Date: 1903-07-18
Source: https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1903/2ndcong/9.htm | https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1903/2ndcong/10.htm

1. First Speech on the Agenda of the Congress



I should like to make a remark. It would be wrong, it is claimed, to make the question of the Bund the first item on the agenda, since the reports should be the first item, the programme the second, and the Bund the third. The arguments in favour of this order will not stand criticism. They amount to the presumption that the Party as a whole has not yet reached agreement on the programme, and that it is possible that precisely on this question we may part company. I am surprised at that. It is true that we have not yet adopted a programme, but the surmise that a rupture may take place over the programme is conjectural in the highest degree. No such tendencies have been discernible in the Party, at least as far as its literature is concerned, which of late has given the fullest reflection of Party opinion. There are both formal and moral reasons for making the question of the Bund the first item on the agenda. Formally, we stand by the Manifesto of 1898, but the Bund has expressed a desire for a radical change in our Party’s organisation. Morally, many other organisations have expressed their disagreement with the Bund over this question; that has caused sharp differences leading even to polemics. The Congress therefore cannot begin harmonious work until these differences have been removed. As to the delegates’ reports, it is possible that they may not be heard in pleno at all. I therefore second the agenda in the order approved by the Organising Committee.



2. Second Speech on the Agenda of the Congress



Now that the Congress has decided what shall be the first item on our agenda, the third point is the only moot point with regard to the rest of the agenda. This item reads: “Creation of the Central Organ of the Party, or endorsement of such.” Some comrades consider that this item should be shifted farther down, because, firstly, one cannot speak of the Central Organ until a decision has been taken on the organisation of the Party in general and of its central body in particular, and so on; and, secondly, because many committees have already expressed their views on the substance of this question. I consider the second argument wrong, for declarations by the committees are not binding on the Congress and, formally speaking, have no deciding vote at the Congress. The other objection is wrong because, before settling details of organisation, the Party Rules, and the like, we must first definitely decide on the trend of Russian Social-Democracy. In fact, it is this question that has divided us so long, and the mere adoption of a programme cannot remove all the differences dividing us on this issue; that can be done only by deciding, immediately after the question of the programme, what kind of Central Organ of the Party we should form anew, or what old one we should endorse with certain modifications.

That is why I second the agenda in the order endorsed by the Organising Committee.