V. I.

Lenin

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

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

9. First Speech on the Agenda of the Congress

July 18 (31)

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.

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