V. I.

Lenin

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

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

7. Draft Rules of the
R.S.D.L.P. [1]

1. A Party member is one who accepts the Party’s programme and supports
the Party both financially and by personal participation In one of its
organisations.

2. The Party Congress is the supreme organ of the Party. Party congresses
are summoned (if possible, not less than once in two years) by the Central
Committee. The Central Committee is obliged to summon a congress at the
demand of Party committees, or unions of committees, which jointly had
one-third of the votes at the preceding congress, or at the demand of the
Party Council. A congress is valid given representation of over one half
of all (properly constituted) committees of the Party existing at the
moment of the congress.

3. The following are entitled to representation at a congress: a) the
Central Committee; b) the editorial board of the Central Organ; c) all
local committees which do not belong to special unions; d) all unions of
committees recognised by the Party; and e) the League Abroad. Each of the
organisations enumerated has two deciding votes at a congress. New
committees and unions of committees are entitled to be represented at a
congress only if they have been endorsed not less than six months before
the congress.

4. The Party Congress appoints the Central Committee, the editorial board
of the Central Organ, and the Party Council.

5. The Central Committee co-ordinates and directs all the practical
activities of the Party and administers the

Central Party Treasury, as well as all the general technical
establishments of the Party. It examines conflicts that may arise between
various organisations and institutions of the Party or within them.

6. The editorial board of the Central Organ gives ideological guidance to
the Party by editing the Party’s Central Organ, the scientific organ, and
pamphlets.

7. The Party Council is appointed by the congress from among members of
the editorial board of the Central Organ and the Central Committee, and
consists of five persons. The Council settles disputes and differences
arising between the editorial board of the Central Organ and the Central
Committee on questions of general organisation and tactics. The Party
Council appoints a new Central Committee in the event of the arrest of all
the members of the old committee.

8. New committees and unions of committees are endorsed by the Central
Committee. Each committee, union, organisation, or group recognised by the
Party has charge of affairs relating specifically and exclusively to its
particular locality, district or national movement, or to the special
function assigned to it, being bound, however, to obey the decisions of
the Central Committee and the Central Organ and to make contributions to
the Central Party Treasury in amounts determined by the Central Committee.

9. Any Party member and any person who has any contact with the Party is
entitled to demand that any statements made by him should be transmitted
in the original to the Central Committee, the Central Organ, or the Party
Congress.

10. It is the duty of every Party organisation to afford both the Central
Committee and the editorial board of the Central Organ every opportunity
of becoming acquainted with all its activities and its entire composition.

11. All Party organisations and collegiate bodies decide their affairs by
a simple majority vote and have the right of co-optation. A two-thirds
majority vote is required for co-optation or expulsion of members.

12. It is the purpose of the League of Russian Revolutionary
Social-Democracy Abroad to carry on propaganda and agitation abroad and
also to assist the movement in Russia.

The League enjoys all the rights of committees, with the sole exception
that it renders assistance to the movement in Russia only through persons
or groups specially appointed for the purpose by the Central Committee.

| Written in June-early July 1903 | Published according to the text of the Minutes |
| --- | --- |
| First published in Geneva in 1904 in the Minutes of the Second Regular Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. | |

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Notes:
[1]
Draft Rules of the R.S.D.L.P. proposed by Lenin at the Second
Congress of the Party have not been preserved. The present volume gives
the original draft Rules included by the Protocol Committee of the Second
Congress in the appendices to the Full Text of the Minutes of the Second Regular Congress of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party , published in Geneva in 1904. The Protocol Committee of the
Second Party Congress erroneously termed Lenin’s original draft Rules,
which it included in appendix XI to the Full Text of the Minutes ,