NOTE ON THE LACK OF LEGAL AUTHORITY OF THE COMMITTEES
* NOTE TO THE SPEECH ON THE LACK OF LEGAL AUTHORITY OF THE KAZAN
AND KUBAN COMMITTEES
27 (14) April 1905. London.; Kremenchug
NB
Kazan
Kuban

At the 9th session of the III Congress on 29 (16) April 1905, following a report by P. Rumyantsev (Schmidt) on the question of the attitude toward the government on the eve of and at the moment of the overturn, and the resolution read by him, there was an intervention by D. Postolovsky (Aleksandrov). Postolovsky pointed to a series of shortcomings in the resolution. Among other things, he said: "The report is not entirely on the subject. Instead of touching upon various actions of the government by which it thinks to obscure the consciousness of the people (for example, the establishment of various commissions, the convening of the Zemstvo Assembly, etc.) and of determining the tactics of social democracy with respect to such pseudo-democratic overtures of autocracy, the rapporteur points only to the necessity of broadening the basis of agitation and propaganda by means of open action..." (Protocols, p. 492). At the Congress several committee members displayed inertia and an inability to immediately understand the new tasks put forward by the revolution. The question proved to be broader than the rapporteur himself had supposed. The resolution proposed by P. Rumyantsev was returned to the commission for drafting resolutions, to which were introduced V. Desnitsky (Sosnovsky), A. Rykov (Sergeev), N. Romanov (Leskov). Lenin's amendments, apparently made by him at the commission session, broadened the question precisely in the direction in which the debate proceeded. Lenin's fundamental proposals were realized in the resolution adopted by the Congress.

The note was made in a memorandum by an unknown author, the surviving end of which concludes with the following words: "On the Kazan and Kuban, not yet final, but the legality of the Congress already established. It is still necessary to report on them." —Ed.