Comrades! The final unification of the party now confronts us with the urgent and pressing task of broadly developing the work of Social-Democracy abroad and firmly uniting all those active in this field.

According to the Party Rules (§ 13), all party work abroad is divided into two major areas, differing in type of organization. On the one hand, the work of propaganda and agitation abroad is directly managed and centralized by the League Abroad. The Central Committee will take all measures to assist the full centralization of this work in the hands of the League and to ensure its autonomy in this function. On the other hand, it renders assistance to the Russian movement only through the medium of persons and groups specially appointed by the Central Committee.

While calling upon all members of the League, all assistance groups, and all party members located abroad to give all-round support to the League in its work of propaganda and agitation, the Central Committee now intends to direct all efforts toward organizing these intermediary groups, through which support for the Russian movement is to be provided.

The Central Committee understands its tasks in this area as follows.

Support for the Russian movement from abroad is expressed mainly 1) in sending revolutionary workers to Russia; 2) in sending monetary sums collected abroad to Russia; 3) in gathering abroad such Russian connections, information, and pointers as must be immediately communicated to Russia for the purpose of assisting the comrades active there, for the purpose of preventing failures, etc.; 4) in sending literature to Russia, and the like.

Without claiming to exhaust with this list all forms of direct support for the Russian movement from abroad, we think, however, that for the time being it is sufficient to outline its main forms and to bring the organization being created into conformity with these forms. Experience will show to what extent changes in this organization will be necessary in the further future.

Let us begin with the sending of people for work in Russia. It would be desirable, of course, for the greatest number of those traveling to communicate directly with the main agency of the Central Committee abroad – namely, the Geneva one, receiving from it addresses, passwords, money, and the necessary instructions. But a whole number of persons traveling to work are, of course, unable to stop in Geneva, and therefore the Central Committee intends to proceed with the appointment of its agents in all the more or less important centers abroad: London, Paris, Brussels, Berlin, Vienna, and others. Anyone intending to travel to Russia for work is invited to apply to the local agent of the Central Committee, and this agent will take all measures to ensure that the traveler can reach his destination as quickly and safely as possible, that the traveler’s first steps in Russia correspond to the general plan of the Central Committee regarding the distribution of forces and resources, etc. The Central Committee hopes that the League Abroad will render every assistance to these agents of the Central Committee – for example, by acquainting the greatest number of the public abroad with the functions of these agents, with the conditions for communicating with them, by assisting in making these communications as conspiratorial as possible, etc.

Since the sending of people to Russia from major centers abroad constitutes a very large undertaking, and since proper acquaintance with those being sent is not always within the power of a single person, the Central Committee will appoint, as the need arises, not one agent but a group of agents, in accordance with § 13 of the Party Rules.

Further. As regards the sending of money, what is most desirable here is the complete centralization of the collection of money throughout the entire abroad in the hands of the League and the transfer of sums by the administration of the League to the Central Committee. Only in cases of necessity will it perhaps be necessary, as experience indicates, to transfer certain sums directly from local sections of the League to local agents of the Central Committee, when, for example, emergency circumstances require immediate assistance for an escape, the dispatch of a person, the sending of literature, etc. The Central Committee hopes that the administration of the League will give the appropriate instructions to the sections and will work out the best forms of accounting for the collection and expenditure of money.

Then, everyone knows, of course, that very often persons arriving from Russia abroad communicate such news as would be very important for the Russian workers – for example, news about the extent of failures, about the need to warn such-and-such comrades in a city remote from the place of the failure, about the need to utilize in Russia such-and-such connections that a comrade who has fled or left was unable or did not have time to use, etc. Of course, as all party work is finally unified under the leadership of the Central Committee, the opportunity will increasingly present itself to gather all these connections and pointers in Russia itself, and this is the only normal and desirable path. But it is beyond doubt that for a long time yet there will be cases when, for various reasons, comrades who have fled or legally left Russia did not have time to pass on connections in Russia, so that it will be necessary to make use of their stay abroad for this purpose.

Finally, the Central Committee will, of course, endeavor to centralize the matter of transporting literature as fully as possible in the hands of a special transport group, some of whose members will always be located abroad. Special agents of the Central Committee will therefore be appointed to manage the depots of party literature in various centers abroad, to conduct communications with the borders, etc. But even with the best possible organization of the transport work, there will always remain, of course, such gaps in it that will have to be filled by emergency opportunities, by the dispatch (perhaps) of suitcases, by the utilization of some favorable circumstances of commercial relations, steamship communications, etc. In all such matters, all communications, pointers, and inquiries must likewise be directed to the agents of the Central Committee, who will concentrate all such matters and act in accordance with the general plan of the Central Committee and its instructions.

The Central Committee, in communicating its plan of work to the administration of the League, expresses its confidence that the League will, in its turn, render every assistance to the agents of the Central Committee abroad and, in particular, will take measures to ensure that these agents can become widely acquainted with the assistance groups, youth circles, and so on and so forth.

Written not earlier than November 16 (29), 1903.

First published in 1928 in Lenin Miscellany VII.

Printed from the manuscript.