V. I. Lenin

The Unity Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. {1}

APRIL 10–15 (APRIL 23–MAY 8), 1906

1

SPEECHES AT THE SECOND SITTING OF THE CONGRESS CONCERNING THE ROLL-CALL
VOTE ON THE WRITTEN STATEMENTS SUBMITTED TO THE CONGRESS
BUREAU {2}

1

Isecond Comrade Schmidt’s proposal and invite all those wishing to
support this proposal to give their signatures.

2

Comrade Larin’s proposal is nothing but the grossest kind of mockery of
the Congress minority by the majority....

Irepeat: this is gross mockery of the rights of the minority at the
Congress, it is an attempt to destroy the guarantees of the rights of the
minority held out by the standing orders.

| First published in 1907 in the book Protokoly Obyedinitelnogo syezda R.S.D.R.P., sostoyavshegosya v Stokgolme v 1906 godu (Proceedings of the Unity Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. held in Stockholm in 1906), Moscow | |
| --- | --- |
| Printed from the text of the book | |

2

SPEECH AT THE THIRD SITTING OF THE CONGRESS

Le nin objects to Dan’s point {3} and speaks for the need to discuss the question of assessing
the current situation and for putting the question of nationalities on the
agenda.

| First published in 1907 in the book Protokoly Obyedinitelnogo syezda R.S.D.R.P., sostoyavshegosya v Stokgolme v 1906 godu , Moscow | |
| --- | --- |
| Printed from the text of the book | |

3

PROPOSAL ON FORMULATING POINT VIII OF THE DRAFT AGENDA FOR THE CONGRESS

Topoint VIII: “Attitude to the demand of a special constituent
assembly for Poland”, add the words: “in connection with the national
question in the Party Programme”.

| First published in 1907 in the book Protokoly Obyedinitelnogo syezda R.S.D.R P., sostoyavshegosya v Stokgolme v 1906 godu , Moscow | |
| --- | --- |
| Printed from the text of the book | |

4

WRITTEN STATEMENT AT THE 45TH SITTING OF THE CONGRESS

Thevery first page of our resolutions says: “the class interests in a
bourgeois revolution ”, {4} line 27 from the top.

| First published in 1907 in the book Protokoly Obyedinitelnogo syezda R.S.D.R.P., sostoyavshegosya v Stokgolme v 1906 godu , Moscow | |
| --- | --- |
| Printed from the text of the book | |

5

SPEECH AT THE 24TH SITTING OF THE =
CONGRESS {5}

Ibelieve I shall express the will of the entire Congress in extending,
on behalf of the Russian Social-Democratic Party, greetings to its new
members and in expressing the wish that this unity should be the best
earnest of our urther successful struggle.

| First published in 1907 in the book Protokoly Obyedinitelnogo syezd R.S.D.R.P., sostoyavshegosya v Stokgolme v 1906 godu , Moscow | |
| --- | --- |
| Printed from the text of the book | |

---
Notes:
{1}
The Fourth (Unity) Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. was held at
Stockholm from April 10 to 25 (April 23 to May 8), 1906.

Itwas attended by 112 delegates with vote, representing 57 local
organisations of the R.S.D.L.P., and 22 delegates with voice only. National
organisations were also represented: the Social-Democracy of Poland and
Lithuania, the Bund, the Latvian Social-Democratic Labour Party, the
Ukrainian Social Democratic Labour Party and the Finnish Labour
Party. There was also a representative of the Bulgarian Social-Democratic
Labour Party.

Amongthe Bolshevik delegates wore V. I. Lenin, M. V. Frunze,
M. I. Kalinin, N. K. Krupskaya, A. V. Lunacharsky, F. A. Sergeyev (Artyom),
S. G. Shahumyan, I. I. Skvortsov-Stepanov, J. V. Stalin, V. V. Vorovsky,
K. Y. Voroshilov and Y. M. Yaroslavsky.

The Mensheviks had a majority at the Congress because many Bolshevik
Party organisations, which had led the armed action by the masses, were
broken up and could not send their delegates. The Central Area, the Urals,
Siberia and the North—Bolshevik bulwarks—were represented by a small
number of delegates. By contrast, the Mensheviks, who had the more numerous
organisations in the country’s non-industrial areas, where there had been
no mass revolutionary action, were in a position to send more delegates.

Therewas a bitter struggle between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks
on every point of the Congress agenda. Lenin gave reports on the agrarian
question, the assessment of the current situation and the class tasks of
the proletariat, on the attitude to the Duma, the armed uprising and other
questions, and took part in the committee drafting the Party Rules (see
present edition, Vol. 10, pp. 277–309). The character of the decisions was
deter mined by the numerical superiority of the Mensheviks. After a stubborn struggle, the Congress approved the Menshevik resolutions on the
Duma and the armed uprising, and adopted their agrarian programme.

Onthe attitude to bourgeois parties, the Congress confined itself to
endorsing the resolution of the International Congress at
Amsterdam. Without debate, it adopted the compromise resolution on the
trade unions and the resolution on the attitude to the peasant movement.

Atthe same time, on the demand of the Party masses, the Congress
adopted Paragraph One of the Rules in Lenin’s wording, rejecting Martov’s
opportunist formula. The Bolshevik proposition on democratic centralism was
included in the Rules for the first time.

The Congress decided on the question of uniting with the
Social-Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania and the Latvian
Social-Democratic Labour Party, which joined the R.S.D.L.P. as territorial
organisations working among proletarians of all nationalities in their
territories.

The Central Committee elected by the Congress included three Bolsheviks
and seven Mensheviks. The Editorial Board of Sotsial-Demokrat , the
Central Organ, consisted of Mensheviks only.

The Congress is known as the “Unity” Congress, but it marked only the
formal unification of the R.S.D.L.P. Actually, the Mensheviks and the
Bolsheviks had their own views, their own platforms on the key
revolutionary questions, and in fact remained two distinct parties. Lenin
analysed the work of the Congress in his pamphlet Report on the Unity Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. (A Letter to the St. Petersburg Workers )

(see present edition, Vol. 10, pp. 317–82).

p. 179

{2}
At the second sitting of the Fourth (Unity) Congress of the R.S.D.L.P.,
there was a discussion of the Congress standing orders under a draft put
forward by the United Central Committee. A debate ensued on the question of
the roll-call vote on the written statements submitted to the Congress
Bureau. Two proposals were motioned: one by the Bolshevik P.P. Rumyantsev
(Schmidt) and the other by the Menshevik M. A. Lurye (Larin). The former’s
was adopted. See Chetvyorty ( Obyedinitelny ) syezd R.S.D.R.P. Aprel ( aprel-mai ) 1906 goda . Protokoly (Proceedings of the Fourth [Unity]
Congress. April [April–May] 1906), Moscow, 1959, pp. 11–16.

p. 179

{3}
During the debate on the agenda at the third sitting of the Fourth
(Unity) Congress of the R.S.D.L.P., the Menshevik F. I. Dan objected to the
question of the current situation being put on the agenda.

p. 180

{4}
A reference to point two of the draft resolution of the Bolsheviks,
“The Class Tasks of the Proletariat at the Present Moment of the
Democratic Revolution”, for the Fourth (Unity) Congress of the R.S.D.L.P.

p. 181

{5}
The twenty-fourth sitting of the Fourth (Unity) Congress of the
R.S.D.L.P. decided on the question of uniting the Social-Democracy of the
Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania with the R.S.D.L.P.

p. 181