V. I.

Lenin

The Third Congress of the R.S.D.L.P.

April 12 (25)-April 27 (May 10), 1905

7

Resolution on the Armed Uprising [1]

1. Whereas the proletariat being, by virtue of its position, the foremost and
only consistently revolutionary class, is therefore called upon to play the
leading role in the general democratic revolutionary movement in Russia;

2. Whereas this movement at the present time has already led to the necessity of
an armed uprising;

3. Whereas the proletariat will inevitably take the most energetic part in this
uprising, which participation will decide the destiny of the revolution in
Russia;

4. Whereas the proletariat can play the leading role in this revolution only if
it is united, in a single and independent political force under the banner
of the Social-Democratic Labour Party, which directs its struggle both
ideologically and practically; and

5. Whereas only’ the performance of this role will ensure to the
proletariat the most advantageous conditions for the struggle for
socialism against the propertied classes of bourgeois-democratic
Russia;— Therefore,the Third Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. holds
that the task of organising the proletariat for direct struggle
against the autocracy by means of the armed uprising is one of the
major and most urgent tasks of the Party at the present revolutionary
moment.

Accordingly,the Congress instructs all Party organisations:

a)to explain to the proletariat by means of propaganda and agitation, not only
the political significance, but the practical organisational aspect of the
impending armed up rising.

b)to explain in that propaganda and agitation the role of mass political
strikes, which may be of great importance at the beginning and during the progress of the uprising, and c)to take the most energetic steps towards arming the proletariat, as well as
drawing up a plan of the armed up rising and of direct leadership thereof, for
which purpose special groups of Party workers should be formed as and when
necessary.

| Written April 16 (29), 1905 | |
| --- | --- |
| Published according to the manuscript | |