V. I.

Lenin

106

To:   THE CAUCASIAN BUREAU OF THE R.S.D.L.P.

To the Caucasian Bureau

Dear Comrades, Your statement received. We do not know what the bureau wrote. We shall
communicate what we know. Some time ago we forwarded to you the resolutions
of the conference of Southern committees and the reply of the participants
in the conference of the 22. A slight correction has to be made in your
assertion that the Southern committees proposed that the group of 22
appoint a Bureau of the Majority Committees from among its
members. It was pro posed that the participants in the conference of the 22
name the comrades they thought best suited for the bureau. From the reply
of the participants in the conference of the 22 it can be seen that they in
no way considered themselves empowered to “appoint” anyone; instead they
put forward a list of nominees and asked the committees to introduce
changes or additions in it as they saw fit. You have received that letter,
haven’t you? The Southern comrades also took the same view, and, not
agreeing with the list proposed, nominated Ryadovoi and
Zemlyachka for the Bureau (a minor point: all the nominees are in
Russia with the exception of two, and of these one has just come from
Russia and is going there again). So far as we know, their nomination
coincided with the choice of the Caucasian Bureau. But these persons did
not feel they had the right to take any steps before the conference of the
Northern committees, which has already taken place. Here’s its
resolution. [1]

Thus 13 committees (4 Caucasian+3 Southern+6 Northern) have declared for
the congress and the establishment of the Bureau of the Majority
Committees. As you can see, every thing is being done to enable the
committees in Russia to come to an agreement. Other committees besides the
thirteen have also declared for the congress; the Central Committee itself
admits that 16 have already declared for the congress, but it now maintains that 19 are needed (this is what the Odessa
Committee was told).

In any case the Majority committees should hurry up and organise. In a
few days you will receive documents from which you will see how the
C.C. negotiations with the Minority began and how they ended: with the
retention by the Minority of the autonomy of the technical institutions and
the co-opting (so far unofficial) into the C.C. of three of the most ardent
Mensheviks whose inclusion in the C.C. the Minority had insisted on from
the very beginning. The Mensheviks have begun to run things their own
way. The Petersburg business is proof of this. The workers were eager for a
demonstration, the committee set the date for the 28th, but in many
districts the organisers were Mensheviks (the Petersburg Committee
considered it impossible to exclude the Mensheviks from the work) and they
conducted vigorous agitation throughout against the committee. The C.C. did
not supply the committee with literature; the Mensheviks had the literature
but of course did not give it to the committee, and in their districts they
did not prepare for the demonstration. Three days before the demonstration
the Mensheviks disrupted a meeting of the committee and, taking advantage
of the absence of three Bolsheviks, called off the demonstration; 15,000
leaflets were burnt, and when the Bolsheviks, horrified, got another
meeting together it was already too late, nothing could be done any more,
and hardly any workers showed up for the demonstration. There is seething
indignation against the committee, and the Mensheviks who caused all this
mess are breaking away, carrying with them nearly all districts, and are
receiving sup port in the form of literature, contacts and money. Now there
are two committees in Petersburg. Undoubtedly the same will happen in other
cities. The Mensheviks have no scruples and, having seized the C.C., the
Central Organ and the Council, will pursue a line which will leave the
Majority completely Out of the picture. This is no battle of principles. It
is the most outrageous mockery of the Party and principles. This is why we
began to publish our own organ. There is a complete split in the Party and
there must be no procrastination if we do not wish to reconcile ourselves
to the sacrifice of Party principle to clannishness, to absence of principle prevailing in the Party for a long time to come, or its being
thrown back to Economism and the Rabocheye Dyelo approach.

---
Notes:
[1]
The text of the resolution is not given.— Ed .