1

Lenin makes preliminary remarks to his report. I propose, first of all, to retain the pseudonyms that were used at the congress, since I have become too accustomed to them and it will be easier for me to use them than to figure out each time which organization a delegate was from. Second, I think I should touch upon the meetings of the Iskra organization that took place between the congress sessions, so to speak, in a private capacity. I think this can be done, first, because the League was the foreign branch of the Iskra organization; second, because the Iskra organization is now dissolved; third, because without these facts it will be harder for me to clarify the true meaning of the events of the party congress.

2

Comrade Martov is opposed to touching upon private meetings of the Iskra organization, since no minutes were kept of them, but there are now no minutes of the party congress either, and I cannot refer to them either. After all, Comrade Martov is present here; he will be able to make corrections if any inaccuracies creep in. If the private meetings of Iskra are important for the matter at hand, then I will reveal them even before a wider public – in any case, Comrade Martov will not succeed in hiding them ("Remarkable!"). I remember perfectly well whom I did not admit to these meetings and who withdrew from them, and I will speak much about this. There can, of course, be errors, and I cannot reconstruct everything from memory. The most important thing is the political grouping of persons. For each individual vote, I can, of course, reconstruct it only approximately, but in general it is completely clear to me. It is not in the interest of the cause to hide from the League what concerns the Iskra organization, which has already been dissolved and which has already become the property of the party. As for protocol pseudonyms, those would of course be better, but I have not read the minutes and therefore do not know them.

3

Comrade Martov fears that in speaking of private meetings of Iskra, one might slip into the realm of gossip. I had no intention of touching upon the realm of gossip, and "we shall see" who will manage to maintain the level of principled dispute and who will have to descend into this dark realm ("Remarkable!"). "We shall see," "we shall see"! I consider myself completely free to touch upon editorial meetings and will have nothing against it if Comrade Martov also touches upon them, but I still must note that during the congress we never once had a specially scheduled editorial meeting.

4

I indeed asked the assembly myself, and no one stopped me. I think it is entirely appropriate to speak freely about everything. There is a gigantic difference between private conversations and meetings of the Iskra organization. In any case, let the assembly express itself. Until the League finds it necessary for me to speak about private meetings of the Iskra organization, I will not do so.

5

The main purpose of my report is to prove that Comrade Martov was mistaken, but in his insinuation regarding Comrade Plekhanov I see something quite different. Let me recall a phrase I spoke at the party congress on one occasion: "what storms of indignation are ordinarily provoked by people who say one thing in the commission and another at the meeting." To insinuate such behavior is no longer to discuss political conduct but to shift to personal attacks. As for the statement of P. B. Axelrod that X. left completely uninformed, I can declare that this is completely untrue. He himself addressed me with a letter in which he reported to me that, in his opinion, in all this division there was much that was personal and little that was principled. From this I conclude that he was already informed. And to his request that I express my opinion concerning the congress, I also had the opportunity to write to him more than once.