as against the Party principle, and is another betrayal of the interests of the Party as a whole, a fresh attempt to corrupt the Party by introducing hypocrisy into Party relations. The meeting brands the opposition by an accountable Party organ to the convocation of a Party congress and its statement that any agitation for the congress is harmful as a disgraceful fact not to be found in the records of any dignified workers’ party. To receive one’s powers at a Party congress from the Party majority and to proclaim this majority’s policy to be a group policy; to speak of peace between the two contending sides and to make a behind-the-scenes deal with the self-styled representatives abroad of one of the sides; hypocritically to extol the “lofty” stand of one’s opponents of yesterday and to begin reconciliation by dismissing the members and agents of the C.C. who dared commit the crime of agitating for a congress—all this is clear evidence that the new C.C. in its new policy has decided to join the C.O. in treating the Party as a nonentity. The meeting vigorously condemns this policy of Bonapartism, urges all Party members to fight resolutely against usurpation and hypocrisy, and demands the full publication of the Council’s minutes and all data on the activity of the central bodies which do not have to be withheld for reasons of secrecy.
The meeting calls on all members of the Party sharing the principled views of the majority to support the publishing house set up by Comrade = Bonch-Bruyevich{4} and to agitate vigorously for the convocation of the Third Congress.
{1} A reference to the appeal “To the Party”, adopted by a conference of 22 Bolsheviks and published as a separate leaflet by the Riga Committee of the R.S.D.L.P. in August 1904 (see present edition, Vol. 7, pp. 454–61). p. 127
{2} A reference to the Central Committee’s “July Declaration”, a resolution adopted by the conciliator members of the Central Commit tee—L. B. Krasin, V. A. Noskov and L. Y. Galperin—in July 1904. It consisted of 26 points, nine of which were published in Iskra No. 72 of August 25 (September 7), 1904, under the title “Declaration of the Central Committee”. The resolution was adopted illegally, without the knowledge of two C.C. members: = V. I. Lenin, who was in Switzerland, and R. S. Zemlyachka. They were thereby deprived of the possibility of standing up for the Party majority’s view in the Central Committee. In this resolution, the conciliators voiced their recognition of the Menshevik Editorial Board of the new Iskra, whom Plekhanov had co-opted. Three more conciliators were co-opted to the Central Committee: = A. I. Lyubimov, L. Y. Karpov, and I. F. Dubrovinsky. The conciliators came out against convening the Third Party Congress and dissolved the Central Committee’s Southern Bureau, which had been campaigning for the Congress. They stripped Lenin of his rights as the Party Central Committee representative abroad, and prohibited the publication of his works without the permission of the C.C. collegium. The adoption of the “July Declaration” marked a complete betrayal of the decisions of the Second R.S.D.L.P. Congress by the conciliator members of the Central Committee and their open switch to the Menshevik side.
Lenin issued a sharp protest against the “July Declaration”. In his letter “To Five Members of the Central Committee” and his pamphlet Statement and Documents on the Break of the Central Institutions with the Party, Lenin exposed the illegal acts of the three members of the Central Committee (see present edition, Vol. 7, pp. 462–63, 529-35). Lenin was supported by the Party’s local committees—St. Petersburg, Moscow, Riga, Baku, Tiflis, Imeretia and Mingrelia, Nikolayev, Odessa, and Yekaterinoslav—which resolutely condemned the “July Declaration”. p. 128
{3} A reference to the Menshevik Iskra. The Editorial Board of the Party’s Central Organ, consisting of V. I. Lenin, G. V. Plekhanov and L. Martov, was approved at the Second Party Congress. But contrary to the Congress decision, the Menshevik Martov refused to sit on the Board without the old Menshevik editors (P. B. Axelrod, A. N. Potresov and V. I. Zasulich), who had not been elected by the Second Congress; so Iskra’s Nos. 46 to 51 came out under the editorship of Lenin and Plekhanov. The latter subsequently switched to the Menshevik stand and demanded the inclusion on the Board of the old Menshevik editors who had been rejected by the Congress. Lenin could not accept this and withdrew from the Iskra Editorial Board on October 19 (November 1), 1903; he was co-opted to the Central Committee and from there started a struggle against the Menshevik opportunists. Iskra’s No. 52 was issued under the editorship of Plekhanov ale no, and on November 13 (26), 1903, Plekhanov rode roughshod over the will of the Second Congress by co-opting Axelrod, Potresov and Zasulich. From its No. 52, Iskra ceased to be a militant organ of the revolutionary Marxists. The Mensheviks turned it into an organ for fighting Marxism and the Party, and a mouthpiece of opportunism. p. 128
{4} The Bonch-Bruyevich and Lenin Publishing House of Social-Democratic Party Literature was set up by the Bolsheviks at the end of the summer of 1904, when Iskra’s Menshevik Board refused to publish statements by Party organisations and members in support of the decisions of the Second Party Congress and in favour of convening the Third Party Congress. The Publishers were given assistance by local Majority Committees. p. 128
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