LETTER TO GREILICH.
February 3, 1905.
Dear Comrade!
In your letter you touch upon the question of the guilt of one or the other Faction of our (R.S.-D.R.P.) party in the split. You mention that you have requested the opinion of German social democrats and the International Bureau on this matter. In view of this, we consider ourselves obliged to explain to you how the split occurred. We will limit ourselves to presenting accurately proven facts, avoiding, as far as possible, any evaluation of them.
Until the end of 1903, our party was an aggregate of unconnected local social-democratic organizations called committees. The Central Committee and the Central Organ, elected at the first party congress (in the spring of 1898), were absent. The police broke them up, and they were not renewed. Abroad, a split occurred between the "Union of Russian Social Democrats" (organ – "Rabochee Delo," hence the "Rabocheedeltsy") and Plekhanov. The newspaper "Iskra," founded in 1900, sided with the latter. Over three years, from 1900 to 1903, "Iskra" acquired overwhelming influence on the Russian committees. "Iskra" defended the ideas of revolutionary social democracy against "Economism" (alias "Rabocheedelstvo" - a Russian variety of opportunism). The lack of party unity weighed heavily on everyone. Finally, in August 1903, it was possible to convene the second party congress abroad. All Russian committees, the Bund (an independent organization of the Jewish proletariat) and both foreign Factions participated: the "Iskra" and the "Rabocheedel" factions.
All participants of the congress recognized the congress as legitimate. The struggle at the congress was between the Iskra supporters and the anti-Iskra supporters (Rabocheedeltsy

Lenin Miscellany, V and the Bund), the so-called "bog" occupied the middle ground. The Iskra supporters won. They passed the party program (the "Iskra" draft was approved). "Iskra" was recognized as the Central Organ, its direction - the direction of the party. A number of resolutions on tactics were in its spirit; the organizational charter (Lenin's draft) was adopted in the Iskra version, only in details was it worsened by the anti-Iskra supporters, with the participation of a minority of the Iskra supporters. The grouping of votes at the congress was as follows: a total of 51 votes, of which 33 were Iskra supporters (24 Iskra supporters of the current majority, 9 Iskra supporters of the current minority)? 10 - "bog" and 8 anti-Iskra supporters (3 Rabocheedeltsy and 5 Bundists). Towards the end of the congress, before the elections, seven delegates (2 Rabocheedeltsy and 5 Bundists) left the congress (the Bund withdrew from the party). Then the minority of the Iskra supporters, supported, due to their mistakes, by all the anti-Iskra supporters and the bog, turned out to be the minority of the congress (24 and 9 = 33; and 51 - 7 = 44, i.e., 24 and 20). When choosing the central institutions, it was decided to elect three people to the editorial board of the C.O. and three to the C.C. Of the six members of the old editorial board of "Iskra" (Plekhanov, Axelrod, Zasulich, Starover, Lenin and Martov), the following were elected: Plekhanov, Lenin, and Martov. In the C.C. they wanted to elect two from the majority and one from the minority. Martov refused to join the editorial board without the three "excluded" (unelected) comrades, and the entire minority refused to participate in the elections to the C.C. No one has ever disputed and still does not dispute the legitimacy of the elections, but the minority after the congress refused to work under the leadership of the centers elected by the congress. This boycott lasted three months: from the end of August 1903 to the end of November 1903. "Iskra" (№№ 46-51) was edited by Plekhanov and Lenin together. The minority formed a secret organization in the party (a fact now attested to in the press by the minority's supporters themselves and not denied at present by anyone)*). The Russian committees by an overwhelming majority (12 of the 14 committees that managed to express their opinion) spoke out against this disorganizing boycott. But Plekhanov, after the stormy congress of the foreign "League" (the party's foreign organization), which took place at the very end of October 1903, decided to yield to the minority, declaring before the entire party, in the article "What Not to Do" (№ 52 of "Iskra," November 1903), that, in order to avoid a split, one must sometimes yield even to those who, by mistake, are inclined to revisionism and act as an anarchistic individualist (the underlined expressions are Plekhanov's authentic expressions in the article "What Not to Do"). Lenin

LETTER TO GREILICH
left the editorial board, not wanting to go against the decisions of the congress. Plekhanov then co-opted all 4 former editors. The Russian committees stated that they would see what the direction of the new "Iskra" would be, they would see whether the Mensheviks had joined the editorial board for the sake of peace.
It turned out, as the Bolsheviks had predicted, that neither the direction of the old "Iskra" was maintained, nor did the new Menshevik editorial board bring peace to the party. The direction of "Iskra" turned so much to the old Rabocheedelstvo rejected by the second congress, that Trotsky himself, a prominent member of the minority, who published the programmatic brochure "Our Political Tasks,"
a brochure published under the direction of the new "Iskra,"
stated literally: "There is a gulf between the old and the new "Iskra."" We limit ourselves to this [judgement] statement
of our opponent, so as not to enter into lengthy explanations
of the principled instability of "Iskra". On the other hand,
"the secret organization of the minority" did not dissolve, but continued
to boycott the C.C. This secret split of the party into an open and
secret organization unbearably hampered the work. The vast
majority of Russian committees speaking out on the crisis
resolutely condemned both the direction of the new Iskra and the disorganizing behavior of the minority. From all sides came the demand for the immediate convening of the third congress to escape the unbearable situation.
According to our party charter, a statement is required from organizations,
having together half the total number of votes, to convene
an extraordinary congress (regular congresses are convened every 2 years
if possible). Half has already been formed. But then the C.C. betrayed the majority, taking advantage of the arrest of several
of its members belonging to the majority. Under the pretext of "reconciliation," the members of the C.C. who remained after the arrest
made a deal with the secret organization of the minority and announced that this organization was dissolving, and, secretly from the party and contrary to
written statements of the C.C., 5 Mensheviks were co-opted
into the C.C. This co-optation took place in November or December 1901.
Thus, the minority fought from August 1903 to November
1904, tearing apart the entire party over the co-optation of 3 people to the C.O. and
3 to the C.C. The central institutions, falsified in this way,
responded to the demand of the congress with abuse or silence.
Then all the patience of the Russian committees ran out. They began to convene their private conferences. To date, 3 conferences have taken place: 1) 4 Caucasian committees; 2) 3 Southern ones (Odessa, Nikolaev and Ekaterinoslav) and 3) 6 Northern ones (St. Petersburg, Moscow, Tver, Riga, "North" - i.e. Yaroslavl, Kostroma and Vladimir and, finally, Nizhny Novgorod). All these conferences spoke out in favor of the "majority", decided to support the literary group of the majority (the group of Lenin, Ryadovoy [A. A. Bogdanov], Orlovsky [V. V. Vorovsky], Galerka [M. S. Olminsky], Voinov [A. V. Lunacharsky] and others) and elected their own bureau: This bureau was instructed by the third, i.e. the northern conference, to turn into an Organizing Committee and convene a congress of Russian committees, i.e. the third congress of the party, apart from the foreign centers that had split off from the party. That was the state of affairs as of January 1, 1905 (new style). The bureau of committees of the majority began its work (due to our police conditions, the convocation of the congress will, of course, be delayed for several months: the second congress was announced in December 1902, and it was convened in August 1903). The literary group of the majority founded an organ of the majority, the newspaper "Vperyod," which began to appear weekly, from January 4, new style, 1905.
Now (February 3, 1905), 4 have already been released.
The direction of the newspaper "Vperyod" is the direction of the old
"Iskra".
In the name of the old Iskra, "Vperyod" resolutely fights against the new
Iskra.
In fact, therefore, there turned out to be two R.S.-D.R. Parties.
One with the organ Iskra, "officially" called the Central
Organ of the party, with the Central Committee, with 4 Russian committees out of 20 (the remaining committees in Russia, except
the 20 that were at the 2nd departure, arose later, and the question of the legality of their approval is a controversial issue). Another party,
with the organ "Vperyod," with the "bureau of Russian committees of the majority,"
with 14 committees in Russia (the 13 named above and Voronezh, and probably also Saratov, Ural, Tula
and Siberian; at least all 4 of the latter committees after the
2nd congress of the party spoke out in favor of the "majority").
On the side of the "new-Iskrists" are all opponents of the old
Iskra: all Economists and most of the near-party intelligentsia. On the side of the "Vperyodists" - all principled-
convinced supporters of the old Iskra and most of the conscious advanced workers and practical figures of the party.

LETTER TO GREULICH
in Russia. Plekhanov, who at the
2nd congress of the party (August
1903) and at the congress of the League (October 1903) was a Bolshevik
and who since November 1903 has been desperately fighting with the majority, publicly stated on September 2, 190i (this review was published) that the forces of both sides are approximately equal. We,
the Bolsheviks, assert that the majority of real Russian party figures are on our side. The main reason for the split and the main obstacle to unification we consider to be the disorganizing behavior of the minority, which refused to submit to
the decisions of the 2nd congress and preferred a split to the convocation of the 3rd congress.
Currently, the Mensheviks are carrying out splits in local organizations everywhere in Russia. So in St. Petersburg they prevented the committee from organizing a demonstration on November 28 (see "Vperyod")
1)* Now they have broken away in St. Petersburg into a special group,
called the "group under the Central Committee" and opposing the local committee of the party. They founded the same local group ("under the Central Committee")
to fight the party committee the other day in Odessa.
The Menshevik central institutions of the party had to,
due to the falsity of their position, disorganize the local work
of the party, because these central institutions did not want to submit to
the decision of the party committees that elected them.
The principled disagreements between "Vperyod" and the new
Iskra are, in essence, the same as those between the old Iskra
and Rabocheye Delo. We consider these disagreements important, but
on the condition that it is possible to fully defend one's views, the views
of the old Iskra, we would not consider these disagreements in and of themselves an obstacle to working together in one party.
Editorial Board of the newspaper "Vperyod": 11. Lepin
II. Orlovsky [V. V. Borovsky]
A. Voinov [A. V. Lunacharsky!
Ryadovoy [A. A. Bogdanov].
Foreign authorized representative of the Russian bureau of committees,
the majority Stepanov [A. M. Essen].
2)
In No. 83 of Iskra dated January 20 (7), 1905, in the section: "From the Party"
a resolution was published, adopted at a conference of the Central Committee with representatives
of the minority: "we, members of the minority, in view of the agreement reached between our representatives and the Central Committee, and in view of the possibility, i.e.
actual unification of the party... we cease our separate existence in the party". In the same issue, the Central Committee announced that the Mensheviks
had handed over their organizational ties to the Central Committee, declaring the organizational separateness of the minority liquidated.