V. I.

Lenin

121

To:   THE CAUCASIAN UNION COMMITTEE OF THE R.S.D.L.P.

To the Caucasian Union from Lenin

Dear Comrades, We have just received the resolutions of your conference.
[1] Send us
without fail a more carefully made copy—there is a lot that is
undecipherable. Without fail, too, carry out as soon as possible your splendid
plan—to send your special delegate here. Otherwise it will really be extremely difficult, almost impossible, to reach agreement and remove mutual
misunderstandings. This is an urgent necessity at the present time.

You still have little knowledge of all the documents and all the dirty tricks of
the Council and the Central Committee. There is not the slightest doubt that
they have already side-tracked the Third Congress and will now split all the
committees. It is essential immediately i) to set up a Bureau of the Majority
Committees, 2) to entrust it with all matters concerning the congress and all
leadership of the committees, 3) to support our organ Vperyod ,
[2]
4) to publish your resolutions (do you authorise us to do this?) and
an announcement about the Bureau.

Please reply quickly.
Yours,

Lenin

We do not understand what relationship your (Caucasian) Bureau bears to the All-Russia Bureau of the Majority
Committees. Write speedily, and best of all send a delegate.

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Notes:
[1]
This refers to the resolutions of the Regional Conference of the Caucasian
Union Committee hold in Tiflis in November 1904. On the basis of the
previous resolutions of the Caucasian committees giving support to the
resolution of the “22” and to the idea of convening an emergency congress
of the Party the Conference adopted a resolution calling for the
organisation of broad agitation and struggle for the Third Congress, for
which purpose it elected a special bureau with instructions to contact the
Bolshevik group of “22”. In the postscript to this letter Lenin wishes to
be informed as to what organisational forms of relationship existed between
the Bureau of the Majority Committees and the bureau set up by the
Conference of the Caucasian committees, and asks them to send a delegate.

[2]
Vperyod (Forward)—an illegal Bolshevik newspaper published in
Geneva from December 22, 1904 (January 4, 1905) to May 5 (18),
1905. Eighteen issues were put out. Lenin was the newspaper’s organiser,
manager and ideological guide. Other members of the editorial board were
V. V. Vorovsky, M. S. Olminsky, and A. V. Lunacharsky. The outstanding role
which the newspaper played in combating Menshevism and highlighting the
tactical issues posed by the revolutionary movement was acknowledged in a
special resolution of the Third Party Congress (1905), which recorded a
vote of thanks to the editorial board.