V. I.

Lenin

Inissue No. 11 of Vperyod we hailed the first step of the Party
Council which was Left without a party. [1]

We asked ourselves whether the Council would have the sense and honesty to make the second step along its new
path. Now we have just received news from Russia that the Central Committee has made the second step. We are able to publish immediately the following
documents in the case.

1) Appeal of the Central Committee to the Party of March 4,
1905.

Tothe Party

Comrades,the revolution in Russia has begun! Its prelude has proved in the most
incontrovertible manner that the principal force deciding its outcome is the
urban proletariat. However, in the matter of speeding the issue of the
revolution, of bringing system into the revolutionary struggle of the masses,
and, especially, of turning the results of the revolution to the fullest account
in favour of the proletariat, a great deal depends on the actual state of our
Party’s forces and its organisation. History has imposed upon our Party the
political and moral responsibility towards the Russian proletariat, towards our
whole nation, and, lastly, towards the proletariat the world over. In its
present state our Party is not capable of fulfilling its obligations to the
extent necessary and possible, considering the potential strength of Russian
Social-Democracy. The C.C. deems it untimely and useless at the present juncture
to prove, chapter and verse, whether and to what extent certain prominent Party
members, influential groups, and entire Party bodies were guided in their
inner-Party activities by pro found political motives or by intellectualist
politicking; in short, with out trying to apportion the blame for the deep-going
disorganisation of the Party, the C.C., fully realising the weight of the
responsibility that rests upon it, declares before the whole Party that it has
firmly decided to do everything in its power to ensure necessary unity in the
Party and prevent a final split. The development of the revolution confronts

Russian Social-Democracy almost daily with new problems. Many of these
issues have barely been touched upon by our tactics, which were evolved chiefly
for “peace-time” use. Others have no precedent whatever in former
Party practice, since they have arisen from new causes which never existed
before. Party literature, of course, is a help, but its answers do not always
satisfy local workers as regards adequacy, unity, and generally recognised
competence. Quite recently a considerable number of committees, which united
after private meetings, have adopted a policy of distrust towards the central
bodies of the Party, existing by virtue of the Party Rules adopted at the Second
Congress of the Party, and have carried this policy to the extent of forming
their own organ and their own centre, and are at present engaged in convening
their own congress. Finally, the time set by the Party Rules far convening the
Third regular Congress falls due this summer.

Underthe circumstances the C.C. considers that the only and final means of
avoiding a split is the convening of the all-Party Congress in the very near future .

Convincedthat the useful results of the Congress, in the sense both of dealing
with the vital tasks that the present political situation has put before our
Party and of achieving real, lasting unity in the Party, will depend entirely on
the broad and full representation of all the important and influential currents
at the Congress, the C.C., in pursuance of the Rules, has decided, in the
interests of fuller representation, to make wide use of its right to invite to
the Congress comrades with consultative voice. In view of the fact that the
dissensions which have been rending the Party have led in some places to a
complete break-away of major groups from the committees, and in others to sharp
antagonism between committees and peripheries, the C.C. invites the following
bodies to send their own delegates to the Congress with consultative voice:

(1) all groups that broke away from the committees prior to March
1, 1905; (2) all peripheries of large industrial centres in which there are
20,000 workers or over in the area of the committee’s activity and where over
half the periphery members vote no confidence in the local committee on the
question of the election of a delegate to the Congress.

Note. The C.C. proposes that for this purpose only those comrades
shall be considered members of the periphery who belong to a committee
organisation and engage in active revolutionary work under the direction and
control of the committee, such as propaganda, agitation, organisation, and the
writing, printing, and distribution of literature. Moreover, since the all-Party
Congress, according to the Rules, is convened by the Party Council, the C.C.,
while calling upon the local committees to declare for the Third Congress as the
only means now of ensuring Party unity, will, for its part, support its decision
for the immediate convocation of the Congress through its representatives on the
Party Council, and will straight away take a number of practical preparatory
steps. In addition, the C.C. declares that it will do every thing in its power
to enlist to the business of convening the Congress the “Organising
Bureau” set up for that purpose on the initiative of several of the
committees; the preparatory work of this Bureau may help to speed and facilitate
the convening of the Congress.

Note. The details of enlisting the services of the “Organising
Bureau” of Committees of the so-called “Majority” for the
work of convening the Congress should be worked out by mutual
agreement. Viewing the immediate convocation of the all-Party
Congress as the last means of avoiding a split and creating real unity of
the Party, which alone can give us the necessary strength to tackle the
great tasks confronting Russian Social-Democracy, the Central Committee
calls upon all members of the Party to make the most energetic
preparations for the Congress which must urgently be held.

Central Committee,

R S.D. L. P.

March4, 1905

2)A letter of the C.C. to the Bureau of Committees of the Majority, dated March
6, 1905.

On March 4 the Central Committee decided to call upon the committees of the
Party to prepare for the Third Congress, and for its part it decided to take
steps for convening the Congress at the earliest possible date.

Sincethe success of the all-Party Congress and its convocation at the
earliest possible date depend on the co-operation of all the comrades and
organisations now declaring for the Congress, the C.C. proposes to the
Organising Bureau of Committees of the so-called “Majority” to enter
into an agreement on this matter and work together for convening the Congress at
the earliest and for ensuring the fullest possible representation at the
Congress of the whole Party.

Central Committee,

R.S.D.L.P

March6, 1905

3) Joint appeal to the Party by the C.C. and the Bureau of Committees of the
Majority, dated March 12, 1905.

Tothe Party

The Central Committee and the Bureau of Committees of the Majority have taken
upon themselves the initiative for convening the Third Congress of the Party and
notify all Party organisations that, proceeding from the urgent need for
immediately holding the Third Party Congress to establish the general line of
Party tactics and the Party’s organisational unity, they have come to an
agreement for the joint organisation of the Congress on the following basis:

1) The Congress is to be convened on the basis of the programmes set forth in
the declarations of the Central Committee and the Bureau of Committees of the
Majority; these programmes provide for the following agenda:

(a) Constitution of the Congress; (b) questions of Party tactics; (c) questions of Party organisation:

(1) organisation of the centres, (2) organisation of the committees, (3) relations between the various Party bodies and their divisions; (d) reports; (e) elections.

2) All Party organisations having the right to participate with a vote under the
Rules of the Second Congress are invited to the Congress (viz., the four
Caucasian committees, the Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tver, Tula,
Nizhni-Novgorod, Northern, Kiev, Odessa, Ekaterinoslav, Kharkov, Don Region,
Voronezh, Nikolayev, Saratov, Samara, North-Western, Polesye, and the
Astrakhan committees, and the League; the Donets, Crimean, Ural, and Siberian leagues) [2]

;

all the rest are invited to participate with consultative voice.

3) The organising work in connection with the convening of the Third Party
Congress so far carried out by the Bureau of Committees of the Majority is
herewith endorsed.

4) All further work in connection with convening the

Congress Is to be carried out jointly by the Bureau of Committees of the Majority and the Central
Committee, which form an Organising Committee.

5) The resolution of the Party Council against convening the Third Party
Congress published in Iskra , No. 89, is not accepted by the Central
Committee and the Bureau of Committees of the Majority as grounds for
suspending work on organising the Congress.

March12, 1905

Theagreement between the Central Committee and the Bureau of Committees of the
Majority of March 12, 1905, is for the time being not to be made public.

*     * *
Wecan thus celebrate a complete moral victory. Russia has gained the upper hand
over the “foreigners”. The Party spirit has triumphed over circle
parochialism. At the last minute the Central Committee saw that the Congress
which was being convened by the Bureau of Committees of the Majority was a real
Party congress and joined it. The Central Committee at the eleventh hour had
courage enough to abandon its anti-Party policy and to defy the Council
abroad. According to the Rules of our Party the Congress is convened by the
Council and not by the Central Committee. Consequently, legally speaking, no
statements or agreements on this question by the Central Committee are
valid. But when the Council violated the Rules and avoided rendering an account
to a congress, it was the duty and not only the right of the committees to take
the initiative in convening the Congress; and the Central Committee, by recognising the Bureau elected by
the committees, refused to follow the unfortunate example of the Party
Council which was left without a party.

Wecannot at the moment express any opinion on the concrete questions of the
agreement between the Central Committee and the Bureau of Committees of the
Majority. All these questions, as well as the question of the agenda,
the constitution of the Congress, etc., will, of course, be decided by
the Congress itself. We shall therefore confine ourselves merely to wishing the Congress
success and appealing to all comrades to apply themselves immediately and with
the utmost energy to all the necessary preparations for the Congress. It is
left for us in conclusion to repeat what we said in Vperyod , No. 11,
namely, that "... we have come very close to a possibly direct and
unequivocal way out of the crisis.” [3]

---
Notes:
[1]
See pp. 239-44 of this volume,—Ed.

[2]
With reference to the Riga, Smolensk, Kursk, Orel-Bryansk, Kazan,
Kremenchug, Elisavetgrad, and Kuban committees, see Point 3 of the
agreement between the Central Committee and the Bureau of Committees of
the Majority.— Lenin

[3]
See p. 243 of this volume.— Ed .