Session of the Council of the R.S.D.L.P. (January 1904)

January 15-17 (28-30), 1904

Speeches On Measures to Restore Peace In the Party, January 15 (28)

I have raised the question of measures to restore peace and
	normal relations in the Party because the amount of misunderstandings among Party workers has reached threatening
	proportions. I do not think fruitful Party work is possible
	unless there is some common basis which Party members who
	become involved for any reason in mutual misunderstandings
	could adhere to in their activities. It is nobody’s secret
	that the relations between individual members and sections of
	the Party have become so abnormal that it would be difficult
	to speak now of a united Social- Democratic workers’ party and mean it. I could, of course, if necessary, furnish
	detailed proof of this (recall, for instance, many of the
	episodes in the business correspondence between the Central
	Committee and the Central Organ); but perhaps, since everybody
	knows it to be so, it would be better not to resort just now
	to such ticklish illustrations. And so, we must try to adopt
	more vigorous measures to remove the basic evil. Otherwise we
	shall have a position where the simplest, most routine Party
	acts will give rise to highly undesirable exchanges with
	systematic indulgence in very strong language and in the
	choicest—how shall I put it mildly? compliments shall we
	say.... It may seem that I am disposed to encroach in some way
	on “freedom of speech”; but after all, the trouble is that in the sphere of action all is not well
	either. As members of the Council, whose chief function is to
	work for unity in the Party,against tendencies towards disunity, we must make an effort to
	remove the friction that is hindering the Party’s work; and
	given the desire, this would not be impossible. And so, I ask
	whether some sort of measures could not be adopted against
	certain methods of struggle within the Party which reduce the
	latter to the condition of a disorganised group and turn it
	into a sheer fiction. Perhaps the Council could, in the
	interests of the common work, pass a resolution which I have
	drafted and will read to you in a moment. I consider it
	important in principle to have a Council decision that would
	aim at eliminating and condemning impermissible forms of
	struggle between individuals or groups in the Party who are at
	variance on any point. I repeat, the position now is much too
	abnormal and needs to be corrected.(Axelrod:“We all agree on that.") I ask the secretaries to enter
	Comrade Axelrod’s remark in the minutes.

I shall now read the draft of the resolution I am submitting.[1]

That is the resolution which I am moving on behalf of the
	Central Committee, over the signatures of both its representatives, and which could serve, not to settle any
	specific issues or differences between Party members, but to
	create a common basis for Russian Social-Democrats, who are
	working in the interests of one common cause.

[1]See pp. 147-49 of
      this volume.—Ed.