V. I.

Lenin

Draft of a Letter from the Central Committee and the Editorial Board of the Central Organ to The Members of the Opposition

Aftera number of unsuccessful attempts to reach an understanding in private conversations, the Central Commit tee
of the Party and the editorial board of the Central Organ deem
it their duty to address you officially in the name of the Party
which they represent. The refusal of Comrade Martov to take his
seat on the editorial board or to collaborate on Iskra ,
the refusal of the ex-members of the Iskra editorial board to collaborate, and the hostile attitude of several
comrades engaged in practical work towards the central institutions of our Party are creating an absolutely abnormal
attitude on the part of this “opposition”, so called, towards the Party as a whole. Their passive aloofness
from Party work, their attempts to “boycott” the central Party institutions (as expressed, for example, in
ceasing to contribute to Iskra beginning from its 46th issue and in the resignation of Comrade Blumenfeld from the
printing establishment), their persistence, in conversation
with a member of the Central

Committee, [1] in calling themselves a “group”, in defiance of the Party
Rules, their violent attacks on the Congress-approved personal
composition of the central bodies and their demand to have it
changed as a condition for ending the boycott—all this is
conduct which cannot be regarded as consistent with Party
duty. Such conduct borders on a direct breach of discipline and
nullifies the decision adopted by the Congress (in the Party
Rules) that the allocation of the Party’s forces and resources is the function of the
Central Committee.

The Central Committee and the editorial board of the Central
Organ therefore remind all members of the so-called “opposition” of their Party duty. Dissatisfaction
with the personal composition of the central bodies, whether due
to personal resentment or to differences of opinion which
particular Party members may consider serious, cannot and must
not lead to disloyal actions. If, in the opinion of any person, the
central bodies are committing mistakes, it is his duty as a
Party member to point to these mistakes in the full view of the
entire Party membership, and, above all, to point them out to
the central bodies themselves. It is likewise the Party duty of
the Central Committee and the editorial board of the Central
Organ to examine all such intimations with the utmost care, no
matter from whom received. Yet neither the editorial board of
the Central Organ nor the Central Committee has received from
the so-called opposition any clear and definite intimations of
mistakes or expressions of dissatisfaction or disagreement on
any score whatever. Comrade Martov even refuses to take his seat
on the editorial board of the Central Organ and on the supreme
Party Council, though only in that post would he be able to lay
bare before the Party all such mistakes as he may descry in the
activities of the central bodies.

The Central Committee and the editorial board of the Central
Organ are firmly convinced that the Russian Social- Democratic
Labour Party will not allow the institutions it has set up to be
influenced by the illegitimate, covert (in relation to the
Party) and disloyal method of pressure and boycott. The Central
Committee and the editorial board of the Central Organ declare
that they will remain at their posts come what may, until such
time as the Party shall remove them, and that they will do their
duty and spare no effort to perform the functions with which
they have been charged. The attempts at “boycott” will not induce either the editorial board of the Central Organ
or the Central Committee to swerve one hair’s breadth from the
path they are following, in pursuance of the will of the
Congress; such attempts will only cause minor unpleasantnesses and major
damage to individual branches of Party work, and will convict
those who persist in them of failing to under stand their Party
duty and of violating it.

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Notes:
[1]
This member of the Central Committee was F. V. Lengnik (pseudonyms—Vasilyev, Kol).