V. I.

Lenin

The documents reproduced above reveal an extremely important controversy in the
St. Petersburg Committee of the Party. This controversy is important for two
reasons.

First, the right of every autonomous Party organisation to adopt its own
independent resolution, and not merely to subscribe to the resolutions of the
Central Committee, is absolutely indisputable—if one regards it from the
formal point of view.

That the resolution of the St. Petersburg Committee does not contradict any of
the decisions of the Unity Congress is obvious. It is, indeed, the duty of the
local organisations to work out independently—within the framework of the
Congress resolutions—their own directives.

Secondly, on the point at issue, the Central Committee’s resolution is obviously
unsatisfactory and contradicts the decision of the Congress . This
resolution does not contain a single word to explain what is meant by “the
Duma is useless”, nor does it widen and sharpen the conflicts within the
Duma. The resolution proposes a slogan (“substitute for the present
Ministry a Ministry appointed by the Duma”) which does not in the least follow from the resolution of the Congress . This slogan is ambiguous. It
confuses the minds of the proletariat. For the Cadets use the demand for a Duma
Ministry as a screen to hide their desire to strike a bargain with the
autocratic government and to weaken the revolution, to hamper the convocation of
a constituent assembly.

We propose to go into this resolution in greater detail on another occasion [1]

;

in the meantime we invite all members of the Party to pay the closest attention to the extremely important controversy in the
St. Petersburg Commit tee of the R.S.D.L.P.

---
Notes:
[1]
See pp. 500-04 of this volume.— Ed .