V. I.

Lenin

Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P.

July 17 (30)-August 10 (23), 1903

1. Draft Resolution on Demonstrations

The Congress considers the organisation of public demonstrations against
the autocracy a highly important means of political education of the
working masses. In this connection, the Congress recommends, firstly, that
special efforts should be made to utilise for demonstrations such
instances and circumstances when some atrocious act by the tsarist
government has aroused particularly widespread indignation among the
people; secondly, that efforts should be most of all directed to securing
the participation of broad masses of the working class in the
demonstrations and the best possible organisation of the latter,
in regard to preparation for them, their efficient handling, and guidance
of demonstrators’ resistance to the troops and police; thirdly, that
preparations for armed demonstrations should be begun, strictly observing
instructions of the Central Committee in this respect.

The Congress also recommends that all committees and other organisations
of the Party should thoroughly discuss the question of preparations for an
armed uprising and should make every effort to convince the working masses
of the necessity and inevitability of an uprising. The practical measures
which can already be taken in preparing for an up rising are entrusted by the Congress exclusively and entirely to the Central
Committee.

| Written in June-July 1903 | Published according to the manuscript |
| --- | --- |
| First published in 1927 in Lenin Miscellany VI | |