V. I.

Lenin

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

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

11. Speech on the Actions of the Organising Committee

July 18 (31) [1]

I cannot agree with Comrade Yegorov. It is he who has in fringed
the standing orders of the Congress and it is he who is against the clause
on imperative mandates. I do not doubt the existence of the Organising
Committee, just as I do not doubt the existence of the Iskra
organisation, which also has its own organisation and its own Rules. But
as soon as the standing orders of the Congress were announced, the
Iskra organisation informed its delegates that they have full
freedom of action at the Congress. Just imagine our position, as members
of the Credentials Committee of the Congress, who yesterday heard two
members of the Organising Committee, Comrades Stein and Pavlovich, and
today are hearing an entirely new proposal. There are experienced comrades
here who have attended many international congresses. These comrades could
tell you what a storm of indignation has always been aroused when people
say one thing at commit tees and another on the floor of the Congress.

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Notes:
[1]
Lenin’s speech on the actions of the Organising Committee was evoked by
the following incident. Before the Congress met, the Organising Committee
had already rejected the demand of the Borba group for their
representative to attend the Congress with a deliberative voice. The
Credentials Committee endorsed the Organising Committee’s proposal. When
Credentials. Committee’s decision had been reported to the Congress, one
of the members of the Organising Committee demanded a recess so that this
question might be reconsidered in the Organising Committee. During the
recess, the Organising Committee met and by a majority of votes (against
one) decided to invite the representative of the Borba group to
attend the Congress with a deliberative voice.

Those mentioned in the speech were: Yegorov—the Menshevik
E. Y. Levin; Stein—the Menshevik E.M. Alexandrova; Pavlovich—
the Bolshevik P. A. Krasikov.