V. I. Lenin

Essay on the Party Split {1}

| Economism and the old Iskra | 1) Economism and the old Iskra . (1901 Congress
resolutions.) {2} |
| --- | --- |
| 1900-03. |
| Second Party Congress. | 2) Second Congress. 51=
=8+10+9+24. {3} (=
=Economists and the old Iskra .) |
| July 1903. |
| Struggle for co-optation or “a state of siege” | 3) August 26, 1903-November 26,
1903. {4} (Never with
Martynov! {5} “Continuity.” Letter of October 8, 1903 {6} ). |
| August-November 1903. |
| to 5. |
| {{

Clanishness and the Party! Peace with the Economists! Lenin’s “heresies”. | 4) November 26, 1903–January 7, 1904. [Secret organisation.] |
| November 1903-January 1904.

}} |
| Efforts at reconciliation old and new “ Iskra ”
(“gulf”). |
| January-July 1904. |
| | 5) January 7, 1904-? July 9, 1904. |
| [[

Russian committees and the Iskra Editorial Board. “22” and
“19” {7} . Struggle for congress. Denunciatory “document”.

]] |
| Struggle for congress. |
| July 1904–May 1905. | 6) July 1904–May 1905. |
| [DOUBLE BIG BRACKETS:]

[[

Majority Committee’ Bureau=3 conferences. Vperyod .

]] |
| “Plan for Zemstvo campaign.” |
| Third Party Congress. | 7) May 1905. Congress and conference. |
| May 1905. |
| After Third Congress. |
| June 1905— | 8) Après le III
Congress. {8} |

---
Notes:
{1}
This sets out the milestones in the struggle between the revolutionary
and the opportunist trends in Russian Social-Democracy. There is no article
written to this plan.

Lenincharacterised the stages of the internal Party struggle prior to
the Third R.S.D.L.P. Congress in his “A Brief Outline of the Split in the
R.S.D.L.P. A Letter to Greulich”, which he wrote in February 1905 (see
present edition, Vol. 8, pp. 125–31). Roughly the same stages as in the
present article are given in his plan written in August 1905 and entitled
“Plekhanov and the new Iskra ” (see Lenin Miscellany V ,
1926, pp. 360–66).

p. 168

{2}
A reference to the resolutions of the “Unity” Congress of
R.S.D.L.P. Organisations Abroad, held in September 1901. It was attended by
six members of the Iskra and Zarya organisation abroad (among them V. I. Lenin, N. K. Krupskaya and L. Martov), eight members of
the Sotsial-Demokrat organisation (including three members of the
Emancipation of Labour group: G. V. Plekhanov, P. B. Axelrod and
V. I. Zasulich), 16 members of the Union of Russian Social-Democrats
(including five members of the Bund Committee Abroad) and three members of
the Borba group. At the Congress Lenin, who attended under the
name of Frey, spoke about the Union’s opportunist actions. When the Union
tabled its opportunist amendments and addenda to a resolution condemning
opportunism and recognising the need for the unity of all Social-Democratic
forces in Russia on the basis of Iskra’s revolutionary principles,
the revolutionary section of the Congress (members of the Iskra
and Zarya and the Sotsial-Demokrat organisations) issued
a statement on the impossibility of unification and left the Congress. On
Lenin’s initiative, these organisations in October 1901 united into the
League of Russian Revolutionary Social-Democracy Abroad.

p. 168

{3}
A reference to the grouping of votes at the Second R.S.D.L.P. Congress,
which was held from July 17 (30) to August 10 (23), 1903. The Congress was
attended by 43 delegates with 51 votes. Of them 24 votes belonged to the
Iskra majority, 9 to the Iskra minority, 10 to the “Marsh”, and 8 to the anti-Iskra group (3 Rabocheye Dyelo members and 5 Bundists).

For details of the struggle at the Congress see present edition, Vol. 7,
pp. 335–49.

p. 168

{4}
The Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. ended on August 10 (23), 1903,
and on August 15 (28) Iskra’s No. 46, in the editing of which
Lenin and Plekhanov took part, was issued. The exact meaning of Lenin’s
reference to August 13 (26) has not been established. On November 13 (26)
Plekhanov co-opted the Mensheviks Axelrod, Martov, Zasulich and Potresov to
the Iskra Editorial Board

p. 168

{5}
A reference to Martov’s words at the Second Congress of the League of
Russian Revolutionary Social-Democracy Abroad, which took place from
October 13 (26) to 15 (31), 1903, to the effect that he, Martov, would
refuse to work with Martynov on the same Editorial Board.

p. 168

{6}
A possible reference to the letter sent on September 25–26 (October
8–9), 1903, by Iskra’s former editors to Lenin and Plekhanov, in
which they refused to collaborate on Iskra (see present edition, Vol. 7, pp. 354–55).

p. 168

{7}
A reference to the conference of 22 Bolsheviks and the Declaration of
19 Bolsheviks. The conference was held in the first half of August 1904.

Declarationof the Twenty-Two —an appeal “To the Party” written by Lenin and adopted at the Bolshevik conference in Geneva, in the
first half of August 1904 (see present edition, Vol. 7, pp. 454–61). The
conference was attended by 19 persons, among them V. I. Lenin,
N. K. Krupskaya, M. S. Olminsky, M. N. Lyadov and P. N. Lepeshinsky. Three
other Bolsheviks soon adhered to their decisions and the appeal “To the
Party” was issued on behalf of the 22. This was published in a special
leaflet in August 1904 and became the Bolshevik programme in the struggle
for convening the Third Party Congress.

The Declaration of the nineteen was issued by the Moscow Committee of
the R.S.D.L.P. in October 1904 under the title “Appeal to Members of the
R.S.D.L.P.” (see Sbornik dokumentov i materialov “Trety syezd R.S.D.R.P. ” [Collection of Documents and Material “Third Congress of
the R.S.D.L.P.”], Moscow, 1955, pp. 99–106).

p. 169

{8}
These dates denote the period from the conference of 22 Bolsheviks
(first half of August 1904) to the Third Congress of the R.S.D.L.P., which
was held from April 12 (25) to April 27 (May 10), 1905.

p. 169